Almost everyone that drives a vehicle has had an issue with the dreaded check engine light. It doesn’t give you any clues about why you need to check the engine, just that you need to do so. When the check engine light comes on, there is always at least one DTC, or Diagnostic Trouble Code, that gets recorded. Your mechanic will look at the DTC(s) and then give you a repair estimate based on that. Even if they tell you what the name of the DTC is, it’s very likely it won’t mean anything to you. There is a little known fact that the entire automotive repair industry doesn’t want you to know: you don’t need to have costly repairs done every time the check engine light comes on. There are a decent number of these DTCs that don’t require any repairs. That system has detected a failure, but it’s not going to cause you any problems to keep operating your vehicle. You won’t damage any of the systems, and you won’t lose any gas mileage. The only one to lose is the repair industry. There are several websites that can help with this, such as mycheckenginelight.net, that are a great help in determining what repairs you actually need to have done.Almost everyone that drives a vehicle has had an issue with the dreaded check engine light. It doesn’t give you any clues about why you need to check the engine, just that you need to do so. When the check engine light comes on, there is always at least one DTC, or Diagnostic Trouble Code, that gets recorded. Your mechanic will look at the DTC(s) and then give you a repair estimate based on that. Even if they tell you what the name of the DTC is, it’s very likely it won’t mean anything to you. There is a little known fact that the entire automotive repair industry doesn’t want you to know: you don’t need to have costly repairs done every time the check engine light comes on. There are a decent number of these DTCs that don’t require any repairs. That system has detected a failure, but it’s not going to cause you any problems to keep operating your vehicle. You won’t damage any of the systems, and you won’t lose any gas mileage. The only one to lose is the repair industry. There are several websites that can help with this, such as mycheckenginelight.net, that are a great help in determining what repairs you actually need to have done.