Questions and Answers

Check Engine Light

Q. I have a 1996 Mazda 626, 2.0 4 cly, A/T, A/C and cruise it has 86,602 miles on it, it is fuel injected, no ABS, P/S and rack and pinion. The problem is the check engine light just came on, it stays on but car is running fine. Any ideas where to look??????

Thanks for any help.

A. That light is to warn the driver that the EFI computer has detected a fault in the fuel injection system or one of the sub-systems and has stored a trouble code. It is possible that the car will continue to run okay, but here is a problem somewhere. In this particular vehicle there is, at least, 20 or 25 different things that will trigger that light. Any shop with a scan tool or code reader will be able to pull the code, check the affected system and pinpoint the problem.

Some computers store data for some of the sensors so if one goes bad, it uses the stored data to continue operation until the problem is fixed. At this point, it could be anything causing the light to go on.