The service engine soon light has illuminated on the dash of my 2002 4.2L F150 . I have checked the oil qty and the fuel cap . Both check good . Where can I look next ?

 

Sounds like you need to get it checked out. If there is an Autozone where you live, they will pull any codes for you for free.

 

There is no one good answer for this. It could be an overpressure situation where clearing the code and poping the fuel cap off and back on could help. It could be a bad 02 sensor, or a bad TPS. Fact is it could be anything.

Go to almost any auto parts store and ask to use their Check Engine Light (CEL) Scanner or their engine/diagnostic trouble code scanner. This is almost always free and you can usually do it in the parking lot.

Plug the device into you OBD-II port (under the dash, the parts people can probably show you where it is), set it to your vehicle and engine, turn the key on, and press scan.

It will come back with error codes (e.g. P0504) or someething similar, and it will usually guve a generic explanation of the code (e.g. left bank to lean). From these codes (there be 2 or more) you cna determine a course of action.

Post these codes (and any code definitions) and you should get more assitance. Simply put, a simple CEL could be anything. Trust me, there are many people on here willing to help out with advice and information.

 

Isn't the SES light different from the CE?

I thought the SES light just popped on every 3k miles or according to the "scheduled maintenance" table in the manual. Didn't necessairly mean there was an actual problem. Could just mean there's only 100 miles left until the next 3k interval.

But advance or autozone will both pull codes if any for free.

 

No. SES=CEL=MIL. All the are same thing...

There is no indicator that comes on on any FORD at scheduled intervals.

Just don't let the idiots at the parts store try to perform the diagnosis. Just get the codes...

Steve

 

GET IN THE ZONE!!!!!!

AUTOOOOOZONE!!!!!!!