Looooong story, short, 5 quarts of 10W40 got into my 02 ram for about 3 miles. It tripped the check engine light (no suprise).

My remedy has been: Immediate drain of engine, replaced with 5 quarts of 5W30 (did not change the filter). I also removed the negative battery cable overnight. This did reset the computer as the check engine light was off this passed Monday morning. Since then, about 50 miles have been put on the truck and the light has just come back on today. Could this be caused to an "old code" still out in the computer?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I hope nothing has been damaged by this and I would absolutely prefer to not take it to a dealer for this.

thx,

 

First of all, I highly doubt that the 10w40 oil would have done any damage to the engine, much less throw a code. I think that it is a coincidence that the code was thrown. I'd do the on off on off on off on key trick and find out what the code is. Then we can demistify this for you.

 

Thanks osteo, that was my gut feeling. Couldn't imagine that the oil would trigger an engine malfunction.

Regarding the on-off trick, I am in the dark on this one. Could you lend me a little more info? Do I turn the ignition on off 3 times and then it kicks out SOS style lights somewhere? thx.

 

You have to turn the key on and off 3 times without starting the engine. The third time leave it on and it should post a code on you odometer.

 

Exactly what HuskyJazz stated. Your lights will flash and your gauges will sweep and it should pop up any codes where the digital odometer is.

 

Got it......P 0442. Please tell me this is a "silly" code........

 

P0442 Evaporative Emission Control System Leak Detected (small leak)

Check your gas cap. If not the gas cap, look for cracks and dry rot in the rubber hoses that go to the charcoal canister. This code has nothing to do wiht the oil you used.

 

how do you guys know what the codes mean? do yall have a site yall look em up with or do yall have a diagnostic machine that yall can look it up on or what?

 

error codes

another post in this forum has all the codes listed. It has helped me out.

 

Here 's a link to a list https://dodgeforum.com/m_126008/tm.htm