The check engine light came on in my Taco yesterday.

I added some windshield washer fluid to the reservoir today but it's still on.

Any ideas/suggestions?

Thanks

90% chance it's your gas cap.

Drop by Auto Zone and let them check it for free.

Push the On Star Button and have them run a diagno....


Oh wait...

grins

The easiest fix is to take about 1 inch of 3M electrical tape and put it on the dash, covering the check engine light and it will quit bothering you. I don’t know how many trucks I got new and when that light came on, the electrical tape worked for years...

What is a taco?

I got one of these off ebay, downloaded Torque for Android, and read out the codes myself. My cars are all crap so I needed it.

I paid about $75 for my code reader. After that, they just kept getting cheaper and better. Mine is pretty old school these days.

Unhook the battery for a few hours and see if it goes away. It reboots the computer basically and often clears it. If it comes back best to get it plugged in and diagnosed. Try the gas cap as mentioned too.

Yes tape but now its felt pen.

Well, duh!!

It's obvious you either need to tighten or replace the check engine light bulb!

Master mechanics charge big bucks for this advice.

If it has around 100,000 miles on it , think O2 sensor.

This.

Need a OBD code reader.

WTF is a Taco? I thought Tacos was dinner.
7mm

I hope you just forgot the sarcasm font.

Washer fluid is not going to fix that problem.


Its amazing just how often otherwise responsible people overlook the blinker fluid reservoir.


On your particular Taco, the fill cap is located under the passenger seat....immediately aft of the under slung Johnson rod mounting buttress.


You must buy the type K(p) fluid. It has the correct friction modifiers to interface properly with the optical shear pramus.

Id go with the Maxlife for a Taco that old.

Excellent advice.

Dammit Jim, why didn't I think of that?

I'm a Mobil One guy......do you know if they make blinker fluid?

Good old Chuck, the Engine Light - the shop foreman's best friend.

If you disconnect your battery, you may be out of service for a half hour or so while your PCM relearns it's parameters. My son put a battery in a new to him matrix and it took almost 45 minutes for it to relearn. You are supposed to let it just sit and idle that long.

It’s a scope made in Japan that was commonly sold at K-Mart.

If throw that taco away let me know.

My car seems to run a bit better when the light goes out.
Which isn't often.
23 years old, $1500 two years ago.
It aint getting anything I doesn't need.


After a decent drive, the oil burning off the manifold makes it look like
it's on fire. Stick that up your butt Prius drivers!

No wonder your still single.........

Sell it FG, Next time buy a real truck.

Along with the gas cap not being sufficiently tightened you can add this trivial cause. My daughter had her Mazda's oil changed the other day, gets the car back and bingo you guessed it the check engine light comes on. Back to the dealer to find out they'd forgotten to tighten the air filter cover after inspecting it. I have been a firm believer in the fact that these lights come on for the stupidest of reasons, don't blame the drivers that ignore or cover their lights. I always tell the wife and daughters that if they don't hear any strange noises or see smoke coming from under the hood that it's O.K. to drive their vehicle home for me to check under the hood.

Now here's a law I like. If you're going to put all those frappin' sensors in there, you must have a plain English readout. Like, "Some dummy forgot to tighten the air cleaner cover."

The old Exploder has the check engine light come on sometimes. Sometimes it goes out by itself, sometimes it needs a restart. Got the code out of it once, something about injectors on longer than expected. Mechanic friends have no idea what that is supposta mean. Gauges good, runs good, the hell with the damn light.

I heard that Amsol has it in a new synthetic blend that also doubles as chain saw chain lube. Anyone try it yet?

Best to leave such matters to properly trained technicians...

When it does that in my company van(2110) Chevy. The mechanic told me to turn ignition to on, stomp accelerator a half dozen times. It makes it reset. I don’t know if that will work for you.

In Ontario if you buy a used vehicle it has to undergo a saftey inspection. If there is a light on it will not pass said inspection. This includes the TPMS—(Tire Pressure Monitouring System).
If somebody changes the tires, you might be screwed on selling that vehicle. Ask me how I know.

When a Taco meets up with a large truck, it's toast.

I'd go with the Stihl if it were me...

Pro Model?

I cant believe that they come with a check engine light. Supposed to be perfect.

Mines been on for 11 years. It’s the trucks way of saying “Good Morning!”

It CAN mean something is about to get very expensive, so ignoring the CEL is foolhardy. Get a code reader or let the Auto Zone guys read it for free. It might be something as simple as a loose/leaky gas cap, or as expensive as a catalytic converter - or even (as I learned) a Variable Valve Timing Controller.

Oh yeah!! A couple extra Benjamins up front but your friends will be impressed and the gal's will take notice too.

Friggin light has been on in my Frontier for 20K miles. My light is caused by the purge canister (a box that the gas tank vents into instead of the atmosphere (like it shoud)). Stealership wants $1100 to fix it. So the light stays on.

Yeah check engine light. check oil,ok forget about it. Been on in the kids Outback for 2 years now. Had a repair guy look at it,he told me it was some kind of sensor failure inside the engine, " how much you wanna spend?" Not much said I, forget about it then he said.

Ignore it at your peril. It may have originally come on for something trivial, but now it's trying to warn you of something a lot more serious. Read the f...ing codes!

My check engine light came on-----I raised the hood---The engine is still there---Now what?

Excellent!

I got a code reader for $22 I think. There are fancier ones but for my level of diy it's great. Reads codes and then I can look them up.

The check engine light in my pickup hasn't come on but the TPM light hasn't been off in the 7 years I've had it. If it had monitors in the tires, that might fix it.

Is that to the right or left of the sponson regulator?

Why the my CEL is better - explained -

I bought an OBD II wireless code reader on line for $10.00. Downloaded the free diagnostic application "Torque Lite" to my smart phone.

Now the blue-tooth OBD II sends info to Torque lite and monitors engine functions. I did this to find how much turbo boost is going to my '18 Kia Stinger twin turbo v-6.
The Torque Lite will read the error codes if any pop up while driving.

And yes a CEL came on and it was an over tightened gas cap, so remove cap and tighten to 1 click only, light gone.

Our 04 Tahoe has been going bonkers CEL wise of late, thinking it's dementia possibly.
On our weekly 450 mile roundtrip of late it usually comes on about 50 miles in to the trip[not always] but does always go off sometime the next day. Then does the same heading back home. But on the homeward trip it always goes off prior to arriving. On some of the trips instead of coming on static, it flashes about 20 times and then goes off/stays off.
New plugs/wires helped a bit, hoping coil packs aren't needed.
When I checked it[while light off] it had a stored code for 'all cylinder misfire'. Have cleared that and will see next week if that was it.
When it's been on performance nor MPG has dropped.

It's a Mexican food thingie, bent in the middle chock full of ground up domestic pets gone feral that you drown in hot sauce to kill the taste.

Well it did kinda taste like that.

Excellent!

That would be a procedure to reset the "oil change" light.

Also, obtaining the code number(s) for a "check engine" yellow light will only allow you to realize in what area the problem lies, it will not tell you why the problem exists.

-Ken

To paraphrase Manfred Mann, "When Chuck the engine light gets you in, everybody gonna pay and pay."

I wanna go to town for a Taco ma!

On a taco ...it means your bed is less than 8'

On my 2008 Chevrolet 1500 work truck with a 4.3 V6 there is a warning that comes on saying ENGINE HOT A/C OFF. When this happens the engine is not at all hot. I changed the sending unit or whatever it's called and the thermostat to no avail. I got tired of unhooking the battery to reset it so I bought an INTEY brand code reader and just leave it hooked up. The truck won't go 10 miles without the ENGINE HOT A/C OFF warning popping up. I just hit ERASE CODES and it goes off and the A/C comes back on. By the way, when this warning comes on the temp gauge goes to nothing and when I punch off the code it will come back up. I put one of those same code readers in my Toyota Tundra and if the CE light comes on I find out the code and then erase it. Usually a long time before it comes on again. I think most any little hiccup will cause the light to come on. The code reader was inexpensive.

I have a 98 Camry , the light has been on for years, I just put some black tape over it and keep going. Dang thing finally went out again a couple of months ago.

Bulb burnt out.

On an F-150 the check engine light comes on when the coil pack goes bad and it starts running on 3 or 4 cylinders.

It started jerking and coughing down the road,...3 miles later the "check engine" light comes on.

I was like, "No schitt!"

OK....this has been fun but I'm pretty anal about my "stuff" so I went to Auto Zone and had them plug me in today.

Bad upstream o2 sensor.

They wanted $150 for a new one......I told the guy I'd have to wait for my SS check and went home and found em on-line for as low as $50 with free shipping. So much for "free diagnostic".

I can get a Bosch which is OE and guaranteed for life for $75 so that's what I think I'll do.

I might even replace the downstream sensor while I'm at it since I can replace both for what AZ wanted for the one.

Anyone who thinks that those "free check-ups" are going to be free is awfully naive.

So exactly what was the charge on the code scan? If 0 it was free right didn’t cost you a damn thing, right. Sheesh and people always ask why I gave up working on other people’s cars. Even if it’s free they claim you screwed em for something just like above. Don’t like the part price go somewhere else.

Ain't that the truth - and there's a LOT of them out there!

Nothing is "free" no matter what anyone tells you.

I feel guilty for not buying anything from them though.

I should probably go back and pick up an air freshener......"when my SS check shows up".

Don't forget to get the special socket to get them out.

Charlie, please give me a heads up when you get hungry enough to sell another shotgun........

I don't expect anyone to work for free but don't BS me and tell me it's "free" and then charge me triple because if you do I'll do just that.

Sorry, couldn't help it.....grin

Free diagnostic. Who told you the part would free? A shop would hit you for an hour of labor. $100 to $150 bucks.

That Merkel's all I got left....."from my cold dead and hungry hands".

That's a fine one....

I've never had to replace an O2 sensor.

My friend replaced his but it was just his spark plugs that needed to be replaced.

I don't trust those stupid dash light signals and alerts....

one of my cars is so stupid, every time I get into the car, a light tells me that my door is a jar...

its not a jar you stupid thing, its a door....

probably programmed by someone who doesn't speak English...

My check engine light lets me know the engine is still in the car and functioning..

everyone I've ever bothered to check out over at the college automotive program.. told me it was an O/2 sensor....

we only have two vehicles without a check engine light on....the one on the 4Runner has been on for a couple hundred thousand miles...

The O2 sensor will read as bad, from a number of things. It's not terribly expensive, usually easy (if it's not seized in there...get some PB Blaster) , and sure doesn't hurt. Problem is, the mix it reads can be affected by other stuff. Just be aware of that.

18" Pipe wrench and a MAPP gas torch makes short work of seized O2 sensors...

THIS.

-Ken

Charlie, what size engine in your taco ?

If it's a 6 cylinder, I hope they told you which bank the bad upstream O2 sensor is ! Bank 1 or Bank 2 ! If you need to know which is which, fire me a PM !

Yep & possibly heating torches to break the corrosion.