It's like they know...

This literally just happened to me. One ignition coil later, things are going to be a bit tight for the rest of the month

An ignition coil for my car can be had for a princely $17 on RockAuto. The life hack here is to not get ripped off by a mechanic having it put in; in most cars us Poor People are likely to be driving (i.e. not an Audi, Lamborghini, or Porsche) any garden variety fool with two thumbs and a $20 Harbor Freight socket wrench set can swap out an ignition coil in their own driveway in about 5 minutes.
- That's fair, in most cases I would have done it myself. When a coil pack died on my last car, we harvested one from a dead car on my dad's property. I took it to a mechanic because I thought it was the transmission. By the time I got the diagnosis, I was afraid that the other pack would die driving it home to fix myself

Yup!

Me literally right now fml

Could be a temporary issue.

The problem is that once the ECU(?) registers an error, it cannot be reset without specific equipment.

Fortunately, the specific equipment of a basic OBD2 code reader capable of both helping you diagnose and resetting the code is very cheap these days.
Very cheap.
The majority of check engine lights that come "out of the blue" are emissions related failures, usually a leaky (or unscrewed) fuel cap, bad O2 sensor (~$40) or similar. Learning how to Google this stuff for yourself will save any vehicle owner hundreds of dollars instantly vs. spiraling into anxiety over having to pay a mechanic for what is, in most cases, something incredibly simple.
- And it will at the very least let you know if it's serious. I had the check engine light it was that the emissions testing wasn't working properly so I was at risk of potentially burning more fuel that normal. Whoopdie shit. Ran through some highway and city driving and it cleared itself.
  Of course now my airbag light is on FML. 2012 car I think the circuits are going.
- Yeah, I got a basic reader about 10 years ago, for what would be €20 in today's money. It's saved me hundreds.
  Only problem is motorbikes don't have standard ODB2 ports so I have no idea why the light is on on my little 125 :-/
To be clear, "specific equipment" is a $20 reader on amazon, so while true, it's not exactly a problem to user service.

Lol my garage collapsed on Friday

especially if it’s a bimmer

VW enters the chat.
- laughs while driving his 252k mile VW without a check engine light
- I had a mk2 Golf booked in to have the timing belt replaced, 1 week before it snapped.
  2 weeks later it was crushed by a tank at Mallory race track.

This is called "monetary attention". Animals do this too. My horses need monetary attention regularly.

Bastards