Gamefreak88

I am new to driving (about 5 days) and am worried about my 1996 Ford Contour that I bought last night. It has the Zetec 125hp 2.0L four-cylinder.

The plastic part that reads "N R D 2 1" moves up and down, so since I am an unexperienced driver, I was not aware of how many shifts was drive. Obviously I figured out what reverse/park/neutral was. So I kind of had to guess.

I believe that I may have driven it in second gear on the highway (65mph). And now suddenly my check engine light is on and it kind of smells like oil and gas. Did I damage my car? A google search says that 80% of check engine lights means a loose gap cap or loose oil stick. I tightened the gas cap, and the light is still on. I'll check the oil stick tomorrow in the daylight.

Would driving it in second gear at 65mph and through stoplights (typical fast accel/brake) cause any damage to my engine?

I also think I may have driven home from the dealer with the handbrake on. :D I'm really doubting this because I'm sure I would have had smoke pouring out of my wheels and/or not moved at all. Would this have hurt my engine in any way? I couldn't care less about the brakes because they're cheap in comparison.

Johnny Mullet

Get the Check Engine light scanned at a parts store and post the code here for more help.

Gamefreak88

I'm all done. Check engine light was PO141 which was a o2 sensor heater circuit malfunction. Autozone told me to replace the one under the hood, so I did, and it came back. After a few days and some research I found out the guy was a dumbass and had me replace the wrong one (dammit). The one that was bad was bank 1 sensor 2, which was after my catalitic converter under my car.