Was able to take the car out for a short run this evening. It's been sitting for about a month since I drove it last. Had some time so I decided to go for a drive and get the fluids all warmed up. After about 10 miles, the engine light began blinking. I was cruising about 60 mph. The coolant temps and oil pressure were good. After about a mile, the light went away with no drivability issues. Dont know if related or not but the car rarely drops into V4 mode. Can be cruising at 60 and it stays in V8.

Has this happened to anyone? The car is a '19 Z06 Auto with 860 miles on it.

Thanks

 

I would immediately check your codes. A blinking CEL usually means stop right now.

 

So unless somthing has changed, obd2 definition of a blinking check engine light is "catalyst damaging misfire" which, like matthewstorm above said, pretty much means stop immediately.
Check the codes. Hopefully it's not po300 meaning random misfire. If the car is under warranty, take it in as soon as possible.

 

I would correct that to have it towed ASAP. I would not drive a car with a flashing CEL further than it takes to get to a safe place to park it.

If it stopped blinking, then, yes drive it straight in for service, but if it starts blinking on the way there, stop and have it towed.

 

It's a judgement call for sure, and you risk quite a lot not stopping.

 

/thread

 

I had a blinking light on my '16 with an A8. It happened to occur while I was driving to my dealer for a scheduled appointment to check my transmission shudder / tach fluttering. My tach was moving approx. 150 rpm at the time. Because I was only about 3 miles from the dealer I decided to drive it in. The code was read as a misfire, but a scan of the engine could not find anything wrong in the ignition system. It was thought that the tach flutter may have simulated a misfire and caused the CEL code. After leaving the dealer, and driving the car another 1500 miles (with a newly installed range device) I never had another problem with the transmission OR the CEL. I subsequently traded the car in for another Corvette with a M7 transmission.

As others have said, the blinking CEL is more serious than a solid light and should not be driven. Just relating my story as you may have a similar condition. Hope this helps

 

Update: When I got off work yesterday I went home to get my car and drove it to my local dealer located about 2 miles from my house. They checked the codes and saw where there was a misfire on #8 and only happened once. No other codes or issues detected. He cleared the codes and sent me on my way. I'll keep an eye on it of course, but I think this was an anomaly that may or may not have happened. So many sensors on cars these days monitoring everything.

 

As others noted, a flashing CEL is used to indicate a possible engine misfire which could mean raw fuel is being dumped into the cats which can easily damage the cats and can also lead to a car fire due to severe overheat that occurs when the cats are being fed raw fuel. As a related issue, the reason the Corvette has a louder, rolling idle right after cold startup is the mixture is enriched and timing is retarded at cold start to dump some raw fuel into the cats to quickly bring them up to temp in order to meet EPA cold start emissions limits.

A flashing CEL won't be set for a single misfire in order to avoid nuisance CEL but it will be set with either a sustained misfire event for a single cylinder or multiple cylinders. A scan tool can show the misfire count by cylinder so that you can see what has happened even though it didn't reach the level to set a flashing CEL.

Every time a cylinder fires, the crankshaft rotation speed instantly changes and this is read by a very sensitive and accurate speed transducer. If the expected increase in speed doesn't occur, then a cylinder didn't fire properly and if enough occur within a period of time then a flashing CEL is turned on to alert the driver. Misfires can occur for a number of reasons but if it is due to lack of spark then there is raw fuel heading into the exhaust stream. If a flashing CEL occurs, then immediately reduce power and if the CEL goes out and stays out then you can safely drive the car to the dealer or at least a safer location. If it continues flashing even after you reduce speed and engine power, then you need to pull over and shut down at the first possible opportunity or you are risking significant damage and vehicle fire.