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Is it safe to drive your 2013 Ford F-150 with the check engine light on?

If the check engine light is flashing, this means that there is a precarious issue and it is recommended to service your Ford F-150 immediately. This question is not incredibly clear 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 dependable to drive. This is customarily indicated by a consistent glow of the check engine light. If you notice a difference in the performance of the vehicle, it could be an indication of a more alarming problem. Call the experts at Coggin Ford Jacksonville by dialing 9047478996 so you can describe the issues. Or cut down your speed and bring your 2013 Ford to our certified technicians as soon as achievable.

What could cause the check engine light to come on in a 2013 Ford F-150?

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 hazardous problem that could cause hazardous damage to your engine and come with a imposing repair bill. Depending on your make and model, the check engine light will illuminate or blink. A steady glow mostly means something less hazardous but a shining check engine light implies that your vehicle’s engine is in hazardous trouble and service is decisive quickly. If your check engine light is shining in your 2013 Ford F-150, we notably recommend not to drive the car and schedule Ford service today. Below is a list of the most known reasons your check engine light can come on:

  • Your mass airflow sensor (known as MAF) needs to be replaced. The mass airflow sensor in your Ford F-150 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 actual changes, like altitude. If your Ford F-150 is having trouble starting, idling rough or has a quick change in the position of the throttle pedal, this could be a sign of a bad mass airflow sensor.
  • One of the most ordinary and many cause is that your 2013 Ford F-150 gas cap is loose, damaged or missing. The gas cap for your 2013 Ford F-150 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 departed 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 2013 Ford F-150, original thing you should check is to make sure the cap isn’t loose — or that it's still on your car’s roof or at the fuel pump.
  • Your catalytic converter is bad or going bad. The catalytic converter is a part of your 2013 Ford F-150’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 Coggin Ford Jacksonville offers a complimentary multi-point inspection with every Ford service. If you have an issue with your catalytic converter and don't get it repaired, your 2013 Ford F-150 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 diverse problems from overheating.
  • Issues with any aftermarket items. An aftermarket alarm, exhaust or diverse item can wreak havoc on your 2013 Ford F-150 if it’s not installed properly. These aftermarket parts and accessories can discard the battery, trigger the check engine light, or even hinder the vehicle from starting. If these issues sound friendly, bring your F-150 to Ford and have our department of certified mechanics ensure that your aftermarket items were installed correctly and aren't causing any issue. Getting accessories, especially aftermarket parts and accessories, or using OEM parts original place might cost a economical bit more but could save you money from having to get poor work and break caused by poor installation work corrected.
  • The battery is low or dead. The battery in your 2013 Ford F-150 is every exciting. 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 bit decades ago, and they don't really require maintenance. The price of a new one depends on the type of Ford you drive, but check our current service coupons and specials.
  • Your O2 Sensor (Oxygen Sensor) needs to be replaced. The Oxygen sensor, friendly 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 less adequate 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 break to your catalytic converter and your 2013 Ford F-150's spark plugs. The O2 sensor sends data to the vehicle’s onboard computer to indicate the polite mixture 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.
  • Your 2013 Ford F-150 has a vacuum leak. Every Ford F-150 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, especially if they’re exposed to splendid heat or extreme agreeable.
  • New Spark Plugs or Plug Wires are basic for your 2013 Ford F-150. The spark plugs are the part of your engine that ignites the air/fuel mixture 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 departed, you will experience poor 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 break to ignition coils and O2 sensors, central to more expensive repairs.

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

The safest bet is to decipher the code and then plan your strategy accordingly. If you check engine light is flashing, we recommend that you pull over and contact Coggin Ford Jacksonville to help learn if your vehicle is safe to drive in or if we recommend a tow truck. Since each check engine code has its own level of severity, it is gargantuan to predict how many miles you can drive with the warning light on. It could be anything from a destructive sensor to plug wires needing to be replaced.

2013 Ford F-150 Check Engine Light Flashing

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

Every 2013 Ford F-150 was designed with a high-technology performance monitoring system with a computer, and a series of sensors positioned strategically throughout the automobile on its laborious systems. The sensors are commonly detecting conditions while sending data to the computerized control unit. If the computerized 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 exactly is untrue nor what to do about it. That’s where we come in; Coggin Ford Jacksonville provides a Check Engine Light Diagnosis Service that isolates the core problem and gives you a recommendation on what to do next from a Extremely Qualified Service expert.

2013 Ford F-150 Check Engine Light

If the check engine light in your 2013 Ford F-150 starts flashing, that means that the problem needs fast attention and your Ford should be brought in immediately. A flashing light indicates that the problem is active and if not taken care of immediately may result in dominant damage to the vehicle. This shining light usually expresses a severe engine misfire allowing unburned fuel to be dumped into the exhaust system. There it can instantly raise the temperature of the catalytic converter to a point where damage is viable, requiring an expensive repair. A Bit owners ask if spark plugs cause the check engine light to flash? This can explicitly be the cause. A bad, old or dirty spark plug can cause the engine to misfire. If your check engine light is flashing, please contact our team of automotive experts at Coggin Ford Jacksonville suddenly by calling 9047478996. 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 expensive repair.

Will the check engine light reset itself?

The check engine light on your 2013 Ford F-150 will usually shut itself off if the issue or code that caused it to turn on is fixed. 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 factual, and you did a lot 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 2013 Ford F-150 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 Coggin Ford Jacksonville so the light and code can be double-checked and reset.

What Does the Check Engine Light Mean?

One of the most generally misunderstood lights or indicators in your 2013 Ford F-150 is the check engine light. The check engine light is part of the onboard diagnostics system, and displays in a few contrasting ways. It can say "Check Engine", it can be a symbol of an engine, it can even be a combination of both. This light illuminates 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 2013 Ford F-150. Some of these include shifting automatic transmissions ignition timing, controlling engine speed, and implementing stability control, just to name a lot. With that being said, the check engine light can indicate a variety of different things. It can be as prevailing as your gas cap being loose or as perilous as engine knocking. If your check engine light is on in your 2013 Ford F-150, contact Coggin Ford Jacksonville. Contact Coggin Ford Jacksonville today! Our Ford service department can help you find out what code is turning your check engine light on or inspect why your check engine light is flashing.

Check Engine Light Service 2013 Ford F-150

What do you do when you’re driving along in your Ford F-150 and suddenly, a yellow light illuminates on your dash and says "Check Engine". If you’re like most Ford owners, your heart sinks some 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 cost of the unknown) can be just as stressful. But take a deep breath and realize the light coming on doesn’t represent 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 2013 Ford F-150 checked as soon as feasible. Ignoring that warning could end up causing major damage to expensive engine components.

When your 2013 Ford F-150's ECM (electronic control module), which is the vehicle's onboard computer, finds a problem in the computerized control system that it can’t archival, a computer turns on your check engine light. This amber or yellow light is mostly 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 determine with an electronic scan tool that is used by our Ford auto repair mechanics at Coggin Ford Jacksonville. There are also a number of relatively inexpensive code readers that are designed for do-it-yourselfers, should you edge that route too. While this code will tell you the issue that is detected, a true diagnosis still requires an skilled skilled to determine the issue and repair it.

2013 Ford F-150 Check Engine Light Codes

The check engine light turning on can be quite intimidating to see that little light on your vehicle’s dashboard suddenly illuminates, but in reality, it is not something that should cause you to shut down in fear noble 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 F-150. There are hundreds of definite codes that your check engine light can represent. While that sounds daunting, with a little patience, tackling crucial diagnostics will give you essential knowledge about your vehicle and will also allow that Check Engine Light to do what it is truly supposed to do: be your guide. Unfortunately, clear and functional vehicle symptoms do not always accompany an illuminated Check Engine Light. Since there are hundreds of likely OBD codes, there are also hundreds of likely reasons for the light, including:

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

This is why it is extraordinary for someone who does not have a lot of automotive knowledge to not assume what a code means. Call Coggin Ford Jacksonville at 9047478996 today or schedule your check engine light service online today! If the engine light comes on due to a exacting concern, you risk bad your car further by not repairing the issue noble away. When your check engine light comes on, you should get it checked out promptly by a certified Ford mechanic.

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 properly tightened to a more memorable failure like a destructive catalytic converter or a problem with one of the car's oxygen sensors, so it satisfying to get the suitable code reading and diagnosis. The average cost for a check engine light diagnosis & testing is constantly between $88 and $111. The satisfying news, Coggin Ford Jacksonville offers complimentary multi-point inspections and free diagnostics, in most cases, to help select the cause of your check engine light.