Engine Light Illuminated

20th May 2007, 12:46

Hi, just wondering if any member can give me a little bit of advice. I have a Saxo that I have owned since new in 2002. It has done almost 99k and has never had any major problems (it has obviously had some wear and tear though). Just yesterday the engine light illuminated whilst driving home, I decided to leave it over night and see if it was still on in the morning, which it was.

The car has started first time, the majority of the time I have had it. When it hasn't it always started on the second attempt. The engine light did come on momentarily the other day whilst I was driving, so I pulled over switched off the engine and restarted it first time, and the light went away. Then on Friday I was parked up for a while and when I went to start it, it took three attempts before it fired up.

I am guessing that the obvious suggestion is to take it to a garage with an engine monitor and get the problem code. I was wondering though if anybody had any idea what this could be (my first thought is that there is a problem with the ignition) and how much it is possibly going to cost? Also, do these places actually charge you just for getting the problem code?

Thanks in advance,
Sean

20th May 2007, 19:02

Hi chap.

First things first! How is the car driving? performing OK? If all seems OK, then there's an almost 100% chance that there's nothing major going on, and you can relax.

Most cases of this light going on, are exhaust issues. Your catalytic converter might be on its way out... There's no way I can tell what the problem is from here I'm afraid. You will need to either take the car to a dealer and get the fault codes read, or you could take it to a Citroen specialist type place, that may charge less for the job.

To sum things up, as long as it's driving OK, you should be fine mate.

20th May 2007, 22:10

what model is it that youve got?

As toad has already said if it is still performing as it should then the chances are that it is nothing majour....

The first thing that i would check is the lambda sensor in the catalitic converter. This is one of the main thngs that brings the engine management light up.

after that i would run it down to your local citroen and get them to stick it on the diagnostics for you,

i wouldnt have thought they would charge you much if anything.

hope you get it sorted and report back with what it was

good luck

21st May 2007, 15:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toad

Hi chap.

First things first! How is the car driving? performing OK? If all seems OK, then there's an almost 100% chance that there's nothing major going on, and you can relax.

Most cases of this light going on, are exhaust issues. Your catalytic converter might be on its way out.

To sum things up, as long as it's driving OK, you should be fine mate.

The car is driving well, nothing out of sorts is happening. I actually had the cat converter changed just over a week ago, so I could take it back and ask them to check this for me. Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

21st May 2007, 15:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by davew

what model is it that youve got?

i would run it down to your local citroen and get them to stick it on the diagnostics for you,

i wouldnt have thought they would charge you much if anything.

hope you get it sorted and report back with what it was

good luck

It's the Forte 1100, as I said to Toad the cat converter has recently been replaced, so I will get this checked out. I rang up a diagnostic firm I have used before and they quoted me £35+vat just to get the error code. My brother works in the trade and I should (hopefully) be able to get mates rates for this, as I just found out today that they have a computer in their workshop.

Thanks very much for the reply

, will let you know how I get on.

21st May 2007, 21:48

Cool. Seems like you got gubbed with a dodgy cat!

22nd May 2007, 01:02

Is there anyway to 'lie' to the sensor so you can run a decat and not have the engine light on. rthanks i know bit off subject but any help would be cool.

22nd May 2007, 01:07

mine has no cat or no lambda and my light doesnt come on at all. you should be able to run a decat pipe without the light coming on, best to get a diagnostic test done first to identify the problem as it could be a number of things!!!

22nd May 2007, 09:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by mallboy

mine has no cat or no lambda and my light doesnt come on at all. you should be able to run a decat pipe without the light coming on, best to get a diagnostic test done first to identify the problem as it could be a number of things!!!

Hmm. I would have thought the engine light would be on if you don't have the lamda plugged in. Seems odd...

But yes, you can get away with covering the lamda so it doesn't pick up on the "failling emissions" and the ECU won't pick up on the cat being out of sorts.

22nd May 2007, 11:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toad

Cool. Seems like you got gubbed with a dodgy cat!

As it turns out it was nothing. Took it to my brothers place, but two of their diagnostic machines would not communicate with the computer. Took it across to a Peugeot specialist across from where bro works who had a specialist Citroen diagnostic tool which showed that it was something to do with the cat, but there was no fault code present for it.

So they cleared the code and hey presto the light is gone, lets just hope it doesn't come back on. And all this messing about cost me nothing but a little time.

Thanks very much to all those that replied with assistance, will be giving a good rep to all those that contributed.

Thanks again, Sean.

22nd May 2007, 11:54

Glad it's sorted chap.

22nd May 2007, 12:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by tontow

Is there anyway to 'lie' to the sensor so you can run a decat and not have the engine light on. rthanks i know bit off subject but any help would be cool.

buy a lambda sensor sleeve.