Had my driver side lower control arm/ball joint replaced recently and while driving it home from the shop I noticed that the 'check engine' light is on. It was not on before the work was done, in fact it has never been on. What could possibly cause the check engine light to come on after suspension work? Have not checked any codes yet (I have some reading to do before I even know how to do that) but it doesn't seem like the two should even be related. Only other thing I can think of is that we are currently in a heatwave here and I let the gas tank go all the way to empty. Any ideas? Thanks!

 

Sure it could if you have a power steering switch on the rack n pinion. Can you find out what the code is and post.

 

Went to Advance Auto Parts and had them read the code for me:

P0138 (O2 sensor)

Could this possibly be caused by allowing the gas tank to get too empty this past week and/or the high heat we've been experiencing lately? The vehicle was running a little rough right before I filled the tank and now it sounds much better. At any rate, he reset the computer so I guess we'll just wait and see if it comes back on. Thanks for any ideas.

 

If you noticed this right after the repair, I'd bet that the O2 sensor wire(s) got disconnected while it was being worked on.

 

Thanks very much guys. I'll be seeing the mechanic again in a few days so I'll ask him if he thinks the suspension work may have set off the O2 sensor code. In the meantime, the computer was reset and the light hasn't come back on so hopefully it was just a transient thing. The only reason I thought it might be fuel-related is because I let the gas tank get way too empty in this heat, the engine was running kinda rough, and I remembered that older cars sometimes had vapor lock issues. Thanks again.

 

Well the check engine light came on again so I guess the code is 'real' and will have to be investigated.

P0138 (O2 sensor)

I'll check with my mechanic and see if anything got disconnected during the suspension work. The work that was done is: passenger cv axle, drivers lower control arm and sway bar link. Are any of these near where an O2 sensor could have been affected? Like I said earlier, the light came on immediately after having the suspension work performed.

Thanks,

Dig