Learning about Check Engine Lights and a couple of Sunsets

As I was driving back from the Red Feather Lakes area last week, I got a check engine light while the VRRV was climbing a hill. 

It was a code P0171, new one to me....not the usual P0191 which I believed to be an O2 Sensor fault. (Reporting too lean fuel mix)

I have this inability to not be able to continue driving without clearing the check engine light first, so I did using the scan gauge device. 

This week I took the VRRV through the mechanic to have them look at that P0171 error.  

Turns out, I should not have cleared the check engine light by erasing the code before the mechanic could do a full diagnosis. 

Turns out, that along with clearing the code I also cleared what can be referred to as a freeze frame of existing engine conditions at the time of the error!  This is data that is key to letting the mechanic figure out what's going on.  Doh!

I also learned, that a steady check engine light is just reporting error codes and it's okay to continue driving until you can have the codes looked at. 

However, if the check engine light is blinking, that is bad and you need to stop driving immediately and have the vehicle towed to the mechanic in most cases. 

Tuesday Sunset with Brigitta:

My Sony A6000 has started acting up since last week.  Got the apparently common "camera error, turn power and back on" issue.  The camera becomes unresponsive and you have to take the battery out for it to boot up again. 

Tried all the "fixes" on Google, but they don't last.  Something with the shutter mechanism I believe.

Just as well that I rarely use it anymore, mostly for sunset shots. In fact,  I don't think I used it much if at all the second half of the Iberian Wanderings trip!

This may be the last pic for this blog from the A6000:

Thursday Sunset 

The mechanic hasn't found anything conclusive are the check engine codes I reported.  I'm to drive it some more and see if the codes come back. He suspects it's a possible fuel supply issue, leading to lean fuel mixtures under high engine loads.