20K/Service Engine Soon

no, but something did cause the light to come on. did you leave your gascap loose maybe? you can pick up a code scanner from any parts store for about $100 and pull the code yourself. pulling 1 code yourself will pay for itself the first time because a dealer will charge you about $85 to pull it.

ya, its a 2 trip code. check to see if its tight. the lights dont come on to tell you to service the car. its becaues there is something that is causing the car to run outside of factory parameters.

goto vatozone and get the OBDII reader... that will tell you exactly what your problemo is.

Autozone will scan it for free. I reccomend you do that, first. Also, our cars have a separate light, that says 'Check Gas Cap', or something to that effect. I'm pretty sure I saw it whie playing with the cluster diagnostics thing one day.

bdcardinal said:

no, but something did cause the light to come on. did you leave your gascap loose maybe? you can pick up a code scanner from any parts store for about $100 and pull the code yourself. pulling 1 code yourself will pay for itself the first time because a dealer will charge you about $85 to pull it.

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bd that 85 dollars includes somebody that knows ( or should know ) what to do with the code. a lot of times you can have a code but that does not mean that part is bad. somthing else could be causing the code.

for example i had a friend of mine go to autozone and have the code pulled on his explorer because he did not want to drive all the way to my work. the code was a po401 egr insufficent flow detected. the autozone guy told him. see egr you need a egr valve. so my friend buys a egr valve. a few days later i hang out with him and see the valve on the seat and i ask him why he bought a egr valve. he tells me "well i did not want to drive 20 miles to your work, so i had the guy at autozone diag it for me". I ask him the code and he told me po401 and I told him how it's not the EGR valve it's the DPFE sensor and that it's a common problem in many fords. Now to make it even worse for him, the DPFE is covered under recall. so instead of saving money he wasted money. I put the DPFE in for him and no more light.

EEC diag does require skill. in fact some EEC problems are very complex and you need to go way deeper then codes to get the info needed to repair the car. the guy at autozone does not have the skill or the equipment to do EEC diag, he can only guess

when professionals diag your car we do not look at a code then sell you that part( unless it's very very common problem) we do tests that a code scanner does not have. and use test equipment that goes beyond codes and have years of knowledge to draw on when thinking a problem out.

tell me what autozone will do for you on a po171-174 lean bank 1,lean bank 2 code. no part to throw at that one. i have seen customers come in and ask for 02 sensors because autozone told them the lean codes mean the 02 are bad. 02 sensors are not the cause of 171-174 codes.

will autozone find the leaking intake gasket or broken vac line causing the above code. or the maf sensor thats slightly off and causing the car to lean out, but not go out of range and set a code.

i think us techs get a bad rap because of the non-professional hacks shops hire to save a few bucks. management thinks that scan tools tell all and no skill is needed, so why not hire glorified oil change monkees to diag problems.

thats very true. and i fully support people going to dealers to get teh codes scanned. i just thought it was funny when people came into our dealer and paid an hour of diag to get their gascap tightened.

bdcardinal said:

thats very true. and i fully support people going to dealers to get teh codes scanned. i just thought it was funny when people came into our dealer and paid an hour of diag to get their gascap tightened.

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thats bad. i usually just let them go for free if the cap was still hanging off.. if they put it back on, then came in and i had to do all the tests then they got charged.

i think he should scan the code bring it here and we can help him. if it's beyond easy stuff it needs to be looked at by somebody that can test and drive the car. hard to diag tough problems over the net.

sorry about the rant. it takes years to get good at EEC and electrical diag. by good in a shop at it you have to be fast and accurate. can't throw parts at customer cars. i get a little offended when people act like the computer diags it for you.

2003 Mustang GT Prem Conv.
Charcoal Grey
246.5 RWHP 289.3 RWTQ
MAC CAI
bbk 75mm TB
C&L Plenum w/spacer
C&L 85mm Maf
SLP Loudmouth C/B
Diablo Predator
Eibach Sport Springs
2001 Cobra Front Bumper
Mach1 Chin spoiler
2004 Cobra Rear Bumber

Just added and Not Dynoed
BBK Ceramic LongTubes
BBk O/R H-Pipe

jefferz said:

Another question is...I put a Mac H Pipe with a cat i knew was going bad, is it possible that the cat finally just burnt out? I have had it on for about a month.

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sure it's possible. anything is possible untill we know the code.

jefferz said:

Another question is...I put a Mac H Pipe with a cat i knew was going bad, is it possible that the cat finally just burnt out? I have had it on for about a month.

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Yeah if that cat has went out that very well could have caused your light to come on as your o2 sensor would have triggered this

ya, EEC training is a long and involved process. i know there are a few code sets that are quick diags, like when you get both the front 02s.

i think its funny when people see the light on and assume its something random. especially when ive been to adnausium classes on performance diagnostics. people usually freak when they see me, and know im 22 and have taken all the classes i have.

i would watch our tuneup techs when they would get tickets like those. they would pull the code, tighten the cap and leave the car in their bay for 40 mins, then write up "emissions evaportive system leak diagnosed and fixed no parts needed." they would then flag their hour and go onto the next car.

that good that your taking the classes. i never went to the tech schools. i have all my training now, but i learned EEC by trail and error in the shop. at first there was a LOT of comebacks, then after awile i got better. but one thing about cars, your never a expert stuff is always changing so it's constant learning.

I usually tell people on here to get their codes scanned, and then to post them on here. There's enough knowledgable people on here, whom could figure out what your problem is.

I've seen so many parts replaced, that didn't fix the problems they were supposed to. *coughDPFEcough*

Agree with Shiroelex. Getting the code can allow you to do some diagnosing on your own. I got a code on the explorer and then did some searching on the internet on the code. Several people had the same code pop up and had listed things that worked for them. Obviously, you won't always be able to resolve it yourself, but I enjoy doing some research myself before taking it into a shop. That way you can call BS on them if they try to pull a fast one on you.