That time a mechanic in Denver told me to ignore my check engine light for a loose gas cap

Hugo Baker · 2026-04-28T06:45:04.099216+00:00

So I'm driving through Denver last summer and my check engine light pops up. I'm freaking out thinking it's something major. I pull into this tiny garage off Colfax and the old mechanic just glances at my dash, doesn't even hook up a scanner. He says tighten your gas cap and drive it for a day, it'll go away. I thought he was brushing me off, didn't believe him at all. But I did it anyway because what else was I gonna do. Sure enough the next morning the light was gone. He was dead right and I felt like an idiot for overthinking it. Has anyone else had a quick fix like that actually work out?

abbycraig4mo ago

omg did your catalytic converter really go right after that? that's wild, my uncle had a similar thing with his old subaru where the check engine light would come on every time he drove through a puddle so he just ignored it for like a year lol

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william3202mo ago

Paul is wrong, that old mechanic saved you time and money.

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paul_lane804mo ago

Wait, so you're saying you actually fell for that? A mechanic who won't even plug in a scanner is exactly the kind of guy who misses real problems. That gas cap thing is the oldest trick in the book for lazy mechanics to just get you out of the shop. I had a similar light come on in my old truck, tightened the cap, light went off, then two weeks later my catalytic converter was shot because a vacuum leak kept throwing off the air-fuel mix. That Denver guy probably just wanted to avoid a real diagnostic job that would take him an hour. You got lucky, but that advice is how people end up with thousand dollar repairs that could've been caught early.

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