My 02 Monte Carlo SS just had the check engine light come on, and its staying on.

I was driving back here from Jeff City on 63, and it came on, and I popped the hood when I got back, and I'm not car person, but I figured if something was majorly wrong i'd notice it, and nothing seemed out of place. The car ran perfectly fine, its just that stupid light.

Where in town should I take it? Is there a Chevy Dealership that I can just go to? or is there a better mechanic around that can diagnose it? or what should I do?

The GM dealer is about a mile west of 63 on Kings Highway, when the check engine light came on in my Camaro, they looked at it without charging me anything.

I know the chevy dealer where I live you can just drive up without calling before. Do I need to call to tell them I'm coming, or can I just show up.

It's a GM car, a CEL is normal behavior.

I know my sisters check engine light comes on randomly for the hell of it. But turning on and off my car after a while and its still on...

Autozone will also put a scanner on it for free. Although i usually hate Autozone, hey, its free.

But if you aren't a car person and won't be working on it yourself taking it to Autozone for a code scan won't do you any good.

It is proably a emissions problem, or even a gas cap not tightened all the way. Shouldn't hurt the car if you keep driving it with it on for now.

some of these might sound like a stupid idea, but there is logic to them.

unhook the battery for a minute.
check your oil & water.
check when your last oil change was reset.
read your manual.
take your gas cap off & release any pressure.
get fresh gas.
look for loose wires.
try to find the procedure for on board diagnostics.

if those don't work... if you (or your parents) can afford an '02, you can afford to take it to a dealer.

That'll reset his check engine light, but not solve any problem. I'd suggest taking it to autozone and getting them to give you the code. Then you can take it to a dealer and tell them the code and find out whether it's something detrimental that needs repair or some lame emissions problem.

In reagrds to the gas cap; on my car if for some reason I do not put in on all the way the engine light will come on after driving a few miles.

GM has a built in feature that when you hit certain mileage, the check engine light comes on. This has happened to all of my GM vehicles.

yeah, my old grand am would just randomly flip on the CEL...god was it annoying. Nothing was wrong and the dealer could never figure out why.

The check engine light in my 00 Cavalier came on a few months ago. A traction control light also came on, and I don't even have traction control. I got it checked out. It cost me $130 to find out that some damn squirrels chewed the wiring and to get it fixed.

This happened to my car recently.

First, check that the gas cap is screwed on tightly.
Did you drive through any water? Apparently, that can cause the light to come on for a few days before it dries out. I was told that as long as the light is not flashing that you should be fine driving it.

Usually its some bad sensor or something...... some are easier to replace than others...... go to auto zone.... chevy dealer or you can buy an OBD II code reader on ebay for like 50 comes in handy if the light comes on frequently..... plug it in and read away

by the way I have a 97 Taurus its the king of CEL............