Hello all. I am new to DF. I have a mechanical question. I've had my 2008 Avenger for 3 years now and I have a new problem. I live in Cleveland Ohio, and for the past month the weather has been extremely cold/freezing. Last month, my ETC (lightning bolt) and engine light came on when I started my car after work. It was very cold that day (about 20 degrees) and we park outside. I checked the manual but didn't really understand. I figured it had something to do with the cold so I let it run for about 15 mins. It still was not funny warm. I drove about 1 mile to the gas station. I got gas, and when I started back up, the ETC was gone. It happened again about 2 weeks later. Same scenario. Letting it run and restarting the car clears it. The light never flashes. Lately, however, when idle the car sputters a bit. It shut off once, but came back on after restart. The ETC light was on that morning but it was cleared. I did read the ETC light could cause a rough idle. Last week, same scenario, but this time my heat stopped working when idle. I let the car warm up but the windows never defrosted. I switched to vents and thats when I discovered the heat was blowing cold. I checked Google and read that revving the engine kicked it back on. I tried that and it worked. This happens every morning now, regardless to ETC light. Is there a problem I should be looking out for? I really cannot afford to take my car for service NOW but I will in the near future. Should I stop driving to avoid any bigger problems? I can catch the bus but I have a car!

 

You need to do the key dance. Off to run 3 times and on the third time leave it in the run. In the odometer area you should see some numbers or flashes that will give the relavent fault codes. Use the search tool here on the forum to get better instructions on how to use the key dance and what the codes mean. On the heat issue, with it being really cold have you had your antifreeze level and status checked? With the cold that has been happening you probably want it mixed to at least -45F.