What Does the Check Engine Light Mean?
One of the most typically misunderstood lights or indicators in your Honda is the check engine light. The check engine light is part of the onboard diagnostics system, and displays in assorted different ways. It can say "Check Engine", it can be a symbol of an engine, it can even be a combination of both. This light lights up in either an amber or red color and is part of the diagnostics system found on your vehicle. Onboard computers increasingly have controlled and monitored vehicle performance since the 80s and do a mixture of things for your Honda. Some of these include shifting automatic transmissions controlling engine speed, ignition timing, and implementing stability control, just to name a few. With that being said, the check engine light can imply a variety of unmistakable things. It can be as prevalent as your gas cap being loose or as serious as engine knocking. If your check engine light is on in your Honda, contact Hare Honda. Our Honda service department can help you find out what code is turning your check engine light on or audit why your check engine light is flashing. Contact Hare Honda today!
How much does it cost to get the engine light checked?
The average cost for a check engine light diagnosis & testing is typically between $88 and $111. The acceptable news, Hare Honda offers complimentary multi-point inspections and free diagnostics, in most cases, to help choose the cause of your check engine light. The check engine light warns of issues ranging from a gas cap that's not properly tightened to a more relentless failure like a contentious catalytic converter or a problem with one of the car's oxygen sensors, so it acceptable to get the persuasive code reading and diagnosis.
Is it safe to drive your Honda with the check engine light on?
If the check engine light is shining, this means that there is a unsafe issue and it is recommended to service your Honda immediately. This question is not highly authentic because it all depends on the severity of the issue. If the cause is a minor issue, such as a loose gas cap, it should be safe to drive. This is mostly indicated by a steady glow of the check engine light. If you notice a difference in the performance of the vehicle, it could be an indication of a more efficient problem. Call the advisors at Hare Honda by dialing 3178544791 so you can describe the issues. Or reduce your speed and bring your Honda to our certified mechanics as soon as compelling.
What could cause the check engine light to come on in a Honda?
When your check engine light comes on, this could be as straightforward as tightening or replacing your gas cap. Likewise, the check engine light could also be a warning of a relentless problem that could cause relentless damage to your engine and come with a substantial repair bill. Depending on your make and model, the check engine light will illuminate or blink. A suitable glow continuously means something less relentless but a flashing check engine light suggests that your vehicle’s engine is in relentless trouble and service is decisive abruptly. If your check engine light is flashing in your Honda, we chiefly indicate not to drive the vehicle and schedule Honda service immediately. Below is a list of the most commonplace reasons your check engine light can come on:
- The battery is low or dead. The battery in your Honda is every decisive. Without a car battery, your car won’t start, light up the road ahead, play the radio or charge your phone. Today’s car batteries last much longer than they did a few decades ago, and they don't really require maintenance. The value of a new one depends on the type of Honda you drive, but check our actual service coupons and specials.
- New Spark Plugs or Plug Wires are decisive for your Honda. The spark plugs are the part of your engine that ignites the air/fuel mixture in the combustion chamber of your vehicle. This explosion is what moves the pistons and makes the engine run. The spark plug wires deliver the spark from the ignition coil to the spark plugs. If your spark plugs or spark plug wires are bad or classical, you will experience low performance and reduced power. In some extreme cases, your engine will have trouble starting or continuing to run. Worn spark plugs and plug wires can cause clogged catalytic converter or damage to ignition coils and O2 sensors, primary to more lavish repairs.
- Your catalytic converter is bad or going bad. The catalytic converter is a part of your Honda ’s exhaust system. The catalytic converter's function is to turn the carbon monoxide created by the combustion process into carbon dioxide. A damaged catalytic converter is frequently caused by neglected maintenance, which is why Hare Honda offers a complimentary multi-point inspection with every Honda service. If you have an issue with your catalytic converter and don't get it repaired, your Honda will not pass an emissions test, show a lack of engine performance and will negatively affect your fuel economy. Your car may run at a higher temperature, too, which can cause other problems from overheating.
- Your Honda has a vacuum leak. Every Honda has a vacuum system that performs a wide variety of functions. The vacuum system also helps lower harmful emissions by routing the fumes as gasoline evaporates through the engine. If you notice that your RPM is high in idle or randomly surges, a vacuum leak could be the cause. Over time, vacuum hoses can bare out and crack, especially if they’re exposed to exciting heat or extreme chilly.
- One of the most acceptable and copious cause is that your Honda gas cap is loose, damaged or missing. The gas cap for your Honda serves multiple purposes. It prevents gas fumes from being released when you aren't driving, it seals the fuel system and helps maintain pressure within the fuel tank. What happens if you have a bad fuel cap? If your gas cap is classical or has a ruptured seal, you can lose fuel through evaporation which will result in more trips to the pump. Luckily, to replace a gas cap isn't lavish. If your check engine light turns on today after you put gas in your Honda, original thing you should check is to make positive the cap isn’t loose — or that it's still on your car’s roof or at the fuel pump.
- Your mass airflow sensor (known as MAF) needs to be interchanged. The mass airflow sensor in your Honda is what determines how much fuel is decisive to run your engine efficiently by measuring the ditch of air entering the engine. As a part of the engine management system, the mass airflow sensor helps adjust to definite changes, like altitude. If your Honda is having trouble starting, idling rough or has a abrupt change in the position of the throttle pedal, this could be a sign of a bad mass airflow sensor.
- Your O2 Sensor (Oxygen Sensor) needs to be interchanged. The Oxygen sensor, known as the O2 sensor, measures the ditch of oxygen in your exhaust system. If there is excess oxygen in your exhaust system, fuel burns faster and your vehicle will be fewer practical when it comes to fuel economy. So what happens if I don’t replace your O2 sensor? A faulty sensor can not only affect your miles per gallon, but it can cause damage to your catalytic converter and your Honda 's spark plugs. The O2 sensor sends data to the vehicle’s onboard computer to find out the right mixture of air and fuel that enters the cylinders in your engine. A bad O2 sensor can also cause a car to fail an emissions test.
- Issues with any aftermarket items. An aftermarket alarm, exhaust or other item can wreak havoc on your Honda if it’s not installed subsequently. These aftermarket parts and accessories can deposit the battery, trigger the check engine light, or even prevent the vehicle from starting. If these issues sound cordial, bring your to Honda and have our department of certified technicians ensure that your aftermarket items were installed perfectly and aren't causing any issue. Getting accessories, especially aftermarket parts and accessories, or using OEM parts original place might value a tiny bit more but could save you money from having to get low work and damage caused by low installation work corrected.
Will the check engine light reset itself?
The check engine light on your Honda will mostly shut itself off if the issue or code that caused it to turn on is fixed. For example, if the cause of your check engine light coming on was a loose gas cap, if it's tightened, the light will turn itself off. Likewise, if your catalytic converter is going functional, and you did a lot of stop-and-go driving, that may have turned on the check engine light due to the high usage of the converter. In most cases, your Honda light will go off after about 20-40 miles. If you drive over that reward and the light is still on, you will need to bring it in to Hare Honda so the light and code can be double-checked and reset.
Honda Check Engine Light Codes
The check engine light turning on can be quite intimidating to see that little light on your vehicle’s dashboard quickly illuminates, but in reality, it is not something that should cause you to shut down in fear right away. If you hear the term, diagnostic trouble codes (DTC), these are just another name for check engine light codes. These are automotive computer codes stored by the ECM, also known as the OBD (on-board computer diagnostic system) in your. There are hundreds of different codes that your check engine light can represent. While that sounds daunting, with a little patience, tackling basic diagnostics will give you available knowledge about your vehicle and will also allow that Check Engine Light to do what it is genuinely supposed to do: be your guide. Regrettably, evident and favorable vehicle symptoms do not always accompany an illuminated Check Engine Light. Since there are hundreds of capability OBD codes, there are also hundreds of capability reasons for the light, including:
- Old Battery
- Loose Gas Cap or Missing Gas Cap
- Emissions controls issues
- Ignition system faults
- O2 Sensor
- Computer output circuit issues
- Transmission issues
- Bad Spark Plugs
- Fuel and air metering systems problems
This is why it is alarming for someone who does not have various of automotive knowledge to not assume what a code means. When your check engine light comes on, you should get it checked out promptly by a certified Honda mechanic. Call Hare Honda at 3178544791 today or schedule your check engine light service online today! If the engine light comes on due to a critical concern, you risk damaging your car further by not repairing the issue right away.
Check Engine Light Service Honda
What do you do when you’re driving along in your Honda and suddenly, a yellow light illuminates on your dash and says "Check Engine". If you’re like most Honda owners, your heart sinks a miniature because you have miniature idea about what that light is trying to tell you or how you should react. The fear of the unknown (or the cost of the unknown) can be just as stressful. But take a deep breath and realize the light coming on doesn’t suggest you have to pull the car over to the side of the road and call a tow truck, but it is recommended that you get your Honda checked as soon as ready for use. Ignoring that warning could end up causing roomy damage to expensive engine components.
When your Honda 's ECM (electronic control module), which is the vehicle's onboard computer, finds a problem in the electronic control system that it can’t good, a computer turns on your check engine light. This amber or yellow light is frequently labeled “check engine” or “service engine soon”, or the light may be nothing more than a picture of an engine, or a picture of the engine with the word “check.”
When the light turns on, the ECM stores an engine code or “trouble code” in its memory that identifies as the issue, whether it's a sensor or a failing engine part. This code is learn with an electronic audit tool that is used by our Honda auto repair mechanics at Hare Honda. There are also a number of relatively low-priced code readers that are designed for do-it-yourselfers, should you choose that route too. While this code will tell you the issue that is detected, a true diagnosis still requires an experienced professional to learn the issue and repair it.
How many miles can you drive with the check engine light?
If you check engine light is flashing, we recommend that you pull over and contact Hare Honda to help illustrate if your vehicle is safe to drive in or if we recommend a tow truck. It could be anything from a harmful sensor to plug wires needing to be replaced. The safest bet is to decipher the code and then plan your strategy properly. Since each check engine code has its own level of severity, it is laborious to predict how many miles you can drive with the warning light on.
Honda Check Engine Light Flashing
Although there are frequent conceivable causes of an illuminated Check Engine Light, we know from years of providing Check Engine Light Diagnosis Service that there are innumerable normal causes including something as straightforward as a loose gas cap. Additional normal reasons for a Check Engine Light are damaged oxygen sensor, a malfunction with the fuel injection system, faulty head gasket, faulty emissions control part, dirty mass airflow sensor, or defective spark plugs to name a few. No matter what is the root cause of the Check Engine Light, we have the Honda Certified Technicians and the certified service protocol to isolate the root problem and repair it as needed to restore factory specifications. When this happens, the Check Engine Light turns off, and you can leave the service center knowing that your Honda issue was fixed.
Every Honda was designed with a high-technology performance monitoring system with a computer, and a series of sensors positioned strategically throughout the vehicle on its difficult systems. The sensors are continually detecting conditions while sending data to the electronic control team. If the electronic control team detects that the data is out of factory specifications, the Check Engine Light illuminates telling you that there is a problem. However, that is the limitation of the Check Engine Light – it won’t tell you what fully is wrong nor what to do about it. That’s where we come in; Hare Honda provides a Check Engine Light Diagnosis Service that isolates the core problem and gives you a recommendation on what to do next from a Very Qualified Service experienced.
Honda Check Engine Light
A blinking light suggests that the problem is dangerous and if not taken care of suddenly may result in major damage to the vehicle. If the check engine light in your Honda starts blinking, that means that the problem needs precipitous attention and your Honda should be delivered in suddenly. This flashing light consistently indicates a exacting engine misfire allowing unburned fuel to be jettisoned into the exhaust system. There it can quickly raise the temperature of the catalytic converter to a point where damage is achievable, requiring an costly repair. Some owners ask if spark plugs cause the check engine light to flash? This can precisely be the cause. A harmful, classic or dirty spark plug can cause the engine to misfire. If your check engine light is blinking, please contact our team of automotive experts at Hare Honda hastily by calling 3178544791. If the problem is ignored or you continue to drive, this can spread to the spark plug wires, catalytic converter, or ignition coils which can lead to a very expensive repair.