Good morning friends,
I have a 99 saturn sl1. The ses light came on and I got it checked by autozone and it came up with code p0404, which probably means problems with the egr valve. The light was on for about 2 days and this morning it went out. I was going to persue it at a regular autoshop, but now that question is…is it worth the $80 bench charge?
No, the shop at best can only check the connections and test or replace the valve, the part is about $150 and takes about 30 minutes to change.
Your EGR may have just got stuck or have a bad connection, check the connections incuding the vacuum line and ensure the vacuum hose isn’t cracked or split. If your able to, check that the EGR bolts are tight, an air leak through the gasket will also squawk the SES.
Other than that, wait and see if the SES comes on again, if it does, plan on an EGR replacement.