OT: You Can Be Too Nice

Is the car a Miata by any chance? My wife's has the intermittent check engine syndrome. Probably nothing more than time to change plugs and check the HV leads.

Don

G6ednUv1MYQY9o3ZnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@web-ster.com,

check

My 15-year-old Jeep gets a Check Engine light whenever it is cold or wet enough to use the defroster and I come to a stop, such as at a traffic light. My theory is that the intermittent load of the air conditioner is enough to drop the idle speed down below the check limit.

My wife's 10-year-old Mercedes, on the other hand, always has a check engine light.

My 1996 F350 gas pickup turns on the CE light every time I'm on the interstate for more than 45 minutes. Been doing that for years

Tim, do you have a code reader? It is highly beneficial to own one.

My wife's car (Honda CR/V) developed a CE light at some point. A check with a code reader reveraled that the gas tank sensor was malfulctioning. I searched google and found out that it was due to, drumroll, poorly tightened gas tank cap (no kidding). Resetting the code and re-tightening the cap solved the problem.

Without it, it would be a wasted evening, a service charge, and depending on the degree of dishonesty of car mechanics, multiple "repairs" too.

Well, ya! It's a Ford. It was never expected to run for over 45 minutes at a time! :)

My '03 Civic has a placard in the gas cap well that says something to the effect of "not tightening the cap three clicks may cause the check engine light to appear."

Regards, Marv

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During the cross-Arizona gas pipe line failure a few years ago, fearing thievery, I went looking for a locking gas cap for my Frontier PU.

The Nissan parts department didn't have a locking cap that wouldn't screw up the CE light, but they pointed me to a website that made after-market locking caps that were the proper vent.

...Jim Thompson

I see people make jokes about Fords like that all the time, but I've owned a perfectly even number of Ford and GM products, and the GM products were nothing but trouble.

The Fords weren't perfect either. The O2 sensor died on my Ranger PU at 10000 miles and the thermostat died on my Explorer at somewhere around 35000 miles, but that's nothing compared to the trouble I had with the GM vehicles.

But I guess the small number of vehicles I have owned doesn't constitute a significant sample size.

Nice site....... I like this nugget

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martin

I've owned two '86 Fieros in the last few years, and both have had a constant "check engine" light. I've heard that it's almost legendary amongst repair folks - nothing they do can fix it. )-;

Thanks, Rich

For some reason, I've always had really good luck with Fords - basically, if you remember to keep oil in them, they'll run practically indefinitely. But I did have a surprisingly good experience with a '76 Plymouth Gran Fury - it just kept running and running - I think it was a one-owner car, who had died - it looked like it had been out in the weather for about a year, and it had that green plastic thing across the top of the windshield, and a bunch of "VFW"-type stickers on it. I got rear-ended once by some little Mazda or Toyota or something and it did about $1200.00 worth of damage to her car, but my Gran Fury had a little paint mark on the bumper. :-)

Cheers! Rich [and yes, "Gran Fury" is not a typo - that was actually the car's model name.]

Have you told them how you feel about this? Like, "Hey, the service is great, but please QUIT PESTERING ME!!!!" Something like that?

Good Luck! Rich

That's 'cause it's a Fiero -- they should just have the "check engine light" connected from 12V to ground to save on computer resources.

Yes. Two or three times. The last time was right before my post, as a matter of fact.

No, this was a specific problem that could be one of three things. They started with the most common and cheapest thing to fix, and worked their way up. The service manager _promised_ that this most recent fix would be the one, that we would _never_ have a problem again.

When I pointed out that such confidence would cause the wheels to fall off he apologized, and knocked on wood for me.

I'll grant that they could be lying through their teeth, but their descriptions and behavior are consistent with how I go about fixing things.

There's a simple fix. Buy an answering machine, plus caller ID, and don't pick up the phone unless it be your choice.

I never answer our phone unless I know who's on the other end-----and I tell them so on the message. Our greeting on the answering machine requests they speak their name to identify themselves, and includes an invitation for them to hang up because we don't accept calls from solicitors, should that be their goal. It's worked miracles. If we get constant calls from a given number, I can even block them so they can no longer get through. Our life is much better these days.

Funny thing------we did this long before the "Do Not Call" list came about. About a week after I put the message on the answering machine, a caller, a solicitor, no doubt, called and stayed on the phone long enough to say "Your message sucks". How bad does it suck? Works for us!

Harold

I have had both + toyota. Toyota is basic, but you get what you pay for.

Hmmm. Sounds to me that this irritant is common enough to go pester our federal regulators an legislators.