Recently, my car has been behaving very strangely.

The battery light comes on and stays on for the duration of the trip.
The lights on the left side of the cluster flash and the odomiter will flash from 'Trip' to "everything lit".

I decided tonight to check the fuse box and perhaps unhok the battery and retighten the connections.
Upon opening the hood I was surprised and shocked to see the Oil Cap missing from the top of the engine!?

No oil on the hood or over the engine, but I was like. WTF!, wheres my Cap gone!?
I can only assume its somewhere on I4.

Perhaps that has somethig to do with the strange behavior of my dials?.

Anyone know an easy replacement for the cap?. This happens to be my only vehicle, so I have no option but to drive it.

 

Just go to a local autoparts store and get a replacement cap for a few bucks.

it's the easiest thing rather than driving around without it on. and it's probably only a few bucks....

 

Your other problem sounds alot like an alternator.

 

I was thinking "Altinator"
But there is an alert for the altinator... and its been running and starting fine.
No problems with actual voltage it seems.

Today I discovered that if I let the car coast, the dials stop flashing.
If I hit the gas and accelerate, the flashing worsens.
Im going to get a new oil cap and see what happens.

 

Ah hah.
Very strange.

New oil cap.

No battery light or flashing dials.

Now thats weird!

Its obviously tripping a sencor under the hood, but the ECU doesnt know how to interprate the signals. Im amazingly glad it wasnt an electrical but the symptom was confusing.

 

Good!