So the service engine soon light just starting coming on in the 2000 Grand Am (4-cyl) when it began to get colder outside. The car has around 41,500 miles on it. Although the car seems to run perfectly fine, we'd still like to get it checked out, as we kind of need it to keep running. The dealer wants 80$ just to plug it into the computer, which is a lot of money just to tell us if there is a problem. In the past the dealer has done this for free, but this time the wanted to schedule an official appointment and charge us (maybe because of the season?) Does anybody have any idea what may be wrong? The car was e-checked during the spring and passed without a problem.
And if there are no ideas to what maybe wrong, is there any way to lift the error code from the computer myself? Although I've never had the chance to use an OBD-2 reader before, I'd much rather spend the money on one of those that I could keep using instead of giving it to the dealer. Would the OBD-2 reader tell me whats wrong and allow me to reset the light after I fix the problem? How much do OBD-2 readers run and who makes a good model? Is it worth getting the OBD-2 reader or is there another way to figure out what the issue is? Thank you for any help, J