Never Ignore a Flashing Check Engine Light—Here’s Why

Our cars come with a plethora of indicator and warning lights on the dashboard. This is great in the sense that you’ll be able to know nearly every potential problem with your car immediately. But it’s also a lot of information. Sometimes, these indicators have different light patterns to differentiate between the severity levels of an issue. While your check engine light coming on is never a good thing, whether that check engine light is blinking or solid determines just how dangerous the issue is.

Sure, there’s the chance that it’s mistakenly on (you can reset the light, though it’s only wise to do that if you know for sure it’s a false alarm). But there’s also a good chance it’s a warning that there’s an issue needing to be addressed. You should reach out to your mechanic sooner rather than later, especially if that check engine light is blinking.

Blinking Check Engine Light

According to Subaru, a blinking check engine light indicates that “an engine misfire condition has been detected.” Typically this means that one or more of the cylinders cannot spark correctly, perhaps because of a faulty cylinder or a bad spark plug. This “may damage the emission control system.”

Subaru recommends immediately minimizing the strain on your vehicle and getting it serviced as soon as possible. If you don’t, you risk more severe damage to your car, and those repairs won’t come cheap.

Solid Check Engine Light

A solid check engine light isn’t a good sign either, but it’s less drastic than a blinking one. On Subaru vehicles, a steady light indicates that “an emission control system malfunction has been detected.” This could be something like a clogged air filter or a failing sensor. While an emission control system malfunction isn’t the same as an engine misfire, it’s still a problem that needs to be remedied immediately.

When the check engine light is on steadily, there is one other possibility: the light “also illuminates when the fuel filler cap is not tightened until it clicks.” This is a fairly easy problem to troubleshoot. If you’ve just gotten gas before this light turns on, simply double-check your fuel filler cap.

Subaru clarifies that “tightening the cap will not make the CHECK ENGINE warning light turn off immediately,” however. They say that “it may take several driving trips.” So, if you check your gas cap and find it wasn’t adequately tightened, you don’t need to make an appointment immediately. But the gas cap wasn’t the only issue if the light persists after a few driving trips. At that point, you need to take your car in to be serviced before the other problems damage your car.

Source

Vehicle Resources, Subaru.

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