Wow, I made a mistake---as I was cleaning my serp belt (was squeaking so tried cleaning the belt and pulleys), I forgot to put the belt back on and started the engine and revved it a couple of times to hear squeaking. Little did I know the belt was hanging on the wall! I of course turned it off and placed it back on ASAP. Anyway, after I did this the Check engine light is now on---did I mess up the engine? The car was without the belt for literally 5-10 seconds until turning it off. Plus how the heck do I know what is wrong with it now?!

Thanks for all you guys that have been helping me out lately!

 

Hmmm - I wonder if it is due to the fact that w/o the belt there was no alternator output, and that caused the light ?

Other than that , I don't know of anything else belt driven that would cause issues.

Have you put the belt back on and fired it up ? If you do, and the light goes out, well, there you have it.


Britt

 

The water pump isn't activated also when the belt is off, so the engine's heats up fast---this could trigger yet another sensor--didn't know it could be in 10 seconds though. I did put the belt back on, this was when i saw the SES light on. Thanks for your input

Edit: i just started it and the light is off now. Freakin cars. We'll see tomorrow.

 

You should get a scanner so you can check it when the light comes on, or even check for stored codes when the light goes off. Takes all the guess work out. OBD-II code scanners are available for less than $50.

Of take it to your local auto parts store and see if they will scan it for you free. Get the EXACT numeric code, so you can look it up in a list specifically for your engine, and not rely on the generic descriptions that the scanners use.

General suggestion - Add a "Signature" with basic info about your car: year, model, engine, trans and any major mods.

 

hey Fred thanks for all the help so far. I just added the sig too.