Check the simple things

Cindy had told me that the check engine light had come on in her car a couple days ago.  Our knee jerk thought was maybe it was time to take it to the dealership since it is approaching 50,000 miles.  However I told her I wanted to throw my code reader on the car just to see what is up. So when I turned the car on I saw the check engine light was indeed on and I also saw a brief warning pop up that the windshield wiper fluid was low. Wow it even lets you know that, cool.

I attached my code reader but it locked up before any details of the issue were displayed on screen.  I then thought I would try something, adding washer fluid.  Surely low washer fluid wouldn’t trigger a CEL right?  I only had a small amount of spare fluid left but I poured it all into the reservoir tank of the car.  I got back behind the steering wheel and turned the car back on.  The check engine light was gone, wow.  I laughed as I told Cindy the cause of the warning.  We wouldn’t have been laughing if we had just paid for a dealer service visit just to be told they added washer fluid.  Always check the simple things first.