OK.... So Yesterday morning I got in my car and my chekc engine light was on... I don't know why it came on, but I checked the gas cap and it wasn't on tight, so I put it on tight. CEL still didn't go away... I dont have a header, al I have so far is my intake and exhaust... Intakes don't usually throw a CEL... I've had the intake in for about 2k miles..... The day before however, I did jack my car up and take the tires off and paint my calipers.... I'm thinking that would be the only cause for it, but I put everything back on tight and my car runs fine... Any thoughts????

 

Gas cap. It wont go away until the dealer reset it. Just stop by a dealer real quick without appointment, they should have the time to reset it. I am not sure how to reset it.

 

Just unplug the negative battery terminal for about 10 minutes and the plug it back to reset the ECU.

OR

Go to AutoZone or any other auto parts store that'll let you borrow a scan tool and use it to reset it.

Both methods are free and you don't have to wait at the dealer.

 

if the CEL came on and it is on for a loose gas cap it will take about 3-4 noprmal driving cycles for the light to reset itself(that is if it were on for this reason). The other solution to take care of the light would be to disconnect the battery for a few minutes - this will reset the computer and clear the code - but if it comes back on I would bring it to the dealer to have looked at.

 

Well... I went and scheduled an appointment with the dealer just to get it looked at and I took it to autozone last night to get it diagnosed.. The diagnostics came up as an EVAP Emissions Control Purge Flow Fault and an EVAP Emission Control Leak (Large) Nothing to really worry about, but this morning when I got in my car the CEL was off.... Still gonna get it looked at by the dealer. Thanks for the feedback guys, and I didn't know that you have to get it reset if the gas cap was off? My girlfriend drove my car once and didn't put the cap on right and she just told me yesterday that the CEL came on when she did that, but it went off shortly after she fixed it....? ANYWAYS, Thanks guys!

 

dissconnecting the battery will also clear out the clock and radio presets....

you should just pull the fuse for the ECU. keeps all other settings.

 

Now wait a second... if the CEL came on... there's a reason.

It doesn't have to be something you did or didn't do. But if it's the gas cap, that's the reason. Or if it's some sensor, that's the reason.

The car isn't playing tricks on you and turning it on and off for fun.

 

you are fine. This is covered in the owners manual. The code is reset after it is driven a bit and does not see the issue. OBDII has codes that turn set or clear immediately after the issue arises or dissappears and some codes that take more "trips" to set the code or clear it. This is the latter case. Yours cleared after driving with the cap tight, so you should not bother taking it in to the dealer unless it comes back. They will tell you the same thing most likely. If the code is cleared there is not much they can do but visually inspect it.

 

lol it might be! I miss your RANCH! avatar too lol!