i am certainly not an expert but i know from my other cars, if the light is on but not flashing you can drive it. i drove mine for a week after the light came on and took it to dealer. since you are in gainesville, check out my show sometime on planet radio 107.3. 3-7pm
Yup in Gainesville and hoping to avoid a drive to Jax. Hust don't want to screw up the car.
I would recommend a trip to the nearest NAPA / Checker / AutoZone store. They often have a code reader handy and are happy to plug it in to your car for free. That way you can see what caused the light to come on and make a determination as to how critical it is. The code reader can also be used to clear the warning light (better than disconnecting the battery IMO).
My smart has been in at the dealer since last Wednesday for an engine light issue. It seems to be all better (I pick it up in the morning) thanks of course to the techs at the dealer and BIG thanks to this forum. One person suggested my problem was bad gas... (smirk) and specifically water in the gas. Mine hadn't been filled up since day of delivery (before the new tank, the light came on).. and went back in with about 160 miles for diagnosis. They have drained the tank changed the fuel filter and honestly, I don't know what else, but by their estimations, the gas was bad from France... so maybe that's your issue. My engine light would always reset (turn off) if I stopped the car and restarted it... BEST of luck. What a hassle, but it will be fine soon!
Speaking of bad gas, My first tankful from the dealer must have been an 80 octane cheapo fuel. After I went thru that first tank & put "real" gas in it (93 octane) it was like a different car. Much more peppier & not sluggish like it was. Just remember that if the dealers are filling up our new rides, they are probably using the least expensive gas they can buy given the current situation..
My smart has been in at the dealer since last Wednesday for an engine light issue. It seems to be all better (I pick it up in the morning) thanks of course to the techs at the dealer and BIG thanks to this forum. One person suggested my problem was bad gas... (smirk) and specifically water in the gas. Mine hadn't been filled up since day of delivery (before the new tank, the light came on).. and went back in with about 160 miles for diagnosis. They have drained the tank changed the fuel filter and honestly, I don't know what else, but by their estimations, the gas was bad from France... so maybe that's your issue. My engine light would always reset (turn off) if I stopped the car and restarted it... BEST of luck. What a hassle, but it will be fine soon!
I very much doubt they ship the cars from France with a full tank, if nothing else it would be a huge safety issue with 3000 cars with full tanks on the boat coming over here. In my experience they are shipped almost empty, and I would guess that any "bad gas" was put in by the dealer before delivery.
Speaking of bad gas, My first tankful from the dealer must have been an 80 octane cheapo fuel. After I went thru that first tank & put "real" gas in it (93 octane) it was like a different car. Much more peppier & not sluggish like it was. Just remember that if the dealers are filling up our new rides, they are probably using the least expensive gas they can buy given the current situation..
That is an interesting point....
And I was also going to say to go have the code read at Autozone or some place that will do it for free, but I see I was way late with that suggestion
I have no idea how much gas it had when it came off the ship, but it doesn't take much water in your tank to mess things up. Regardless with only 9 miles on the odo with the first engine light occurrence, they'd have hardly had enough mileage to have got to the gas station and back. The gauge registered 3 lines on the 'filled' scale when I did the pre-purchase test drive (and the light came on and sputtering engine unhappiness started) THEN it was filled up after trying to figure out the problem.
If you want to be able to self diagnose the problem that caused the engine light, you can buy a scanguage from LinearLogic for $159. You can then use it daily to see your MPG dynamically and when you do have an engine Light, you can read out the trouble code(s). Armed with the trouble code, you can go to http://www.obd-codes.com/search/
and search for the description of what the code means.
I bought the scangauge to help me improve the MPG that I am getting with my smart and have not yet had an occasion to use if for diagnosing trouble codes. I had not realized it before but all cars since 96 have an OBD port in the dashboard that you can plug in a device like the scangauge and diagnose your check engine light. So the scanguage is useful for both your Hummer and your smart.
before (maybe 6-8 months ago) I thought I'd get a GPS in my smart, as the first after market device, but since then I've decided the scanguage seems like a whole lot more fun. and cheaper than the GPS ;-)
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