What You Need to Know About Auto Repair and Your Check Engine Light | Grapevine, TX

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If you’re looking at your dashboard and you see your check engine light go on it probably makes you quite nervous, right? Whether you know a lot about your vehicle or very little, everyone knows that the engine is the most important part and that if there’s a problem it could mean your car isn’t going to work anymore. But the truth is, there are all kinds of different reasons the check engine light could go on. So, let’s take a look at what kind of auto repair you might be looking at in Grapevine, TX.

1.  GAS CAP IS LOOSE

Yes, this is actually a reason that your check engine light could go on and it’s something that’s extremely minor. If you notice that the light goes on and stays on after you’ve been to the gas station find a safe place to pull over and check it. If you tighten the gas cap and the light goes off and stays off you may be just fine. If this doesn’t make the light go out or if the light goes off but then comes back on you absolutely want to consult an expert auto repair technician to have it looked at.

2.  BAD OXYGEN SENSOR

There are actually a few oxygen sensors in your vehicle and if one or more of them starts failing it could trigger this light. While this is something that you absolutely do need to get fixed it doesn’t mean that your vehicle is going to die at any moment. You’ll want to call an auto repair technician to take care of the sensor. They can figure out which one (or ones) are not working properly. They’ll get you the proper replacement so that you can continue driving your vehicle.

3.  BAD SPARK PLUGS

The spark plugs are another important component to your vehicle that can influence the check engine light. If you’re getting a light these could be a problem as they can burn out at different times. They may be starting to fail or they might have bad wires that are connecting them into the vehicle. Either way, you’ll want to call an expert auto repair technician and get the problem taken care of right away. They can replace the wires or the spark plugs themselves.

4.  BAD AIRFLOW SENSOR

Here we have another moderate importance problem that needs to be checked. You’ll want to work with your technician to find out more about this one and to get the sensor replaced if it needs to be. This sensor makes sure that the air flowing through the vehicle is going through the engine the way that it should. If it’s not working it could influence the way that your vehicle runs and could damage the engine over time. Getting this fixed is extremely important.

5.  BAD CATALYTIC CONVERTER

This one is definitely more major and it’s going to be more expensive, but it’s extremely important that you do whatever you can to get it replaced right away. You want to talk with an auto repair technician about the problem and find out if this could be what’s going on. If it is, you’ll need to get it taken care of immediately. This is definitely not something that you want to allow to continue for any length of time. Catalytic converter could cause even more serious damage and only get more expensive over time.

6.  BAD FUEL INJECTORS

This is another relatively major problem that you’ll want to have checked out. Your fuel injectors make sure that the gas you put into your vehicle is actually getting into the engine. If they’re not doing this properly then you’re going to have a serious problem. Luckily, these can be cleaned in many cases and this could take care of the problem. If not, they may need to be replaced, which is going to be a bit more expensive than most of the other things we’ve talked about on this list. Still, your technician can take care of it for you in no time.

There are really a number of different reasons that you could have a check engine light come on with your vehicle. It could be something minor that’s simple to fix or it could be something major that you’re going to have to spend a lot of money to fix. You won’t know what’s going on until you take the vehicle to an auto repair technician to take a closer look. They have the equipment that’s necessary to check the specific code that your vehicle is giving. Just because all you can see is the light doesn’t mean that’s the only way of diagnosing the problem.

Your vehicle will actually give a specific code along with that light, which an auto repair technician can use to figure out what’s going on and what needs to be done in order to fix it. That’s going to be a whole lot better than you trying to figure it out for yourself. After all, you don’t want to find yourself with a serious problem that you didn’t think was that major and you don’t even want to try fixing something more minor on your own.

It’s important that you don’t ignore the check engine light, no matter what you think it might be. There are some minor issues, but there are a lot of major issues and the engine is definitely not something that you want to gamble with. Make sure you call the auto repair technicians at Import Car Center of Grapevine, TX. We’ll get someone to take a look at your car and see just what’s causing that check engine light to go on. And we’ll take care of the problem right away. If you have any other auto repair needs all you need to do is to schedule an appointment with us and we would love to work with you!