My check engine light in my 1998 explorer 6 cylinder comes on and off periodically It seems to go off when your gas tank is three-quarters to one quarter full then on again below one quarter of a tank?

Answer 1

It will be impossible to give you any better than a broad answer here, because there are literally hundreds of possibilities as to why a malfunction indicator lamp(MIL) comes on. The system would have to be scanned to retrieve whatever fail codes there are. Then we would use a manual (that is literally 3 inches thick)that contains flow charts with pinpoint tests, using a voltmeter, to hand diagnose, and find out what is wrong. This process can take a few minutes, it may take a couple of hours, depending on what is actually wrong. I have a hard time seeing a real connection with the fuel level, unless the fuel level sensor is what is causing your MIL. But it could also be a coincidence.

Now here is the "why" of a MIL: What is actually turning on the MIL is the Powertrain Control Module(PCM), commonly known as the engine control computer. Inside of a PCM there are actually two separate systems. One is control, the other system is diagnostics. PCM diagnostics acts as "big brother," constantly looking over the shoulder of the control side of the PCM. Diagnostics is constantly monitering systems to see if the expected voltages and values are present.

Here is an example: If the PCM diagnostics knows that it has been so many minutes since the engine was first started, then the engine temperature should be around 195 degrees. In our senerio, if the engine is still 160 degrees, it sees a problem, and sets the MIL. The technician has to use pinpoint diagnostics to see if we have a stuck thermostat, if the Engine Coolant Temp(ECT) sensor if sending a false signal, if the wiring between the ECT and the PCM is bad, or if the PCM is faulty and interpreting the signal received from the ECT incorrectly. But the PCM is not capable of monitering everything all at once, so it basically goes down a checklist, over and over again, as you are driving down the road. Sometimes a problem can come and go intermittantly, at the right times so as to avoid detection by the PCM.

That is why sometimes a MIL doesn't always come on everytime there is a problem. Sometimes you can unplug a sensor even while the car is running, and it takes a while for the MIL to come on, just because the PCM diagnostics hasen't gotten back around to looking at that area yet.

Our senerio only talked about one area that a PCM moniters. There are dozens of sub-systems that the PCM looks at, and dozens of possible failures within each of those sub-systems, that could cause a MIL.