Addendum To: Addendum To: Check Engine Light's On In My Car

And ... it's back.  With the coldest weather we've had around these parts in 20 years, I decided that I was going to abandon my plan to alternate using my car and my parents' minivan each day because I have no idea what 48 hours of non-use will do to either car's engine.  I'd rather stay in, to be perfectly honest with you, but because I'm still working, I need to know if both cars are going to tough it out through what appears to be Wednesday.  (Then again, I have the luxury of being able to use one car if the other won't start.  Have to say I'm thankful for that.)  So, starting today, I'm going to try and do something with one car during the day, then another thing with the other car at night.  Maybe by getting both engines hot every, uh <doing mental calculations> 24 hours both cars will make it through.

I went to the gym (with a side trip to Culver's and an auto parts store in case they had a battery warmer or blanket I could buy) by driving the van this afternoon.  I went to the Mall of America (and stopped by Hooters, just because I'm a huge fan of hot chicks with bare bellies and cleavages the length of the Grand Canyon) to pick up my computer (which has not been fixed; more on that later) with my car.  And even though everything was hunky-dory on the way down there, when I started to come back up (on my way to My Favorite Stripclub [Non-Cover Version]), the goddamn Check Engine light came on.  And it did so just as I was heading home, even though I was bypassing home to put some more gas into my car, because I read I should keep the tank at least half-full to make sure the gas lines don't freeze during our Wind Chill Warning, which officially began Saturday at 6 p.m. and will last 66 hours.

Shortly after the Check Engine light came on as I made my way to the gas station, the Low Oil Level light also came on.  They've both been on once before, that Saturday when I went to the Minnesota RollerGirls bout in St. Paul, but since the car didn't stop dead on the highway because of it then, and in fact operated just fine (although I think I sensed then and sense now something "lacking" in the engine), I was able to simmer down and notice the two amber warning lights, illuminating my normally dark cabin.  They were like embers just flickering side-by-side.  And they were kind of ... cute together, now that I was sort of convinced the warnings didn't mean imminent destruction of the car I was being propelled forward in at 60 miles per hour.  Saving grace, by the way: On the way home from the gas station, which is less than a mile, the Check Engine light was not on.

Hmmm ... the light came on at beginning of the cold spell, and it was just as cold when it first came on.  So maybe it wasn't an anomaly, like I had initially speculated here, but that this in fact is happening when 1) it's cold outside 2) after the car's been running for a while, and once one of those two conditions disappear, the Check Engine light turns off.  (I had to revise the "Addendum To: Check Engine Light's On In My Car" blog post just now because I was unclear on when I feared the light was going to come on.)  They say you should bring the car in when it comes on, but if it's going to just stay off once we get out of this "polar vortex," what's the use?  I might as well get used to it being on, just like I consider that warning light to be part of the scenery when I drive my parents' minivan with that on.

Then again, I will use my car through this cold streak, and if the light continues to come on, or if it comes on in conditions other than the adverse ones I have seen it, I'll change my mind.  Or junk the car.  I don't know what I'm going to do.