Kizashi Club

Today I went outside on this chilly Christmas morning .It was 47 deg,cold by any Floridians standard but anyway I found a gift waiting for me. It was proudly displayed on my dashboard when I turned my key and started my Kiz.. It said 'SERVICE ENGINE" in two places, in the info center and the top left hand of the whole display with a big exclamation sign inside a pyramid that flashes like a mad man. Well there goes my 2 years of perfect driving.This car better do me right or it looks like I might go back to Cadillac. Now to make another appt with the dealer and wait for my car to be fixed seeing I am about 25 miles away.

Let us know what it ends up being. Just because a service engine light comes on does not mean it's necessarily a big issue. The leading cause of Check Engine Lights (CELs) coming on in most cars is because the owner did not install the gas cap back on correctly after a refill. Other than that, they usually indicate some kind of sensor malfunction.

I have a device that reads CELs and their codes so I know what's going on.

yes one of the most common causes are the oxygen sensors.

If it just did this and if it's possibly attributed to the cold, wait until it warms up. Error (DTC) codes can reset themselves if the fault fixes itself, which can be the case for something that just pops up like this out of nowhere.

Code readers are dirt cheap. And with the service manual available here, you can look it up yourself and see what it might entail. If it's as simple as an electrical ground, it may just mean cleaning something and reconnecting it. And you save the hassle of the trip as well as the charge.

Many of the big auto supply stores will read your error codes free in the hope that you will then go in the store and buy an O2 sensor (or whatever is applicable) from them. Go get it read and come back with the code. We can tell you if it's something to ignore, fix yourself, or take to the dealer. Error code will be P0300 or P0420, in that format. Get the actual #, not what the counter guy says you need.

I forgot about that Woodie--great advice!

I still have 1 year or 13k miles left on my warranty so I don't expect to pay anything. I will know what it is next Tuesday cause that's when I got an appointment to bring it in.

I had a problem with my last vehicle that turned out to be the O2 sensor/s. I had moved it in/out of the garage multiple times without taking it for a decent length drive- that was enough for it to flag the O2 sensor!? A decent drive fixed it.

Hopefully your problem will be as simple to fix.

When it flashes is can be a bigger deal on most issues. Make sure you have enough oil first off.

Had the dealer look at it yeasterday and it was an unsecured gas cap (Silly me) . Service engine lights......gone.