Has anyone had this warning?

Took a ~2 hour trip yesterday and got the message to "CHECK GAS CAP" on the mileage gauge. I was pretty confident that I put the gas cap on so I waited until we stopped and checked it. The cap was on, I took it off visually inspected it and put it back on. I pushed the "reset" button and the message went away, but the problem is that the check engine light is now on and I had a guy at autozone check the code and the car is still complaining about the gas cap.

Could the gas cap have gone bad?

Is there a way to reset the sensor that thinks the gas cap is off?

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Could be bad gas cap, mine did it a while ago. I took off the cap, sprayed some silicon on the rubber seal and put the cap back on. The CEL could be an evap leak code, when I got the check cap message it set a P0456 evap very small leak DTC. I'm a mechanic so I used my code reader to clear the DTC, if it keeps setting the message I would try a new cap.

 

Had this happened to me when I changed my gas cap to one with a lock. Happened during driving and I got paranoid so I pulled over and checked it. Opened it then closed it, seemed to look fine. Continued driving and the error code went away. No problems since then. This was like two years ago. Are you using the OEM cap?

 

Look in your owner's manual, it can take several days, depending on how much you drive, for the code to clear. If it doesn't go away after a week or so, then you might need a new cap. No biggie. I had the code before too, mine cleared after ~3-4 days I think. Simply removing and reinstalling your cap could be all you need to do, then wait.

Pressing the button doesn't clear the code, it just temporarily hides it until the next time you start your car, exactly like the maintenance minder.

 

Mine was just at random when I started the car, I'm using the OE Element locking gas cap, I took it off, sprayed some silicon spray on the seal & stuck it back on, used my code reader to clear the DTC and it hasn't happened since. It won't cause any driveability issues having the cap loose or missing.