Yesterday I disconnected my battery to clean the terminals, and today my check engine light came on. Had driven the truck about 20 miles, turned it off and on a couple of times before the light came on. Think there may be a connection, or is it just coincidence?

I hate the check engine light.

 

Pull the code and figure out what its all about?!

 

Yeah, I know . . . for me that means a trip to the mechanic.

 

Or Kragen / O'Reilly's / Schucks and do it yourself. Rental of the machine is a lot cheaper than taking it to a shop.

 

Are you kidding me?
You get a 2-4'' piece of 14ga wire or something like that.

Strip the ends, pop the hood and go to the fuse box, next to it will be a grey box called "diagnostics", put 1 end of the wire in the TE1 port, put the other end in the E1 port.

Go inside your truck, turn the key to "on". Count the flashes. There will be a pause between the 2 numbers. Example: If it flashes 5 times, then pauses and flashes 2. code 52. Then you get on here and look for "code 52" and see what its about.

 

Huh. Didn't know that works for the V6. Good to know.

 

This isnt a 96+ vehicle, so we have OBD1, not OBD2 (obd - on board diagnostics). The check engine light on these things doesnt really mean alot.

 

Way too cool. I just didn't know where the cutoff was. That eliminates computer diagnostics on both my 'runners.

 

Yea its nice knowing a piece of wire is your "scan tool" haha.

 

or a paper clip....

 

x2 on the paper clip. It's easier to fit in the holes of the harness. Pulling the code is pretty much as simple as putting gas in the tank. All you need to be able to do is read, and count, and follow a picture diagram to see exactly where to put the paper clip. I bet some mechanic would love charging $40 to pull the code of an OBD 1 vehicle, charge you an hour for shop time for something that literally takes about 2 minutes.

OBD 1 rocks!!!

 

so whats the code ?

 

It's a code 71, which I searched and found is the EGR. But after I did this, the light went out. Did I clear the code? The engine is still running fine, so I guess I'll wait and see what happens. Thanks everyone for your help.

 

The code basically means that the EGR valve was activated and the temperature sender on it did not report the proper temperature to the ECU. If it never comes back, there's no problem and I wouldn't worry about it. If it does... could be a few things related to the EGR valve like the valve itself, the temp sender, loose connection or vacuum hose....

 

Thanks for help understanding what it might mean. I wonder what road a mechanic might have taken me down with this code. The engine is running fine, so I'll just keep on keepin' on.

 

Lol. I have that darn code 71 too. When I disconnect the battery, it turns off for a little while, but then after about 15 minutes, the CEL is burning bright again.

 

I fought that dang thing and finally got it or so I thought, and it came back so I gave in and took it out and I am so happy I did. But if you dont want to do that a 10k ohm 1/4 watt resistor is 99¢ for 5 at radio shack

 

I payed the 185$ and replaced mine and got a new temp sensor and it still came back.

 

Hmmm..... $185, or $0.99..... I think I'll take care of that light the first time for $0.99.