2012 Chevy Colorado Check Engine Light

How much does it cost to get the engine light checked?

The check engine light warns of issues ranging from a gas cap that's not perfectly tightened to a more serious failure like a bad catalytic converter or a problem with one of the car's oxygen sensors, so it good to get the proper code reading and diagnosis. The average cost for a check engine light diagnosis & testing is typically between $88 and $111. The good news, Stevinson Chevrolet offers completely complimentary multi-point inspections and free diagnostics, in most cases, to help determine the cause of your check engine light.

What could cause the check engine light to come on in a 2012 Chevy Colorado?

When your check engine light comes on, this could be as simple as tightening or replacing your gas cap. Also, the check engine light could again be a warning of a serious problem that could cause serious damage to your engine and come with a hefty and costly repair bill. Depending on your make and model, the check engine light will illuminate or blink. A steady and continuous glow usually means something less serious but a flashing check engine light reveals that your vehicle’s engine is in significant trouble and helpful service is necessary immediately. If your check engine light is flashing in your 2012 Chevy Colorado, we remarkably advise not to drive the vehicle and schedule Chevy service today. Below is a list of the most common reasons your check engine light can come on:

• One of the most common and frequent cause is that your 2012 Chevy Colorado gas cap is loose, broken or missing. The gas cap for your 2012 Chevy Colorado serves numerous purposes. It prevents hazardous gas fumes from being released when you aren't driving, it seals the fuel system and helps maintain pressure within the fuel tank. What happens if you have a defective fuel cap? If your gas cap is old or has a ruptured seal, you can lose fuel through evaporation which will result in more trips to the pump and be more expensive. Luckily, to replace a gas cap isn't pricey. If your check engine light turns on promptly after you put gas in your 2012 Chevy Colorado, first thing you should check is to make sure the cap isn’t loose — or that it's still on your car’s roof or at the fuel pump.
• New Spark Plugs or Plug Wires are needed for your 2012 Chevy Colorado. The spark plugs are the part of your engine that ignites the air/fuel mixture in the combustion chamber of your car. This explosion is what moves the pistons and makes the engine run smooth. The spark plug wires deliver the spark from the ignition coil to the spark plugs. If your spark plugs or spark plug wires are bad or old, you will experience a noticeable poor performance and decreased power. In some extreme cases, your engine will have trouble starting or continuing to run. Worn spark plugs and plug wires can cause clogged catalytic converter or damage to ignition coils and O2 sensors, leading to more pricey repairs.
• Your catalytic converter is bad or going bad. The catalytic converter is a part of your 2012 Chevy Colorado’s exhaust system. The catalytic converter's function is to turn the carbon monoxide created by the combustion process into carbon dioxide. A broken catalytic converter is frequently caused by consistently neglected maintenance, which is why Stevinson Chevrolet offers a free multi-point examination with each Chevy service. If you have an issue with your catalytic converter and don't get it repaired, your 2012 Chevy Colorado will not pass an emissions test, show a lack of engine performance and will negatively affect your fuel economy. Your vehicle may run at a higher temperature, too, which can cause other dangerous problems from overheating.
• Your 2012 Chevy Colorado has a vacuum leak. Each Chevy Colorado has a vacuum system that performs a wide variety of functions. The vacuum system still helps lower harmful emissions by routing the fumes as gasoline evaporates through the engine. If you notice that your RPM is high in idle or randomly surges, a vacuum leak could be the cause. Over time, vacuum hoses can dry out and crack, exceptionally if they’re exposed to intense heat or extreme cold.
• The battery is low or dead. The battery in your 2012 Chevy Colorado is each essential. Without a vehicle battery, your vehicle won’t start, light up the road ahead, play the radio or charge your phone. Today’s vehicle batteries last much longer than they did a few decades ago, and they don't really require maintenance. The price of a new one depends on the type of Chevy you drive, but check our current service coupons and specials.
• Your mass airflow sensor (known as MAF) needs to be replaced. The mass airflow sensor in your Chevy Colorado is what determines how much fuel is needed to run your engine efficiently by measuring the amount of air entering the engine. As a part of the engine management system, the mass airflow sensor helps adjust to certain changes, like altitude. If your Chevy Colorado is having trouble starting, idling rough or has a sudden fast change in the position of the throttle pedal, this could be a important sign of a defective mass airflow sensor.
• Your O2 Sensor (Oxygen Sensor) needs to be replaced. The Oxygen sensor, known as the O2 sensor, measures the amount of oxygen in your exhaust system. If there is excess oxygen in your exhaust system, fuel burns more quickly and your car will be less efficient when it comes to fuel economy. So what happens if I don’t replace your O2 sensor? A defective sensor can not only affect your miles per gallon, but it can cause meaningful damage to your catalytic converter and your 2012 Chevy Colorado's spark plugs. The O2 sensor sends data to the vehicle’s onboard computer to determine the definitely correct mixture of air and fuel that enters the cylinders in your engine. A defective O2 sensor can still cause a vehicle to fail an emissions test.
• Issues with any aftermarket items. An aftermarket alarm, exhaust or other item can wreak extreme havoc on your 2012 Chevy Colorado if it’s not installed perfectly. These aftermarket parts and accessories can drain the battery, trigger the check engine light, or even prevent the car from starting. If these issues sound familiar, bring your Colorado to Chevy and have our team of gifted certified mechanics assure that your aftermarket items were installed perfectly and aren't causing any issue. Getting accessories, exceptionally aftermarket parts and accessories, or utilizing OEM parts first place might cost a little bit more but could help you save substantially from having to get poor work and damage caused by poor installation work corrected.

2012 Chevy Colorado Check Engine Light Flashing

Although there are countless potential causes of an illuminated Check Engine Light, we know from years of providing Check Engine Light Diagnosis Service that there are several common causes including something as simple as a loose gas cap. Other generally common reasons for a Check Engine Light are faulty emissions control part, broken oxygen sensor, a malfunction with the fuel injection system, dirty mass airflow sensor, faulty head gasket, or damaged spark plugs to name a few. No matter what is the root cause of the Check Engine Light, we have the Chevy Certified Mechanics and the certified service protocol to isolate the root problem and utterly repair it as needed to restore factory specifications. When this happens, the Check Engine Light turns off, and you can leave the service center knowing that your Chevy issue was totally fixed.

Every 2012 Chevy Colorado was designed with a high-technology performance monitoring system with a computer, and a series of sensors positioned strategically throughout the car on its crucial systems. The rapid sensors are continually detecting conditions while sending vital data to the electronic control unit. If the electronic control unit detects that the data is out of factory specifications, the Check Engine Light illuminates telling you that there is a problem. Nonetheless, sadly that is the limitation of the Check Engine Light – it won’t tell you what precisely is wrong nor what to do about it. That’s where we come in; Stevinson Chevrolet provides a Check Engine Light Diagnosis Service that isolates the core problem and gives you a recommendation on what to do next from a Remarkably Qualified Service professional.

Check Engine Light Service 2012 Chevy Colorado

What do you do when you’re driving along in your Chevy Colorado and suddenly, a yellow light illuminates on your dash and says "Check Engine". If you’re like most Chevy owners, your heart sinks extremely because you may have definitely idea about what that light is trying to tell you or how you should react. The fear of the unknown (or the cost of the unknown) can be just as stressful. But take a deep, calm breath and realize the light coming on doesn’t mean you have to pull the vehicle over to the side of the road and call a tow truck, but it is recommended that you get your 2012 Chevy Colorado checked rapidly. Ignoring that warning could end up causing major, far-reaching damage to pricey engine parts.

When your 2012 Chevy Colorado's ECM (electronic control module), which is the vehicle's onboard computer, finds a problem in the electronic control system that it can’t correct, a computer turns on your check engine light. This amber or yellow light is usually labeled “check engine” or “service engine soon”, or the light may be nothing more than a picture of an engine, or a picture of the engine with the word “check.”

When the light turns on, the ECM stores an engine code or “trouble code” in its memory that can swiftly identify the issue, whether it's a sensor or a failing engine part. This code is read with an electronic scan tool that is used by our Chevy auto repair mechanics at Stevinson Chevrolet. There are again a number of comparatively inexpensive code readers that are designed for do-it-yourselfers, should you pick that route too. While this code will tell you the issue that is detected, a true diagnosis still requires an experienced professional to determine the absolutely correct issue and repair it.

2012 Chevy Colorado Check Engine Light Codes

The check engine light turning on can be quite intimidating, especially to see that little light on your vehicle’s dashboard suddenly illuminate, but in reality, it is not something that should cause you to shut down in fear right away. If you hear the term, diagnostic trouble codes (DTC), these are just another name for check engine light codes. These are automotive computer codes stored by the ECM, still known as the OBD (on-board computer diagnostic system) in your Colorado. There are hundreds of different codes that your check engine light can accurately represent. While that sounds daunting, with a little patience, tackling basic diagnostics will give you helpful knowledge about your vehicle and will still allow that important Check Engine Light to do what it is really supposed to do: be your guide. Unfortunately, evident and helpful vehicle symptoms do not consistently accompany an illuminated Check Engine Light. Since there are hundreds of imaginable OBD codes, there are still hundreds of imaginable reasons for the light, including:

• Old Battery
• Bad Spark Plugs
• Ignition system faults
• Fuel and air metering systems problems
• Computer output circuit issues
• O2 Sensor
• Loose Gas Cap or Missing Gas Cap
• Transmission issues
• Emissions controls issues

This is why it is important for someone who does not have a lot of prevalent automotive knowledge to not assume what a code means. Call Stevinson Chevrolet at 7207042290 today or schedule your check engine light service online today! If the engine light comes on due to a serious concern, you risk damaging your vehicle further by not repairing the issue right away. When your check engine light comes on, you should get it checked out rapidly by a skillful certified Chevy mechanic.

2012 Chevy Colorado Check Engine Light

A flashing light signifies that the problem is remarkably serious and if not taken care of quickly may result in major and significant damage to the vehicle. If the check engine light in your 2012 Chevy Colorado starts flashing, that means that the problem needs attention quickly and your Chevy should be brought in promptly. This blinking light usually signifies a severe engine misfire allowing unburned fuel to be dumped into the exhaust system. There it can promptly raise the temperature of the catalytic converter to a point where damage is likely, requiring an expensive and far-reaching repair. Some owners ask if spark plugs cause the check engine light to flash? This can absolutely be the cause. A faulty, old or dirty spark plug can cause the engine to misfire. If your check engine light is consistently flashing, please contact our team of automotive experts at Stevinson Chevrolet expeditiously by calling 7207042290. If the problem is entirely ignored or you continue to drive, this can spread to the spark plug wires, catalytic converter, or ignition coils which can lead to a very expensive repair.

Is it safe to drive your 2012 Chevy Colorado with the check engine light on?

If the check engine light is flashing, this means that there is a serious issue and it is recommended to service your Chevy Colorado swiftly. This question is not exceptionally simple because it all depends on the severity of the issue. If the cause is a minor issue, such as a loose gas cap, it should be secure to drive. This is typically indicated by a steady glow of the check engine light. If you notice a difference in the performance of the vehicle, it could be an indication of a more serious problem. Call the experts at Stevinson Chevrolet by dialing 7207042290 so you can describe the issues. Or lessen your speed and bring your 2012 Chevy to our certified mechanics as promptly as imaginable.

What Does the Check Engine Light Mean?

One of the most frequently misunderstood lights or indicators in your 2012 Chevy Colorado is the check engine light. The check engine light is part of the vital onboard diagnostics system, and displays in an assortment of different ways. It can say "Check Engine", it can be a symbol of an engine, it can even be a combination of both. This light illuminates in either an amber or red color and is part of the diagnostics system found on your car. Onboard computers increasingly have controlled and monitored car performance since the 80s and do an assortment of things for your 2012 Chevy Colorado. Some of these essential duties include controlling engine speed, shifting automatic transmissions ignition timing, and implementing stability control, just to name a few. With that being said, the check engine light can mean an assortment of different things. It can be as simple as your gas cap being loose or as dangerous as engine knocking. If your check engine light is on in your 2012 Chevy Colorado, contact Stevinson Chevrolet. Our Chevy service department can help you find out what code is turning your check engine light on or diagnose why your check engine light is flashing. Contact Stevinson Chevrolet today!

How many miles can you drive with the check engine light?

The safest bet is to decipher the code and then plan your strategy accordingly. If you check engine light is flashing, we endorse that you pull over and contact Stevinson Chevrolet to help determine if your vehicle is safe to drive in or if we endorse a tow truck. Since each check engine code has its own level of severity, it is usually difficult to predict how many miles you can be safe in driving with the warning light on. It could be anything from a bad sensor to plug wires needing to be replaced.

Will the check engine light reset itself?

The check engine light on your 2012 Chevy Colorado will normally shut itself off if the issue or code that caused it to turn on is fixed. For instance, if the cause of your check engine light coming on was a loose gas cap, if it's tightened, the light will swiftly turn itself off. Again, if your catalytic converter is working properly, and you did a lot of stop-and-go driving, that may have turned on the check engine light due to the high usage of the converter. In most cases, your 2012 Chevy Colorado light will go off after about 20-40 miles. If you drive over that amount and the light is still on, you will need to bring it in to Stevinson Chevrolet so the light and code can be double-checked and reset.