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It seemed like a good idea at the time. I accidentally planned a business meeting in Montreal at 9:00 AM on a Tuesday morning, followed by two days at Lime Rock on Wednesday and Thursday. Of course, with roughly four hundred miles each way between home in New Jersey and my client’s office in Montreal, it would be pretty tough to make the round trip in time to turn around and head back out for the two and a half hour ride to Lime Rock. So, I decided to do what any reasonable person would do; I packed up my twenty seven year old 911SC, threw in my clothes bag, briefcase, tools and helmet, and headed up the New York Thruway into the Great White North.
It all was working out beautifully. The three liter engine of my 911 settled into a beautiful, cacophonous mix - part mechanical, part whirring from the huge engine fan. I got into such a groove that I drove non-stop, past Albany, past Saratoga, through Lake George, all the way until the “sortie” signs clued me in that the US/Canadian border was approaching. I took the last exit in New York for a McDonald’s and gasoline break.
These are just a few of the many things that we have heard over the years regarding that infamous and dreaded little light in your dash: the Check Engine Light (CEL) But what does that little light actually mean? And unlike the Mayan prediction of the end of the world, your problem may be very minor – or it just may indicate a larger, more obscure problem.
On-Board Diagnostics System
Use of the CEL began with the introduction of the On-Board Diagnostics II system (OBD) starting in 1996. This system is a government mandated vehicle component that automatically checks and tests various vehicle emissions control items.
The annual NNJR-PCA Tricky Tray Charity Auction was held on December 14 at the Villa in Mountain Lakes and was once again, a well-attended and highly-successful fund raising event. For the second year, our beneficiary was the Somerset Hills Learning Institute (SHLI), a school in Bedminster, NJ for children and adolescents with autism. We raised $16,250 during the evening for the school and when combined with other fund raising events during the year (Trek for the Kids, Taste of the Track, and 50/50's), we were able to raise a record amount for our charitable contribution this year! Helmets off to everyone in the Club for all of the donations and work during the year, especially in this challenging economic environment.
So the story goes that Howard Mintz, our autocross chair from 2004-2007, had lured me in as his successor with the promise of very little amount of work, exceptional help all around, and the added bonus of being afforded the opportunity to write a magazine article each month! Wow, that sounded pretty cool! I happily stepped up to the challenge. I mean, who wouldn’t? In retrospect, I should have noticed how happily Howard skipped away, pausing only to click his heals in a Dick Van Dyke-y, “Hey we just got Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang up and running and ain’t that swell” kind of way. A broken back and 10,000 cones later, I wearily handed my set of keys to the club van over to Tom and Tom, Iervolino and DePascale, respectively (or not, since they are both Tom), with a smile and a wave. Any how, I probably used the same used car salesman trick that Howard Mintz employed...a little Armor All on the tires, new cones on top of the old, mangled ones...you know the deal.
