I recently read the results of a poll with the question: "Do you trust your mechanic?" And I was surprised to see that 46% of those who responded said no, they don't. If you don't trust your mechanic, why do you bring your car back to him? If you didn't trust your doctor, you would find another doctor. Your mechanic is very much like your doctor. He has to diagnose and treat your car. Today’s cars with all the electronics and computers can tell your mechanic where it hurts but can’t tell him why.  In fact if you want to take it a step further your mechanic has to be better than your doctor because your car isn’t like every other car, each system in each make is different.  American Auto Air & Repair has one of the top diagnosticians in the Reno area.  Don’t feel good about your current auto repair facility give American Auto Air a try.

Believe it or not, a loose gas cap really can make your check engine light come on. Why? Because gasoline vapors are considered to be emissions, and a loose gas cap allows gasoline vapors to leak into the atmosphere. Your car’s ECU can detect this and considers it to be a problem with your car’s emissions system, so it turns on the check engine light. The good news is that it’s an easy problem to fix – just make sure to tighten your gas cap properly each time you fill up.
If your gas cap is just loose because you’re negligent, then it shouldn’t cost you anything to tighten it. What you do is, get out of your car and tighten it (when the vehicle is stopped). However, if your gas cap is damaged and needs to be replaced, you’re looking at spending a few bucks. A messed up gas cap situation accounts for over seven percent of the situations that a check engine light goes on, which is actually quite a bit higher than a lot of other reasons. You should hope, just hope, that the gas cap is the problem. A lot of other problems will hit your wallet much harder. We recommend you try tightening it first and then see if the light goes off.

If it's not your gas cap have this checked as soon as possible. If your check engine light flashes when driving, reduce the vehicle speed immediately until the light illuminates constantly. If it continues to flash, avoid heavy acceleration and high engine speed, stop the vehicle and have it checked immediately. Never ignore a continuing flashing check engine light! (In some vehicles, the light turns red.) If it is safe to do so, try stopping the vehicle, turning off the engine, waiting several minutes, then restarting the engine to reset the engine management system.