2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee Check Engine Light
Is it safe to drive your 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee with the check engine light on?
If the check engine light is flashing, this means that there is a hazardous issue and it is recommended to service your Jeep Grand Cherokee abruptly. This question is not very common 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 dependable to drive. This is commonly indicated by a common 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 hazardous problem. Call the mentors at Bill Estes Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram by dialing 3178540239 so you can describe the issues. Or lessen your speed and bring your 2012 Jeep to our certified mechanics as soon as feasible.
What could cause the check engine light to come on in a 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee?
When your check engine light comes on, this could be as common as tightening or replacing your gas cap. Likewise, the check engine light could also be a warning of a dangerous problem that could cause dangerous break to your engine and come with a colossal repair bill. Depending on your make and model, the check engine light will illuminate or blink. A steady glow typically means something less dangerous but a twinkling check engine light hints that your vehicle’s engine is in dangerous trouble and service is basic abruptly. If your check engine light is twinkling in your 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee, we exceedingly select not to commute the vehicle and schedule Jeep service today. Below is a list of the most normal reasons your check engine light can come on:
- Your mass airflow sensor (known as MAF) needs to be replaced. The mass airflow sensor in your Jeep Grand Cherokee is what determines how much fuel is crucial to run your engine efficiently by measuring the payment 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 Jeep Grand Cherokee is having trouble starting, idling rough or has a sudden change in the position of the throttle pedal, this could be a sign of a bad mass airflow sensor.
- Issues with any aftermarket items. An aftermarket alarm, exhaust or additional item can wreak havoc on your 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee if it’s not installed perfectly. These aftermarket parts and accessories can eject the battery, trigger the check engine light, or even prevent the vehicle from starting. If these issues sound natural, bring your Grand Cherokee to Jeep and have our team of certified mechanics ensure that your aftermarket items were installed perfectly and aren't causing any issue. Getting accessories, especially aftermarket parts and accessories, or using OEM parts authentic place might estimate a small bit more but could save you money from having to get poor work and break caused by poor installation work corrected.
- One of the most known and frequent cause is that your 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee gas cap is loose, damaged or missing. The gas cap for your 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee serves multiple purposes. It prevents 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 bad fuel cap? If your gas cap is classic or has a ruptured seal, you can lose fuel through evaporation which will result in more trips to the pump. Luckily, to replace a gas cap isn't expensive. If your check engine light turns on quickly after you put gas in your 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee, authentic 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 crucial for your 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The spark plugs are the part of your engine that ignites the air/fuel mixture in the combustion chamber of your vehicle. This explosion is what moves the pistons and makes the engine run. 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 classic, you will experience poor performance and reduced 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 break to ignition coils and O2 sensors, major to more expensive repairs.
- The battery is tiny or dead. The battery in your 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee is every adequate. Without a car battery, your car won’t start, light up the road ahead, play the radio or charge your phone. Today’s car batteries last much longer than they did assorted decades ago, and they don't certainly require maintenance. The price of a new one depends on the type of Jeep you drive, but check our present service coupons and specials.
- Your catalytic converter is bad or going bad. The catalytic converter is a part of your 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee’s exhaust system. The catalytic converter's function is to turn the carbon monoxide created by the combustion process into carbon dioxide. A damaged catalytic converter is usually caused by neglected maintenance, which is why Bill Estes Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram offers a complimentary multi-point inspection with every Jeep service. If you have an issue with your catalytic converter and don't get it fixed, your 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee will not pass an emissions test, show a lack of engine performance and will negatively affect your fuel economy. Your car may run at a higher temperature, too, which can cause additional problems from overheating.
- Your 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee has a vacuum leak. Every Jeep Grand Cherokee has a vacuum system that performs a wide variety of functions. The vacuum system also helps decrease 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, especially if they’re exposed to imposing heat or extreme enraged.
- Your O2 Sensor (Oxygen Sensor) needs to be replaced. The Oxygen sensor, established as the O2 sensor, measures the payment of oxygen in your exhaust system. If there is excess oxygen in your exhaust system, fuel burns faster and your vehicle will be less essential when it comes to fuel economy. So what happens if I don’t replace your O2 sensor? A faulty sensor can not only affect your miles per gallon, but it can cause break to your catalytic converter and your 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee's spark plugs. The O2 sensor sends data to the vehicle’s onboard computer to designate the feasible mixture of air and fuel that enters the cylinders in your engine. A bad O2 sensor can also cause a car to fail an emissions test.
What Does the Check Engine Light Mean?
One of the most ordinarily misunderstood lights or indicators in your 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee is the check engine light. The check engine light is part of the onboard diagnostics system, and displays in a few precise 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 vehicle. Onboard computers increasingly have controlled and monitored vehicle performance since the 80s and do a assortment of things for your 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Some of these include shifting automatic transmissions controlling engine speed, ignition timing, and implementing stability control, just to name some. With that being said, the check engine light can mean a variety of disparate things. It can be as plain as your gas cap being loose or as serious as engine knocking. If your check engine light is on in your 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee, contact Bill Estes Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram. Contact Bill Estes Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram today! Our Jeep service department can help you find out what code is turning your check engine light on or analyze why your check engine light is flashing.
2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee Check Engine Light
If the check engine light in your 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee starts blinking, that means that the problem needs prompt attention and your Jeep should be brought in immediately. A blinking light hints that the problem is risky and if not taken care of immediately may result in gargantuan break to the vehicle. This twinkling light normally indicates a scrupulous engine misfire allowing unburned fuel to be drained into the exhaust system. There it can promptly raise the temperature of the catalytic converter to a point where damage is factual, requiring an expensive repair. Some owners ask if spark plugs cause the check engine light to flash? This can totally be the cause. A bad, long-established or dirty spark plug can cause the engine to misfire. If your check engine light is flashing, please contact our team of automotive specialists at Bill Estes Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram suddenly by calling 3178540239. If the problem is 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.
Will the check engine light reset itself?
The check engine light on your 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee will frequently shut itself off if the issue or code that caused it to turn on is fixed. For example, if the cause of your check engine light coming on was a loose gas cap, if it's tightened, the light will turn itself off. Likewise, if your catalytic converter is going handy, and you did a few 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 Jeep Grand Cherokee light will go off after about 20-40 miles. If you drive over that reward and the light is still on, you will need to deliver it in to Bill Estes Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram so the light and code can be double-checked and reset.
How many miles can you drive with the check engine light?
It could be anything from a damaging sensor to plug wires needing to be replaced. If you check engine light is flashing, we recommend that you pull over and contact Bill Estes Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram to help represent if your vehicle is safe to drive in or if we recommend a tow truck. Since each check engine code has its own level of severity, it is laborious to predict how many miles you can drive with the warning light on. The safest bet is to decipher the code and then plan your strategy accordingly.
2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee Check Engine Light Codes
The check engine light turning on can be quite intimidating to see that miniature light on your vehicle’s dashboard rapidly illuminates, but in reality, it is not something that should cause you to shut down in fear noble 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, also regular as the OBD (on-board computer diagnostic system) in your Grand Cherokee. There are hundreds of alternative codes that your check engine light can represent. While that sounds daunting, with a miniature patience, tackling needed diagnostics will give you familiar knowledge about your vehicle and will also allow that Check Engine Light to do what it is surely supposed to do: be your guide. Unfortunately, conspicuous and convenient vehicle symptoms do not always accompany an illuminated Check Engine Light. Since there are hundreds of functional OBD codes, there are also hundreds of functional reasons for the light, including:
- Bad Spark Plugs
- Computer output circuit issues
- Loose Gas Cap or Missing Gas Cap
- Old Battery
- Ignition system faults
- O2 Sensor
- Emissions controls issues
- Transmission issues
- Fuel and air metering systems problems
This is why it is impressive for someone who does not have a lot of automotive knowledge to not assume what a code means. Call Bill Estes Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram at 3178540239 at this moment or schedule your check engine light service online today! If the engine light comes on due to a unhealthy concern, you risk damaging your car further by not repairing the issue polite away. When your check engine light comes on, you should get it checked out promptly by a certified Jeep mechanic.
How much does it cost to get the engine light checked?
The average cost for a check engine light diagnosis & testing is generally between $88 and $111. The useful news, Bill Estes Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram offers complimentary multi-point inspections and free diagnostics, in most cases, to help determine the cause of your check engine light. The check engine light warns of issues ranging from a gas cap that's not well tightened to a more perilous failure like a bad catalytic converter or a problem with one of the car's oxygen sensors, so it useful to get the decent code reading and diagnosis.
2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee Check Engine Light Flashing
Although there are countless possible causes of an illuminated Check Engine Light, we know from years of providing Check Engine Light Diagnosis Service that there are assorted decent causes consisting something as classic as a loose gas cap. Different decent reasons for a Check Engine Light are faulty emissions control part, damaged oxygen sensor, dirty mass airflow sensor, faulty head gasket, a malfunction with the fuel injection system, or defective spark plugs to name some. No matter what is the root cause of the Check Engine Light, we have the Jeep Certified Technicians and the certified service protocol to isolate the root problem and 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 Jeep issue was repaired.
Every 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee was designed with a high-technology performance monitoring system with a computer, and a series of sensors positioned strategically throughout the vehicle on its vital systems. The sensors are continually detecting conditions while sending data to the computerized control team. If the computerized control team detects that the data is out of factory specifications, the Check Engine Light illuminates telling you that there is a problem. However, that is the limitation of the Check Engine Light – it won’t tell you what exactly is erroneous nor what to do about it. That’s where we come in; Bill Estes Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram provides a Check Engine Light Diagnosis Service that isolates the core problem and gives you a recommendation on what to do next from a Notably Qualified Service professional.
Check Engine Light Service 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee
What do you do when you’re driving along in your Jeep Grand Cherokee and hastily, a yellow light illuminates on your dash and says "Check Engine". If you’re like most Jeep owners, your heart sinks a small because you have small idea about what that light is trying to tell you or how you should react. The fear of the unknown (or the price of the unknown) can be just as stressful. But take a deep breath and realize the light coming on doesn’t mean you have to pull the car over to the side of the road and call a tow truck, but it is recommended that you get your 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee checked as soon as alive. Ignoring that warning could end up causing major damage to expensive engine components.
When your 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee's ECM (electronic control module), which is the vehicle's onboard computer, finds a problem in the electronic control system that it can’t definite, a computer turns on your check engine light. This amber or yellow light is commonly 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 identifies as 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 Jeep auto repair mechanics at Bill Estes Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram. There are also a number of relatively inexpensive code readers that are designed for do-it-yourselfers, should you choose that route too. While this code will tell you the issue that is detected, a true diagnosis still requires an experienced professional to indicate the issue and repair it.