I am so confused please help. I have a 2000 dodge neon and the indicator light came on about 3 weeks ago after getting gas. I re tightened the gas cap and the light went off. 3 days later the indicator light came on and the car died. I had it towed to marty concilla and after a dx test was told it was the power train controller switch which was covered under warranty.
They reported taking the car out for a test drive and the car stopped. I was told that they began changing fuses and found out the the fuse to the fuel pump kept blowing which indicated a bad fuel pump. I had they replace the fuel pump. Three weeks later the indicator light came on again and now i am being told it is the transmission clutch switch. How come the first diagnose did not dx the fuel pump and the transmission clutch switch. your thoughts. thank you in advance. Is it possible to detect what is wrong when the indicator light comes on? How do I know if fixing the transmission switch will fix the problem?? Ples help. Deeply confused Deborah
Deborah, RN, MSN, BC, ANP
Adult Nurse Practitioner
Infectious Diseases
Hey Deborah,
I feel your pain. First off, I am assuming you are talking about the YELLOW check engine light here.
It s just like when I go to the doctor. By the time I get my appointment made, and actually get to see the doctor in person ..I feel better/worse/different than when I made the appointment. The doctor can only tell me what he sees wrong with me at this time. And yes, sometimes after a few days I still feel bad and have to go back to the doctor again, paying for another diagnosis, and he looks to see if things have changed and then prescribes a different course of action.
Mechanics are sometimes the same way. There is no crystal ball, no way to accurately predict the future. Your onboard computer will only tell the mechanic what is happening at this very moment and what HAS happened recently that it made note about and stored in its onboard memory.
A bad fuel pump is VERY hard to diagnose unless you can catch it in the act of not working AS you have some test equipment readily on hand. That is probably why they did not catch the main problem until it quit on them on a test drive. They probably read your onboard computer memory ..saw the controller code that was stored; they knew it was a warranty item so they assumed THAT was the culprit of setting the light on the dash in the first place. Luckily they drove it before they returned it to you, and it failed on them. Most shops don t test drive cars like they should and they hand them back prematurely to the owner .and it fails on their way home from the garage.
The NEW code that is showing up is an internal transmission issue. I m assuming it is a torque converter clutch problem. Your transmission could have slipped, and your computer made a note about it. I would clear the code in the memory and drive the car to see if the light comes back on. You could be low on transmission fluid, or there is something wrong internally with your transmission. If I am correct, this new problem will not cause the engine to die, but could cause the transmission to slip .thus not being able to pull the vehicle.
Talk to the mechanic about it, but you might be able to wait and see if indeed this is something that needs to be taken care of now. There is a chance that the code does not come back and the light does not illuminate.
Blessings,
Austin Davis