The check engine light is a great early warning for upcoming maintenance, cleanup, or repair, but once you’ve driven your car for a few years, you’ll know exactly what the next maintenance step is.
The annoying part is that the check engine light is turned on by occasional or trivial problems that you don’t have to address anytime soon.
Resetting the code with an OBD2 scanner or disconnecting the battery works for a while, but the car’s computer will inevitably throw the same code again. For this reason, we’ll explore the possible ways to disable the check engine light permanently.
It is not possible to disable the check engine light permanently on the modern digital dashboards, but it’s still doable on older cars. To disable the light, you’ll have to pull out the dashboard and clip the wire that provides power to the diode.
How to Disable the Check Engine Light
There are a variety of ways if you’re looking how to disable the check engine light and some don’t even require tools or complicated methods. Here are some of our favorite ways to disable check engine lights permanently.
Long Car Drives
Driving your vehicle for a longer period than normal can often cause your vehicle’s mainframe to retune which can lead to any issues resolving themselves so your check engine light will be disabled and hopefully not come back on without any reason to.
If you have gone out of your way to drive for longer periods over 3 days and still find that your vehicle’s check engine light is on then you may want to try another method.
Battery Disconnect
Regardless of what vehicle you have, you can use your vehicle’s battery to your advantage to give the effect of a refresh. Open the hood of your vehicle and locate the battery, use a wrench to remove the positive power cable.
Leave the battery disconnected for at least 30 minutes and then turn your ignition on three times in succession.
From there you can reconnect your positive cable back to the battery terminal and wait a moment to see if the check engine light has been disabled.
Code Readers
If you find that disconnecting the battery isn’t enough then you can use an OBD code reader to scan for the error codes in your engine that need resolving. Connect the code reader to the port in the dashboard of your car, it may be behind the fuse box door.
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Once your reader is connected, press “Enter” and it will start checking for any error codes and display them. Remove any fault codes you find and see if this resolves the check engine light on your dash.
Turn Your Car On and Off Consecutively
Another simple option can help you assess if there are any problems with the codes on your software, but it may not work if your car doesn’t have an automatic reset on trouble codes.
Put your key into the ignition and turn it on, then off 3 times consecutively in sequence to reset any codes your car might have. This may seem simple, but many people find it fixes their car and leaves them wishing they tried it sooner.
Deleting Engine Codes
The last method may be the most tricky, but it is also the most effective way if you’re looking at how to disable any check engine light. You can remove the check engine light fuse from your car or take the riskier option and delete the engine codes permanently which isn’t advised.
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Removing the check engine light fuse only requires an OBD code reader.
- Start by plugging your code reader in and putting your ignition on but do not start the engine)
- Turn off anything else such as lights, radios, etc apart from the check engine light, and get your reader to scan for codes.
- Find the error code using the symbols you see and delete them and then turn your ignition off.
- Remove your scanner and reset your vehicle by removing the negative battery cable to remove all energy from the capacitor
Permenantly deleting the engine codes is a very risky job and shouldn’t be done without serious consideration and a conversation with a mechanic.
This is often seen as a last resort and takes a lot more steps in comparison to other methods, but make sure you try all the other methods before deciding to come to this final step.
- Make sure your car is parked on level ground and keep your parking brake engaged.
- Remove your negative cables from the car battery using a wrench, then remove the two positive cables too.
- Switch your ignition on and off five times then push your horn for 30 seconds.
- Connect the positive cables on your battery, then the negative and make sure they are properly fitted.
- Startup your car and wait for the engine to heat up then the light should no longer be illuminated.
FAQs
How can I bypass the check engine light?
Disconnecting your battery for at least 30 seconds and following with a full drive cycle should bypass your check engine light.
Can you disable the engine management light?
Turning your ignition on and off 3 times consecutively can have the same outcome as disconnecting the battery and help to disable your engine management light.
Where is the engine fuse box?
The engine fuse box can be found within the engine compartment, along the driver’s side, in the driver’s footwell, or in the glove compartment of your vehicle.
How many fuse boxes are there?
Most vehicles come equipped with two fuse boxes, one within the engine compartment, and are designed to protect the engine control unit, cooling system, and anti-lock brake pump.
Conclusion
Disabling your check engine light permanently is not entirely possible, as modern dashboards do not allow for physical modification. However, you can still disable the light long-term by using one of the methods we’ve provided.
If you want to know how to disable the check engine light then the quickest methods can be as simple as going for a long drive, turning your ignition on and off three times, or even disconnecting the batteries.
Here are some more articles for you to check out:
Check Engine Light Flashing and Traction Control Light On (Common Causes)
Check Engine Light Comes On and Off By Itself: (Why Does It Do That?)
Can Cold Weather Cause the Check Engine Light to Come On?