Was driving around yesterday & the ENGINE light came on solid. Multiple trips during the day & it remained on.

Question........ Can you tell what the logged fault code is without a scanner.

EG, the CEL flashes multiple times etc.....??

Am suspicious of the "misfire" as the engine was pinging a bit after 40% throttle thanks to some (maybe?) **** fuel

PS. have read through multiple searches for over an hour without finding an answer to this.

REgards

 

A scanner is the best way to diagnose the problem. Without the code its hard to say for certain, but we can speculate all day.
Just take the car up to Autozone and have them pull the code. As long as the CEL is on solid, its OK to drive. If it was a flashing CEL, then I would be hesitant to drive it anywhere.

 

flashing cel is pretty much guaranteed to be a misfire code, try resetting the e-shaft profile

 

From what I gathered, he isn't experiencing a flashing CEL. He is asking if we can identify the code by counting the flashes (1st digit pulses fast, pauses, then 2nd digit pulses slow (example: Code 13 would look like: flash, pause, flash, flash, flash.))
If I am wrong DMRH let me know.

 

Counting flashes....???

The CEL is on "solid" but is there a way to make it flash so the code can be counted....??

Unfortunately (or fortunately) the CEL extinguished itself a few days later after some normal driving by my wife.

Suspicion is due to plenty of "pinging" on a very warm day (03 model - 4AT) with AC turned on.

Will be getting a scanner from an electronics store thats reads & resets OBD-II & making some "cooling" mods to prevent this possability from happening again as we progress into a hot summer here in the land of Oz.

REgards

 

No, you can't read the code without a scanner. I was able to do that on my '87 Honda Accord, just by looking at an LED under the seat, and I know there were sequences that let you do that on other cars that did not have special 'under the butt" displays.

But these days there are just too many codes for them to do that. Not to mention conspiracies and kickbacks between car makers and scanner makers.

Even though the CEL went out, I think the code should still be stored, so you'll be able to see what it was when your scanner arrives.

Ken