Miata Mailing List: December 1997, Message #114
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From: 	"Chuck Harris" <chuckh@ticnet.com>

Subject: Check Engine Light Resolved

Date: 	Mon, 1 Dec 1997 19:09:52 +0000



A few weeks ago I posted a message to the list about my check engine light

staying on.  I would like to thank everyone who responded to me, both

publicly and privately, for their assistance.



The first point I would like to clear up is about the service guy who

suggested that all Miatae in the D/FW area suffered from the same problem,

and that it was a problem with the local gas.  This person was not the one

that I usually deal with (who was at lunch when I dropped the car off), and

when I relayed the story to my normal service rep, he stammered something

about the first rep "obviously misunderstanding something that he read

somewhere."  In other words, we don't like to accuse our co-workers of lying

in front of the customer, but don't listen to him.  The lesson I got from

this was to always deal with the service rep I kinda trust....



The other point is the actual problem with the car.  My check engine light

was on constantly, and every time I took it back to the dealer, and they

reset it, it would come back on within days.  They replaced a couple of

parts (two switches somewhere in the system), which didn't work, and reset

it a few times when the error messages didn't make sense, but nothing seemed

to work.  They did finally find the problem, though, when I took it in and

got the gas problem excuse.



My baby is a '97 Touring Package, but I wanted cruise control, so the dealer

sent the car to a local shop that does that sort of work and had it

installed.  Apparently, there is a switch on the clutch that disengages the

cruise control when the pedal is depressed.  The shop connected the switch

incorrectly, and the check engine light lit up as a result.  The

still-unexplained part of this is why the light never came on _while_ I was

using the cruise control, but rather a day or two later, but it seems to be

the problem, as the light has been out far longer than it ever has been

before, even with some cruise control driving in the meantime. [knock on

wood]



Again, I would like to thank the people who replied to me as well as the

list as a whole for the great compendium of Miata information as well as the

welcome respite from the work that I _should_ be doing at this computer...



                Thanks,

                Chuck and Baby

                Team No Check Engine Light (Yay!)