Imagine after a long tiring day, you start your car to drive back home. And suddenly you see a yellow/ orange colored sign lit up on your car’s dashboard. And dang! all your exhaustion is now converted into anxiety! You recognize it as car engine light blinking or check engine light blinking and start to panic. And it is not a good sign at all. But don’t worry as in today’s blog, we will dig deep into this topic and cover all you need to know.
Table of Contents
What Is Check Engine Light?
A few years ago, a list of trouble regulations was made and an amendment list was made compulsory to follow for all manufacturers. One such diagnostic amendment was car engine light blinking. It can indicate towards several emanates sometimes as small as Limp mode activation to as major as a malfunctioning engine. And in most of the cases, you cannot turn it off manually and need to get professional help.
What Does It Mean When Check Engine Light Flashes?
When this light lits up, it is your car system’s indication of something wrong. This computer signal is also known as MIL (Malfunction Indicator Lamp). It can indicate a serious engine misfire. There can be several faults behind this signal. An important thing to note here is there is a major difference between the engine light flashing and it is lit up steadily. A car engine light blinking indicates an emergency and it cannot be ignored.
In such a case, park it quickly and get it repaired as soon as possible. On the other hand, if it remains steady, you do not need to panic as the problem is not so stupendous. So you can take your own little sweet time to rectify the issue.
You may notice sudden changes in your system. Some of the most prominent ones are:
- Overheating of system
- Smoke coming out of the engine
- Spark plugs damaged
- Mild fuel-burning smell
- Sudden power reduction
- Flat fuel mileage
- Poor performance
- unexplained noise from the engine bay
- Deteriorating control over steering
- Unusual surging
- Damaged Oxygen Sensor
How To Fix Check Engine Light Blinking?
Now, after knowing what is it and why it happens, let us now ponder upon how to get rid of this problem. Firstly, don’t panic as it can trigger an adverse situation.
Check whether your car is behaving differently
Try to figure out the root cause by visually spotting any abnormality in the car’s behaviour. Incase everything seems fine, or you can’t troubleshoot, take it to the nearest garage. Make sure to drive at a slow pace avoiding sharp turns.
Try DIYs
Why not do it yourself? Thanks to the internet, everything is now a bed of roses. Wanna know something? Google it!
Hire A Mechanic
Although it is contrary to what I saved above, getting your hands dirty can sometimes be risky. To avoid complications, I suggest taking professional help.
Buy A Diagnosis Kit
Many cheap smart kits are available these days, use them to scan your car’s tools to find faulty components.
Can I Drive My Car With The Check Engine Light Blinking?
If you think of avoiding the signs and continue operating it without paying heed to the situation, DON’T! Although you can take some time to repair if you spot blinking, you need to buckle up and solve the underlying issue without any delay. Otherwise, it can put your life under serious hazard. Moreover, if you continue driving you may trigger damage to spread to other parts of the system like wildfire. It’ll certainly increase the damage repair cost exponentially.
Always remember, ” A stitch in time, saves nine!“
Some of you may simply turn off or reset the signal light but that will not solve the root cause and it will remain ignored. Doing so can make the condition more severe.
Conclusion
That is all you need to know when you spot check engine light blinking or car engine light blinking. Just remember your car’s computer is just warning you of some potential damage to your system. Do not ignore it. Although sometimes the problem may be too basic why to take the risk? And as they say, “ Precaution is better than cure.” so better repair it than repenting over damage caused. It may be an emergency.
That was all bout check engine light blinking. For more such information, keep following us! And if you have any queries left unanswered, just let me know it below in the comment section.
Thank you.
Drive Safely!