While my husband was in the hospital I got the check engine warning light on my car but with everything going on I decided to wait until things were under control to take care of it and have been using my husband’s car since then. However, I got the notice from the state for the required emissions test for my car which I will need to renew my registration. So I finally took it in to be diagnosed because it would automatically fail emissions test with that issue. The mechanic did the code diagnostics and said it was either caused by spark plugs which would be an easy fix or it needs a new cylinder which would involve two days of labor. The mechanic said that he removed the engine light warning as part of the analysis but it will eventually go back on again. When it does I should bring the car back because he set it up to know which one it is when the light goes back on
If that’s exactly what the mechanic said, he’s either an idiot or a crook. If it’s a relative late model car, he should have been able to pull the code that would indicate the problem and which cylinder it is. I would stop by an Auto Zone, Advance Auto, or any major parts store and have them read the code. It’s free. Write down the code number and come back and let us know.
The code reader most likely said a misfire on a certain cylinder. As well as spark plugs it could just as likely be a coil pack or an injector and even a few other things.
branchkin - He did say it was a misfire but that he was doing this to determine the cause of the misfire.
What year and how many miles?
We had a code on a Ford Escape and it was coils, but on the Ford V6 each cylinder had a coil and they couldn’t tell which one was the problem, and they’d have to replace all of them, which wasn’t cheap.
Pretty sure they could have found the bad one with a simple volt meter.
It is a 2010 BMW 3 series AWD but it only has 48,000 miles on it.
My 2008 4-banger started flashing the check engine light recently on a long drive, with the engine hardly producing any power whatsoever. Had the pedal almost to the floor & barely getting 25 mph.
Limped it to a garage, afraid to turn it off.
Got it there, turned the engine off & recranked. Perfectly normal. Never seen anything like it.
Took it to a shop in my home town, and all they could find was a low battery.
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