You're driving as usual and look down at your dashboard to see the dreaded check engine light on - maybe you've been experiencing some strange symptoms lately, or maybe you have noticed anything different with your vehicle at all. Regardless, you start to panic. Why is your check engine light on, and what could possibly be the issue? Will it be expensive to fix? Is it safe to continue driving your vehicle with the check engine light on?
When your vehicle's check engine light illuminates, it's your car's way of letting you know that it has detected an issue. Modern vehicles are equipped with highly intelligent computer systems that are connected to many different sensors. When something goes wrong, the sensor will inform the computer that it has detected an issue, and this will trigger the check engine light to illuminate. While your vehicle doesn't tell you exactly what is wrong, the issue could be as simple as a loose gas cap or as severe as a failing catalytic converter. The only way to know for sure is to run computer diagnostics on your vehicle.
While we know a check engine light can be stressful, the best thing you can do when you see it come on is to bring your vehicle into the experts here at The Detroit Garage for inspection and diagnostics. We plug a diagnostic scanner into your vehicle's computer system, which allows us to pull the error code that triggered the light to illuminate in the first place. This error code will point us in the direction of the problem so that we can take a closer look and determine what repairs are needed to get your vehicle fixed.
So, can you drive with your check engine light on? The damage that can be done depends upon how severe the issue is, but we recommend not driving with a check engine light on if you can avoid it. Just get your vehicle into our shop as soon as you can. If the issue is severe, continuing to drive your vehicle can do more damage, costing you more in repairs. The sooner you get your vehicle into The Detroit Garage, the faster we can get you fixed up and back on the road!