General Maintenance & Repairs - Check Engine Light popped on!

I was on this site a long time ago looking to buy an LS1, since then i picked up a 1998 NBM Z28, had it for about a month and a half now. I love the car to death, and hope to keep it for a long time and hopefully turn it into a beast. However, today i was headed to my work to pick up my check, and this guy in a geo metro was going 20 in a 45, so i passed him only getting up to about 3k rpm, as i did that my Service Engine Soon light popped on. This scared the hell out of me and i pulled into a nearby gas station. i turned the car off, waited a minute, and then started it back up, still on. so i drove to my work, got my check and came home and haven't driven it since. the car runs fine and i can't feel, hear, or see anything wrong, but it scares me that it just came on, what should i do? is there any way i can find out what code its throwing up without taking it to autozone or somewhere?
fyi the car has just under 99k miles, its totally stock and ive never raced or beaten up on it, i always drive easy.

you are probably gonna have to go to autozone or somewhere to see what code its throwing...too many possibilities when the SES light comes on.

Not much you can do unless you have something to read the code yourself at home...Or you know somebody with a code reader of some sort.

If it seem to drive fine and act fine,it probably is something minor like an O2 sensor going out....I would take it to Autozone and get it read....But of course its your call...Only other choice is to have it towed for a small fortune... ;)

money on a o2

$5 on 0161 O2 heater bank 2, sensor 2 :jest:

yea i'd bet an O2, too. the extra gas fumes from a higher rev probably was the straw that broke the camel's back. shame O2's are so damn expensive for an LS1. they were 14 bucks for my old 3.4L.

well depending on where you live (that has to do with the climate and dirt in the air) and how often the previous owner cleaned it, check the throttle body and clean it throughly then plug everthing back and start it up. had the same problem your describing and it was just the throttle body the whole time, so before you decided to spend alot on o2's check the air intake and clean it throughly like i said it might be the problem. good luck

The code will tell you what's going on. ;) Edit: My guess is P03XX.

Go to autozone, get the code scanned and post back with the number of the code, anything else is just guessing

i just started the car up like 5 minutes ago and drove it a little and the SES is off now, car runs great just like it did when the SES light turned on and before that...should i still take it somewhere and get it scanned or am i ok?
i started the car up and shut it off a few times to make sure it was off for good.

I'm voting one of the cats took a shit.

ses light isn't a big deal unless its blinking...blinking means a miss fire..other than that you can drive it somewhere to get the light checked. I bought a gauge scanner that reads and clears the codes cause mine came on a bunch of times in like 3 or 4 months. both cats took a shit at 51k and 55k...and both rear o2s went bad...and something else..all of it wasn't a big deal though.

I'd still get the code read, should still be stored in history. Most codes will turn off the MIL after "X" amount of cycles if it doesn't see a failure - but it would bother me not knowing what it was - or if it was a repeat code if it illuminated again. :bang:

check the fuses under the hood first then if nothing is wrong there get it scanned and most likely it will be O2s or something simple, what all do you have done to the car???

Mine always pops when I slow down if i go like 70 mph. I took it to autozone and they said they couldn't check it cause I had airbags or something.

Mine always pops when I slow down if i go like 70 mph. I took it to autozone and they said they couldn't check it cause I had airbags or something.

???????????? :confused:

Thats a new one to me....

Yeah the first time it happened I asked them if they could do it but the light wasn't on when I went to ask them and they said come back when it's on so I went out n got it to come on and I went back and they asked what year and kind of car I had and asked me if it had airbags and I said yes and then they said well we can't test it cause of the airbags. Didn't really make sense to me either.

Well if you really want to know what the code is go in and buy one of their code readers, they got one for ~$70 it reads and can reset the code, not the greatest thing in the world, but handy if they're closed, or won't do it because of an airbag (Why is beyond me, but whatever)

Try another Auto Zone. There's other ODBII readers out there too, harbor freight has one online for $40.

i never heard that either, however when i got my O2 sensor codes read the guy said they arent allowed to erase the codes but he did it for me anyways since he knew me and liked my car.

check your mass airflow sensor, if it's hella dirty in your intake from your filter to your TB it'll confuse your computer to thinkin it's an o2 sensor so if you replace all the o2's and the light still comes then you'll just have wasted money on the wrong part. here's a good way to get it to come back on, at a stop light gun it from the get go if you really want your codes read