Nobody's perfect redux

Two days ago, while out in the backwoods of Allegan County, Michigan, the engine malfunction light came on; it's the icon that looks like an engine block. A quick phone call to the service dept. back in Peabody, MA, where we bought the car informed me that it's also called the "service engine soon" light apparently.


Curiously the manual is of little help here. It warns you in no uncertain terms that if the light comes on red you are to pull over immediately and shut the engine off. But if it just stays yellow one is cautioned to drive with moderate speed (what the heck is that all about I wondered) until you can check with service.


I had just filled up with gas and recalled the warning from Steve M. at Peabody, our salesman, that if you don't fit the gascap back just right the light will come on. I checked the cap and it was seated properly. So I called service (as soon as I got a signal of course).


Come to find out that it could be one of nearly a dozen different things, mostly having to with sensors misreading one thing or another, but particularly having to do with gas. A sensor somewhere didn't care for the gas I put in it apparently.


Anyway, I was informed that the light would reset itself after a few "key cycles", that is, turning the key off and on. Sure enough next morning I got in the car and voila! the light was gone.

Glovebox organizer: In a word this is a pretty crappy bit of cardboard and felt that doesn't sit terribly well in the glove box and is constantly moving around as a result. Moreover the glovebox door fits quite snug up against the organizer as well. And it isn't cheap. On the other hand it does pretty much do what it says, organizes the small space in the glovebox by providing two levels.