Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Triumph-ant Return

The other night I installed the new battery in the Triumph. Last night, I actually took it out for a test ride. Currently, the "Check Engine" light is on. I believe this is just because the battery died, and I've got to do 3 heat cycles before it will shut off. I've got two out of the way.

If it's still on tomorrow morning, I'm going to freak the hell out.

Incidentally, old school mileage counters are superior to the new computerized displays because if the battery dies, the trip odometer doesn't get cleared...

Update 7/30: The check engine light is off again. Hooray for engineers and their curious solutions to simple problems - without them the world would be significantly less interesting.

4 comments:

irondad said...

I hate that, too. You get everything calibrated like the clock and have to do it all again. It seems like the shops disconnect the battery for everything, even an oil change.

I'll be watching here for the third heat cycle for relief or freaking. That seems a weird way to clear the engine light. No worse than my brother's Tahoe, I guess. That involves turning on the key, pumping the brake pedal a certain number of times, etc. Do engineers do that so they can laugh at people?

Sounds like a zombie thing.

Canajun said...

Irondad - I think you finally figured it out. Engineers just want to make fun of us all. I wish I knew the secret code for my car though - the engine light has been on now for the better part of a year and I REFUSE to pay the dealer $150 to turn it off!

mq01 said...

im glad the engine light shut off. now if only i can get my car to do the same... :)

Allen Madding said...

Canajun - two easy ways to reset the check engine light.

1) disconnect the battery and then turn on the headlight switch or squeeze the horn button for ten minutes to drain the minor electrical charge stored in the control module capacitors. Then reconnect the battery.

or

2) swing into a Autozone or such parts store that has a computer scan tool. They'll give you a read of what the stored code is and can reset the light for you as well (for free).