This morning, my Check Engine Light came on. I checked the fuel cap, and it was indeed loose. I tightened it and have not driven the car since.

The owner's manual states that if the Check Engine Light appears due to a loose fuel cap, it takes three "driving trips" for it to disappear. My question is - is this really the case? Those of you who have had this happen...did it really take three drives for the Check Engine Light to turn off?

I'm wondering because my schedule is tight and the only time I can take the car to the dealer is during lunch. Since lunch is in about 2 hours, I'm debating whether I ought to take the car to the dealer or drive it and wait for the Check Engine Light to go off. I did smell fuel when parking the car last night, so I'm pretty sure the loose fuel cap was the problem. Chalk this post up to paranoia.

Thanks for any input.

 

Cyber, I think it took me 5~6 driving cycles.
It does go away as long as the CEL didn't come on for a different reason.

If you don't want to wait, reset the ECU and the CEL will go away.

 

Cool, thanks! I guess I'll go drive it around during lunch and see what happens...

I was pretty freaked out because the light suddenly came on while I was on highway 17, and I still had about 15 miles to go before I got to work. I threw caution to the wind and kept driving, though, and was relieved to eventually find the loose fuel cap. I hope that's what it is.

Thanks man.

 

pull the breaker it will reset .you wil be ok .happened to me this summer after fillup and checking out this woman at the gas station paid more attention to her .

 

My brother drove for 3 days and it went away automatically.

 

cyber_x, what year is your car?

My car is a MY02 and I had the CEL come on twice with a code of P1456 (Evap Leak).

The first time that it came on, I thought to myself, maybe it was my fault and I didn't tighten the gas cap 3 clicks after fill-up. I took it to the dealer, they pulled the code and told me that it was a loose gas cap. They reset the codes and I was on my way.

A week later, it came on again. This time I know for a fact that I tightened it all the way. I decided to do a search on this board about loose gas cap and there are several threads that suggest that there might be a bad batch of gas caps for MY02. I took it to the dealer again and they confirmed that I needed a new gas cap. $17 (warranty covered it). 4K miles later, haven't seen the CEL come on again.

 

Thanks for all the great input guys! I'm going to drive it around at lunch and see if the CEL goes away.

S2KenC, my car is a '02 as well. It's probably one of the earlier '02 cars. I'll keep an eye on things. This is the first time this has happened, so hopefully it's something innocuous.

 

Just so you know, my first CEL came on at 22,1xx miles. It came on again 150 miles later. My car is an 02 purchased on april 2002.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by S2KenC
Just so you know, my first CEL came on at 22,1xx miles.

 

I have an '03 and my CEL came on around 1,500 miles. I pulled off the freeway, parked on a street, and the fuel smell was so strong that I thought it was coming from the engine, but then realized it was coming from the gas cap. So I tightened the loose cap and about three trips later, the CEL shut off. It came on again a week later, and it was a loose gas cap again. So I did a search on this site, called the dealership and they sent me a new cap. I haven't used the new cap yet (I now have 7,000 miles) because shortly thereafter someone on this site gave this great advice (to paraphrase), which works perfectly so far:

1) after re-fueling, don't use the middle tab of the gas cap to tighten--keep your fingers around the edge of the gas cap and tighten until it gets tight, then loosens, then tight again.

2) At this point, tighten using the middle tab until you hear at least 3 clicks.

I keep the new gas cap in my car just in case one day this technique fails, or I somehow break the gas cap using this method. I own nothing but Honda cars and motorcycles, and each vehicle has its quirks, but this is definitely the strangest one. I mean, who would have thought of needing a special technique to tighten a gas cap? I bought my car at the largest Honda dealership in the world (they say), and they'd never heard of the gas cap problem until I emailed them some threads from this site. Until then, they wanted me to bring the car back to them for analysis (150 miles roundtrip), so the information on this site is worth its weight in gold...