How To Tell When Your Service Engine Soon Light Needs Immediate Attention

Did your vehicle's service engine soon light recently turn on? If so, you will want to look at how your vehicle has recently been behaving and if the service engine soon light is a reason to be concerned. Here are some ways to tell if you should immediately head to a local auto repair shop and have your vehicle looked at, or if you can take it in at your earliest convenience.

Noises

Listen carefully to how your car has been sounding when you are driving. Is there a new rattle that doesn't seem to go away or a knocking sound when you perform a certain action with the car? These could be directly related to the engine and why the light has turned on. 

Just make sure not to confuse it with other sounds that could be happening underneath your vehicle. Squealing and scraping is often associated with bad brake pads, which often do not have a warning light to tell you something is wrong. A grinding sound is often associated with a failing transmission, especially if it is when your car is changing gears. Any of these noises are a sign that you should take your car in for repairs.

Smoke

An obvious reason to be concerned is if you start to see smoke coming from your vehicle's hood. Something is clearly burning under the hood of your vehicle, and it is not in a safe condition for you to drive it. Consider pulling your car off to the side of the road and having it towed to your local auto repair shop.

Power Loss

Another common issue that the service engine soon light may try to communicate is an issue with power loss. This is noticeable when you try to accelerate and the car is just not keeping up with how much gas you are applying to the engine. Power loss can also cause a problem where the vehicle fails to start up because the engine is not getting the power that it needs to operate.

Poor Gas Mileage

Have you noticed a recent drop in how much gas you are getting per mile? Fill up your gas tank, make note of your current mileage on the odometer by resetting the trip meter, drive around for a couple of days, and then refill your gas tank to see how much gas you used. This should give you a good idea of how many miles per gallon you are getting with some simple math, with low gas mileage being a reason to be concerned. 

For more information, contact a car repair service.


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