With the age of your truck, its a good bet that its the hoses to the evap canister located under the truck up in the frame rails on the drivers side about midway. If any of the hoses look deteriorated at all, replace them. BTW--the key cycling method works on mine. Turn it to "on" three times w/o starting the engine, leaving it in the "on" position the third time---codes show on the odometer. Can't do anything with them, but could come back here to find out what they mean.

 

There is a reason dealerships charge a diagnostic fee. The techs are usually paid flat rate pay, meaning they don't get paid if they are not working, they don't get paid to give away free diagnostics. The autozone boys are hourly paid and can afford to stop working and pull the codes. Plus the diagnostic equip at the dealer is very expensive and the consumer has to help pay for the equipment. Add to that that the autozone boys probally can't tell you anything but what the code is and you have to find out for your self what the code means...

 

yeah there were two teachers who ran the diagnostic and one of them said something about the evap can.

 

ahhh..this morning as i was getting ready to go to work, my check engine light CAME BACK ON!!! So what should I do bring it to a dealer

 

Course it came back on...you didn't fix anything. Look at the evap canister and lines like several other guys have told you.

 

regardless, i wouldn't know whats wrong with it, i don't even know what it looks like when it's running properly

 

is it possible it can be the cat converter?

 

works on a '02, cycle the key get the code, come back here and do a search for that code. most likely come up with a hit of someone else getting that code and what they did to fix it. try that first and go from there

 

ok how do i do this? cycle the battery on off 3 times then start up on the 4th time?

edit: cycled the battery 3 times and got the code P 0442 i'll look it up right now..

 

take off the gas cap and check the gasket for cracks/splits or whatever. if its good put it back on and tighten it up

under the truck near the gas tank are the evap hoses, check for cracks/splits/cuts due to weathering.