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What could cause the check engine light to come on in a 2012 Honda Civic?

When your check engine light comes on, this could be as easy as tightening or replacing your gas cap. Likewise, the check engine light could also be a warning of a critical problem that could cause critical damage to your engine and come with a extraordinary repair bill. Depending on your make and model, the check engine light will illuminate or blink. A consistent glow regularly means something less critical but a flashing check engine light indicates that your vehicle’s engine is in critical trouble and service is needed suddenly. If your check engine light is flashing in your 2012 Honda Civic, we exceptionally represent not to drive the vehicle and schedule Honda service today. Below is a list of the most honest reasons your check engine light can come on:

  • Your catalytic converter is bad or going bad. The catalytic converter is a part of your 2012 Honda Civic’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 usually caused by neglected maintenance, which is why David McDavid Honda of Frisco offers a complimentary multi-point inspection with every Honda service. If you have an issue with your catalytic converter and don't get it serviced, your 2012 Honda Civic 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 additional problems from overheating.
  • Your O2 Sensor (Oxygen Sensor) needs to be replaced. 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 fewer cooperative 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 2012 Honda Civic's spark plugs. The O2 sensor sends data to the vehicle’s onboard computer to find out the right collection 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.
  • New Spark Plugs or Plug Wires are basic for your 2012 Honda Civic. The spark plugs are the part of your engine that ignites the air/fuel collection 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 scanty 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, big to more expensive repairs.
  • One of the most cooperative and frequent cause is that your 2012 Honda Civic gas cap is loose, damaged or missing. The gas cap for your 2012 Honda Civic 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 swiftly after you put gas in your 2012 Honda Civic, earliest thing you should check is to make hopeful the cap isn’t loose — or that it's still on your car’s roof or at the fuel pump.
  • Issues with any aftermarket items. An aftermarket alarm, exhaust or additional item can wreak havoc on your 2012 Honda Civic if it’s not installed properly. These aftermarket parts and accessories can drain the battery, trigger the check engine light, or even hinder the vehicle from starting. If these issues sound prevalent, bring your Civic to Honda and have our company of certified mechanics ensure that your aftermarket items were installed perfectly and aren't causing any issue. Getting accessories, incredibly aftermarket parts and accessories, or using OEM parts earliest place might cost a little bit more but could save you money from having to get scanty function and damage caused by scanty installation function corrected.
  • Your 2012 Honda Civic has a vacuum leak. Every Honda Civic has a vacuum system that performs a wide variety of functions. The vacuum system also helps lower harmful 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, incredibly if they’re exposed to effective heat or extreme bitter.
  • The battery is meager or dead. The battery in your 2012 Honda Civic is every main. 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 absolutely require maintenance. The price of a new one depends on the type of Honda you drive, but check our existing service coupons and specials.
  • Your mass airflow sensor (known as MAF) needs to be replaced. The mass airflow sensor in your Honda Civic 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 Honda Civic 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.

2012 Honda Civic Check Engine Light Codes

The check engine light turning on can be quite intimidating to see that miniature light on your vehicle’s dashboard immediately 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 Civic. There are hundreds of added codes that your check engine light can represent. While that sounds daunting, with a miniature patience, tackling principal diagnostics will give you useful knowledge about your vehicle and will also allow that Check Engine Light to do what it is surely supposed to do: be your guide. Unfortunately, straightforward and marvelous vehicle symptoms do not always accompany an illuminated Check Engine Light. Since there are hundreds of achievable OBD codes, there are also hundreds of achievable reasons for the light, including:

  • Old Battery
  • Fuel and air metering systems problems
  • Transmission issues
  • Bad Spark Plugs
  • Loose Gas Cap or Missing Gas Cap
  • O2 Sensor
  • Ignition system faults
  • Computer output circuit issues
  • Emissions controls issues

This is why it is accessible for someone who does not have a lot of automotive knowledge to not assume what a code means. When your check engine light comes on, you should get it checked out suddenly by a certified Honda mechanic. If the engine light comes on due to a critical concern, you risk damaging your car further by not repairing the issue right away. Call David McDavid Honda of Frisco at 4694053754 today or schedule your check engine light service online today!

How much does it cost to get the engine light checked?

The check engine light warns of issues ranging from a gas cap that's not subsequently tightened to a more persuasive failure like a bad catalytic converter or a problem with one of the car's oxygen sensors, so it tolerable to get the chummy code reading and diagnosis. The average cost for a check engine light diagnosis & testing is typically between $88 and $111. The tolerable news, David McDavid Honda of Frisco offers complimentary multi-point inspections and free diagnostics, in most cases, to aid elect for the cause of your check engine light.

How many miles can you drive with the check engine light?

It could be anything from a harmful sensor to plug wires needing to be replaced. If you check engine light is glaring, we mean that you pull over and contact David McDavid Honda of Frisco to help represent if your vehicle is protected to drive in or if we mean a tow truck. Since each check engine code has its own level of severity, it is stringent to predict how copious miles you can drive with the warning light on. The safest bet is to decipher the code and then plan your strategy accordingly.

2012 Honda Civic Check Engine Light

A blinking light indicates that the problem is precarious and if not taken care of urgently may result in major damage to the vehicle. If the check engine light in your 2012 Honda Civic starts blinking, that means that the problem needs abrupt attention and your Honda should be brought in urgently. This flashing light regularly indicates a strict engine misfire allowing unburned fuel to be dumped into the exhaust system. There it can quickly expand the temperature of the catalytic converter to a point where wear and tear is competent, requiring an expensive repair. Some owners ask if spark plugs cause the check engine light to flash? This can absolutely be the cause. A destructive, popular or dirty spark plug can cause the engine to misfire. If your check engine light is flashing, please contact our team of automotive consultants at David McDavid Honda of Frisco instantly by calling 4694053754. If the problem is ignored or you continue to drive, this can spread to the spark plug wires, catalytic converter, or ignition coils which can lead to a very fancy repair.

What Does the Check Engine Light Mean?

One of the most commonly misunderstood lights or indicators in your 2012 Honda Civic is the check engine light. The check engine light is part of the onboard diagnostics system, and displays in a few assorted ways. It can say "Check Engine", it can be a symbol of an engine, it can even be a combination of both. This light lights up 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 2012 Honda Civic. 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 determine a variety of distinctive things. It can be as pure as your gas cap being loose or as alarming as engine knocking. If your check engine light is on in your 2012 Honda Civic, contact David McDavid Honda of Frisco. Contact David McDavid Honda of Frisco today! Our Honda service department can help you learn what code is turning your check engine light on or diagnose why your check engine light is flashing.

2012 Honda Civic Check Engine Light Flashing

Although there are countless likely causes of an illuminated Check Engine Light, we know from years of providing Check Engine Light Diagnosis Service that there are innumerable handy causes including something as plausible as a loose gas cap. Alternative handy reasons for a Check Engine Light are faulty head gasket, damaged oxygen sensor, a malfunction with the fuel injection system, faulty emissions control part, dirty mass airflow sensor, or defective spark plugs to name excellent. No matter what is the root cause of the Check Engine Light, we have the Honda Certified Technicians and the certified service protocol to isolate the root problem and repair it as imperative to restore factory specifications. When this happens, the Check Engine Light turns off, and you can leave the service center knowing that your Honda issue was repaired.

Every 2012 Honda Civic was designed with a high-technology performance monitoring system with a computer, and a series of sensors positioned strategically throughout the vehicle on its difficult 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 illuminates telling you that there is a problem. However, that is the limitation of the Check Engine Light – it won’t tell you what specifically is liable nor what to do about it. That’s where we come in; David McDavid Honda of Frisco provides a Check Engine Light Diagnosis Service that isolates the core problem and gives you a recommendation on what to do next from a Highly Qualified Service licensed.

Check Engine Light Service 2012 Honda Civic

What do you do when you’re driving along in your Honda Civic and quickly, a yellow light illuminates on your dash and says "Check Engine". If you’re like most Honda owners, your heart sinks a little because you have little idea about what that light is trying to tell you or how you should react. The fear of the unknown (or the estimate 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 2012 Honda Civic checked as soon as probable. Ignoring that warning could end up causing large damage to expensive engine components.

When your 2012 Honda Civic's ECM (electronic control module), which is the vehicle's onboard computer, finds a problem in the electrical control system that it can’t apt, a computer turns on your check engine light. This amber or yellow light is typically 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 learn with an electronic analyze tool that is used by our Honda auto repair mechanics at David McDavid Honda of Frisco. There are also a number of comparably inexpensive code readers that are designed for do-it-yourselfers, should you choose that route too. While this code will tell you the issue that is detected, a true diagnosis still requires an experienced expert to recommend the issue and repair it.

Is it safe to drive your 2012 Honda Civic with the check engine light on?

This question is not very prevalent 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 steady glow of the check engine light. If you notice a difference in the performance of the car, it could be an indication of a more adequate problem. If the check engine light is blinking, this means that there is a adequate issue and it is recommended to service your Honda Civic straightaway. Call the experts at David McDavid Honda of Frisco by dialing 4694053754 so you can describe the issues. Or reduce your speed and bring your 2012 Honda to our certified mechanics as soon as functional.

Will the check engine light reset itself?

The check engine light on your 2012 Honda Civic will usually shut itself off if the issue or code that caused it to turn on is repaired. 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 feasible, and you did bountiful 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 2012 Honda Civic 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 David McDavid Honda of Frisco so the light and code can be double-checked and reset.