Check engine light while cruising between 55-65

[pantheon7113]

93 festiva, stock. Just started a check engine light while cruising at 55-65, when I let off throttle completely it goes away. Runs smooth the entire time , no stumble or hesitation... any ideas?

[WmWatt]

Could be a loose or dirty connection, loose vacuum hose, or a failing sensor? The computer stores any codes until you clear them. You can read the codes without a code reader by grounding a wire in the engine compartment, turning the key to the ON postion, and counting the flashes of the check engine light. Try searching this forum on "check engine light" or "check engin codes" or similar to find out how and to see the list of codes and their meanings. If you can't find a list of codes post the code number here and someone caoul tell you what it means. It's al laid out in the Haynes manual, not a bad investment. Mine has paid for itself many times over.

PS the grounding wire is different for different Festiva model years.

[pantheon7113]

This website has not been helpful on this matter. If I do find something, it's a carburated festiva. Not a whole lot. Maybe it's the search engine .

[jrclark32]

The search function on this website needs some serious attention. I’m having a similar issue, and if I type in Check Engine Light I get 1010 results of every thread with and single one of the 3 words.

If I put it in quotes, like I should be doing to get a specific result, I get nothing but a response saying:
“Your criteria is not restrictive enough and might return too many results. Please restrict your criteria and try again.”

I’m not a programmer or anything, but I know how to find things on the internet, and that makes no sense.

[pantheon7113]

So anyting on a fi festiva?

[pantheon7113]

I don't even know what wire to ground out underneath the hood so that I can count the blinks

[WmWatt]

Haynes manual: ground the STI terminal on the driver's side of the engine compartment, turn the igntion key to ON, and count the flashes - long flashes are tens digit, short flashes are units digit
Carburetted engines - the STI terminal is the one pin connector
EFI engines 1990-1993 - the STI terminal is the one pin connector
EFI engines 1994-1995 - jumper wire from STI pin to GND pin on multi-pin connector

EFI engines 1996- - use standard OBD2 code reader

To clear stored codes from computer disconnect -ive battery cable and depress brake pedal for more than 5 seconds