Quote:
Originally Posted by Zibodo
I just had my clutch replaced and driving home I stalled it a couple of times-guess I'm not used to the feel of a silky smooth clutch. When I got home I noticed the check engine light was on so I immediately drove back to the shop and had him check it out. He put it on the diagnostic machine and it showed lots of misfires, but after checking all the sensors, he could find nothing else wrong. He told me the engine light would go out after a few starts and sent me on my way.
That leads me up to today. I need to get a smog test to renew my registration and when I took it over to the test station, the guy said that cannot test with the check engine light on, its an instant fail. He also told me I cannot just have the shop reset the light. It will still fail. So now I want to know what is the criteria that lets the computer reset the light. Is it number of starts? If so how many? Is it drive time? If so how long? or what?
I have a few weeks to get the smog test, but I don't want this to become an issue Someone must have faced this before. Please help!
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Maybe stalling your car caused the ECM to think there's a misfire. If there were actual misfires you'd most likely notice it while driving, especially putting the engine under load.
Not sure about Porsches, but on most cars if the problem doesn't persist the check engine light will go out after about 4 drive cycles that the ECM does not detect any problems. If your mechanic said there's nothing wrong, the light should go out by itself.
The bad thing about clearing the code is that the computer will then have to run all it's diagnostics, i.e. Catalyst, EVAP, etc. before it's ready for the smog test. Usually that takes a longer time than just letting the light go out by itself. Again, if the initial problem does not persist.