Chevrolet Repair: 98 Chev Tracker Engine light , pep boys, autohelp

Question
I have a 98 Tracker with approx 80,000 KM on it. It is basically mint and I have had no problems with it up till now.  Recently the "service engine soon" light came on. I know its a no brainer to take it to the garage to get it hooked into the diagnostic but I was wondering if there are general causes for the light that that might be cured easily. I have not noticed any changes in the vehicle performance or fluid level changes whatsoever. So hence the question as to what it might be telling me. I would just hate to pay $40-50 bucks to have them tell me its something stupid that I should have known and cured myself.  

I also know at least in some older cars that you could turn the key to the "on" position and then off and the light would "blink" a sequence and as long as you had a book with the number and duration of each blink it would tell you what it meant. I have not tried with my Tracker but it is something I remembered from Shop class quite a few yrs ago..lol

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.  

Answer
Unfortunately those days of that procedure are long gone.

If you take the vehicle into a major auto parts store such as auto zone, checkers, pep boys, napa, they will usually put the scanner on your vehicle and give you the code(s) for free.

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