Service Engine Soon Light Vista, CA

What does the Service Engine Soon Light indicate?

We wish this was a simple answer, the problem is depending on your vehicle it could mean different things. You see “Service Engine Soon” Light can mean a couple different things.

First, some vehicles have a service engine soon light that is also the check engine light. However, some vehicles have a check engine light and service engine soon light. Then some vehicles on have a check engine light and no service engine soon. I’ll cover all three of these scenarios.

If your vehicle has a check engine light and a service engine soon light, your service engine soon light means it’s time for service. Just like you get that little sticker in the top corner of your window telling you it’s time for an oil change. That light does the exact same thing, except in most cases it’s not only for oil changes every 3,000-7,000 miles.

The service engine soon light is also set for your minor and major services, the most common ones are 30K/60K/ 90K. So if your vehicle is most like this scenario, that’s great news. It just means it’s time to get you shop on the phone and come in for some general maintenance.To get more info on what that scheduled maintenance service entails. First see how many miles are on your vehicle by looking at the odometer on your dashboard (most likely just under your speed indicator, in most cases your vehicle needs to be on to see it). Then pop open the owner’s manual and look to see what needs to be serviced at that mileage interval.

You can also give us a call and schedule an appt for your scheduled maintenance service. Our software has every service that needs to be done at every mileage interval for every nearly every vehicle on the road.

In addition to that, from time to time the manufacturer adds or changes those services as they see how the vehicle is performing. That will also be updated in our software so we will have the most up to date information to take care of your vehicle.

Now if your vehicle does not have a check engine light in addition to the service engine soon light. Then it may mean what was stated above, that it’s reminding you of

scheduled maintenance service OR it may mean that you have an issue in your vehicle that needs to be addressed. Just as a stand alone check engine light would do.

The most common issues to a check engine light are:

• Loose Gas Cap
• Faulty Fuel Injectors
• Mass Air Flow Sensor

There are hundreds of other reasons it could be on, even some as silly as an improperly installed air filter (which may take only a minute to fix)

To find this out we use a scan tool, this tool communicates with the check engine light and gives us a code telling us what it thinks is wrong with your vehicle. Now, this doesn’t mean it says, replace fuel injector.

An example of what a code might say is: OBD Code-P0172 which means, “Engine is running rich”. This would tell us to look at the fuel system, injectors, seals, lines everything that could cause that problem so we can find out what is causing your system to run rich and fix it.

Fun Fact: There are close to 1000 codes a check engine light or service engine soon light can give us.

If you having any issues with a check engine light or simply need to service your vehicle because of a service engine soon light give us a call today.

We offer a free check engine light code read so we can both have an idea of what’s going on before we decide to do further diagnosis.

For more information on check engine light or if your check engine light is blinking or flashing please check out those pages on our site for more information.