{"id":651,"date":"2016-06-09T09:25:53","date_gmt":"2016-06-09T13:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/?p=651"},"modified":"2016-06-17T11:17:16","modified_gmt":"2016-06-17T15:17:16","slug":"thing-i-learned-check-your-damn-gas-cap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2016\/06\/thing-i-learned-check-your-damn-gas-cap\/","title":{"rendered":"Thing I Learned: Check Your Damn Gas Cap!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Vw_engine_check\"
Yikes! Scary light!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a long trip, the dashboard of our Scion xD lit up like a Non-Denominational Gift\u00a0Giving Holiday Display.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

Since this is our “good” car (in contrast to\u00a0our Prius with the bum AC, which is miserable<\/em> for summer\u00a0road trips), I high-tailed it to the mechanic, terrified that we’d done Something Bad to the car that we’re relying to get us through at least another two years (at which time our youngest can enroll in public school, freeing up $1200\/month for an auto payment on something big enough for us all to not drive each other to the brink of murder\u00a0during every damn road trip).<\/p>\n

Fortunately:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Our mechanic (Rons’s Garage<\/a>, God-of-yr-Choosing\u00a0bless ’em!<\/em>) is fantastically honest and<\/li>\n
  2. It was nothing<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So why the light display?<\/p>\n

    We’d left the gas cap off.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    We fueled up as we rolled back into town, as my wife needed the car for work the next day (a ~30 mile drive). \u00a0And we hadn’t screwed the cap down all the way. \u00a0A loose cap\u00a0makes the car’s computer\u00a0believe there’s an air leak somewhere in the fuel system (’cause there is–around the lose cap. If you’re wondering why the car gives a damn:\u00a0To ruy efficiently, you need to\u00a0maintain a proper fuel-air ratio in the engine, and it’s easiest to control this if you have a sealed fuel system. \u00a0On top of that, petrol fumes are bad news for the environment, so many car’s\u00a0additionally check for leaks just to make sure you aren’t wrecking up the joint\u00a0with stray hydrocarbons).<\/p>\n

    The car can run basically fine like this, and there’s no real danger of damaging the engine. \u00a0Put the fuel cap back on, reset the warning light, and all is well.<\/p>\n

    The lesson<\/strong>: \u00a0If your car is throwing a CHECK ENGINE<\/em><\/strong> light, make sure the gas cap is tight. \u00a0If it’s loose (or you lost it), then tighten it down (or replace it), and keep driving. \u00a0If there’s nothing obvious wrong (no sluggishness or weird noises) and it isn’t nearly time for an oil change, you’ll be fine, and the light will reset itself within 100 miles. \u00a0If it stays\u00a0on, then<\/em><\/strong> go to the mechanic.<\/p>\n

    Ron didn’t charge me, because he’s a solid dude\u00a0(which is why I keep going there). \u00a0But plenty of guys would charge you for figuring it out (they did<\/em> spend time pulling the code from the car’s computer and troubleshooting my dumbassery), and a few\u00a0would even use\u00a0this\u00a0as an excuse to “repair” some “major problem.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    After a long trip, the dashboard of our Scion xD lit up like a Non-Denominational Gift\u00a0Giving Holiday Display. \ud83d\ude41 Since this is our “good” car (in contrast to\u00a0our Prius with the bum AC, which is miserable for summer\u00a0road trips), I high-tailed it to the mechanic, terrified that we’d done Something Bad to the car that … Continue reading “Thing I Learned: Check Your Damn Gas Cap!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"_share_on_mastodon":"1"},"categories":[8],"tags":[50,21,51,41],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":654,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions\/654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}