Although this has nothing to do with my normal posts around the local internet space, I thought I would post this in case any other people have had this problem.

Here is what happened. I was driving back from Saskatoon to Calgary and usually do a quick pit stop at Hanna for some fuel. Heading westbound I stopped at Brandy’s Gas Bar Ltd. This is a Esso branded gas station if you collect Esso Extra points. BTW – only complaint, this location has 1 washroom for men and 1 for women and considering how busy it is, they really should expand – the line-ups are stupid, especially on long-weekends.

Back to the Mazda 6 issue. I pulled up to one of the pumps and opened the gas cap only. I released that the gas pump itself was “out of service” so I started up the car and pulled it around to another pump. I did not put the gas cap back on during this 10 second drive. After filling up and paying we were ready to hit the road. This is when the Check Engine Light came on.

I was concerned about this especially when you are a couple of hours from home and after leaving Hanna there is nothing for the next hour. We concluded that it is likely a result of the little drive around the pumps with the gas cap off and continued back to Calgary. The Mazda 6 drove smoothly back to Calgary – Zoom Zoom.

I was hoping that if the car sat for an evening that the engine light would reset itself, otherwise, I was going to have to take it to get reset. The car sat for the evening and the next morning, the light was still on. I was thinking this was going to require a trip to Fountain Tire or Kramer Mazda for a reset.

Day Two: the light was still on in the morning. In the afternoon, I went to pick up my wife at the hospital. I turned the car off while waiting and when I started it back up – voila – the Check Engine Light was no longer on. I don’t know why it went off at this time, but it did. I am sure somebody out there can explain the specifics of what happened.

Morale of the store:

1) Don’t move your car with the gas cap off
2) If you do and the Check Engine Light is on, you should be okay and it might go away on its own. Alternately you can have it reset at Garage Auto Repair Shop.

Well my vacation is now done so I will resume regular posting about my favorite subject – Internet Marketing.