On three separate occasions on my drive in this morning, my engine light was flashing (roughly once per second). It would only flash a few times, then stop, with the light going out and staying out. I dono't know how long it flashed the first time, but the second time was very brief - perhaps 3-5 flahes, and the third time it flashed 21 times (yes, I counted).

It's raining lightly here today but the car has never been balky in the wet before, and there did not appear to be any performance issues when the light was flashing. There are currently no stored messages in the system.

Any deas what might have caused this, and will plugging it in reveal anything if there is no condition currently displayed?

 

Flashing Check Engine light means Cylinder Missfire.

One of the cylinders are missfiring.

 

Which could mean anything from a bad spark plug to a whole bunch of other things.....

It did not happen on the drive home, so there increases the PITA intermittent nature of what the cause of this could be.

Thanks for letting me know what the flashing engine light indicates, though.

 

My main guess would be plugs or coils.
When was your last tune up?

 

I'm sitting at 90500 kms (56000 mi), so I'm just about due.

 

Then try the Plugs first and see if they do it. If not then you will need coils.