I love my car – though it has been showing signs of wear and tear for the last few years. I bought it new in 1997, which means it’s 15 years old this year, with about 85K miles. My plan has been to drive it til it falls apart. Question is, will this year be the year it falls apart?
The engine light came on yesterday and has stayed on, which freaked me out a bit since it has not done that before the manual says to stop the car and not drive it anymore when that light comes on.
I called the dealer, where I usually take it. But given that it’s in its golden years, that may be a little bit of overkill. They said they could take a look at it, but it would cost 1 hour of labor to just do that. The nice guy on the phone did say that 99% of the reasons the light comes on are not catastrophic, probably emissions related.
Monte suggested taking it to AutoZone, as they will come out to the parking lot and read the code off the car’s computer for free. What a concept! Keep that in mind next time this happens to you. I drove over today and in about 10 seconds they told me it was a code indicating that the exhaust mix is out of whack.
Whew. Ok, so I just need to get that fixed up to pass my next emissions inspection. I guess this is not the end of the road yet. Though, i must say it is a bit annoying when my sunroof opens on its own when it’s raining 🙂 so maybe the end of the road is not too far away…. Stay tuned.
Sheila365 