Check Engine Light

[Matts Dad]

New to the form, this is my first post. I wish I had found the forum BEFORE I took my explorer (98 XLT) to the dealer this morining.

My check engine light came on. Took it to the dealer. He told me that it was a loose gas cap that caused the light to come on. He also told me that I would have to pay him $48 to reset the computer. He said the light would not go out until I had the computer reset.

My questions is, is he correct or is he feeding me a line? Some of the other posts I found seem to say that if you just fix the problem and wait a few days the light will go out on its own. Is that true, or do you have to have the computer reset?

Second question, if you do have to have it reset, are there places that will do it for less than the $48 the dealership charged me? I live in Northern California in a town called Oakley, near Concord.

Thanks,
Rick

 

[96 EddieB]

From my experience the Check engine light goes off by itself. Mine will come on occasionally and stay on for about a week to 2 weeks, then turn off. Nothing ever really seems to be wrong w/ the truck so I dont even take it in. The light is more of an annoyance than anything else to me. It'll turn on if you sneeze to hard. It comes on about every 3-4 months then goes off. Weird, I just ignore it now.

 

[JoshC]

Hello Rick, I'm kinda new myself, but welcome to the site, glad you found us. The people on this site can answer about anyquestion you have about your Explorer.

My light also comes on everyonce in a while. You can wait until it automatically goes away or you can just unplug your negative battery terminal with a 8mm wrench or socket and leave it disconnected for about 10 minutes or so and then hook her back up and you should be good to go, hope this helps!

Happy trailes!

 

[Orkrist]

The light often goes on if fuel/air isn't ratioed right. The computer fixes it itself and the light goes off. I've never heard of a loose "gas cap". I've driven my car with no gas cap at all for weeks, which isn't perfect, but no lights. Sounds like a camaoflauged labor charge.

 

[nyisles_99]

chECK LIGHT ON MINE WENT ON AND I HAD THE COMPUTER RAN ON MY 94XLT AND IT WAS AIR FLOW SENSOR. $220 LATER.

iF THE LIGHT IS ANNOYING YOU UNPLUG THE BATTERY WAIT APPROX 10 MIN AND RECONNECT TO RESET LIGHT. $48 IS WAY EXPENSIVE I THINK THE DIAGNOSTIC COMPUTER IS ONLY $30.

 

[Robert]

The light will go off on its own if the problem has been fixed. I believe it takes three drive cycles to clear it (three cold starts, driven to warmup, ect.). So after about 3 days of driving, it will go off on its own, unless you still have a problem. You also could turn it off yourself by disconnecting a battery cable. Your dealer was just being a jerk by charging you to reset your light. It takes him a couple of minutes to hook his scanner up to your OBD-II port and hit the button to clear all codes. That is how I do it on mine and it takes me more time to pull my scanner out of its carrying case and untwist the cables than it does to actually clear the code. The better dealerships will not usually charge you for this, but I have read many posts where they did. My Mother had the check engine light come on on her '96 T-bird. The dealer ship attributed it to a loose cap. They didn't charge her for clearing the code, which is fortunate since the light came back on a few days later. It was eventually traced to a bad evap. cannister. In your manual, it should mention that one of the things to check for a Check Engine light is a loose or faulty gas cap. Fortunately, Ford has started removing that condition from the Check Engine light and has added a seperate light that says "Check Cap". The Focus and Taurus I recently rented had the light.

 

[01EB5.0]

A while back we rented a 2000 Explorer XLT in arizona and it had the check cap light too