Check Engine Light Comes on when going up hills
 

Alright.. I don't know to much about cars to know what the problem is...
So heres my story..
Everytime I drive on this spacific freeway. theres a steep incline. very steep for a freeway actually.. but anyway.. When I'm going about roughly 65 - 80 mph up this hill I hit anywhere to 3k-4.5k RPMs. my engine heats up to about 190 - 230, Then the check engine light comes on. My car kinda starts to smell like the time my radiator cracked and leaked, but it doesn't drip a single thing.

Could it be overheating. or just the engine telling me.. crap your about to blow something.

Whats funny is this light goes away about 2 weeks after it comes on.

Anyone really know what the problem could be? loose hose or something, I honestly have no idea.
if you could help thanks =]
-Chris

RE: Check Engine Light Comes on when going up hills
 

Any speculation as to the problem would be exactly that. The truck is trying to tell you what is wrong by turning on the CEL. You should get the codes read and let us know what came back (Pxxxx). With the code, we can get some direction as to what the problem is.

RE: Check Engine Light Comes on when going up hills
 

Alright. Will do
Any ideas what you think it would be off the top of your head. I know it could be many different things but what does it sound like to you..

I was just about to drive up to the mountains.. glad I didn't

Thanks for the help

RE: Check Engine Light Comes on when going up hills
 

It really could be any number of things and it really is not worth it to speculate when the vehicle has stored the information necessary to diagnose the problem and a free code scan will reveal that.

The temperature thing is not good.

RE: Check Engine Light Comes on when going up hills
 

Yea that's what I thought to.
Maybe something linking the coolant to.. the engine. I'm guessing the hose is clotted to an extent. or something to do with cooling of the engine.

Thanks for your help I really appreciate it. I just wanted to see if I could drive up to the mountains.. if it was anything major. But, obviously going up a hill will just cause more problems.

RE: Check Engine Light Comes on when going up hills
 

You could try not driving as fast... I am sure you would get there so long as you kept an eye on things.

RE: Check Engine Light Comes on when going up hills
 

head gasket(s) ...

RE: Check Engine Light Comes on when going up hills
 

I was about to say...coolant smell plus high rpm (coolant pressure) = gasket issue.

Sounds like you had coolant leaking into the cylinders under high RPM and causing a misfire. P30_? This has to be one incredible hill to have to hit 4500 rpms at freeway speeds :eek:

RE: Check Engine Light Comes on when going up hills
 

Yea your right it was a misfire.. in cylinder one. P030 was the number I'm almost positive. I am an idiot and forgot to ask for the number. I kinda zoned out staring at his receiver that displayed it. but he explained it to me and what you said was pretty much right.

and its a pretty steep hill. my friends little jetta hits almost 5k going up its kinda funny.

mechanic said I needed a tune up pretty much
I'm going to go with that?

(I go to this guy a lot if I have car problems, since hes like less than a mile away.)

RE: Check Engine Light Comes on when going up hills
 

tune up? yeah, if a tune-up fixes leakage of coolant into oil channels or cylinder ... ask your mechanic buddy why you're smelling antifreeze. there's no reason for that, unless it's gushing out of the reservoir and splashing on a manifold or other hot engine part, or evaporating out of your exhaust. the former you would have seen, the latter would happen when your head gasket(s) is/are going bad and the motor is working relatively hard. your scenario screams head gasket.