I need to know tonight because im driving across country starting tomorow morning. school years over (finally) and my dad has flown out to drive with me back home. well anyways when i started my car up after dropping him off at the hotel, the SES light came on. i stopped in the parking lot and turned it off and on and off and on a few times to see if itd go off. drove back to campus and turned it off and on a couple more times and now its off. did the same thing a week and a half ago and has done it a couple times in the past. anyone have any experience with this same thing.

its a 95.5 3.8l v6.

 

could be as simple as some bad gas causing a misfire

i've heard stories about too much pressure in the gas tank

bad sensor giving a false reading.

if the car is driving fine...i wouldn't sweat it till it acts funny.

you can always have the code pulled at a shop. otherwise it's kindda tough to tell.

it's like going to the doctor and saying "i feel bad"....and when he askes where...saying "all over"....tough to diagnose

i say pull the battery cable for a few minutes, to clear the computer of all codes. then see if it comes back. could just be a glitch

 

YOu have it listed as a 95.5 car? If its OBDII (usually 96 and newer but some late 95s had it too from what i hear) the local autozone can scan the code and tell you what it means. If the cars running fine i wouldnt worry too much. Worst case scenario you get ****ty gas mileage since its running fine still jus throwing a light. I wouldnt give it much thought unless the car felt funny.

 

alright thanks guys. misfire is what i was thinking because when i started it up leaving it did have some trouble starting up. ive gotten it scanned at autozone a different time and the guy said tighten the gas cap but that wasnt it lol.

 

The 4 times I've had an intermittent SES on 3 different vehicles it's been the O2 sensor. That's just my experience, it could be any of a myriad of things as said before. Get it scanned at your earliest convinience (before the road trip is best) and that'll point you in the right direction. For a general misfire code, I'd check the plugs and replace if needed, then replace the plug and coil wires next, then the coil. A friend of mine has a Dodge van that kept throwing a misfire code. He replaced the O2, plugs and wires. Then a friend borrowed it to go to Florida and the coil puked for good halfway there. Just saying spending a few bucks now could save ya alot on the road.

Have a good, safe trip!

 

When was the current gas put into the tank? How long since the last time you drove the car? Gasoline's produced with different volatilities - volatility varies with temperature...so gas back from February isn't going to combust as well as gas from last week.

 

O2 sensor would be my first guess.

 

The 3.8s are prone to bad plug wires. Probably a misfire and especially if you had trouble starting it a time or two.

BTW, when the 3.8 V6 was introduced in 1995, it was OBD-II. It's the only 1995 f-body OBD-II vehicle.