tcavazos

What could be the cause of the engine light blinking? It just started this morning. The idle is kinda rough, sounds like the car wants to turn off. Borrowing car from a friend...I put gas in the car yesterday (Regular Unleaded). First time driving since I put the gas in.

1998 Hond Accord
4 Cyclinder - VTEC
110,000 Miles

Any help would be great.

jin05

blinking? does it stay on?

tcavazos

Yes, the engine light blinks. I drove about a mile, the light started blinking. Got to my destination. Turned the car on, no blinking. After a mile or so, the light began to blink.

The car stays on. The blinking is continuous.

jin05

try to get the code, wat u can do is disconnect the computer and then plug it back it, it can be a sensor or a basic wire thing.does it drive werid?

tcavazos

Where would I see this code?

The car does not drive weird. Only acts funny at idle. Just sounds like it wants to turn off. It does not however.

jin05

take ur car to any shop, or AUTOZONE they will read the code for you, and will tell u exactly wats cause the check engine, but as u said, it blinks, so i guess its theres a sensor problem, and it said ideals funny, and feels like it wanna shut off, it can be ur master air flow sensor. i could be wrong

tcavazos

Can I continue to drive this car with the engine light blinking?

Has anyone ever heard of the engine light blinking like this?

jin05

yeaa, u can drive it of course, jus get the code asap, engine check can be a simple wiring or it can be a whole bunch of stuff.

JimBlake

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jin05 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">... it can be ur master air flow sensor. i could be wrong</TD></TR></TABLE>What is a master air flow sensor? A '98 Accord doesn't have an air mass flow sensor, if that's what you mean.

Better go to autozone & get the code. There's hundreds of things it could possibly be. Have them tell you the actual code number, because sometimes they get kinda creative with their explanations.

Chiovnidca

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tcavazos &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What could be the cause of the engine light blinking? </TD></TR></TABLE>
A bad missfire is about the only thing that will cause the cel to blink while driving. Usually ends up being a cylinder that isn't firing at all.

tcavazos

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Chiovnidca &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
A bad missfire is about the only thing that will cause the cel to blink while driving. Usually ends up being a cylinder that isn't firing at all.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Do you mean this is a spark problem. A spark plug or wire has gone bad? Or are we talking serious car problems?

JimBlake

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tcavazos &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Do you mean this is a spark problem? ...</TD></TR></TABLE>Not necessarily. If for example one of your injectors was bad, that cylinder wouldn't get fuel & it wouldn't fire.

But it's always a good idea to check whether you have spark.

Sehc Tib Alli Zerif!!!!!

Blinking check engine light means you should not be driving the car!!!!!

Do accords have a service connector that you can jump to find the codes?

Chiovnidca

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tcavazos &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Do you mean this is a spark problem. A spark plug or wire has gone bad? Or are we talking serious car problems?</TD></TR></TABLE>

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JimBlake &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Not necessarily. If for example one of your injectors was bad, that cylinder wouldn't get fuel & it wouldn't fire.

But it's always a good idea to check whether you have spark.</TD></TR></TABLE>

It could also be caused by low/no compression. Checking for spark is the best place to start the diagnostic process..

jza802k

I recently had my check engine light turn on, and found it to be the secondary o2 sensor. If I replace the o2 sensor, sould the light turn off immediately or do I have to do a certain amount of cold starts before it turns off?

BLKFLSH

Check an easy thing first check to see if the gas cap is on right. My check engine light came on because the little plastic cable that attaches the cap was under the cap and it did'nt seal all the way.

HondaMike17

your check engine light does 2 things, it lights up and stays solid, or it blinks, depending on your problem, thats how you tell if your dealing with some serious problems or not. If it comes on solid, THEN it could be anything, such as the gas cap situation or the O2 sensor dieing, little things that dont affect the performance at all, however, when your light starts to blink, thats when its time to take the car home, park it, and schedule an appointment with your local mechanic or honda dealership, expecially since its kinda a late model car so to speak, when that light blinks, its usually a bad misfire and then gas that you didnt burn up gets dumped into your exhaust, which leads to another problem, it could ruin your cat and then youll be paying some high prices..

i should write a book, "Putting things off, noone wins"

i hate when people are like, "can i continue to drive?" if your car runs no matter what you CAN continue to drive, the question is, can you afford to fix what damages occur while driving it?

HondaTechPro

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by HondaMike17 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">your check engine light does 2 things, it lights up and stays solid, or it blinks, depending on your problem, thats how you tell if your dealing with some serious problems or not. If it comes on solid, THEN it could be anything, such as the gas cap situation or the O2 sensor dieing, little things that dont affect the performance at all, however, when your light starts to blink, thats when its time to take the car home, park it, and schedule an appointment with your local mechanic or honda dealership, expecially since its kinda a late model car so to speak, when that light blinks, its usually a bad misfire and then gas that you didnt burn up gets dumped into your exhaust, which leads to another problem, it could ruin your cat and then youll be paying some high prices..

i should write a book, "Putting things off, noone wins"

i hate when people are like, "can i continue to drive?" if your car runs no matter what you CAN continue to drive, the question is, can you afford to fix what damages occur while driving it?</TD></TR></TABLE>


I am rather impressed with the above response, as it is very correct. As stated, a blinking check engine lights comes on only when there is a misfire serious enough to cause catalyst damage. If the idle is rough, then the misfire should be easy to narrow down... because it is happening right now. With the engine running, open the hood and see if there is anything obvious... like a spark plug wire disconnected or injector wiring chewed through or broken. If nothing is apparant, carefully - with insulated pliers or something - pull each spark plug wire off the plug a couple of inches.... don't take it all the way out of the tube, but a couple inches. As you do this... listen and watch the engine. If it slows down a little and vibrates a little more.... the cylinder you just killed is NOT misfiring. Repeat this for the other cylinders until you find the one that is misfiring. You will be able to tell because when you "kill" the cylinder - by pulling out the plug wire a bit - the sound and speed of the engine will not change at all. Thats the dead cylinder. Once you have figured that out... you have half the battle won.
Next... you need to determine what's missing, Fuel? Spark? Compression?
You can visually inspect the plug wire on the misfiring cylinder, look for white burn marks on the part that extends into the head, sometimes they short through and cause a misfire. Also check the spark plug itself... see how it looks in comparison to the other plugs. You can check Fuel pretty quickly by using a stethescope on the injector of the misfiring cylinder. Listen to it with the engine running... it should make a loud snap snap snap sound..... compare the sound to the others. Last on the list is Compression. It is the least common problem, but it does happen. When valves burn or crack... it can cause a misfire. Check out the things i've suggested and let us know what you find. Good Luck.


As for the putting things off book... I'm writing one now (not really) it's entitled
"Pay Me Now, or Pay Me Later."

HondaMike17

or "Pay me now, Pay me twice as much later"

its kinda instinct if you think about it, i mean even if i had no clue what it was i think i would take a blinking light alot more seriously than a solid one, but thats just me i guess

LTaccord

My 2000 Accord just had the check engine light go off -- it's blinking, and I have had the bad smell & rough idle. Sounds like it's this issue w/ the misfire. Is it safe for me to drive it to the mechanic (~5 miles away) or should I be towing it? I just want to avoid making this problem worse. We literally just had the car fully checked up (less than 2 months ago) by the Honda dealership & replaced the computer so I'm surprised something this serious has just come up out of nowhere?

Thanks in advance for your help!

lostforawhile

if you are really close to a place like an auto parts store, you can probably drive to get the codes pulled, but then drive it straight back, the blinking light means you have a serious misfire situation

holmesnmanny

im curious as to why they replaced the computer ? a general rule of thumb really is how the car is driving when the check engine light comes on....if it's running like **** obviously don't drive it..if it's running fine then normally you will be fine to drive it..don't let this be confused with the oil light...if the oil light ever comes you need to IMMEDIATELY pull over and shut the engine off to prevent severe engine damage.

importtuner

Hi I have a similar question. My '98 lx 4-cylinder 5 speed just had an issue like this. I decided to open her up today, and all of a sudden the CEL starts blinking. I pull over, turn the car off, turn it back on, and now the CEL is solid. What could be wrong?

lostforawhile

since the check engine light only blinks at a certain RPM possibly something in the dizzy, that would account for the misfire at only a certain RPM

Tobi B

NO! do not drive the car! A blinking check engine light means your engine oil is dangerously low! And/or that it needs service immediately. Per owners manual. I have a 2000 accord lx and 1997 ex. both came with original owners manuals from the factory and both say the same thing.