Check Engine Light Came On

c.y.c.l.o.n.e.s

Well-Known Member
Feb 21, 2007
1,593
983
113
I got off work last night, and the wife wanted pizza. I ordered it from my Little Caesar's App and walked out to the car to drive over. It's not far from where I work, so 3 minutes later I'm parked in front of Little Caesar's. The place is walk in only, and I've still got 15-20ish minutes to wait, so rather than stand inside awkwardly, I stay in my warm car, leaving the engine on, cuz it's cold why wouldn't I?

At this point in time, everything is fine. I pull out my phone, do some bs'ing on CF, check my Action App, make a few bets on my William Hill app etc all of a sudden, 20 minutes is up. I take my eyes off the screen for the first time in 20 minutes and discover that my dash is lit up like a Christmas tree. Check engine light and ABS lights were on, and a few others (should've grabbed a picture). I immediately shut my car off, went inside and grabbed my pizza, hoping that all would be well when I got back in the car. Maybe it was a daydream or something.

I get back to my car, and lo and behold all the lights were off....EXCEPT...the check engine light. Took it to Auto Zone and had them run a diagnostic on it, and they mentioned the only thing that came back on their little report was something about a brake light switch sensor. They couldn't tell me much else, but said it should be fine and reset my check engine light so that it is now turned off.

Internally, I'm still freaking out. Any car geeks out there have any advice for me?

Not a car geek but since you said that many of your lights were lit up my guess is that there was a temporary drop in voltage that tripped a whole bunch of sensors. That doesn't seem too shocking since you were sitting at low idle in extremely cold temperatures. Could be your battery is a little weak or the alternator hiccuped.

By the way, get the $39 ODB2 at Walmart or the Bluetooth version. They give you a ton of info if you are willing to dig deep enough and do some YouTube learning.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: Cyinthenorth

Latest posts

Help Support Us

Become a patron