first off not sure if i'm posting this in the right place (first time posting) but i was installing a ETD yesterday and for some reason my friends torque wrench stop working about halfway through the install before being able to torque down the long bolt for the motor mount. so my questions is can you throw a CEL if you don't torque the bolt down enough?? when i got in my car this morning, there she was shining back at me brightly so now i'm a little worried. i'm at work at the moment so i can't take it get a diagnostics done but i am receiving a new torque wrench in about a few hours to properly finish the install but i'm not sure if i should be worried that maybe something else is throwing the CEL...

 

Torque on a bolt wont set a code unless it is on something that causes a leak of some type.... Pull the code and post it so we can help you out.

 

ok thx cool as soon as i get off work at 5 i'll pull the code and post it up

 

yeah... a bolt won't cause a cel.

but if the codes are 441, 442 and 446.. i'm just going to laugh at you..
j/k.. .. (you have no idea how many people have gotten those from being dumb.. )

(you know what those are right dave?)
(one of those.. wow.... pretty common things... )

 

heh heh... 3 clicks man... 3 clicks!

 

You wouldn't believe how many calls I get at the Lincoln-Mercury dealership about the gas caps and CEL. The 90 year old women think I'm God when I tell them to tighten their gas cap and it will go away.

If its not that, its the question about the "red blinking thingy on the dash thing." You mean the security light? "Whatever that red blinking thing is, it must be draining my battery! How do I turn it off?" Ugh...

 

how bout disconnecting the battery real quick then reconnecting it...that always worked for me

 

so i'm ashamed to say it but.... it was the gas cap , poor thing was just hanging by a thread. so i put her back on and disconnected the battery, reconnected and then turned the car on to see the CEL was gone but now it seems i reset everything so my windows are no longer 1 touch up/down and my sunroof won't open unless i hold the button. will that go back to normal on its own?

 

you have to reset them. hold the driver swtich all the way down and then all the way up, and same for passenger and the sunroof.

 

..
well.. quick HAHA..

and we live and learn... move on.

don't worry.... like i mentioned... it's not uncommon.

just yesterday a tacoma came by my buddy's shop to take a look at his CEL.. i was the one that pulled the codes... looked at it.. just went... oh boy... went inside... double checked with friend... looked at each other... looked at the owner of the tacoma.... and uhm.. yeah..

everyone went..

 

heh heh

But.. not to rain on your parade......... codes have to persist for a number of "trips" or for a certain amount of time, varying by the type of code. When you reset, they can still come back after the given amount of time if the problem is still there. So there is still a chance the issue is not gone :D Hopefully that was all it was.

In the future (especially if you are going to mess with modding your car), buy at the least a code reader (about $40 or so) or a diagnostic tool. When you get a code, pull the code before resetting it so you know what to watch for. It really isnt good practice to simply reset the ecu without knowing what the code was. If the issue is still there, you will drive around with it until it has persisted enough to set the code again. And if it gets worse, you will be on the side of the road. If you think you know the cause (like the gas cap in this case). Tighten and and drive the car a couple of times. The code should clear on its own and you will then know it was the gas cap.

A good example is my Saturn. One of the two actual problems I have ever had with it set a cam sensor code. Now, the saturn has no cam sensor, it uses the fire signal from plug 4 to give it that info. The issue was a faulty connector on a plug wire. Now, when the CEL came on, the car ran fine, so I could have just kept resetting the ECU and probably not see the code for another month, or until the wire moved enough to fail intermittently. If I would have ignored it by resetting without checking the code, it probably would have finally failed completely while I was driving down the road somewhere. So it would have been misfire central

Since yours was loose, there is a good chance that is all it was. But just some words to the wise for the next one :D

 

in summary:

erasing codes without knowing what it was is baddddd..

 

heh.. the story I just added above adds to that

 

oh...

 

i will take those words of advise to heart, i'll definitely pick up a code reader sometime tomorrow but i see your point and hope that the gas cap was thing only thing in fault. i appreciate the advice there and will make sure to be a little more careful from now, again thx for the help (everyone who responded) and should anything else happen i'll definitely keep you guys posted