yesterday i noticed my check engine light had turned on. I thought this was because 2 days prior i had lost my gas cap. I bought a new cap and put it on but the check engine light has not gone away. My car seems to drive fine, I have a 98 GS with no engine mods, and about 87K on it. Anyone have any ideas?

 

i would take off the negative cable from the battery and leave it out for about 10 minutes. Then plug it back in. If the light is still on you have to get take it in to service to read out the fault code.

 

yeah try to reset your ecu and see what's up. if not, get the car to a shop and check out the code.

 

I would take it in to get the codes read....I think that Autozone does it for free...atleast out here they do...Could possibly be a sensor....

Hope this helps!!
Danny

 

yup autozone would do that for free for you ......

 

Thanks for the info guys.
My toyota just had check engine light came on. The dealer was gonna charge $114 to scan the code, and I didn't do it yet. Called a Autozone here and they'd do it for free.

 

toyota was going to charge you to diagnose the problem, not just read the code. Given your situation, the gas cap being off will set a code for gross leak detection in the evaporative fuel system, so no diagnosis was really necessary. I just thought I would reply to this string because it is a common misconception that auto garages are charging a bunch of money to just read a code, when actually, reading the code is usually just the start of a long process of diagnosis.

 

bauto1,
I think you mixed up my toyota problem with the 98 GS kuruption213 was having problem. I never had my gas cap open, but it doesn't matter. My warranty just expired 2 month ago. The car was having some weired symtoms such as not starting about 3 month ago. I took the car to the dealer at the time, and they said no problem with the car.

It is a fact that so many auto garages rip peoeple off everyday. I'm not personally against mechanics or anything, but this is just based on my personal experience. Finding the cause of the problem is one thing and fixing the problem is another, but does it really take that much time to scan the code. I don't think it's a misconception that auto garages are over charging often times. How many garages out there charge exactly the amount of time they work times their hourly rate, and how much money they make on the parts.
Lexus dealer here quoted me $800 for l-tuned shocks and springs, parts only.

I have seen a few very honest shops but it's very hard to find those now days.