How much does it cost to get the engine light checked?
The average estimate for a check engine light diagnosis & testing is frequently between $88 and $111. The confident news, Nalley Kia offers complimentary multi-point inspections and free diagnostics, in most cases, to aid determine the cause of your check engine light. The check engine light warns of issues ranging from a gas cap that's not properly tightened to a more precarious failure like a bad catalytic converter or a problem with one of the car's oxygen sensors, so it confident to get the handy code reading and diagnosis.
2020 Kia Sportage Check Engine Light
If the check engine light in your 2020 Kia Sportage starts flashing, that means that the problem needs urgent attention and your Kia should be brought in urgently. A flashing light implies that the problem is precarious and if not taken care of urgently may result in giant damage to the vehicle. This twinkling light mostly indicates a draconian engine misfire allowing unburned fuel to be dumped into the exhaust system. There it can hastily increase the temperature of the catalytic converter to a point where break is likely, requiring an expensive repair. Some owners ask if spark plugs cause the check engine light to flash? This can specifically be the cause. A bad, old or dirty spark plug can cause the engine to misfire. If your check engine light is flashing, please contact our team of automotive experts at Nalley Kia instantly by calling 7702885283. If the problem is ignored or you continue to travel to work, this can spread to the spark plug wires, catalytic converter, or ignition coils which can lead to a excessively lavish repair.
What Does the Check Engine Light Mean?
One of the most often misunderstood lights or indicators in your 2020 Kia Sportage is the check engine light. The check engine light is part of the onboard diagnostics system, and displays in a few distinctive ways. It can say "Check Engine", it can be a symbol of an engine, it can even be a combination of both. This light illuminates in either an amber or red color and is part of the diagnostics system found on your vehicle. Onboard computers increasingly have controlled and monitored vehicle performance since the 80s and do a variety of things for your 2020 Kia Sportage. Some of these include shifting automatic transmissions controlling engine speed, ignition timing, and implementing stability control, just to name a few. With that being said, the check engine light can represent a variety of assorted things. It can be as authentic as your gas cap being loose or as unhealthy as engine knocking. If your check engine light is on in your 2020 Kia Sportage, contact Nalley Kia. Our Kia service department can help you select what code is turning your check engine light on or diagnose why your check engine light is flashing. Contact Nalley Kia today!
Will the check engine light reset itself?
The check engine light on your 2020 Kia Sportage will usually shut itself off if the issue or code that caused it to turn on is fixed. For example, if the cause of your check engine light coming on was a loose gas cap, if it's tightened, the light will turn itself off. Likewise, if your catalytic converter is going functional, and you did a lot of stop-and-go driving, that may have turned on the check engine light due to the high usage of the converter. In most cases, your 2020 Kia Sportage light will go off after about 20-40 miles. If you drive over that amount and the light is still on, you will need to bring it in to Nalley Kia so the light and code can be double-checked and reset.
How many miles can you drive with the check engine light?
If you check engine light is glaring, we represent that you pull over and contact Nalley Kia to help pick if your vehicle is protected to drive in or if we represent a tow truck. The safest bet is to decipher the code and then plan your strategy accordingly. Since each check engine code has its own level of severity, it is troublesome to predict how countless miles you can drive with the warning light on. It could be anything from a bad sensor to plug wires needing to be replenished.
What could cause the check engine light to come on in a 2020 Kia Sportage?
When your check engine light comes on, this could be as authentic as tightening or replacing your gas cap. Likewise, the check engine light could also be a warning of a dangerous problem that could cause dangerous break to your engine and come with a grand repair bill. Depending on your make and model, the check engine light will illuminate or blink. A common glow typically means something less dangerous but a shining check engine light indicates that your vehicle’s engine is in dangerous trouble and service is necessary immediately. If your check engine light is shining in your 2020 Kia Sportage, we highly advocate not to drive the vehicle and schedule Kia service today. Below is a list of the most normal reasons your check engine light can come on:
- Your O2 Sensor (Oxygen Sensor) needs to be changed. The Oxygen sensor, known as the O2 sensor, measures the amount of oxygen in your exhaust system. If there is excess oxygen in your exhaust system, fuel burns faster and your vehicle will be less active when it comes to fuel economy. So what happens if I don’t replace your O2 sensor? A faulty sensor can not only affect your miles per gallon, but it can cause damage to your catalytic converter and your 2020 Kia Sportage's spark plugs. The O2 sensor sends data to the vehicle’s onboard computer to find out the right range of air and fuel that enters the cylinders in your engine. A bad O2 sensor can also cause a car to fail an emissions test.
- Your 2020 Kia Sportage has a vacuum leak. Every Kia Sportage has a vacuum system that performs a wide range of functions. The vacuum system also helps lower combative emissions by routing the fumes as gasoline evaporates through the engine. If you notice that your RPM is high in idle or randomly surges, a vacuum leak could be the cause. Over time, vacuum hoses can dry out and crack, especially if they’re exposed to exceptional heat or extreme freezing.
- Your catalytic converter is bad or going bad. The catalytic converter is a part of your 2020 Kia Sportage’s exhaust system. The catalytic converter's function is to turn the carbon monoxide created by the combustion process into carbon dioxide. A damaged catalytic converter is commonly caused by neglected maintenance, which is why Nalley Kia offers a complimentary multi-point inspection with every Kia service. If you have an issue with your catalytic converter and don't get it fixed, your 2020 Kia Sportage will not pass an emissions test, show a lack of engine performance and will negatively affect your fuel economy. Your car may run at a higher temperature, too, which can cause back-up problems from overheating.
- Your mass airflow sensor (known as MAF) needs to be changed. The mass airflow sensor in your Kia Sportage is what determines how much fuel is basic to run your engine efficiently by measuring the amount of air entering the engine. As a part of the engine management system, the mass airflow sensor helps adjust to certain changes, like altitude. If your Kia Sportage is having trouble starting, idling rough or has a sudden change in the position of the throttle pedal, this could be a sign of a bad mass airflow sensor.
- Issues with any aftermarket items. An aftermarket alarm, exhaust or back-up item can wreak havoc on your 2020 Kia Sportage if it’s not installed properly. These aftermarket parts and accessories can jettison the battery, trigger the check engine light, or even prevent the vehicle from starting. If these issues sound prevalent, bring your Sportage to Kia and have our company of certified mechanics ensure that your aftermarket items were installed accurately and aren't causing any issue. Getting accessories, especially aftermarket parts and accessories, or using OEM parts first place might rate a microscopic bit more but could save you money from having to get poor work and damage caused by poor installation work corrected.
- One of the most applicable and plentiful cause is that your 2020 Kia Sportage gas cap is loose, damaged or missing. The gas cap for your 2020 Kia Sportage serves multiple purposes. It prevents gas fumes from being released when you aren't driving, it seals the fuel system and helps maintain pressure within the fuel tank. What happens if you have a bad fuel cap? If your gas cap is old or has a ruptured seal, you can lose fuel through evaporation which will result in more trips to the pump. Luckily, to replace a gas cap isn't expensive. If your check engine light turns on immediately after you put gas in your 2020 Kia Sportage, first thing you should check is to make sure the cap isn’t loose — or that it's still on your car’s roof or at the fuel pump.
- The battery is low or dead. The battery in your 2020 Kia Sportage is every excellent. Without a car battery, your car won’t start, light up the road ahead, play the radio or charge your phone. Today’s car batteries last much longer than they did a few decades ago, and they don't surely require maintenance. The price of a new one depends on the type of Kia you drive, but check our ongoing service coupons and specials.
- New Spark Plugs or Plug Wires are basic for your 2020 Kia Sportage. The spark plugs are the part of your engine that ignites the air/fuel range in the combustion chamber of your vehicle. This explosion is what moves the pistons and makes the engine run. The spark plug wires deliver the spark from the ignition coil to the spark plugs. If your spark plugs or spark plug wires are bad or old, you will experience poor performance and reduced power. In some extreme cases, your engine will have trouble starting or continuing to run. Worn spark plugs and plug wires can cause clogged catalytic converter or damage to ignition coils and O2 sensors, first-rate to more expensive repairs.
Check Engine Light Service 2020 Kia Sportage
What do you do when you’re driving along in your Kia Sportage and suddenly, a yellow light illuminates on your dash and says "Check Engine". If you’re like most Kia owners, your heart sinks a miniature because you have miniature idea about what that light is trying to tell you or how you should react. The fear of the unknown (or the cost of the unknown) can be just as stressful. But take a deep breath and realize the light coming on doesn’t mean you have to pull the car over to the side of the road and call a tow truck, but it is recommended that you get your 2020 Kia Sportage checked as soon as achievable. Ignoring that warning could end up causing hefty damage to expensive engine components.
When your 2020 Kia Sportage's ECM (electronic control module), which is the vehicle's onboard computer, finds a problem in the electronic control system that it can’t correct, a computer turns on your check engine light. This amber or yellow light is mostly labeled “check engine” or “service engine soon”, or the light may be nothing more than a picture of an engine, or a picture of the engine with the word “check.”
When the light turns on, the ECM stores an engine code or “trouble code” in its memory that identifies as the issue, whether it's a sensor or a failing engine part. This code is read with an electronic diagnose tool that is used by our Kia auto repair mechanics at Nalley Kia. There are also a number of rather inexpensive code readers that are designed for do-it-yourselfers, should you prefer that route too. While this code will tell you the issue that is detected, a true diagnosis still requires an experienced technological to represent the issue and repair it.
2020 Kia Sportage Check Engine Light Flashing
Although there are several potential causes of an illuminated Check Engine Light, we know from years of providing Check Engine Light Diagnosis Service that there are assorted common causes including something as easy as a loose gas cap. Extra common reasons for a Check Engine Light are dirty mass airflow sensor, a malfunction with the fuel injection system, faulty head gasket, faulty emissions control part, damaged oxygen sensor, or defective spark plugs to name a few. No matter what is the root cause of the Check Engine Light, we have the Kia Certified Technicians and the certified service protocol to isolate the root problem and repair it as crucial to restore factory specifications. When this happens, the Check Engine Light turns off, and you can leave the service center knowing that your Kia issue was repaired.
Every 2020 Kia Sportage was designed with a high-technology performance monitoring system with a computer, and a series of sensors positioned strategically throughout the vehicle on its fundamental systems. The sensors are continually detecting conditions while sending data to the electronic control unit. If the electronic control unit detects that the data is out of factory specifications, the Check Engine Light lights up telling you that there is a problem. However, that is the limitation of the Check Engine Light – it won’t tell you what explicitly is wrong nor what to do about it. That’s where we come in; Nalley Kia provides a Check Engine Light Diagnosis Service that isolates the core problem and gives you a recommendation on what to do next from a Exceedingly Qualified Service professional.
2020 Kia Sportage Check Engine Light Codes
The check engine light turning on can be quite intimidating to see that little light on your vehicle’s dashboard suddenly illuminates, but in reality, it is not something that should cause you to shut down in fear right away. If you hear the term, diagnostic trouble codes (DTC), these are just another name for check engine light codes. These are automotive computer codes stored by the ECM, also known as the OBD (on-board computer diagnostic system) in your Sportage. There are hundreds of distinctive codes that your check engine light can suggest. While that sounds daunting, with a little patience, tackling broad diagnostics will give you affable knowledge about your vehicle and will also allow that Check Engine Light to do what it is certainly supposed to do: be your guide. Unfortunately, noticeable and cooperative vehicle symptoms do not always accompany an illuminated Check Engine Light. Since there are hundreds of possible OBD codes, there are also hundreds of possible reasons for the light, including:
- Old Battery
- Transmission issues
- Loose Gas Cap or Missing Gas Cap
- O2 Sensor
- Fuel and air metering systems problems
- Emissions controls issues
- Computer output circuit issues
- Bad Spark Plugs
- Ignition system faults
This is why it is meaningful for someone who does not have a lot of automotive knowledge to not assume what a code means. Call Nalley Kia at 7702885283 today or schedule your check engine light service online today! If the engine light comes on due to a unhealthy concern, you risk damaging your car further by not repairing the issue right away. When your check engine light comes on, you should get it checked out swiftly by a certified Kia mechanic.
Is it safe to drive your 2020 Kia Sportage with the check engine light on?
This question is not excessively comfortable because it all depends on the severity of the issue. If the cause is a minor issue, such as a loose gas cap, it should be safe to drive. This is typically indicated by a possible glow of the check engine light. If you notice a difference in the performance of the vehicle, it could be an indication of a more exacting problem. If the check engine light is flashing, this means that there is a exacting issue and it is recommended to service your Kia Sportage abruptly. Call the consultants at Nalley Kia by dialing 7702885283 so you can describe the issues. Or lower your speed and bring your 2020 Kia to our certified mechanics as soon as possible.