"Check Engine" Light Came On. What Could It Be?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pamela G.
  • Start date Start date
hyundaitech said:
The reason gas is cheaper in NY and NJ has much more to do with the state
gasoline tax than who is pumping. I'd be interested in seeing a
cost-comparison chart by state if we normalized the data to remove taxes.
Unfortunately, I'm not up for spending the time to put it together.
Click to expand...

Toss zone pricing into the mix and you'd need a Cray computer to sort it all
out. In 25 miles, my trip to work, four Shell stations will vary up to 35¢
from top to bottom and they usually maintain the same differential between
them as prices change. On another route I frequent, three Mobile station on
a 12 mile stretch will vary 20¢.
 
Thanks everyone! The light didn't come on today either. I'll wait for it
to come back on before having it checked out. I hate to spend the money
until I really have to. I hope that logic does backfire though!!

Wishing all of you very Happy Holidays!
 
Edwin Pawlowski said:
You pump your own gas? Sorry to hear that. In NY and parts of MA it is
forbidden to pump your own. Funny thing is, the full service is cheaper
than most self serves. This (pump yourself and save) is the biggest scam
ever foisted on the driving public.
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I'm guessing you really meant NJ, and not NY. It's certainly not forbidden
to pump your own in NY - in fact it's flat out hard to find any full service
stations in NY.
 
Edwin said:
In MA, each town fire marshall determines if the motoring public can safely
pump their own gas. In the towns that are full service, the price is the
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I'm not sure I'd want to live in a town where the general population
wasn't smart enough to operate a gas pump. :-)


Matt
 
Mike said:
I'm guessing you really meant NJ, and not NY. It's certainly not forbidden
to pump your own in NY - in fact it's flat out hard to find any full service
stations in NY.
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That may be. I'm aware NJ has such a law, but then NJ is a pretty
stupid and corrupt state. I know that at least the parts of NY near
where I live have no problem at all with self-serve stations.

Matt
 
That may be. I'm aware NJ has such a law, but then NJ is a pretty
stupid and corrupt state. I know that at least the parts of NY near
where I live have no problem at all with self-serve stations.

Matt
Click to expand...

In NJ self serve is illegal - I got chewed out by a pump jockey. ; -)

NY can only be downstate. Upstate it's hard to get pump help unless
you are disabled or really like to pay for the priveledge.
 
Matt said:
Yes, I would think something is defective with your gas cap. I turn
mine until it clicks and then stop. I probably get 2-4 clicks just from
inertia, but I don't attempt to turn it beyond the first click that I
hear. If the cap isn't cross-threaded, it shouldn't take more than a
one click to seal as the torque should not increase behind the first click.

Matt
Click to expand...

I'll pick one up next chance I get.

Chris
 
Matt Whiting said:
the

I'm not sure I'd want to live in a town where the general population
wasn't smart enough to operate a gas pump. :-)
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Well... it is the People's Republic of Massachusetts he's talking about
after all.
 
I'm not sure I'd want to live in a town where the general population
wasn't smart enough to operate a gas pump. :-)


Matt
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LOL. You don't know many people personally, do you?
 
That may be. I'm aware NJ has such a law, but then NJ is a pretty
stupid and corrupt state. I know that at least the parts of NY near
where I live have no problem at all with self-serve stations.

Matt
Click to expand...

NJ and Oregon are the only two states left that forbid self-service. With
that said, I've lived in NJ all of my driving life and have never had
someone pump my gas for me. If I am at a new station, I usually ask the
attendent first and have never been told no.

As to the "stupid and corrupt" portion of your post, yes, we have stupid
and corrupt people here. Collectively, however, I would bet dollars to
doughnuts that NJ probably has the highest IQ out of the 50 states. Maybe
California would beat us, but not by much. The corruption is everywhere.
NJ just has a more effective way of flushing them out and reporting about
it in the news than other states do.

Matt's self-inflated IQ at least pulls the state of PA up around a good,
solid 80 or so.

Eric
 
Eric said:
NJ and Oregon are the only two states left that forbid self-service. With
that said, I've lived in NJ all of my driving life and have never had
someone pump my gas for me. If I am at a new station, I usually ask the
attendent first and have never been told no.

As to the "stupid and corrupt" portion of your post, yes, we have stupid
and corrupt people here. Collectively, however, I would bet dollars to
doughnuts that NJ probably has the highest IQ out of the 50 states. Maybe
California would beat us, but not by much. The corruption is everywhere.
NJ just has a more effective way of flushing them out and reporting about
it in the news than other states do.
Click to expand...


I was talking about the government as that is what makes the stupid laws.

Matt's self-inflated IQ at least pulls the state of PA up around a good,
solid 80 or so.
Click to expand...

But since you've stooped to personal insults, maybe my statement does
apply to the populace more broadly than just the politicians. Last IQ
test I had placed me in the top 1% of the population. Where do you rank?

Matt
 
Any of the large autopart stores will read the codes for free. Your car is
kinda old so you may have trouble finding one to do it, but it's worth a
try.
 
Neal1 said:
Any of the large autopart stores will read the codes for free. Your car is
kinda old so you may have trouble finding one to do it, but it's worth a
try.
Click to expand...

However, don't always trust their readings. I had Autozone read my
minivan and they read the last code that had fired from a few weeks
earlier, not the code that was current. They would have had me replace
a sensor that I had just replaced a couple of weeks earlier when, in
fact, the problem was something totally different.

I'd rather pay a real garage a few bucks to get it right.


Matt
 
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