Engine light on. Likely causes.

[finishing touch]

I have recently bought a Mk 2.5 S-VT and the engine warning light is on.
What's the likely causes?

(Oil pressure & level ok, other fluids ok, car runs like a dream)

Cheers
Paul G

[MX-5 Lazza]

Could be anything. Get a cheap OBD2 reader and find out for yourself. It's very easy. I have a Bluetooth (actually wifi as I have an iPhone) reader and it works well.

[SmilerFTM]

MX-5 Lazza said:

Could be anything. Get a cheap OBD2 reader and find out for yourself. It's very easy. I have a Bluetooth (actually wifi as I have an iPhone) reader and it works well.

I did that, bought it to check a variety of things/to have a new toy to mess with and within two weeks of buying it I got my first engine management light. Read up on the error it gave and turns out the amps were ever so slightly weaker when I turned it over as a direct result of having the OBD2 reader attached to the car overnight draining the battery. The fault related to the ABS on my NC (which is apparently sensitive to lower crank amps) but after a bit of reading turns out it was the bloody thing I'd bought to read faults that was the fault.

[finishing touch]

I have ordered a code reader from eBay, an Autel MS 309 for a tenner.

Never used this sort of thing before so when it arrives I'll plug it in and see what it reads.


Cheers
Paul G

[Beati Dogu]

Good luck.

On mine it was one of the two oxygen sensors that was faulty. Not too pricey to replace, fortunately.

[Russ_H]

finishing touch said:

I have recently bought a Mk 2.5 S-VT and the engine warning light is on.
What's the likely causes?

(Oil pressure & level ok, other fluids ok, car runs like a dream)

Cheers
Paul G

Random question.........does the central locking and radio work?

Only asking as the engine light on mine came on with no apparent running problems - turns out a fuse had blown that linked the radio, locking & engine management together.

[finishing touch]

Russ_H said:

finishing touch said:

I have recently bought a Mk 2.5 S-VT and the engine warning light is on.
What's the likely causes?

(Oil pressure & level ok, other fluids ok, car runs like a dream)

Cheers
Paul G

Random question.........does the central locking and radio work?

Only asking as the engine light on mine came on with no apparent running problems - turns out a fuse had blown that linked the radio, locking & engine management together.

Yup, locking and radio works.

[finishing touch]

finishing touch said:

I have ordered a code reader from eBay, an Autel MS 309 for a tenner.

Never used this sort of thing before so when it arrives I'll plug it in and see what it reads.


Cheers
Paul G

The reader arrived; watched a few youtube vids on how to use; and to my surprise easy peasy.

It came up with " P0172 rich bank 1 " Deleted this and now no light. Yayyyy!

This could be a problem with the mixture, or a problem with the O2 sensor.
I will check for dirty air filter and colour of plugs as a starting point.

Cheers
Paul G