A check engine light on your dashboard frequently prophesies a costly diagnostic appointment and repair. But one TikToker says that her check engine light turned off on its own, raising questions about when drivers should actually head into the shop.
In a video with over 615,000 views, TikToker Abby Quick (@abbyquick) shows a clip of her dashboard. In the first video, the red check engine light is on. She then shows another clip of her dash, free from any warning lights.
“My engine light came on a few weeks ago for my fuel pump then randomly went away,” Quick wrote in on-screen text. “Should I be worried?”
In the comments, Quick clarified that her car has a “small fracture” on the fuel pump but that the part it needs for the repair has been back-ordered for weeks. She also said that she keeps up with her car’s regular maintenance.
“I guess it fixed itself?” Quick questioned in the comments, sparking discourse about how urgent a check engine light is for car owners.
@abbyquick I guess it fixed itself? #greenscreen #checkengine #cars #justagirl #honda #hondacivic ♬ Just A Girl – No Doubt
“That means it was a faulty reading,” one user wrote. “The car does a new reading every so often and it didn’t detect the issue again, so it was just an error.”
“Sometimes it just a technical issue. The car’s computer was prolly just tripping. Sometimes you gotta reset it at AutoZone, but yours did it automatically,” another said.
However, others pushed back, saying that ignoring the problem may create more serious mechanical issues down the line.
“If your car don’t start one day then I think you can guess what’s wrong,” a commenter wrote.
“Get it checked! Mine did the same thing while I was driving. The car stopped, and I had to repair the fuel pump,” another said.
Honda’s fuel pump issue
Several commenters point out that she’s not the only Honda owner dealing with a fuel pump issue. In fact, Honda has recalled over 2.6 million fuel pumps on car models between 2017 and 2020. If Quick’s vehicle is part of the recall, she may be able to have her fuel pump replaced free of charge.
As for the replacement part being back-ordered, a spokesperson for Honda tells the Daily Dot that “replacement parts would take some time to acquire for the approximately 2.6 million included vehicles.”
“We expect to be able to begin general recall repairs by fall 2024, and have been reserving the limited number of replacement parts that do arrive earlier for vehicles that are actually experiencing a problem,” the spokesperson clarified.
The Daily Dot reached out to Quick via email for more information.
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