Check Engine Light after carwash :-(

i suppose water could have gotten into something. make sure the gas cap is tight, and give it a few days of dry weather, it might go away on its own.

if not, you'll probably have to get the trouble codes read

 

Warning lights mean error codes have been stored that indicate what the problem is. It could be many things. Get one of these devices: https://www.ebay.com/itm/265484403768 so you can use a phone app to read and clear error codes. It's an essential too to keep in the glove box! Will help keep you from getting stuck on the side of the road at some point.

 

Wow, an auto save 88 is $45 on Amazon!

 

Todays deal is an added coupon for auto saver on the order page

 

It's possible that water went down the cowl and leaked into the spark plug area. I've seen a few cars that tend to collect water there.

 

That's exactly what's on my Corolla and it meets carb I believe . It can go all over USA. . The muffler shop keeps on stock these go by cars weight and pipe size . Mine was boxed as 5,000 lb and under vehicle weight for 1.5-in pipe size your other junk gets cut out this gets tacked in place preferably not with clamps that looks crappy and then when this is installed and installed in the right orientation it almost looks like the catalytic converter that came out so on a visual is very difficult to tell so when places that just have a visual ie look under the car there's a bulbous thing there good to go I don't know about carb California but I'm sure that other vehicles besides Prius . Have to have replacement cats every 10 12 whatever it is years and there is no way that every cat on the planet in every car is going to have to come from the dealership even in California that doesn't even partially sound capitalistically correct think about that there's nobody that can make any money on this except the dealer Bull crap I don't buy that for a second not even in California.

 

There's a slight difference between CARB and EPA approved.

carb California? carb IS California. California Air Resources Board. Some states (known as CARB states) have adopted California's requirements as their own, which is OEM or specific aftermarket replacements which have passed CARB testing and been given a CARB approval identification number. The vast majority of states only require EPA approved catalytic converters.

your other junk gets cut out this gets tacked in place preferably not with clamps that looks crappy

I know I have a lot of people crawling around under my car looking at welds and clamps, so being pretty is very important. With all the stuff you jerry rig, your biggest worry is a clamp looking crappy? The best thing about clamps is it's one more way of letting a thief know the currently installed catalytic converter is not OEM.

 

Yes but when the inspectors looking . Good looking factory welds don't generally raise suspicion. In most places . I realize what Joe thief sees. They looking whole assy too . And if they do not know . It's their idiocy. My very small inconvenience. My question was mainly in California do places like Midas and ye Old muffler shop in the strip mall not Carry The universal weight-based replacement converters that get put on cars all over the world but may be accept California. I haven't lived there so I've not been able to walk into a Midas shop in California to have a converter put on my '85 Corolla TE72 or what have you.? So in California my 85 Corolla hachi Roku or whatever would have to have a 1985 factory converter from Toyota only. That would be the end of that seriously oh well that's why I don't live there.

 

Sometimes if the water is very heavy or directed into the cowl it will overflow the water dam at the bottom of the windshield run off and then it hits the top of the motor and may get into the spark plug wells.

I assume you opened the hood and looked in there for signs of flooding or the top of the motor being wet.

Either way it has a check engine light which means a code was stored that will tell you why the engine is unhappy.

 

They work for Apple and Android... It's the apps that are more limited, not so much with the hardware. Here's a buyers guide: Hybrid battery diagnostic and repair tool for Toyota and Lexus

 

Elaine - What ended up happening to your car?

The same thing just happened to me last night - had a car wash, then suddenly the check engine light came on. I also have a cat shield. I parked in the sun today and the light has gone off. Wondering if I should still have the code checked. Maybe it's fine now. Hmm.

 

If it went away then the car is not seeing the problem that it saw when it was wet or whatever so it would be smart to you to own a scanner that you can use whenever you want not have to call somebody and be on their time and what have you just to read a code You should be able to do this on the fly anytime you want that way you don't have to guess and worry but it sounds like something got wet it wasn't happy now it's dry I don't know what kind of car wash you are having maybe the kind with your hand and a bucket might be better for your situations I spray my cars off every day in Central North Carolina with the hose that's just shy of a fire hose diameter seriously I have a serious well pump here and a lot of water I can have enough water coming out of my hose to put a dent in the car if I want and I have never had a check engine light after spraying under the car under the hood of the car and all of that I have four of these cars sitting here and they get hosed off almost daily I live on a dirt road so on and so forth Don't like the red clay dust all over my car so they get hosed off almost daily and very well hosed off My driveway is flooded after doing just one of them imagine doing four so I don't think it's real common unless you're blasting water up in the connections like the one for the O2 sensor down there under the car where your cat shield is You would also want to make sure your cat shield is installed properly and none of the wires from your O2 sensor or hanging down or touching the cat shield which can get hot and mess with the four wires going into the O2 sensor that is a possibility a misplaced screw could cause a problem but you would have had this probably before you sprayed the car off