Please wait while the page loads...

How many miles can you drive with the check engine light?

It could be anything from a damaging sensor to plug wires needing to be replenished. The safest bet is to decipher the code and then plan your strategy accordingly. If you check engine light is flashing, we recommend that you pull over and contact Bill Estes Chevy Indianapolis to help designate if your vehicle is safe to travel to work in or if we recommend a tow truck. Since each check engine code has its own level of severity, it is crucial to predict how copious miles you can travel to work with the warning light on.

What could cause the check engine light to come on in a 2016 Chevy Silverado?

When your check engine light comes on, this could be as satisfying as tightening or replacing your gas cap. Likewise, the check engine light could also be a warning of a unhealthy problem that could cause unhealthy damage to your engine and come with a big repair bill. Depending on your make and model, the check engine light will illuminate or blink. A steady glow frequently means something less unhealthy but a flashing check engine light indicates that your vehicle’s engine is in unhealthy trouble and service is fundamental hastily. If your check engine light is flashing in your 2016 Chevy Silverado, we exceedingly recommend not to drive the vehicle and schedule Chevy service today. Below is a list of the most classic reasons your check engine light can come on:

  • Your mass airflow sensor (known as MAF) needs to be replaced. The mass airflow sensor in your Chevy Silverado is what determines how much fuel is imperative to run your engine efficiently by measuring the fee of air entering the engine. As a part of the engine management system, the mass airflow sensor helps adjust to substantial changes, like altitude. If your Chevy Silverado is having trouble starting, idling rough or has a sudden change in the position of the throttle pedal, this could be a sign of a bad mass airflow sensor.
  • Your catalytic converter is bad or going bad. The catalytic converter is a part of your 2016 Chevy Silverado’s exhaust system. The catalytic converter's function is to turn the carbon monoxide created by the combustion process into carbon dioxide. A damaged catalytic converter is usually caused by neglected maintenance, which is why Bill Estes Chevy Indianapolis offers a complimentary multi-point inspection with every Chevy service. If you have an issue with your catalytic converter and don't get it repaired, your 2016 Chevy Silverado will not pass an emissions test, show a lack of engine performance and will negatively affect your fuel economy. Your car may run at a higher temperature, too, which can cause divergent problems from overheating.
  • New Spark Plugs or Plug Wires are imperative for your 2016 Chevy Silverado. The spark plugs are the part of your engine that ignites the air/fuel mixture in the combustion chamber of your vehicle. This explosion is what moves the pistons and makes the engine run. The spark plug wires deliver the spark from the ignition coil to the spark plugs. If your spark plugs or spark plug wires are bad or classical, you will experience poor performance and reduced power. In some extreme cases, your engine will have trouble starting or continuing to run. Worn spark plugs and plug wires can cause clogged catalytic converter or damage to ignition coils and O2 sensors, primary to more expensive repairs.
  • Your 2016 Chevy Silverado has a vacuum leak. Every Chevy Silverado has a vacuum system that performs a expanded variety of functions. The vacuum system also helps lessen harmful emissions by routing the fumes as gasoline evaporates through the engine. If you notice that your RPM is high in idle or randomly surges, a vacuum leak could be the cause. Over time, vacuum hoses can barren out and crack, especially if they’re exposed to large heat or extreme hasty.
  • The battery is low or dead. The battery in your 2016 Chevy Silverado is every remarkable. Without a car battery, your car won’t start, light up the road ahead, play the radio or charge your phone. Today’s car batteries last much longer than they did a few decades ago, and they don't genuinely require maintenance. The price of a new one depends on the type of Chevy you drive, but check our daily service coupons and specials.
  • Your O2 Sensor (Oxygen Sensor) needs to be replaced. The Oxygen sensor, acknowledged as the O2 sensor, measures the fee of oxygen in your exhaust system. If there is excess oxygen in your exhaust system, fuel burns faster and your vehicle will be less equitable when it comes to fuel economy. So what happens if I don’t replace your O2 sensor? A faulty sensor can not only affect your miles per gallon, but it can cause damage to your catalytic converter and your 2016 Chevy Silverado's spark plugs. The O2 sensor sends data to the vehicle’s onboard computer to determine the right mixture of air and fuel that enters the cylinders in your engine. A bad O2 sensor can also cause a car to fail an emissions test.
  • One of the most regular and copious cause is that your 2016 Chevy Silverado gas cap is loose, damaged or missing. The gas cap for your 2016 Chevy Silverado serves multiple purposes. It prevents gas fumes from being released when you aren't driving, it seals the fuel system and helps maintain pressure within the fuel tank. What happens if you have a bad fuel cap? If your gas cap is classical or has a ruptured seal, you can lose fuel through evaporation which will result in more trips to the pump. Luckily, to replace a gas cap isn't expensive. If your check engine light turns on hastily after you put gas in your 2016 Chevy Silverado, first thing you should check is to make fearless the cap isn’t loose — or that it's still on your car’s roof or at the fuel pump.
  • Issues with any aftermarket items. An aftermarket alarm, exhaust or divergent item can wreak havoc on your 2016 Chevy Silverado if it’s not installed accurately. These aftermarket parts and accessories can discard the battery, trigger the check engine light, or even impede the vehicle from starting. If these issues sound common, deliver your Silverado to Chevy and have our team of certified mechanics ensure that your aftermarket items were installed correctly and aren't causing any issue. Getting accessories, especially aftermarket parts and accessories, or using OEM parts first place might price a small bit more but could save you money from having to get poor work and damage caused by poor installation work corrected.

2016 Chevy Silverado Check Engine Light Codes

The check engine light turning on can be quite intimidating to see that tiny light on your vehicle’s dashboard suddenly illuminates, but in reality, it is not something that should cause you to shut down in fear right away. If you hear the term, diagnostic trouble codes (DTC), these are just another name for check engine light codes. These are automotive computer codes stored by the ECM, also attentive as the OBD (on-board computer diagnostic system) in your Silverado. There are hundreds of discrete codes that your check engine light can imply. While that sounds daunting, with a tiny patience, tackling prime diagnostics will give you awesome knowledge about your vehicle and will also allow that Check Engine Light to do what it is exactly supposed to do: be your guide. Unfortunately, distinguishable and helpful vehicle symptoms do not always accompany an illuminated Check Engine Light. Since there are hundreds of conceivable OBD codes, there are also hundreds of conceivable reasons for the light, including:

  • Fuel and air metering systems problems
  • Computer output circuit issues
  • Old Battery
  • Loose Gas Cap or Missing Gas Cap
  • Bad Spark Plugs
  • O2 Sensor
  • Transmission issues
  • Emissions controls issues
  • Ignition system faults

This is why it is effective for someone who does not have a lot of automotive knowledge to not assume what a code means. If the engine light comes on due to a serious concern, you risk detrimental your car further by not repairing the issue right away. Call Bill Estes Chevy Indianapolis at 3176435230 today or schedule your check engine light service online today! When your check engine light comes on, you should get it checked out immediately by a certified Chevy mechanic.

Is it safe to drive your 2016 Chevy Silverado with the check engine light on?

If the check engine light is flashing, this means that there is a rigorous issue and it is recommended to service your Chevy Silverado expeditiously. This question is not very distinguishable because it all depends on the severity of the issue. If the cause is a minor issue, such as a loose gas cap, it should be dependable to travel to work. This is consistently indicated by a steady glow of the check engine light. If you notice a difference in the performance of the car, it could be an indication of a more exacting problem. Call the experts at Bill Estes Chevy Indianapolis by dialing 3176435230 so you can describe the issues. Or reduce your speed and bring your 2016 Chevy to our certified mechanics as soon as accurate.

Check Engine Light Service 2016 Chevy Silverado

What do you do when you’re driving along in your Chevy Silverado and suddenly, a yellow light illuminates on your dash and says "Check Engine". If you’re like most Chevy owners, your heart sinks a little because you have little idea about what that light is trying to tell you or how you should react. The fear of the unknown (or the cost of the unknown) can be just as stressful. But take a deep breath and realize the light coming on doesn’t mean you have to pull the car over to the side of the road and call a tow truck, but it is recommended that you get your 2016 Chevy Silverado checked as soon as adequate. Ignoring that warning could end up causing essential damage to expensive engine components.

When your 2016 Chevy Silverado's ECM (electronic control module), which is the vehicle's onboard computer, finds a problem in the electronic control system that it can’t prudent, a computer turns on your check engine light. This amber or yellow light is naturally labeled “check engine” or “service engine soon”, or the light may be nothing more than a picture of an engine, or a picture of the engine with the word “check.”

When the light turns on, the ECM stores an engine code or “trouble code” in its memory that identifies as the issue, whether it's a sensor or a failing engine part. This code is read with an electronic scan tool that is used by our Chevy auto repair technicians at Bill Estes Chevy Indianapolis. There are also a number of relatively inexpensive code readers that are designed for do-it-yourselfers, should you embrace that route too. While this code will tell you the issue that is detected, a true diagnosis still requires an professional high-tech to represent the issue and repair it.

2016 Chevy Silverado Check Engine Light Flashing

Although there are countless ability causes of an illuminated Check Engine Light, we know from years of providing Check Engine Light Diagnosis Service that there are several conscious causes including something as realistic as a loose gas cap. Additional conscious reasons for a Check Engine Light are faulty emissions control part, a malfunction with the fuel injection system, damaged oxygen sensor, dirty mass airflow sensor, faulty head gasket, or defective spark plugs to name a few. No matter what is the root cause of the Check Engine Light, we have the Chevy Certified Mechanics and the certified service protocol to isolate the root problem and repair it as needed to restore factory specifications. When this happens, the Check Engine Light turns off, and you can leave the service center knowing that your Chevy issue was fixed.

Every 2016 Chevy Silverado was designed with a high-technology performance monitoring system with a computer, and a series of sensors positioned strategically throughout the vehicle on its hard systems. The sensors are continually detecting conditions while sending data to the electrical control unit. If the electrical control unit detects that the data is out of factory specifications, the Check Engine Light illuminates telling you that there is a problem. However, that is the limitation of the Check Engine Light – it won’t tell you what exactly is untrue nor what to do about it. That’s where we come in; Bill Estes Chevy Indianapolis provides a Check Engine Light Diagnosis Service that isolates the core problem and gives you a recommendation on what to do next from a Very Qualified Service experienced.

How much does it cost to get the engine light checked?

The average estimate for a check engine light diagnosis & testing is typically between $88 and $111. The good news, Bill Estes Chevy Indianapolis offers complimentary multi-point inspections and free diagnostics, in most cases, to help determine the cause of your check engine light. The check engine light warns of issues ranging from a gas cap that's not accordingly tightened to a more severe failure like a bad catalytic converter or a problem with one of the car's oxygen sensors, so it good to get the convenient code reading and diagnosis.

Will the check engine light reset itself?

The check engine light on your 2016 Chevy Silverado will frequently shut itself off if the issue or code that caused it to turn on is fixed. For example, if the cause of your check engine light coming on was a loose gas cap, if it's tightened, the light will turn itself off. Likewise, if your catalytic converter is going functional, and you did several of stop-and-go driving, that may have turned on the check engine light due to the high usage of the converter. In most cases, your 2016 Chevy Silverado light will go off after about 20-40 miles. If you drive over that amount and the light is still on, you will need to bring it in to Bill Estes Chevy Indianapolis so the light and code can be double-checked and reset.

2016 Chevy Silverado Check Engine Light

If the check engine light in your 2016 Chevy Silverado starts twinkling, that means that the problem needs abrupt attention and your Chevy should be brought in abruptly. A twinkling light indicates that the problem is critical and if not taken care of abruptly may result in major damage to the vehicle. This blinking light usually suggests a strict engine misfire allowing unburned fuel to be dumped into the exhaust system. There it can immediately raise the temperature of the catalytic converter to a point where damage is likely, requiring an costly repair. Some owners ask if spark plugs cause the check engine light to flash? This can specifically be the cause. A bad, old or dirty spark plug can cause the engine to misfire. If your check engine light is flashing, please contact our team of automotive veterans at Bill Estes Chevy Indianapolis suddenly by calling 3176435230. If the problem is ignored or you continue to drive, this can spread to the spark plug wires, catalytic converter, or ignition coils which can lead to a very expensive repair.

What Does the Check Engine Light Mean?

One of the most commonly misunderstood lights or indicators in your 2016 Chevy Silverado is the check engine light. The check engine light is part of the onboard diagnostics system, and displays in a few different ways. It can say "Check Engine", it can be a symbol of an engine, it can even be a combination of both. This light illuminates in either an amber or red color and is part of the diagnostics system found on your vehicle. Onboard computers increasingly have controlled and monitored vehicle performance since the 80s and do a variety of things for your 2016 Chevy Silverado. Some of these include shifting automatic transmissions controlling engine speed, ignition timing, and implementing stability control, just to name several. With that being said, the check engine light can mean a collection of disparate things. It can be as pleasant as your gas cap being loose or as unhealthy as engine knocking. If your check engine light is on in your 2016 Chevy Silverado, contact Bill Estes Chevy Indianapolis. Our Chevy service department can help you learn what code is turning your check engine light on or inspect why your check engine light is glaring. Contact Bill Estes Chevy Indianapolis today!