Hi there, I have a 1998 Intrigue, and just recently the Check engine light came on. I figured it was because I was a couple thousand km over for an oil change. So I got the oil changed with what has been used the whole time, synthetic, but the light didn't go out.

There's only about 180k kilometers on it, and it's not overused, I do drive long distances occasionally though.

Also I am hearing a clunking when driving up hills, it doesn't happen all the time, it only seems to happen when I'm gearing up while on the hill, so maybe transmission related?

Any advice is greatly appreciated

EDIT: One more thing, sometimes when I'm idling, the car seems to shake, it seems to happen randomly, but it will happen the entire drive when in idle. So any stop light I come to, it will shake. the car could have been used an hour before and the issue wasn't present. Turning off the car and turning it back on has no effect.

 

The check engine light has nothing to do with the oil. You need to get it scanned, any mechanics shop can do it for you. Or, some auto parts places will scan it for free. The scan will give you a code (a letter followed by 4 numbers). Post that here and we can then help you tell what is wrong.

 

I went to a garage, and I have the option to run a Code check, or a diagnostic, I didn't know which to choose, I assume you just want the code check, and you will diagnose the code for me?

 

Don't waste money having someone pull the code for you. Your local Autozone should be able to pull the code for you for free. Get the code and let us know what it is and we can help you diagnose it. Most likely it is something common like secondary air injection.

 

So I was driving the other day and all of a sudden my check engine light went out, not sure if that's a good thing or bad. I never got it diagnosed, so it leads me to believe that the light burnt out. I saw there was an OBDII scanner at Canadian tire for cheap somewhere around 70 CAD, but I want to hear opinions on whether I should not worry about it, or whether I should

 

When you start the car, all the lights in the instrument cluster come on for a few seconds to test them. Check and see if the check engine light comes on then. If not, it is probably burned out.
If it does come on, then the computer has determined that whatever caused it to come on in the first place is no longer a problem.
Some auto parts places will do a code check for free, I would try that first. If you can't find one that will do it, $70CAN is about normal price for an obdii scanner.