Check Engine Light

[jschunke]

Hi,

I just bought an '98 ES300 with 152k mi.

One hour after picking up the car from the used

car lot, I stopped to put gas in it, then the

engine light went on.

Can I read the codes myself? What tool do I need?

Where's the best place to get the service manual?

Thanks,

Eli

[igbeserk]

Hi,

I just bought an '98 ES300 with 152k mi.

One hour after picking up the car from the used

car lot, I stopped to put gas in it, then the

engine light went on.

Can I read the codes myself? What tool do I need?

Where's the best place to get the service manual?

Thanks,

Eli

you can get an OBDII scanner to read the codes off of it. or you should be able to go to autozone and get them to read the codes off of it for you. In terms of manuals check ebay. I don't know if there is a haynes manual for that car. should be one i don't know how similar it is to a 98 camry. but my 95 lexus is basically a 95 camry and the haynes manual for mine is a camry one since i can't seem to find a lexus one guess they don't make it. But you should go back to that lot that you bought it from or take it to a mechanic make sure everything is good. you don't want to get ripped off. because you can use a scanner or some other tool to reset the codes and the codes can not come up for a couple of minutes or hours or a day. so they could have pulled one on you. so get that checked out. lexus repairs can be expensive best to avoid any of the headaches if you can you know.

[jschunke]

Mucho gras for the response. The service manual

for the 1997 is pinned on this forum, duh. It

has a 1 year basic power train warranty

but no other (too many miles the salesman said).

Will try to bring it back to the lot for

diagnosis. It's too damn coincidental for the

light to go on in so short a period of ownership.

Aren't there lemon laws?

Eli

[igbeserk]

Mucho gras for the response. The service manual

for the 1997 is pinned on this forum, duh. It

has a 1 year basic power train warranty

but no other (too many miles the salesman said).

Will try to bring it back to the lot for

diagnosis. It's too damn coincidental for the

light to go on in so short a period of ownership.

Aren't there lemon laws?

Eli

Lemon laws vary from state to state from used and new and dealer and non dealer. gotta look on the web to see what type of lemon laws you have for your area. gotta look into those because a lot of people/dealers can take advantage of you if you don't.

[DBinAL]

Hi,

I just bought an '98 ES300 with 152k mi.

One hour after picking up the car from the used

car lot, I stopped to put gas in it, then the

engine light went on.

Can I read the codes myself? What tool do I need?

Where's the best place to get the service manual?

Thanks,

Eli

Check the gas cap. After filling the tank completely,sometimes when the gas cap isn't put on properly, the CE/TRAC Off light goes on.

[pj8708]

Definately check the gas cap. I'm not sure about older model ES's, but on most years, after you fill up, if you don't screw the cap back on until you feel it "click, click,", the light will come on fairly soon and will not go off until you have reset the gas cap and driven a while. Hope this helps. Had this happen to me before.

[VBdenny]

What the car dealer did was clear the codes with is OBDII scanner. You can even borrow them for free at Auto Zone or Advance. The codes usually stay off for awhile giving the computer time to determine new codes. I use the OBDII to turn off a CEL before I get one of my cars inspected.

In my opinion, the dealer was born at night, but not last night.