Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and Los Ranchos De Albuquerque Auto Repair

The check engine light is part of your car's onboard diagnostics system that monitors and controls various subsystems of your vehicle. Computers control, in real time, fuel mixture, ignition timing, and many other parameters. Sensors monitor emissions, and send information back to the computers. The check engine light comes on when the computer detects a situation it cannot resolve by varying different parameters under its control. In addition to illuminating the check engine light, your onboard computer will, most likely, store a “trouble code” in the long term memory. The trouble code is a sign post – it tells professionals which subsystems need to be investigated in order to find out the cause of the problem. For example code P300 indicates misfires on one or more cylinders. But it does not tell you what is the cause of the misfire. So professionals have to perform diagnostics to find out what might be causing the problem – in the case of the engine misf ... read more