Hi guys, extremely stupid question from a guy who doesn't know squat about engines, but is trying to learn ( and yeah, loves his car). SES light comes on intermittently in my car, comes on at times, goes off etc. driving me nuts, so figured would check the code. Haynes manual says to put jumper wire in from diagnostic terminal to ground terminal in diagnostic link, and says that code 12 will flash on CHECK ENGINE light. First question: is the SES light same as CHECK ENGINE light? if not, whereabouts on the dash is it located (i.e, RPM gauge, speedo gauge etc). Second question: If code 12 "flashes", what does that mean? Manual says one short flash followed by two quick flashes. Also says, any other codes will "flash" after that. Does that mean that the number 12 will come on like a digital readout in the CHECK ENGINE light, followed for eg, by code 32???? Thanks!!!!

 

Yep, SES light is the Check Engine light.

Flashing 12 means:

Flash
(pause)
Flash Flash

That's a code 12. Each code flashes 3 times, then moves onto the next. When you get back to 12, you're out of codes.

Code 12 means the distributor isn't getting any pulses- which makes sense, because the engine isn't running.

32 would come up as
Flash Flash Flash
(pause)
Flash Flash

 

Thanks Tom! makes a lot of sense now!