Itty Bitty Road Trip

[Aaron93LC]

Good day all!

My trip to California started out with the check engine light coming on about 5 miles from my house. There were no other symptoms and the car was running like a top so I continued down the road. Once I was at a stopping point I tried pulling the EFI fuse but that did not reset the light and the car was still running well so I kept driving until I reached my destination and could pull the negative battery cable. This reset the codes and the light went off and has not returned since. I am very pleased with the performance of the truck over the last 1100 miles as it managed between 13.5 and 16.5 MPG US. I'd say that's pretty good for a truck that is not supposed to get better than 14. I did take it to the dealer for an oil change and inspection several days before I left and they gave me a list of things that should be done, mostly fluid exchanges. I was told that it is in remarkable mechanical condition for a 200k mile truck which made me quite happy.

Hope everyone else is having a wonderful day!

Aaron.

 

[clivehorridge]

Well done Aaron, I thought by the opening line of your post, it may have gone pear-shaped!

Well done too to the truck, plenty k's of miles to go, I would venture!

 

[Aaron93LC]

 

[Aaron93LC]

End result is 2548 miles on the pavement and 10 on a dirt road near Big Sur. The check engine light is back on and the air conditioning belt needs to be tightened. Other than that everything ran smoothly. The truck returned between 12.5 and 16.2 mpg US depending on traffic conditions.

 

[clivehorridge]

Glad you got some dirt road into the trip, Big Sur looked the favourite on googly earth

That "check engine" light would drive me nuts, tempting just to disconnect it...

 

[Aaron93LC]

Nah, I'd rather let it stay on to remind me of the problem. I'm pretty sure it's an O2 sensor or a vacuum issue as it only comes on under hard acceleration. When you reset the engine light it stays off until you really step on it again. I need to check it out in case it might save me that extra .000002 MPG!