Engine light

After some problems removing the gas cap for a fillup, I stuck it in unable to tighten it. Naturally, the engine light came on (I was expecting it). Took it to O'Reillys for the check, and sure enough, P0450 came up. Figuring it to be a simple fix, I replaced the gas cap. The engine light is still on. Does anyone know how long before it goes off (if the gas cap was indeed the problem), or do I have to have it manually turned off?

 

Pull the battery cable off and let the ECU reset.

 

Boom. End thread.

 

AutoZone will clear the code for free if you don't want to disconnect the battery

 

Maybe.

My AZ has a policy about clearing codes and they won't do it with their equipment. FWIW, you can buy a super basic reader for less than $15 on Amazon.

 

I’ve heard this before. I can understand why they’d not want to be in the business of resetting CELs all day for free.

 

I took it to my neighborhood mechanic and told him what I needed. He said unplugging the battery won't do the trick. So they plugged in the tool and cleared it. No charge. Did explain to me it would have eventually gone away on its own, but only after the system had run numerous tests on itself, which can take time depending on how often I drive. Considering I have only 25000 miles on a 2008, that's not much.

 

Not sure why they said that, because it definitely would have cleared it. Either way, glad you got it taken care of.

 

Get a scangauge, or ultrgauge for the future.

Reads code, lets you also see things like water temp, intake temp, trans temp, voltage, and many other items.

And then when ur done reading the code that popped up and fixed it, these devices also clear the code with the push of a button.

 

Unplugging the battery does not clear codes. I had a bad battery that set off several low voltage codes, the old battery was out of the truck for almost a whole day before I put the new one in, and I still had a CEL.

From my research, three drive cycles need to be completed with no error reading before the light will go off on its own.

 

Maybe it's model specific then. On my old 2007 scion tc, I got a check engine light and thought it was the gas cap. Got a new one, disconnected the battery for 10 min, and the CEL was gone. A couple days later it popped back up, but it ended up being some cracked emission line somewhere. That's irrelevant, but just stating that disconnecting the battery did indeed reset the CEL.

 

Disconnecting battery WILL clear some (but maybe not all) codes.