QuestionHi Roland, I have a chrysler town & counter that has a check-engine soon light on. I checked the manual and it says its a problem with the polution stuff.I checked the gas cap it seems O.k..What can I check or replace that will make this light go away.
AnswerHi Greg,
While the light may be provoked by pollution stuff, there are other possible causes, so we need to get more specific information out of the engine controller to find exactly what is the problem it has recognized. It may be possible for you to ask the engine controller what it has observed as failures in the control systems that are stored as codes in its memory. The most useful thing to do would be to try to get the fault codes that may stored in the engine controller memory to readout.
Try using the ignition key: turn it "on-off-on-off-on" and leave it "on" (doing this quickly, no longer than 5 seconds). By "on" I mean just the normal position when the engine is running, not the cranking position. The 'check engine'light will remain on when you leave the key in the "on" position with the engine still not running. But then watch the 'check engine' light to begin flashing, then pause, flashing, pause, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause and keep track of the numbers. Repeat the readout and verify the counts are correct. Then group them in pairs in the order that they came out, thus forming two digit numbers. You may notice that the pause is shorter between the digits of a given number, and longer between the numbers themselves. Then send me a 'follow-up' question telling me the results of your readout. By the way, 55 will be the last number (two groups of 5 flashes each) and that is the code for "end of readout".
I have the troubleshooting manual for several engines and we can look up the possibilities of what is wrong based upon what fault codes you show. When you write back tell me what engine is installed in the Chrysler you are driving.
There is also an essay on fault codes at the site:
http://www.allpar.com/fix/codes.html
which gives the meaning of the code numbers. But then you need to get specific info for what exactly might be the diagnostic tests or parts to replace to complete the repair.
The light will go away once the problem is corrected (either by cancelling the light by disconecting the battery for a few minutes, or by letting 50-100 key cycles to occur without the problem being noticed again).
Roland
