I noticed recently that my check engine light starts flashing when i start the car. It doesn't stay on, but it never did this before. My car has only 8000 miles and the only thing i can think of is that i messed something up when i bottomed out about 2 weeks ago. I checked for damage but couldn't see any. My question is, should i be concered about the light? since its not staying on all the time i'm hoping its no big deal.

its the oil change light, it comes on when you reach 8k miles since your last oil change, its no big deal, when you get an oil change they will reset it.

is it the check engine light or the maintenance required light??

There's a way to reset it yourself too. The guy showed me, I forget teh details, but I think you need to have the key off, push in the trip meter button and hold it in, turn the key to on and leave it there for a few second. After ~ 5 secs or so the light will blink letting you know it's been reset.

Again, it's been a while and I might be wrong but it's worth a shot unless someone can confirm/correct me.

that is correct, just hold the trip meter with the key off, then turn it to the on position and hold it until it goes off, and its all fixed. I think you are thinking of the maitenance required light, the check engine light is the little picture of the engine, which never flashes it is solid when it turns on

if the CEL is flashing, its very bad... my CEL flashed once and my car was running very poorly and wouldnt go above 3000 rpm's it sucked, so like I had a loose wire it turned out, but anyways, its its the CEL get it looked at ASAP, or other wise if its the maintenance required light, just read the manual...

If it is the CEL, then get it checked, sometimes it is something stupid like the sensor on your cat. I have had mine go on with it was running a little warm and flipped the sensor. They just resetted it, you should be able to feel a problem with your car.

i'm an idiot, its the mainenace required light. i'll get it checked out. thanks for the advice

if its the MRL, no need to get it checked out...read the manual

maintence light=====hondas way to get money for nothing

nooooooooo

mine was JUST doing that like an hour ago.
i looked in my engine bay and me IAT sensor came loose and was not in the intake. go check yours. MAY be the problem

hope it is

yeah just read the manual, its honda's way to try and get you to come in for routine checkups for 5000000000000 $

I'ts just a warning like phat said..... the only thing is ur gonna have to wait till the MRL goes solid then u can reset it.

thats absolutely untrue...you can reset it when its just 'blinking' during start-up

i beg to differ only cuz i tried it many a times whiel it was blinking and it never did it
so i just waiting till it went solid....if im wrong then im wrong but thats what hapened to me

i hit 8k too and it would blink 10 times.

i went to the dealer for an oil change and told them about it. they said it was just reminding you to prepare for your 10k check up. that's all. they want your fvcking money. they reset it for me and told me to come back for the check up. well my car is no longer daily driven so it will be a while before i even get close to 10k on my '02.