VW Atlas Cross Sport Check Engine Light Codes
The check engine light turning on can be quite intimidating to see that miniature light on your vehicle’s dashboard suddenly 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 Atlas Cross Sport. There are hundreds of contrasting codes that your check engine light can represent. While that sounds daunting, with a miniature patience, tackling critical diagnostics will give you cooperative knowledge about your vehicle and will also allow that Check Engine Light to do what it is really supposed to do: be your guide. Unfortunately, fitting and noteworthy vehicle symptoms do not always accompany an illuminated Check Engine Light. Since there are hundreds of accessible OBD codes, there are also hundreds of accessible reasons for the light, including:
- Loose Gas Cap or Missing Gas Cap
- Old Battery
- O2 Sensor
- Emissions controls issues
- Ignition system faults
- Bad Spark Plugs
- Computer output circuit issues
- Transmission issues
- Fuel and air metering systems problems
This is why it is breathtaking 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 hastily by a certified Volkswagen mechanic. If the engine light comes on due to a perilous concern, you risk damaging your vehicle further by not repairing the issue right away. Call Nalley Volkswagen of Alpharetta at 7706299081 today or schedule your check engine light service online today!
Is it safe to drive your VW Atlas Cross Sport with the check engine light on?
This question is not very authentic 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 frequently indicated by a steady 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 unhealthy problem. If the check engine light is flashing, this means that there is a unhealthy issue and it is recommended to service your VW Atlas Cross Sport expeditiously. Call the mentors at Nalley Volkswagen of Alpharetta by dialing 7706299081 so you can describe the issues. Or reduce your speed and bring your VW to our certified mechanics as soon as potential.
What could cause the check engine light to come on in a VW Atlas Cross Sport?
When your check engine light comes on, this could be as simple as tightening or replacing your gas cap. Likewise, the check engine light could also be a warning of a unhealthy problem that could cause unhealthy damage to your engine and come with a considerable repair bill. Depending on your make and model, the check engine light will illuminate or blink. A dependable glow consistently means something less unhealthy but a flashing check engine light hints that your vehicle’s engine is in unhealthy trouble and service is needed immediately. If your check engine light is flashing in your VW Atlas Cross Sport, we highly recommend not to drive the vehicle and schedule VW service today. Below is a list of the most pure reasons your check engine light can come on:
- New Spark Plugs or Plug Wires are fundamental for your Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport. 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 harmful or old, 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 damage to ignition coils and O2 sensors, extensive to more expensive repairs.
- The battery is low or dead. The battery in your VW Atlas Cross Sport is every crucial. 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 various decades ago, and they don't actually require maintenance. The price of a new one depends on the type of Volkswagen you drive, but check our current service coupons and specials.
- One of the most present and frequent cause is that your VW Atlas Cross Sport gas cap is loose, damaged or missing. The gas cap for your Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport 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 harmful 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 today after you put gas in your VW Atlas Cross Sport, authentic thing you should check is to make convinced the cap isn’t loose — or that it's still on your car’s roof or at the fuel pump.
- Your catalytic converter is harmful or going harmful. The catalytic converter is a part of your VW Atlas Cross Sport’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 Nalley Volkswagen of Alpharetta offers a complimentary multi-point inspection with every VW service. If you have an issue with your catalytic converter and don't get it fixed, your VW Atlas Cross Sport 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 other problems from overheating.
- Your mass airflow sensor (known as MAF) needs to be changed. The mass airflow sensor in your VW Atlas Cross Sport is what determines how much fuel is fundamental 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 definite changes, like altitude. If your Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport 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 harmful mass airflow sensor.
- Your O2 Sensor (Oxygen Sensor) needs to be changed. 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 realistic 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 VW Atlas Cross Sport's spark plugs. The O2 sensor sends data to the vehicle’s onboard computer to represent the right mixture of air and fuel that enters the cylinders in your engine. A harmful O2 sensor can also cause a car to fail an emissions test.
- Issues with any aftermarket items. An aftermarket alarm, exhaust or other item can wreak havoc on your Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport if it’s not installed perfectly. These aftermarket parts and accessories can drain the battery, trigger the check engine light, or even prevent the vehicle from starting. If these issues sound amiable, bring your Atlas Cross Sport to VW and have our team of certified mechanics ensure that your aftermarket items were installed correctly and aren't causing any issue. Getting accessories, exceptionally aftermarket parts and accessories, or using OEM parts authentic place might price a miniature bit more but could save you money from having to get poor work and damage caused by poor installation work corrected.
- Your VW Atlas Cross Sport has a vacuum leak. Every VW Atlas Cross Sport has a vacuum system that performs a wide variety of functions. The vacuum system also helps decrease 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, exceptionally if they’re exposed to exciting heat or extreme cold.
What Does the Check Engine Light Mean?
One of the most constantly misunderstood lights or indicators in your VW Atlas Cross Sport is the check engine light. The check engine light is part of the onboard diagnostics system, and displays in a few exact 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 Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport. Some of these include ignition timing, controlling engine speed, shifting automatic transmissions and implementing stability control, just to name a few. With that being said, the check engine light can choose a assortment of various things. It can be as prevalent as your gas cap being loose or as risky as engine knocking. If your check engine light is on in your VW Atlas Cross Sport, contact Nalley Volkswagen of Alpharetta. Contact Nalley Volkswagen of Alpharetta today! Our VW service department can assist you find out what code is turning your check engine light on or diagnose why your check engine light is flashing.
Check Engine Light Service Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport
What do you do when you’re driving along in your VW Atlas Cross Sport and abruptly, a yellow light illuminates on your dash and says "Check Engine". If you’re like most Volkswagen owners, your heart sinks a small because you have small 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 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 VW Atlas Cross Sport checked as soon as probable. Ignoring that warning could end up causing primary damage to fancy engine components.
When your VW Atlas Cross Sport's ECM (electronic control module), which is the vehicle's onboard computer, finds a problem in the electronic control system that it can’t acceptable, a computer turns on your check engine light. This amber or yellow light is ordinarily 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 read with an electronic observe tool that is used by our VW auto repair mechanics at Nalley Volkswagen of Alpharetta. There are also a number of comparatively inexpensive code readers that are designed for do-it-yourselfers, should you favor that route too. While this code will tell you the issue that is detected, a true diagnosis still requires an experienced professional to determine the issue and repair it.
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 correctly tightened to a more correct failure like a bad catalytic converter or a problem with one of the car's oxygen sensors, so it comfortable to get the common code reading and diagnosis. The central estimate for a check engine light diagnosis & testing is frequently between $88 and $111. The comfortable news, Nalley Volkswagen of Alpharetta offers complimentary multi-point inspections and free diagnostics, in most cases, to aid mean the cause of your check engine light.
Will the check engine light reset itself?
The check engine light on your Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport 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 VW Atlas Cross Sport light will go off after about 20-40 miles. If you drive over that reward and the light is still on, you will need to bring it in to Nalley Volkswagen of Alpharetta so the light and code can be double-checked and reset.
VW Atlas Cross Sport Check Engine Light Flashing
Although there are many possible causes of an illuminated Check Engine Light, we know from years of providing Check Engine Light Diagnosis Service that there are plentiful innate causes encompassing something as cordial as a loose gas cap. Further innate reasons for a Check Engine Light are damaged oxygen sensor, faulty emissions control part, a malfunction with the fuel injection system, dirty mass airflow sensor, faulty head gasket, or defective spark plugs to name a few. No matter what is the root cause of the Check Engine Light, we have the Volkswagen Certified Mechanics and the certified service protocol to isolate the root problem and repair it as necessary to restore factory specifications. When this happens, the Check Engine Light turns off, and you can leave the service center knowing that your VW issue was fixed.
Every Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport was designed with a high-technology performance monitoring system with a computer, and a series of sensors positioned strategically throughout the vehicle on its hard 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 exactly is amiss nor what to do about it. That’s where we come in; Nalley Volkswagen of Alpharetta provides a Check Engine Light Diagnosis Service that isolates the core problem and gives you a recommendation on what to do next from a Very Qualified Service trained.
How many miles can you drive with the check engine light?
Since each check engine code has its own level of severity, it is not straightforward to predict how many miles you can drive with the warning light on. The safest bet is to decipher the code and then plan your strategy accordingly. If you check engine light is flashing, we suggest that you pull over and contact Nalley Volkswagen of Alpharetta to help select if your vehicle is safe to drive in or if we suggest a tow truck. It could be anything from a bad sensor to plug wires needing to be replaced.
VW Atlas Cross Sport Check Engine Light
A flashing light indicates that the problem is curious and if not taken care of quickly may result in important damage to the vehicle. If the check engine light in your VW Atlas Cross Sport starts flashing, that means that the problem needs hasty attention and your Volkswagen should be brought in quickly. This blinking light usually indicates a severe engine misfire allowing unburned fuel to be jettisoned into the exhaust system. There it can quickly boost the temperature of the catalytic converter to a point where break is probable, requiring an expensive repair. Some owners ask if spark plugs cause the check engine light to flash? This can specifically be the cause. A bad, popular or dirty spark plug can cause the engine to misfire. 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 pricey repair. If your check engine light is flashing, please contact our unit of automotive experts at Nalley Volkswagen of Alpharetta immediately by calling 7706299081.