Car got me a CEL for Christmas

631 Views 9 Replies 4 Participants Last post by Clean12Coupe, 4 mo ago

Clean12Coupe

Discussion Starter · 5 mo ago

So I had been driving my company work van for almost 2 weeks solid and my car was sitting in a parking lot for that timeframe (its Xmas present from me - no driving) … it has been BRUTALLY cold 🥶 here in North Carolina for the past week or so, last Saturday I switched out vehicles and it was all of 18 degrees outside - started the car and let it warm up for 10 minutes or so - drop the ebrake and go into gear and ding 🛎 CEL light comes on ‘Check Emission System’ - cut the car off and cycle the key praying it goes away and nope still there. Fast forward a week, I’ve driven it 2-3 times since then and the car performs and sounds like normal but I got this stupid light in my face now every time I start the dang thing…
I’m going to check the gas cap and all hoses as I read in the above thread those are common mishaps - other than those few things though what am I potentially looking at here? o2 sensor??
Should I pull the positive terminal on the battery and see if that ’resets it’
Will take it to get the code read on Sunday if tomorrow doesn’t pan out

*Thanks in advance fella’s and HAVE A GREAT/SAFE/HAPPY NEW YEAR YALL!

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RayBans2111

· #5 · 5 mo ago

In the first year that I got my car, there was a brutal snowstorm that hit north Texas, and so I didn't move my car for a whole week. I would go warm her up twice a day, but I would also get a CEL saying to check the emissions system. There's a good chance that just leaving the car sitting, and then going to warm up without moving it can cause this code. Once it warmed up, the CEL went away for me. I figured it just had to be the cold for me. Maybe it's the same for you?

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RayBans2111

· #7 · 5 mo ago

Clean12Coupe said:
That’s what I’m thinking/hoping
I remember back in the day with my Bseries Integra and other friends Honda’s used to do sh*t like this all the time and then it’d just go away/fix itself… a decade later I see not much has changed lol
But yea totally bro, with my schedule I basically drive my car to work on Monday and then I use a work van for the remainder of the week sometimes until Thursday or Friday so my car sits in a parking stall for 3-4-5 days at a time, I’m sure this had much to do with it now that it is cold outside. It’s weird though because I enjoy not having to drive it and put miles/ ware and tare on parts/ gas in it plus I know it’s safe and secure where it is - puts a damper on the situation if things are gona start freaking out because it’s not moving 5 times a day lol

yeah, I also began to freak when my car did this for the first time. It took me a lengthy google search to realize that it's most likely not a big deal anyway. Only other thing that I have noticed in the cold is the VTC actuator doing an ugly chirp on startup sometimes, but it also seems consensus that this isn't harmful to the engine, just ugly sounding.

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RayBans2111

· #9 · 5 mo ago

Clean12Coupe said:
I’ve been looking into the VTC too actually because my car did this for the first time like a month ago, it turned over and it sounded like something was rattling or grinding for like 1-2 seconds and then went away and I haven’t heard it since… kind of sounded like a heat shield was loose or something from what I can remember but upon investigation people have described similar sounds so I believe that may be the culprit.

Yeah, that's what makes the ugly chirp/grind sound on cold startups. I think it has to do with there not being sufficient pressurized oil flowing through it for that split second. Then it normalizes. General consensus says that it's not detrimental, just poopy sounding.

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