Is there a way to disconnect check engine light?

SmockDoiley

New Member
Jun 14, 2003
1,591
2
0
San Diego, CA
So My wife drove all the way across the country and made it just fine but she said the car was a gas hog. I just bought the car and Im wondering if its the O2 sensors, but wouldnt that pop the engine light. Do you think the dealer unhooked it, and if so how do I hook it back up or check. The car has 100k now after the trip and all the fluids are good and the engine is strong. What else could cause bad gas mileage. The engine bay is super clean and it idles fine. Its a 95 GT auto.
 
the o2's should toss a code if they are bad enough. does the CE light come on when the key is turned on? bulb may have burned out.

another thing i can think of regarding bad milage, would be a bad ECT (engine coolant temp sensor). if it is telling the puter that the car is cold, it would stay in open loop and run rich. and would not necessarily toss a code, as the car doesnt know its not cold. try pulling codes and see whats up.

good luck.
 
Thats just the thing, I dont know if its on or not. Is it difficult to get to, and what equipment do I need to check codes? Do I need to get one of those little analyzers. She said she had to fill up 4 times a day. Thats bad mileage!!
 
my CE liggt doesnt work, but it should come on when the key is turned on (like all the other lights do), no?
for codes, you can do it with a paperclip. search Jrichker and he posts 3 sites with codes all the time.
 
WalMart sells a code checker for $23; the diagnostic plug is part of the harness and is located behind the driver's side strut tower on Fox bodies - think it's in the same place on the 95's.

You keep referring to bad mileage, but you never actually tell us what the mileage was. "She said she had to fill up 4 times a day - that's bad mileage". Not exactly a scientific quantification of the fuel mileage she was getting. How fast was she averaging? How many miles a day was she covering? What was the actual fuel mileage?
 
No need to get over analytical here bad mileage is bad mileage and a good mustang should get around 20 on the highway but with driving 10-12 hours at 70-80 mph to drive roughly 800 miles a day with 4 fillups of around 11-13 gallons a pop comes out to around 13-16 mpg. Everybody on here raves about how their car gets 22 mpg like how Hot Rod gets 600 horses from a pump gas junkyard engine running on seven cylinders. I dont know too many people that can keep a 100mph click without facing the man, so just take my world that its bad mileage. I would think mileage that bad would pop a light but there is no light on and Im not there to check codes. Everything including cap,rotor,plugs,wires,filters,and fluids is new, and I have no CE light. The engine only has 98k miles on it and everything is stock, and it has new tires with correct tire pressure. Yet the misses reports crappy mileage.
 
tell her to take it to a parts store and get codes (if any) pulled for free. should give an idea or peace of mind.

the rest is too ambiguous to guess at.