I have a 1998 Mercury Sable. the check engine light is on. Could this be due to a faulty fuel cap? the car mechanic said all the diagnostic check ups were fine.
Edited by: barb

Perhaps its a misfire code. I was thinking it might be a faulty ignition control module. You may try unplugging the battery cable and if still nothing happened, it might be a faulty fuel injector.

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It could be a bad fuel cap or that the fuel cap was not tight. If you took it to a Lincoln Mercury dealer and they hooked your car to the computer, the codes would have told him if it was the fuel cap or something else. By you saying the diagnostic check ups were fine, leads me to believe that he did that. If the light was on, there is or was a code on the computer. What did the code say?


Unplugging the battery, may very well cut the light off, but not the best alternative. It is only a temporary solution. If there is something wrong with the car, it will just come one again. I agree with petty that if you unhook the battery, and clear the code and it doesn''t come back on. It would probably be a misfire of some kind. One of our technicians told me once that a car needs three things to run. Air, Fuel, and fire. A misfire could be something as simple as poor quality fuel, or it could be an indicator to a bigger problem.





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does the light stay on? does it blink? how long does it stay on?


I need a little more info.


a misfire is the first thing that would of came up on the computer code puller.


Yes it can be the cap.maybe he overlooked the cap. if it was loose and then you tightened it or refuled when the car was running it will set the code. if you tighten it the code stays on for 15 minutes even after the fix. Also, just disconnecting the battery will not clear the codes. you have to pull the fuse to the module or computer also. So disconnect battery, pull fuses, and waite 15 minutes. these cars have a power backup that will put the codes back on if you do not waite. the other way is to hook up a scantool and delete the codes.