Resolved: Mechanic ? for car about a warning light

[yeahdisney]

The Service transmission light came on. The dealership said they could not find anything was wrong with it.
There is a recall on this car’s transmission.
Two days later the light came back on and I made another appointment. After I turned off and then back on, the car’s the check transmission light was gone so I canceled the appointment.

My question because now the light is back on. If the transmission service light comes back on and goes back off can the car dealership tell it was even on? Does it send a code to the computer?
Thank you.

 

[tvguy]

Ask among your friends for a good independent transmission shop. They should be able to tell you, and may read the code for free.
Is the car still under warranty? If so I'd just leave it there until the dealer can find the issue.
To be honest, I've never heard of a check transmission light. What make, model and year car is it?

 

[Klayfish]

What kind of car is it? Are you sure it wasn't a CEL (check engine light)? Anyone with a scanner should be able to plug into the cars' OBDII port and pull whatever code set it off (I'm making an assumption it's a CEL)

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I think a lot of it depends on the type of car. I have a Nissan Altima. Mine had the check engine light come on. It was accompanied by the car not wanting to move when you pushed on the gas pedal. It also had some kind of fit with me where I could not get over 20mph. (Thankfully I was just on a residential street when that happened).

The issue was the transmission had gone bad. Thank goodness it was still under warranty when it happened. The dealer was not the least bit surprised when the issue came up. I believe their words were "yea, we have been having a lot of problems with those, bring it in". Later I heard the transmissions in the Altimas are complete garbage anyway.

 

[ronandannette]

Ask among your friends for a good independent transmission shop. They should be able to tell you, and may read the code for free.
Is the car still under warranty? If so I'd just leave it there until the dealer can find the issue.
To be honest, I've never heard of a check transmission light. What make, model and year car is it?

What kind of car is it? Are you sure it wasn't a CEL (check engine light)? Anyone with a scanner should be able to plug into the cars' OBDII port and pull whatever code set it off (I'm making an assumption it's a CEL)

My 2018 Qashqi (Rogue Sport down there) has all sorts of codes and symbols; you need to be fluent in hieroglyphics to recognize them all. There is one (well actually a combination of 2) that signals transmission trouble. I found that out the hard way when I was stranded 400 miles from home, on the side of the road in a blizzard at New Year's.

 

[kdonnel]

Honda’s will flash the D rive indicator when there is a transmission issue. I would expect that the problem will manifest itself more so in the future. The dealer should be able to read a code even after the light turns itself off.

 

[yeahdisney]

I will of course call dealership on Monday. There is nothing open on Sunday. But I was curious if any one knew the answer today.

The light says transmission service And then: performance shifting is not available.

Today DH wanted take some air out of the tires due to the weather change.

But today it would not go at all. It said you must put the car in P. for park even though the car was in the garage parked. The dial for the shifter only wanted to be in N or R and Actually the indicator lights on the dial were running back-and-forth among all the choices itself.

2 hours later I was able to back the car out and DH did the tires, I have It backed into the garage currently and tomorrow I plan on taking it 45 minutes to our closest town with a dealership.

Thanks. It is a Chrysler 200 with a warranty.

 

[cvjw]

My sons car has done really weird things when it needed a new battery. Twice. Lights flashing, warning lights coming on and going off. Once he got a new battery, everything went right back to normal.

The technician said that was very common in new cars when the battery is going.

And all you posters with bad transmissions in your nissans - lemon them out and make Nissan buy them back.

 

[ronandannette]

My sons car has done really weird things when it needed a new battery. Twice. Lights flashing, warning lights coming on and going off. Once he got a new battery, everything went right back to normal.

The technician said that was very common in new cars when the battery is going.

And all you posters with bad transmissions in your nissans - lemon them out and make Nissan buy them back.

I wish. Any idea how? What would that actually involve? Mine is a lease. I thought I liked the Qashqi a lot more than the Juke I traded in on it but already so far the Qashqi has had waaaay more quirky troubles than the Juke ever did.

 

[Klayfish]

Nissan won't "lemon them out". The CVT in Nissans is a well known issue...no offense to owners of them but they are horrendous transmissions. Nissan is aware of the problem and has been rebuilding/replacing the bad ones under warranty. In order for a car to be purchased back by the manufacturer as a lemon it has to be shown that many attempts were made to fix the problem, with no resolution. In this case, there is a known resolution. So while I'm sure it has happened, the odds of getting Nissan to take the car back as a lemon are fairly remote.

OP, there could be a few causes to it, but it sounds like the dial itself has some sort of issue. Dealer should be able to diagnose.

 

[rwdavis2]

Did you do search on that the light means on your specific car? May shed some light.

 

[cvjw]

I wish. Any idea how? What would that actually involve? Mine is a lease. I thought I liked the Qashqi a lot more than the Juke I traded in on it but already so far the Qashqi has had waaaay more quirky troubles than the Juke ever did.

Both times, the car wouldn’t crank, in addition to all the weird warning lights flashing. It had to be towed to the nearest Mazda dealership. Both times, it just needed a new battery.

 

[neverlandsky]

My Nissan transmission light came on couple years ago when the car was about 6 years old. Turns out it was just a timed senor that had to be reset. The dealership automatically waves the transmission light check fee of $115 if the labor/work is greater than this cost. They had to reset my timed sensor which was $150. Wasn't broken, just had to be reset. It's been a great car now for 8 years with just routine maintenance. Just had the spark plugs replaced.

 

[bcla]

You can buy your own basic OBD-II scan tool online for about $20. I use mine to clear a persistent check engine trouble code for a particular cylinder on my car that just randomly registers. There doesn't appear to be a real problem in my case other than it just happens. All new cars sold in North America are supposed to have a standard port to attach a scan tool.

There are better quality tools out there though. I brought a car in for a more serious check, and the mechanic used a more expensive scan tool (might have been Matco).

 

[Klayfish]

You can buy your own basic OBD-II scan tool online for about $20. I use mine to clear a persistent check engine trouble code for a particular cylinder on my car that just randomly registers. There doesn't appear to be a real problem in my case other than it just happens. All new cars sold in North America are supposed to have a standard port to attach a scan tool.

There are better quality tools out there though. I brought a car in for a more serious check, and the mechanic used a more expensive scan tool (might have been Matco).

The code doesn't just "randomly register". The trouble code is trying to tell you there is an issue.

 

[SharonZ]

I just had a "check engine" light come on a few weeks ago, and scheduled an appointment at my Dealership (car under warranty). In the meantime, I went to Auto Zone and they scanned it and printed out the results, so I felt confident it was OK to drive until my appointment.

 

[Klayfish]

I just had a "check engine" light come on a few weeks ago, and scheduled an appointment at my Dealership (car under warranty). In the meantime, I went to Auto Zone and they scanned it and printed out the results, so I felt confident it was OK to drive until my appointment.

If you don't know cars well and trust the counter people at AutoZone, I'd think twice. Sure, their scanner can pull the code, but I wouldn't feel good they'd be sure what the actual issue is (the code doesn't always specify exactly what the cause of the problem is).

 

[bcla]

If you don't know cars well and trust the counter people at AutoZone, I'd think twice. Sure, their scanner can pull the code, but I wouldn't feel good they'd be sure what the actual issue is (the code doesn't always specify exactly what the cause of the problem is).

Depends on what it is. I've got a random misfire of the same cylinder, even though there are no drivability issues and no apparently issue with performance and/or mileage.

The most common trouble code is an evaporative leak when the fuel cap isn't on securely.

Still - I'd at least recommend having one handy. I've been charged $50 just to diagnose a check engine light.

 

[SharonZ]

I also trust my dealership, when they said that waiting two days would be fine.

 

[SharonZ]

If you don't know cars well and trust the counter people at AutoZone, I'd think twice. Sure, their scanner can pull the code, but I wouldn't feel good they'd be sure what the actual issue is (the code doesn't always specify exactly what the cause of the problem is).

The dealership said I would be fine with waiting the two days until my appointment.