Engine Light On...

spenpet · October 3, 2018

Well...when I started my truck this morning the engine light came on...I drove down the block, and shut my truck off...turned it back on and still on...I didn't have another option...so I drove to work (a bit white knuckled and nervous)...

I did a little research and I am guessing it is for cabin air filter, transmission fluid replacement, and transfer case fluid replacement...(I'm around 47k miles)...??

I would have thought those would have popped up on the info center like low washer fluid or normal oil change warning...

Am I right or am I in for a nice stealership payday?

if it is just the fluids, any idea how much those cost for replacement? (I change my own oil, but never done transmission or transfer case)

m3n00b · October 3, 2018

Did you pull the codes? It won't come on for maintenance items. It's most likely part of the emissions system.(gas cap, O2 sensors)

spenpet · October 3, 2018

12 minutes ago, m3n00b said:

Did you pull the codes? It won't come on for maintenance items. It's most likely part of the emissions system.(gas cap, O2 sensors)

well...I don't know how to pull the codes...is that an easy thing to do?

Donstar · October 3, 2018

I've not had this light appear on this vehicle. I have dealt with a "check engine light" a few times in the past. There are so many minor and major unknowns that can trigger this light. It is best to bite the bullet and have your dealership use their diagnostic equipment to locate the problem, imo. You could hit it lucky and find a cheap diy fix online or you could waste a lot of time and effort!

m3n00b · October 3, 2018

19 minutes ago, spenpet said:

well...I don't know how to pull the codes...is that an easy thing to do?

You can take it to a local autoparts store and they will plug in their OBD2 reader for free and give you the codes. Or you can spend $100 at the dealer to do it if you're not under warranty. Seems like you should still be under powertrain/emissions warranty though.

Edited October 3, 2018 by m3n00b

aseibel · October 3, 2018

It could be as simple as your gas cap being loose.

I used to stop in at Autozone for this free service. I know OReilleys also does it.

Now I got myself a reader on Amazon that connects to my smartphone for $20 with a free app. Now I can read codes and clear them myself.

sldhead700 · October 4, 2018

Or if you have a good dealership, they will tell you what the code is for free too!
I've seen some of these" fly by night cheap readers "that give you the wrong info in past years..... Maybe the new readers are better like the ones that gm uses?
But I have never had to pay to have a code pulled from my dealership......

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sldhead700 · October 4, 2018

By the way, my check engine light 3 weeks ago was a bad injector on #6 with only 20,000 miles

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spenpet · October 4, 2018

went to autozone and they were very helpful...pulled code P050D...which indicates a Cold Start Rough Idle...the recommended solution was to clean the injectors...so I put some techron injector cleaner in it and will clean out my air filter this weekend...(I have a K&N and checked in a week or so ago when I changed my oil and it looked good, but looks can be deceiving I suppose)...hopefully that will solve the problem...

anyone else have this issue? If it is more gas related than air related, it would be surprising since I use 100% gas and usually use 89 octane...

thanks for the help guys!

diyer2 · October 4, 2018

I had the same problem recently with my 2012 code P0101.

Rough idle on a cold start.

I started a thread about it.

It has a K&N air filter.

Used Sea Foam that helped.

Cleaned MAF sensor, was coated with gunk after 21 k miles on air filter.

Thinking the gunk on the MAF sensor was oil from the K&N air filter.

Cleaned the MAF sensor with denatured alcohol and Q tips.
Helped it a lot.

Starts good now, runs better no more codes.

spenpet · October 5, 2018

23 hours ago, diyer2 said:

I had the same problem recently with my 2012 code P0101.

Rough idle on a cold start.

I started a thread about it.

It has a K&N air filter.

Used Sea Foam that helped.

Cleaned MAF sensor, was coated with gunk after 21 k miles on air filter.

Thinking the gunk on the MAF sensor was oil from the K&N air filter.

Cleaned the MAF sensor with denatured alcohol and Q tips.
Helped it a lot.

Starts good now, runs better no more codes.

awesome, thanks for the info! i am willing to bet I am in this same category...i was planning on clearning my filter this weekend anyway...but i will add the MAFS cleaning to my list also. (fyi, i did add the techron and the light already went off...but your suggestion is probably fixing the problem not the symptom, so thank you!!!

Denali_Joe · October 7, 2018

I had the same code, 16 5.3 17k miles. I reset it, filled up with premium, went away for a couple weeks. Came back so I took it in and had injector on 8 replaced. Took them like half a day to do the repairs and before they could diagnose they had to let my truck sit for a couple hours to do a cold start.

spenpet · October 8, 2018

18 hours ago, Denali_Joe said:

I had the same code, 16 5.3 17k miles. I reset it, filled up with premium, went away for a couple weeks. Came back so I took it in and had injector on 8 replaced. Took them like half a day to do the repairs and before they could diagnose they had to let my truck sit for a couple hours to do a cold start.

did you notice it was a rough start or just the light came on and also...when they put a new injector in it, could you tell a difference?

Denali_Joe · October 8, 2018

No problems starting it at all. I didn't really notice any rough idle either. It's butter smooth now for sure but I don't know if that's just because I'm paying attention. It seems to be smoother at stoplights, no stumble. My last 2 trucks had 6.2 and those pigs never idled smooth so this 5.3 just seems smoother at idle all the time. Long story short if there is a difference I can hardly tell.

Edited October 8, 2018 by Denali_Joe