My Service Engine Soon Light is on. I just came on today..... I want to know what caused this and how to turn it off.... I have a 2000 Trnas Am A4 the only Mod is a Flowmaster Muffler and the Tires..... Nothing Else Has Been Changed...... Can Someone Help me Before I take it to the Dealer.....

 

dealer=ripoff

go to autozone and they will check why it went on for free

i bet its something really stupid...like gas cap


dealer

 

I've had the "service vehicle" light come on a few times. It was always the gas cap. I guess it got loose. I shut off the car, tightened the cap, and re-started. No light. If that doesn't work, go to Auto Zone.

 

If it's still under warranty, you might as well take it to the dealer. Whatever is throwing the code would obviously be fixed for free anyway. Probably something minor like an O2 sensor or such.

If your warranty is up, then go the Autozone route.

But do check your gas cap to make sure it is tight before you do either.

 

another answer for the gas cap, on my 96z my light always came on. DON'T GO TO THE DEALER!

eric

 

As Far as the gas Cap goes I have checked it but it is still on unless the gas cap is bad altogether but it is on tight that was the first thing I checked

it is still under warrenty but I just hate to drop it off for a day

 

I bet that either your driver's side cat went bad, or one of your O2 sensors.

You can go to AutoZone, and tell them that you have the SES light on. They can plug a device into your car's OBDII port, and read the code for you. They do it for free.

 

Ill Try the AutoZone than let you all know what it is.....

 

Well if you have not already checked the gas cap and you are still thinking warranty = go to dealer.. let me tell a short little story..

Friend of mine has a '02 eclipse.. other day his SES comes on. He is not very mechanically inclined (not that I am much better) but he chose to call me and ask what it might be. My first comment was check the gas cap.. his reply.. I have not bought gas in over a week and it just came on.. it cant be the gas cap. He goes to an eclipse message board.. they all say.. check the gas cap.. he says.. it is not the gas cap.. (he still had not checked it) .. he took it to the dealer they called him back a hour later.. its fixed.. your gas cap was loose... btw.. "gas cap maintaince" is not covered under your warranty.. that will be 35 bucks.

Of course I did what any friend would do when he told me.. laughed my *** off at him... but next time he will check the gas cap before going to the dealer!

 

OK well AutoZone checked it out but I have two questions

1) it is the o2 sensor will it be covered under warrenty?

2) will a bad Cat make the o2 read bad?


By the way o2 sensors are $65 - $79 for one

 

yes its probably a bad cat. if you dont have smog testing in your area you should just get o2 simulators and forget about it, or just dont do anything about it at all, unless you are really worried about it, or are really worried about the environment or something. I am on my second ls1 and the cats have gone bad on both of them, so I have the cats just to pass a visual inspection.

 

No the o2 will tell you if the cat is doing it's job or not according to the code it gave you, you could compromise and distinguish the o2 or the cat. there are sooo many o2 codes the ls1 spits out it's impossible to cover all of them, and what subsystems might relate to them. there are around 10+ o2 codes. Do you know the code autozone gave you? (it's number) so u can narrow it down. normally o2 sensors do not go bad, you will see a cat go before a o2 sensor, o2 sensors normally go bad due to high milage, foreign matter in the exhaust, ie water oil, ect. one thing to keep in mind: the cats gm has been using lately are very very sensitive, and a slighty rich condition will poison them.

man u said it was a 00 ta? U over the milage on it already? take it to the dealer, we are nice people, we try to help everyone out, i dunno why so many people hate the dealer, i mean there are idiots in every shop you go to, infact if you knew how many cars come in from other shops cause they screwed up... but that's another topic.

i would take it to the dealer man, o2 codes are usually very difficult codes to diagnose because soo many things can give the 02 sensor a false reading, and set a code, for example lets say the A.I.R system was not fuctioning properly, and the pump would stay on all the time, and for some reason the emc dosen't recognize it. now you have an excess flow of oxygen in the exhaust, and the o2 thinks the engine is running lean. the ecu gets the lean signal, but according to the map sensor and throttle postion sensor, the mixture is correct, so it sets a code po171 left bank lean condition detected. So you say yo my o2 sensor must be shorted, u buy a new one 80 bones, + installation u drive it home and boom u get the light again and the same code, so here u are going crazy change the other 3 sensors, still get the same code, so u go and buy the cats, see how expensive the senario is getting? btw that is an exaggerated example, im not saying your problem is the air pump or the system.


all in all I say take it to the dealer, and see what they tell you, hope this helps laterz

 

How about, instead of guessing every single possible thing that can cause the SES light to come on you actually find out. The best way is a datalogger. They can be purchased for like $150. They are great because you will NEVER have to take your car anywhere to find out why the SES light comes on. Camaro's have an OBDII connection. http://www.obd2.com is the website where you can get the connection device I believe.

 

SES light again. Am I the only one who has noticed an outbreak of this in here? ANYWAY, my SES light came on and I posted this on Saturday the 12th of Dec. I've heard all the yelling in here to rush out to Autozone and get the codes BUT the Manual that comes with the Camaro actually says to drive the car for a "few tankfuls of gas" if "the light is solid yellow" I made my appointment with the dealer for monday and after thinking about how they would rape me I decided to drive the car on a long trip and opening her up a bit. (I hit speeds of 100+ 2 or 3 times) It Worked after about a 100 mile on the Interstate the light just blinked off and has been off ever since. ALL I WANT TO KNOW IS WHAT EVERYBODY THINKS THIS WAS - BAD GAS? Just OPINIONS Please...

Thanks in advance!

 

Yeah, it's weird, after a little of high speed highway racing and cruising, my ses light will go off, but the most it's stayed off for one time was 2 days, always comes back. Some stupid **** about insufficient switching, but who cares, cause it don't affect performance, so i've learned to live with the light being on, it's actually weird seeing it off when it goes off every now and then.