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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not tell dh about the 'check engine' light and ignore it as car is working fine?

185 replies

brt100 · 30/05/2014 19:20

The check engine light is now coming on a couple of times a week. We really can't afford to do anything to fix it and it is functional at the moment, it just Judders a bit when I go too slow in 5th.

Dh will get stressed and try to fix it himself. Would rather not have that as its not his forte.

OP posts:
AnyFucker · 30/05/2014 19:54

The engine mounts are not a Good Thing, believe me

Original poster
brt100 · 30/05/2014 19:54

Thanks darkness, I'm taking your advice as your a pro ;)

No its orange not red, flashes on for a minute then off. Only done it three times in 6 hours of driving this week.

OP posts:
MyFirstMyLastMyEverythingBagel · 30/05/2014 19:54

I haven't noticed the engine light tbh but given my experience with all the other ones and of the twilight's I wouldn't het yourself up about it :) I would imagine it's probably something or nothing!

Sparklingbrook · 30/05/2014 19:56

Have you had a look in the handbook?

pinkgirlythoughts · 30/05/2014 19:56

I would check it. Ours came on the other week, and DH decided he'd take it to a garage when he was off work the following weekend. Before the weekend arrived, it went kaput altogether. Turned out the oil needed changing, and since we hadn't done anything about it, the problem had got worse, which ended up costing nearly £400 to fix. Could have been sorted cheaply had we checked it straight away!

Original poster
brt100 · 30/05/2014 19:57

Thanks, well I will at leased ignore it until next months payday

OP posts:
MrsMaturin · 30/05/2014 19:58

Just take it to a garage and get them to diagnose. Its your car not dh's. Take responsibility for it.

MyFirstMyLastMyEverythingBagel · 30/05/2014 19:58

Ah if it's not red and its going off again and its not beeping 'stop engine' at you every bloody 30 seconds arrrrgggghhh I would be even less inclined to worry!
It'll probably have stopped this time next week.

Although I add the same caveat ... advice taken at your own risk ;)

Take it to a local garage and ask them to have a gander, you'll probably be pleasantly surprised

Original poster
brt100 · 30/05/2014 20:00

Oh cool! It goes red and bleeps in fiats if its a serious problem then?

OP posts:
MyFirstMyLastMyEverythingBagel · 30/05/2014 20:07

You'd have to double check, but in mine if the air bag one is on it beeps until I turn engine off (and apparently there's nowt the matter with it) if the light is going off again, it may just be a glitch with the electronics ... it would just stay on constantly in mine, it wouldn't come on then go off again. It would light every time I turned engine on, not just randomly.

It is worth getting it looked at though, you don't have to agree to any work being done on it :) just trying to reassure you that it isn't necessarily a worse case scenario.

OftheTwilighttheDarkness · 30/05/2014 20:08

Yeah if it goes off I would ignore it, my engine light came on a stayed on for months ( I am not Penny) and nothing untoward happened. You will at some point need to take it to one of those places where they plug the engine into a computer to see what's wrong. My money is loose wire.

Over heating or grindy noises should be dealt with promptly though.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 30/05/2014 20:12

Check it out.

What does the manual say the problem is? Have you had the bonnet up and checked the obvious things?

If you're chancing it after doing that, fair enough, but it's a lottery unless you know what you're doing, so what is the point?

SwedishEdith · 30/05/2014 20:26

How much mileage do you do? I had this for a while. Nothing was diagnosed but mechanic suggested not enough mileage so battery not charging enough. When I was looking it up I'm sure I read that it's serious if it flashes all the time. If it's going off I think your car is just telling you there is something you need to look at soon but not immediately

AnyFucker · 30/05/2014 20:47

OP, are you posting simply to get some people who haven't seen your car to say "ignore it, the pesky lights come on just to make you spend money to ... errmm... keep your car roadworthy"

now then, you can do that is you wish...but coupled with excessive vibration (are you misdriving your car in 5th or not?) don't come back to this thread after a serious accident at speed that could have been prevented

Chippednailvarnish · 30/05/2014 21:06

^ what Anyfucker said.

AnyFucker · 30/05/2014 21:11

I hope you don't take any other completely innocent families out when your car's engine blows up in the fast lane.

mindthegap79 · 30/05/2014 21:11

The juddering probably means it's running in safe mode to reduce engine damage caused by whatever fault it's got, and there's obviously something wrong.

Fgs get it fixed. It'd probably fail an mot, which would make your insurance invalid. It's your responsibility to ensure that your car is roadworthy, and how can you be sure if it is?

When you take it to a garage, I recommend asking first if they charge for the diagnostic or if they deduct the cost from any work you get done.

AnyFucker · 30/05/2014 21:12

OP, if you cannot afford to run a car (and ensuring it is roadworthy is very much part of that) then I sympathise, but get the fucking thing off the road, will ya

ohdearitshappeningtome · 30/05/2014 21:18

I think anybody advising to ignore the light is also quite ignorant towards the fact you possibly aren't mechanics and therefore in a position giving wrong advice!!!

Let's hope the ops car doesn't fail her and cause an accident or take out somebody's family on stupid advice !!

Ps I do also have a fiat punto had a fault that meant I had a loose wiring and the r a c had to reset it

ohdearitshappeningtome · 30/05/2014 21:20

Inmy punto the left of the dash has red lights and the right has orange! Red for seat belt hand brake etc and the right is engine management

FryOneFatManic · 30/05/2014 21:22

I had the check engine light coming on and thought it was nothing. Turned out to be leaking fluid (brake or suspension, can't remember which) which cost me a bit some years ago.

Best to get it checked out.

youmakemydreams · 30/05/2014 21:35

Sorry agree with anyfucker. It is your responsibility to make sure your car is road worthy. If you can't afford to do it just now then don't drive it.
I am very fortunate that dp can fix my car if and when things go wrong but as laid back as he is he would be pretty angry if something went wrong and found out I'd been running around with am intermittent engine management light problem and make something that could have been easy fixed into a big job and the chance of it being downright bloody dangerous.
My friwnd ignored a warning light had she attended to it she would nor have had to scrap her car for pennies because it basically needed a new engine and hundreds of pounds worth of man hours to fix it... Original cost of fault? 12.

Original poster
brt100 · 30/05/2014 21:50

Any it isn't that easy.

I only use the car to get to work, no cat = no job. If money wasn't an issue I would take it in asap.

It isn't always on, on less than 0.2% of the time I drive it.

OP posts:
Original poster
brt100 · 30/05/2014 21:50

And to add I never go on a motorway

OP posts:
mercibucket · 30/05/2014 21:53

mine has it on half the time, its just a fault, nothing actually wrong, but i know that as its a well known fault n i had it checked out. i dont think i would happily ignore a light on my other car tbh