Engine warning light on......how serious ?

[Fastpedaller]

June 2023 the EML lit up on my Wife's car and the car went into limp mode. Very fortunately she was only about 200 yards from Daughter's house (100 miles from ours) . When they phoned me, I asked Daughter and Wife to lift the bonnet and see if the FEAD belt had broken - yes it had!
They phoned RAC and stated the Front End Accessory Drive Belt had broken, and the call handler was impressed they knew what it was and they sent a photo. My Wife said it wasn't urgent, she had reached her destination. RAC patrol came the next day and apologised because he couldn't get a belt until 10:00am.(Sunday) He returned later and fitted the (stretchy) belt using the special ramped tool. Great work, we were impressed by the helpful guy. Handy that they did it, because I'd have had to buy or make a tool to do it, and it would have been more than the £20 cost of the belt.

 

[Dave7]

Garage has just phoned.
It was just a mucky sensor.
Being an auto with no 'low' gear it's difficult to give it an occasional blast. I will have to take it for a run up the motorway every few weeks, not my idea of fun.

 

[figbat]

Garage has just phoned.
It was just a mucky sensor.
Being an auto with no 'low' gear it's difficult to give it an occasional blast. I will have to take it for a run up the motorway every few weeks, not my idea of fun.

Reverse is a ‘low’ gear…

 

[Dave7]

Reverse is a ‘low’ gear…

You know, I never thought of that. Up to date knowledge is just one of the benefits of CC

 

[numbnuts]

Anything over 45 mph will do

 

[CXRAndy]

Garage has just phoned.
It was just a mucky sensor.
Being an auto with no 'low' gear it's difficult to give it an occasional blast. I will have to take it for a run up the motorway every few weeks, not my idea of fun.

Not heard of kick down. Floor it auto will shift into lower gears, at least until near max revs

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Garage has just phoned.
It was just a mucky sensor.
Being an auto with no 'low' gear it's difficult to give it an occasional blast. I will have to take it for a run up the motorway every few weeks, not my idea of fun.

Does it not have a setting to stay in 1st or 2nd?

 

[Dave7]

Does it not have a setting to stay in 1st or 2nd?

No.
My 13 plate Corsa did but this one is auto, park or reverse.

 

[Drago]

You dont need to scrag it to death. Just get the engine up to operating temp and run it for a good half hour. The motorway makes this easy, just drive up a comlle of junctions and back, but its not essential - the engine doesnt need to be huffing aand puffing, simply up to full temp and running normally.

An electric car would be perfect for you.

 

[Dave7]

Not heard of kick down. Floor it auto will shift into lower gears, at least until near max revs

Oh, I knew that older cars did that.....great for overtaking, didn't realise more modern ones still did it.

 

[Dave7]

You dont need to scrag it to death. Just get the engine up to operating temp and run it for a good half how. The motorway makes this easy, just drive up a comlle of junctions and back, but its not essential - the engine doesnt need to be huffing aand puffing, simply up to full temp and running normally.

An electric car would be perfect for you.

An EV would certainly fit the bill but the prices are off putting.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Oh, I knew that older cars did that.....great for overtaking, didn't realise more modern ones still did it.

Mine is a 2019 model and has something fancier
there is an S mode just after Drive
if I put it in that then it only changes gear when I tell it to or when it gets up to silly revs - I tell it to with flappy padels on the steering wheel like in F1!!

really useful one in a blue moon

 

[BigSid]

I had an intermittent EML on my Transit Courier diesel and it would go into limp mode. If I switched the engine off and back on again everything was fine for a while but it would start to happen more often. OBD reader indicated turbo problem. Dealer wanted £1800 which was far too much considering I had 150000 miles on it. I then realised that it was fine after I'd filled up and the problem only occurred after I'd used 1/2 a tank of fuel and got worse the less fuel I had. Just filling up when it started to happen sorted it for 300 miles. Electronics eh? 🤷‍♂️

 

[fossyant]

Oh, I knew that older cars did that.....great for overtaking, didn't realise more modern ones still did it.

They do, and some of us get flappy paddles to make us think we are an F1 driver (in a van) - hah hah. Not bothered with the manual mode and the flappy paddles as the auto works so well in my van, boot it and it drops a gear or two and it just goes 'grrrrr' and shoots off.

 

[CXRAndy]

An EV would certainly fit the bill but the prices are off putting.

A used EV are reasonably priced