Engine Check Light

[Solmors]

Well my engine check light just came on today but nothing seems wrong. It is running just as well as it always has, and nothing seems even slightly off. I have heard some dealers set the engine check light to come on so you bring your car in for a tune up, and I was woundering if Mazda was known for this. It is an '03 Protege with about 28k miles. If you know anything please tell me, I don't want to go to the dealership tomorrow :-/.

[jeg0024]

Well my engine check light just came on today but nothing seems wrong. It is running just as well as it always has, and nothing seems even slightly off. I have heard some dealers set the engine check light to come on so you bring your car in for a tune up, and I was woundering if Mazda was known for this. It is an '03 Protege with about 28k miles. If you know anything please tell me, I don't want to go to the dealership tomorrow :-/.

Go to autozone, they will read the code for free. If its a second O2 sensor code just tell them thanks and go home, un-hook your battery for 15 mins, replace battery terminal and go on with life and forget about it. If its something else you may need to stop by the dealer. Either way, get the code read and post up what it was.

[njaremka]

need to know what the code is before we can tell you what to do... failing a check at autozone, go to walmart and pick up a code reader. prices on them are getting more reasonable, plus it makes it that much easier when things like this come up.

[mazda protege 2]

yeah if you have your own scanner its better, and we need to know what the code is to diagnose

[yunwawa]

Well my engine check light just came on today but nothing seems wrong. It is running just as well as it always has, and nothing seems even slightly off. I have heard some dealers set the engine check light to come on so you bring your car in for a tune up, and I was woundering if Mazda was known for this. It is an '03 Protege with about 28k miles. If you know anything please tell me, I don't want to go to the dealership tomorrow :-/.


First off your right. The CEL/MIL light, check engine light(maintenance indication light), started off originally for emissions and later turned into an On Board Diagnostics (OBD) that gave the car/driver know when there was a problem or maintenance was found. The light just gives the codes to the mechanic so he knows what to look at, sometimes things get more complicated. Also when you get the code please give us symptoms, like was the car running for a long time or short time, was it hot or cold outside, things like that.

[Solmors]

Thanks for the input all, I brought it over to autozone and they said it was a loose gas cap, which they said they would fix for $10. So I payed my 10 bucks and now its done.

[Chief7925]

uh loose gas cap?

[SIBalla23]

A loose gas cap will throw a check engine light. The gas cap has to click for it to be on correctly otherwise there will be an evap leak. But damn, $10 for two seconds worth of work.

[bazooka joe]

don't tell us you gave these guys $10 to tighten your cap? they gave you a new cap or something....right??

[SIBalla23]

Yea $10 is a waste. Atleast get your code read for free from like autozone and you could have saved the ten and did it yourself.

[bazooka joe]

so i'd say it this way "cost me a sawbuck to get my code read"

[musicfreak9728]

i just did headers on my 02 protege. and my check engine light came on. it keeps throwing the same code. the code says precatalyst efficiency failure. below thresh hold. i know its probably that second 02 sensor because that precat isn't there. i was sick of looking at the check engine light so i pulled the bulb out of th dash cluster.


my question is: is there any way to make that code not comeback anymore?