on our 2004 X-type 3.0, the check engine light came on and i took it to a dealer to find the issue.
turns out we had a visitor (big mouse) that chewed thru 1 of the 3 wires that plug into the MAF sensor.
after repairing the harness, and half a dozen start/stop/start cycles within 5 minutes, the engine light went out and stayed out.......that is for 3 full days, then has come back on.
checked the harness again and there is juice in all 3 wires.

any ideas anyone?

 

You need to get the codes checked to determine what is causing the light to come on.
Could be anything.

 

i caved in and ordered the 3150 scanner i read about above.........funny thing, the smog tech at our "Goodguys" tire center only wanted $492.00 to replace the MAF sensor............thank god i spun wrenches throughout my life time and know how to work on these things.

 

OK, i bought the Innova 3100, made the connection and right away it brought up a code for the fuel cap which was replaced a few days ago, then the P1108 (MAP sensor code) came up which was the problem to begin with..........since fixing the wire harness the light went out and then like i said above, a couple days later the CEL came back on........could this be because the codes were stored in the computer?
after erasing the codes the CEL went out.

 

Summer, the codes will remain in the computer for as long as you let them be until either you run out of room to store the codes or you delete the codes (either through the use of the tool or you remove power from the ECU). As for the check engine light, that will extinguish itself after you start/stop the motor 5 times and complete a full drive cycle (takes about 5 minutes of driving) for each of those starts. After that point, if the computer did not want to trigger any codes, the light will go out on the 6th start. But, if you get any code (whether one you have gotten this one before or is a new one), that will reset the counter for trying to clear the CEL.

I say keep driving the car and go from there. It may be one of those things that you have something on its way out and it only tosses the codes under certain conditions (ie, long idle times, at highway speeds for long periods, etc). If you had a serious problem, the CEL would have come right back on after clearing the codes.

 

thx for answering my questions Thermo...........i just went and drove the car a few miles and started and stopped a dozen times...........fingers crossed for the smog test now.....