Driving back from Arizona yesterday when the CEL came on after climbing the 93 out of Kingman heading for Vegas. I had stopped in Kingman so we could stretch our legs but I didn't gas up. Last time this happened the evap system had thrown a code as I drove the car back from Palm Springs the day I bought it.

The connection for me is that both trips involve rapid changes in elevation and the codes were set a few miles after a stop. Is the evap system on these cars overly sensitive/plain cranky? I'll get the code looked at tomorrow. Car runs just fine.

 

First thing is to get and post the actual code number(s).

 

No CEL this morning. My buddy's code reader pulled P0101 from memory. Supposedly this is a generic MAF/VAF code. Any ideas?

 

From the manual:

 

Thanks for that. Guess I'll have to wait and see if it was a diagnostic glitch or a sign of further trouble down the road. The car has less than 35k miles on the clock, so a MAF failure would be a bit of a bummer on that basis.

 

If the MIL comes on with altitude changes, what is the condition of the air cleaner element and have you checked for any possible vacuum leaks from mis-fitting hoses? Have you looked at fuel trims to see if there is any indication of lean mixture?