Feb 14 2007
By Kurt Seifried (kurt@seifried.org)
So I was driving a friend home, and after dropping her off (like literally the second she got out of the car) my “Check Engine” light came on in my car.
So my first thought is “I’ve never seen that before” which was followed by “I wonder what it means.”
This my friends is the $64,000 question. Perhaps literally, I can only assume the big diagnostic machine the dealer has checks the car’s serial number against my credit rating and then spits out the maximum amount I can afford to pay to keep my car running. Perhaps there are some “parts” involved, but really, have you ever seen these “parts,” I certainly haven’t, I sometimes doubt that they exist. And of course there is “labor,” again, the mechanics always seem to have time to tell you what is wrong in incomprehensible technical terms, so when do they work exactly?
So I checked the manual my car came with. Like almost all car manuals it is basically useless. Gems like “Operating the vehicle in an unsafe manner may cause injury or loss of life” and “please do not insert live gerbils into the gas tank, this may result in voiding your warranty.” abound, but very little useful information. What it does say about the “Check Engine” light is mercifully short, consisting of a soothing passage about how this is probably due to a faulty sensor, or: “If the gas cap is not affixed properly the light may go on, screw the gas cap on until it clicks, the light will stay on for three more driving trips.” Of course this is then followed by: “Don’t drive fast or accelerate, driving for a long time may void your vehicle emissions standards” and then says that I should take it into a dealer as soon as possible.
So which is it? Something serious, or something benign? I have no idea, and neither does the vendor, not until they hook it up to a diagnostic computer anyways. Since the manual seems to indicate it probably isn’t serious (I suppose if the light stays on that means it is really bad?) then I can drive, but if my car breaks horribly, or worse yet the engine seizes up causing a serious accident would I be compensated? I doubt it. Of course if the light goes off I am left to wonder, is it a faulty sensor? Did the light break? Why did it go on in the first place?
Do these issues sound familiar? They should. It’s how most information and computer security systems operate. They have a single warning light, and until you get a sophisticated diagnostic system hooked up chances are you’ll have no clue what is going (or has gone) wrong with the system. Of course if the warning goes away, should you stop worrying? Or did an attacker simply compromise the system so completely that they were able to turn the warning light off (probably to your relief, hourly system emails can get annoying!).
It sure is tempting to turn a blind eye and hope the warning light goes off sometimes.
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Posted by admin on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007, at 1:54 am, and filed under Articles.
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Alex | 14-Feb-07 at 9:00 am | Permalink
Actually, on most cars the “check engine” light means your odometer has reached the point at which the manufacturer has decided you need to have regular maintenance.
I’m betting that if you ignore it for 1k miles, it will go off.
Benjamin Field | 15-Feb-07 at 5:32 pm | Permalink
Your $64,000 problem is their $64,000 opportunity.