:impatient

My engine light is on solid this morning, my Mini dealer said they can't look at it until Tuesday but I'm going on a 3 hour road trip on the weekend. Will I be okay? I don't hear or feel anything unusual in the engine. What does this light mean? Your input is much appreciated! Thank you very much!

Randy

 

1) Are any other warnings on, such as oil pressure or overheat? If not it is USUALLY safe to drive the car. Watch your gas mileage for symptoms of problems.

Did you leave the gas cap loose and run the engine? If so you will need to cycle the car 3 times with the gas cap tight for the light to go out. Unless you skipped the 2004 recall, then you have to have the dealer turn off the light.

2) Have an auto parts store (Autozone in the Chicago area) do a free read out of your OBD II computer. They want to sell you parts so they read the code for you. The generic reader will give answers to all of the EPA required monitor points, and it can read the code for MINI specific points, but it won't know what they mean. You can then look up the code in the Bentley manual, or one of the BMW on line code sites.

Good luck with your decision.

John

 

well sounds like I should be okay. I don't have any other warnings on, just the engine light. I talked to the Mini dealer and he also said I should be okay. Just wanted a second opinion from people of NAM. Thank you very much John! Your a great help!

Have an awesome weekend!

Randy

 

The "check engine soon" light is part of the on board diagnostics system, which is part of the emissions control system. Both times mine went off seem to have been related to the gas cap. First time, the dealer turned it off. Second time, it eventually turned off by itself (my MINI had the software upgrades). If your light went on shortly after you gassed up, don't sweat it. Make sure that gas cap is on tight and enjoy your trip. Keep an eye on those indicator lights and gauges just in case.

Maybe your car is just reacting to the price of gas .

 

You may be able to borrow with a deposit, or rent a obd-2 reader from an autoparts store... I can do that in California auto part stores. (you can buy them for between 70 and 100 USD) It won't tell you BMW specific stuff that the two devices the dealership have, but it should tell you error codes that could be causing the light to be lite...

the attached graphic can help understand the obd2 code... others know more than me, but this is a start...


Good Luck...

 

Tell me about it! It dropped at first at the beginning of the week then today when I woke up, it jumped from 94.5/litre to 1.15/litre And thats just regular fuel. I'm scared to find out whats premium going to cost me.

 

Thanks for everyones reply. I diognostic tool sounds very useful! I think I'm going to pick one up. My warranty is almost up. It would suck that I would have to pay up just to turn of a light.

 

Our CEL is P0130, precat O2 sensor circuit. Just had it replaced at the beginning of the summer (my nickle). Have a milltek header and catback. Anybody know why we keep killing the precat sensor?

 

Are you using an octane booster additive? Some of them will kill some O2 sensors.

At a track I have visited, they have 100 octane Unleaded, but they also have 110 octane LEADED. A tank load of that will ruin the cat or the sensor.

JD

 

no additives. just premium non cali pumpgas