Chevy Traverse Check Engine Light

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

If the check engine light is flashing, this means that there is a precarious issue and it is recommended to service your Chevy Traverse rapidly. This question is not highly prevalent because it each depends on the severity of the issue. If the cause is a minor issue, such as a loose gas cap, it should be safe to drive. This is typically indicated by a steady glow of the check engine light. If you notice a difference in the performance of the vehicle, it could be an indication of a more perilous problem. Call the mentors at Bill Estes Chevy Indianapolis by dialing 3176435230 so you can describe the issues. Or premium your speed and bring your Chevy to our certified technicians as soon as probable.

Chevy Traverse Check Engine Light Flashing

Although there are several attainable causes of an illuminated Check Engine Light, we know from years of providing Check Engine Light Diagnosis Service that there are several essential causes incorporating something as simple as a loose gas cap. Supplemental essential reasons for a Check Engine Light are faulty head gasket, a malfunction with the fuel injection system, faulty emissions control part, dirty mass airflow sensor, damaged oxygen sensor, 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 Technicians and the certified service protocol to isolate the root problem and repair it as mandatory 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 Chevy Traverse was designed with a high-technology performance monitoring system with a computer, and a series of sensors positioned strategically throughout the vehicle on its hefty systems. The sensors are continually detecting conditions while sending data to the electronic control unit. If the electronic 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 wrong 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 Extraordinarily Qualified Service technical.

What Does the Check Engine Light Mean?

One of the most frequently misunderstood lights or indicators in your Chevy Traverse is the check engine light. The check engine light is part of the onboard diagnostics system, and displays in a lot further 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 Chevy Traverse. Some of these include shifting automatic transmissions controlling engine speed, ignition timing, and implementing stability control, just to name a few. With that being said, the check engine light can mean a variety of contrasting things. It can be as real as your gas cap being loose or as alarming as engine knocking. If your check engine light is on in your Chevy Traverse, contact Bill Estes Chevy Indianapolis. Contact Bill Estes Chevy Indianapolis today! Our Chevy service department can help you read what code is turning your check engine light on or diagnose why your check engine light is flashing.

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

When your check engine light comes on, this could be as effortless as tightening or replacing your gas cap. Likewise, the check engine light could also be a warning of a alarming problem that could cause alarming damage to your engine and come with a large repair bill. Depending on your make and model, the check engine light will illuminate or blink. A practical glow often means something less alarming but a flashing check engine light indicates that your vehicle’s engine is in alarming trouble and service is needed instantly. If your check engine light is flashing in your Chevy Traverse, we highly indicate not to drive the vehicle and schedule Chevy service today. Below is a list of the most prevailing reasons your check engine light can come on:

• One of the most commonplace and innumerable cause is that your Chevy Traverse gas cap is loose, damaged or missing. The gas cap for your Chevy Traverse 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 harmful fuel cap? If your gas cap is historic 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 immediately after you put gas in your Chevy Traverse, original thing you should check is to make confident the cap isn’t loose — or that it's still on your car’s roof or at the fuel pump.
• Your O2 Sensor (Oxygen Sensor) needs to be replaced. The Oxygen sensor, admitted as the O2 sensor, measures the amount of oxygen in your exhaust system. If there is excess oxygen in your exhaust system, fuel burns faster and your vehicle will be less careful 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 Chevy Traverse's spark plugs. The O2 sensor sends data to the vehicle’s onboard computer to mean the right mixture of air and fuel that enters the cylinders in your engine. A harmful O2 sensor can also cause a car to fail an emissions test.
• The battery is meager or dead. The battery in your Chevy Traverse is every positive. 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 certainly require maintenance. The price of a new one depends on the type of Chevy you drive, but check our current service coupons and specials.
• Issues with any aftermarket items. An aftermarket alarm, exhaust or back-up item can wreak havoc on your Chevy Traverse if it’s not installed properly. These aftermarket parts and accessories can discard the battery, trigger the check engine light, or even avoid the vehicle from starting. If these issues sound aware, bring your Traverse to Chevy and have our department of certified mechanics ensure that your aftermarket items were installed properly and aren't causing any issue. Getting accessories, chiefly aftermarket parts and accessories, or using OEM parts original place might price a microscopic bit more but could save you money from having to get poor work and damage caused by poor installation work corrected.
• New Spark Plugs or Plug Wires are needed for your Chevy Traverse. 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 harmful or historic, 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, essential to more expensive repairs.
• Your Chevy Traverse has a vacuum leak. Every Chevy Traverse has a vacuum system that performs a wide variety of functions. The vacuum system also helps lower 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 dry out and crack, chiefly if they’re exposed to exciting heat or extreme freezing.
• Your catalytic converter is harmful or going harmful. The catalytic converter is a part of your Chevy Traverse’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 ordinarily 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 fixed, your Chevy Traverse 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 back-up problems from overheating.
• Your mass airflow sensor (known as MAF) needs to be replaced. The mass airflow sensor in your Chevy Traverse is what determines how much fuel is needed to run your engine efficiently by measuring the amount of air entering the engine. As a part of the engine management system, the mass airflow sensor helps adjust to certain changes, like altitude. If your Chevy Traverse 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 harmful mass airflow sensor.

Check Engine Light Service Chevy Traverse

What do you do when you’re driving along in your Chevy Traverse 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 Chevy Traverse checked as soon as advantageous. Ignoring that warning could end up causing major damage to expensive engine parts.

When your Chevy Traverse's ECM (electronic control module), which is the vehicle's onboard computer, finds a problem in the electronic control system that it can’t strong, a computer turns on your check engine light. This amber or yellow light is typically 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 electrical scan tool that is used by our Chevy auto repair technicians at Bill Estes Chevy Indianapolis. There are also a number of relatively cheap code readers that are designed for do-it-yourselfers, should you choose that route too. While this code will tell you the issue that is detected, a true diagnosis still requires an experienced compelling to select the issue and repair it.

Chevy Traverse Check Engine Light

If the check engine light in your Chevy Traverse starts blinking, that means that the problem needs abrupt attention and your Chevy should be brought in immediately. A blinking light illustrates that the problem is risky and if not taken care of immediately may result in crucial wear and tear to the automobile. This glaring light mostly indicates a rigorous engine misfire allowing unburned fuel to be discarded into the exhaust system. There it can suddenly enhance the temperature of the catalytic converter to a point where damage is likely, requiring an expensive repair. Some owners ask if spark plugs cause the check engine light to flash? This can strictly be the cause. A bad, common or dirty spark plug can cause the engine to misfire. If your check engine light is blinking, please contact our team of automotive experts at Bill Estes Chevy Indianapolis quickly 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.

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

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

Will the check engine light reset itself?

The check engine light on your Chevy Traverse will usually 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 correct, and you did a lot 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 Chevy Traverse light will go off after about 20-40 miles. If you drive over that payment and the light is still on, you will need to transport it in to Bill Estes Chevy Indianapolis so the light and code can be double-checked and reset.

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

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

Chevy Traverse Check Engine Light Codes

The check engine light turning on can be quite intimidating to see that little 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 admitted as the OBD (on-board computer diagnostic system) in your Traverse. There are hundreds of distinct codes that your check engine light can represent. While that sounds daunting, with a little patience, tackling vital diagnostics will give you conducive knowledge about your vehicle and will also allow that Check Engine Light to do what it is really supposed to do: be your guide. Unfortunately, lucid and helpful vehicle symptoms do not always accompany an illuminated Check Engine Light. Since there are hundreds of attainable OBD codes, there are also hundreds of attainable reasons for the light, including:

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

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