#sol15 March 24 That Pesky Check Engine Light

My ol' Focus had one that just would not quit. Even when the car was just a babe under warranty, you'd go over a bump and the ol' check engine light would pop up like a new penny on the dark dashboard.  At the dealer, they would say, "We reset it.  It should be fine now."  But you know what would happen in a few days (or weeks or months).  Sooner or later, it would be back!  Every time we came to the mandated inspection, we took her in to the dealer and had the light reset.  Then, until we went through the pearly gates of the inspection station, we held our breath!

My old Jetta had one of these pesky lights, too. This time it was not an idiopathic problem; instead, there really was a recurring clog in the diesel particulate filter, a particularly (pun intended) disgusting, particularly time consuming, and particularly horrible job according to the guy who was doing the repairs (my husband!) At least, thanks to improvements in at-home-car-repair-software. we could do this reset at home.  Still, inspection season brought angst because you still can't do your own at-home-inspection; thus, we held our breath until the new sticker was attached to the windshield.

This winter, another pesky light has besieged our family and prevented a car from getting through the dreaded mandated inspection. The light was reset, then came back as those pesky lights so often do. Even though we realized check-engine-lights are not weather determined, they are quirky and this quirky light seems to bounce back when it was wet, rainy, snowy... We checked the Accuweather forecast and determined the short window through inspection before the next storm.  We all held our collective breath. The text message was simple, yet, so happy. it almost jumped off the phone.

She passed.
Light's still off 

364 days of peace,
Then, we'll fret,
Reset, 
Or trade.