Car Electronics

          We were on the road Wednesday when an amber light showing an oil can and a wrench showed up. We stopped at a gas station and I bought a quart of oil. The oil dipstick was impossible to read so I just put a little in the crankcase and rechecked. I still could not read the dipstick, so we restarted the engine. It still had the amber light on. I called the dealer and asked the service department what the light was really telling me. The service adviser said it was just telling me the oil should be changed soon. I said we were no where near that mileage. He then said the last guy probably did not reset the electronics properly. He told me to look in the owners manual to see how to reset it properly. I looked there and did not read all steps properly, reading only the last step in the sequence. That did not work, but after checking the oil level and adding a little more oil we continued on. The next day it still did not reset and I hate to drive with any warning light, but I had seen there is a red oil light that shows when the car really needs oil. I rechecked the owners manual and saw what I had missed earlier. What is so strange about the deal is the reset for the amber light seemed so odd to me. It required me turning the car off and then turning the ignition to the on position but not starting and then mashing the brake and the accelerator all the way down and waiting nearly 30 seconds before the amber light went off. For nearly 50 years now, with fuel injection you never hold the accelerator down before starting the car. Well apparently now you do with some cars to clear a warning light. Cars are so loaded with electronics they are getting like flackey  operations on Microsoft computers and the worst thing is car manufacturers are adding more unstable electronics. Cars now even tell you to veer out of lanes and even apply the brakes  all on their own. This is a frightening concept to me.