"check engine" light after front pad install?

[Montana Cruiser]

Hey guys, just replaced the front pads on the 97 FZJ80 ..... and you were right, what a cakewalk! Took a grand total of about 30 minutes, brakes feel great, however, now I have the check engine light coming on? Is there something that I could have done to cause this to go off? and is there a way to reset it without a special tool? The only possible thing I can think of is that I pulled the top on the master cylinder to keep an eye on the level of fluid, BEFORE I touched anything it read a hair above the LOW level, after compressing calipers and installing new pads, its a little above the FULL line, but none spilled out. Could this "overfilled" situation cause the check engine light to come on? Hope to hear something, I was wanting to head out of town tonight, but dont feel good about it with the check engine light on. I did turn the truck off and on a few time to see if it would reset, no luck

 

[Safado]

No Idea on that one...take your other car to AUTOZONE and get their ODBII scanner. Take it home and find out what it is.

 

[Scamper]

Check again...is it the CEL or is it the brake light?

It's possible, but unlikely that you did anything to generate a CEL just by changing the pads. But I suppose you could have damaged the ABS if you did something odd? That should never happen if you do a basic R&R of the pads.

If it's the brake light, then it could be related to the sending unit on top of the master cylinder. You may have a sticking float, or a bad wire, or...

 

[Montana Cruiser]

Check again...is it the CEL or is it the brake light?

It's possible, but unlikely that you did anything to generate a CEL just by changing the pads. But I suppose you could have damaged the ABS if you did something odd? That should never happen if you do a basic R&R of the pads.

If it's the brake light, then it could be related to the sending unit on top of the master cylinder. You may have a sticking float, or a bad wire, or...

Yeah, unfortunetly its the CEL and not the brake light Was hoping this would be an easy one. Hmmmmm, dont have an autozone, but maybe I can find another place local that could read the code. I assume my FSM would be able to decipher the code for me? Never had a CEL come to this point.

 

[Safado]

FSM or this board...


If it was something you did to your ABS, you should have gotten that light.

Call me crazy, but I think this ones just going to come up as a weird coincidence.

 

[Scamper]

Yeah...it's entirely possible (if not likely) that's it's just a coincidence.

You need to get the code read, or get one of those inexpensive code readers. If you own an OBDII car/truck, you really need one of these.

 

[Beowulf]

>> Could this "overfilled" situation cause the check engine light to come on? <<

No.

You can clear the MIL by pulling the neg battery cable for about 30 seconds or pull the EFI fuse located under the bonnet in the black fuse box behind the battery. Almost all MIL codes are emissions related. If your truck is otherwise running fine, then clear the code and head out on your trip. You'll be fine.

-B-

 

[Montana Cruiser]

>> Could this "overfilled" situation cause the check engine light to come on? <<

No.

You can clear the MIL by pulling the neg battery cable for about 30 seconds or pull the EFI fuse located under the bonnet in the black fuse box behind the battery. Almost all MIL codes are emissions related. If your truck is otherwise running fine, then clear the code and head out on your trip. You'll be fine.

-B-

Thanks for the info. I think I am going to clear it, and head out, only going about 70 miles tonight, the truck is running fine, but will get the codes checked if it comes back. Thanks again everyone!

 

[Montana Cruiser]

Update: After posting my worries here, I headed out to the truck for my trip, started the truck and the CEL was off. I thought, ok, someone said on a 97' it would reset itself after a few cycles if the problem was not existant anymore. So I travelled around the next few days with no problems, but still wondering why I got the CEL in the first place, so I conducted an experiment. I again opened my brake fluid resivor and left it open for about 25 minutes as I had when changing pads, then placed it back and started the truck, guess what, CEL light was on again ....... after a few cycles of turning the truck on and off and letting it sit for a few minutes between the CEL is off. Now I have looked at the FSM and there appears to me that there is NO connection between the CEL and fluid level/fluid resivor, could this really be a coincidence??

 

[Beowulf]

Did you pull the code? You'll need access to an OBD-II scanner.

-B-

 

[Montana Cruiser]

Did you pull the code? You'll need access to an OBD-II scanner.

-B-

I havent had a chance to pull the code yet, but from my understanding, I should be able to still pull it even now that the CEL is off again, so I plan on doing that this week and will report back the results.

 

[Safado]

Post back up...I'm confused.