Engine management light?

[Buckman]

Our Jeep GC CRD with has always been serviced and repaired by the main Jeep dealership and is looked after. Today returning from the weekend away and towing the caravan first we had the "Forward Collision Warning" light come on which deactivated the cruise control. Shortly afterwards the Engine Management light came on. Dropped off caravan and on starting car again and both the error messages had disappeared. However about a mile from home the engine warning light came on again, but not the FCW light.

All of the above happened about a month ago, but after the Jeep was parked up for 2 -3 days on using it again no more messages and they did not appear again until our return trip up the M5. Except for warning messages and no cruise control, the Jeep behaved normally.

Seems I have no choice except to take it back to the Jeep dealer for them to run their diagnostic software to determine the fault. Annoying that is over £100 even though all they do is plug it into the computer! Unfortunately the Jeep dealer is over an hour's drive. I am also wondering if our local trustworthy mechanic may be a better bet because if he cannot find the reason, normally no charge.

Maybe time to trade in for another vehicle however Range Rovers,, Audi, MB are probably out of our price range even second hand and the MTPLM of the caravan is 2000kg so needs to be a beefy vehicle witha kerb weight of about 2350kg. Maybe a Landcruiser however I am told they can be rather thirsty. Probably cheaper just to get the Jeep fixed?

 

[ProfJohnL]

There is nothing stopping you from having a local garage to plug in and try and diagnose the problem, I know that apart from my tame garage, most do now charge to do a diagnostic sweep, because there is a cost for them to have the equipment and the access to the car manufacturers faults decoding and service data bases.

For example It costs several thousands of pounds every year to have access to just the VAG system to allow a garage to access a cars service and recall history, which they need to be able to do if they offer proper servicing of the brand. That cost multiplies for every brand ( or group) they want to handle.

The subscriptions for VAG, Mercedes, BMW and Stellantis access easily tops £10K per year. Without it the garage's scope of work is severely limited.

Diagnostics is potential source of income.

 

[Hutch]

How many Mirrors, have you broken Buckman, ?
With the 4x4 system on the Jeep ie, tyres have to be within mm limits etc. Do you really need a 4x4. But with such a heavy caravan your stuck.
JLR, even my son who is a design engineer( exhaust, now battery compartment) with them states stay clear.
Go for the larger Korean cars. Better reliability.

 

[Buckman]

How many Mirrors, have you broken Buckman, ?
With the 4x4 system on the Jeep ie, tyres have to be within mm limits etc. Do you really need a 4x4. But with such a heavy caravan your stuck.
JLR, even my son who is a design engineer( exhaust, now battery compartment) with them states stay clear.
Go for the larger Korean cars. Better reliability.

I ran a diagnostics on the car with a OBD2 tool and it shows an error which is P0741 - Powertrain Torque converter clutch circuit performance/Stuck off. Transmission fluid was supposed to have been changed less than 12000 miles ago.
However on a very few occasions recently I have noticed that it did not change into a lower gear when it should have changed and it felt for a moment as if I was running out of power before it kicked down to change i.e. I am on the motorway and it would feel as if I was coasting in neutral. Same sometimes if on a slight incline.
It has been suggested that the following could be an issue if there is no issue with teh transmission fluid;

Faulty torque converter clutch solenoid valve
Torque converter clutch solenoid valve harness or connectors
Torque converter clutch solenoid valve circuit is open or shorted

It is very random, but I will book the vehicle into our local mechanic and hope it is nothing serious.

 

[Sam Vimes]

If you want to try some DIY diagnostics then you could get one of these....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Veepeak-Bluetooth-Scanner-Automotive-Diagnostic/dp/B011NSX27A/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?crid=2UA0U5OL65JKA&keywords=odb2+bluetooth&qid=1654446812&sprefix=odb%2Caps%2C163&sr=8-5

There are free apps that will talk to these from a smartphone or tablet and give you some of the fault codes a meanings.

Not always accurate as sometimes lots of different faults can result in the same error code.

I've found it useful so that I can give the garage a heads up on what the problem is.

Mind you on the last fault when we ground to a halt I could find no error. The dealer charged about , £70 for diagnosis but at least found the problem first time.

Not so my motorhome which needed three trips to the workshop before the actually listened to me when I told them it was a fault in the wiring to the reversing light. They changed all sorts of engine modules because that's what the diagnostics said.

Fortunately all under warranty.

 

[Hutch]

If you want to try some DIY diagnostics then you could get one of these....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Veepeak-Bluetooth-Scanner-Automotive-Diagnostic/dp/B011NSX27A/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?crid=2UA0U5OL65JKA&keywords=odb2+bluetooth&qid=1654446812&sprefix=odb%2Caps%2C163&sr=8-5

There are free apps that will talk to these from a smartphone or tablet and give you some of the fault codes a meanings.

Not always accurate as sometimes lots of different faults can result in the same error code.

I've found it useful so that I can give the garage a heads up on what the problem is.

Mind you on the last fault when we ground to a halt I could find no error. The dealer charged about , £70 for diagnosis but at least found the problem first time.

Not so my motorhome which needed three trips to the workshop before the actually listened to me when I told them it was a fault in the wiring to the reversing light. They changed all sorts of engine modules because that's what the diagnostics said.

Fortunately all under warranty.

I had a Vectra 3.0. V6 with the Isuzu engine, Fuel injection problem. Had to take it to specialist, got the read out. Specialist diagnosed fuel injectors. I got into the diagnostic readdout. Fuel injector filter. Problem
BUT, Thankfully I am able to do that investigation. .
I can also tell about a bad pint of beer or a bad wine.

 

[Dustydog]

OMG! What a run of bad luck.
The cheap readers will give a code but not to the degree of sophistication of an expensive one. The cheapie told me the emission controls were malfunctioning eg Lamda sensor. My local chap has the full VW software. In seconds it said number 5 glow plug. BB had a similar issue with the RAC.
I wasn’t charged for the diagnosis just the repair

 

[Buckman]

OMG! What a run of bad luck.
The cheap readers will give a code but not to the degree of sophistication of an expensive one. The cheapie told me the emission controls were malfunctioning eg Lamda sensor. My local chap has the full VW software. In seconds it said number 5 glow plug. BB had a similar issue with the RAC.
I wasn’t charged for the diagnosis just the repair

The one I bought a few years ago was highly rated by Autoexpress etc so hopefully it is up to the job. I used Torque Lite and AlfaOBD and both gave the same result or error code.

Spoke with our local mechanic and he is not keen on doing any sort of work on the Jeep relating to the fault as it could be very complex. Booked into the Jeep dealer and diagnostic charge is £90 before they do any work. Guess something we have to live with if you own a car! 😏

 

[Raywood]

We did have that problem on a Vectra some years back, the light came on and if you switched the engine off and on again it went away. We had the car checked and it was a faulty connection which produced an intermittent warning. It cost nothing as it was under guarantee, so I have no idea what it would have cost normally.
I would have used the local garage as presumably they could have found what the fault was and decided then if it needed a dealer to do the job.

 

[Buckman]

We did have that problem on a Vectra some years back, the light came on and if you switched the engine off and on again it went away. We had the car checked and it was a faulty connection which produced an intermittent warning. It cost nothing as it was under guarantee, so I have no idea what it would have cost normally.
I would have used the local garage as presumably they could have found what the fault was and decided then if it needed a dealer to do the job.

The concern here is paying the local garage and then having to pay the Jeep dealership again to perform the same test. Due to an issue next door with rats, I suspect that a rat may have partially chewed into the harness as they chewed the windscreen washer pipe.

 

[otherclive]

The concern here is paying the local garage and then having to pay the Jeep dealership again to perform the same test. Due to an issue next door with rats, I suspect that a rat may have partially chewed into the harness as they chewed the windscreen washer pipe.

Our daughter had a problem with rats from the adjacent house. That lady called in environmental health to report the problem as coming from our daughters house caused by her two rabbits. EH wrote a very authoritarian letter to daughter. She got onto them and insisted they come to the house. But they said they would go to the complainants property and view over the fence. Not good enough said she and bent the EHO’s ear. He came to her house and agreed the rabbits were not the problem. The have no food laid down in the garden and access to their night quarters in the garage is denied when in the garden. He agreed there was no nesting presence of rats in her garden. So he went to the neighbours and declared the rats lived under her decking. Nett result decking is now ripped up and neighbour awaits a new patio to be laid.

Report your neighbour.

 

[ProfJohnL]

I doubt whether rat damage would be covered by any warrant.

Decide where you want any work to be carried out and get them to do the diagnosis, Don't split the diagnosis from the repair as that will cost more, and could well end up in a blame game.

Almost certainly if you as any garage to do a specific repair like fixing a wiring fault or damage, the garage doing the work would need to do their own analysis to be able to affirm the diagnosis, and to check they have actually succeeded.

 

[Dustydog]

Years ago with cars , and today with caravans the good old multi meter comes to the fore for voltage , continuity testing etc. Rat savaged cables easily located. Today local chap, went to school with daughter 40 years ago diagnoses foc and does the fix. Plugging into vehicle port takes seconds. If the garage do the repair charging £100 for diagnostics seems expensive. Most non main dealers know investment in IT diagnostics is just part of the tool kit like spanners. Times have moved on!

 

[Buckman]

Our daughter had a problem with rats from the adjacent house. That lady called in environmental health to report the problem as coming from our daughters house caused by her two rabbits. EH wrote a very authoritarian letter to daughter. She got onto them and insisted they come to the house. But they said they would go to the complainants property and view over the fence. Not good enough said she and bent the EHO’s ear. He came to her house and agreed the rabbits were not the problem. The have no food laid down in the garden and access to their night quarters in the garage is denied when in the garden. He agreed there was no nesting presence of rats in her garden. So he went to the neighbours and declared the rats lived under her decking. Nett result decking is now ripped up and neighbour awaits a new patio to be laid.

Report your neighbour.

She has already been reported and all the piles of rubbish in her front garden were removed. The rubbish collectors refused to take it initially as they stated it was commercial waste from her hedgehog rescue operation. We are talking of a couple of bags each week of smelly waste paper and straw coated in droppings plus old food.
She then scaled back her hedgehog rescue operation, but now it is increasing again. Weirdly she blamed us for the rat situations stating that our bird feeders were causing the problem even though any seed falling is caught in a tray to stop the seed sprouting on our lawn.
At the moment I do not know for sure whether rats have caused the issue orit is just one of those things that happen on cars. Need to wait and see.

 

[Buckman]

I doubt whether rat damage would be covered by any warrant.

Decide where you want any work to be carried out and get them to do the diagnosis, Don't split the diagnosis from the repair as that will cost more, and could well end up in a blame game.

Almost certainly if you as any garage to do a specific repair like fixing a wiring fault or damage, the garage doing the work would need to do their own analysis to be able to affirm the diagnosis, and to check they have actually succeeded.

The car is nearly 10 years old so well out of warranty. Whether or not I get the Jeep dealer to do the diagnostic it is still an additional charge over and above what they will charge to do the repair.
In the good old days, if you got the same garage to do the repair the diagnostic was "free", but understand what you are saying and agree about splitting.

 

[Jcloughie]

If I have my car serviced at Volvo, I believe they check the diagnostics and update the software. For the past 4 years a friends garage has done my servicing and I trust them but they don't have access to any software update. But at one time they plugged it into a laptop. They cleared a lot of minor fault codes, most of which were historical and had fixed themselves. And they cured a few minor things. I was impressed at his ability to interpret the results.

My brother took his van to Spain a few weeks ago. He stopped at Exeter for a couple of nights. While there his about 3 year old Santa Fe’s dash reported that in 483 miles the car would be disabled. He called Kia care who diagnosed the Adblue feed had failed. Evidently when the Adblue idea came about, governments wanted engines to be disabled immediately on failure. Manufacturers said that that could be dangerous and very innconvienent so they agreed on a 500 mile leeway.

My brother rearranged his ferry for September, cancelled his Red Penent. And got ready to go home. Then he noticed that the 483 miles was not going down. He stopped the car again, waited, and the fault cleared.

They are now happily in Spain.

John

 

[otherclive]

She has already been reported and all the piles of rubbish in her front garden were removed. The rubbish collectors refused to take it initially as they stated it was commercial waste from her hedgehog rescue operation. We are talking of a couple of bags each week of smelly waste paper and straw coated in droppings plus old food.
She then scaled back her hedgehog rescue operation, but now it is increasing again. Weirdly she blamed us for the rat situations stating that our bird feeders were causing the problem even though any seed falling is caught in a tray to stop the seed sprouting on our lawn.
At the moment I do not know for sure whether rats have caused the issue orit is just one of those things that happen on cars. Need to wait and see.

Rats can scale bird feeders unless the barrier tray is of good dimensions. Why not put out rat traps in your garden, the sort that use poisoned bait. We had a spate two years ago when simultaneously two neighbours had rear extensions built, and one other decided to remove lots of old decking. Clearly the rats had been disturbed but we all got together and placed baited poison traps around the gardens, and stopped feeding birds. . Took about three weeks and after that no more rats. Bait had been taken so it was probably a case of killing some and others moved to new territory. But if you are still having issues from the neighbour I would report them again to EH.

 

[Dustydog]

The Touareg gives me 1500 miles warning for Adblue

 

[Jcloughie]

The Touareg gives me 1500 miles warning for Adblue

I don't know, as my car does not use an additive. But I think there may be two lights, one to warn you are getting low, the other that the system has failed.

My brothers was the latter. He thinks the Kia engineer said 500 was the agreed norm for failure. Together with the warning that the engine will be didabled.

John

 

[Dustydog]

I don't know, as my car does not use an additive. But I think there may be two lights, one to warn you are getting low, the other that the system has failed.

My brothers was the latter. He thinks the Kia engineer said 500 was the agreed norm for failure. Together with the warning that the engine will be didabled.

John

VW told me two warnings. 1500, 1000 then at 500 engine cuts out and needs “dealer” computer to reset😜

 

[otherclive]

VW told me two warnings. 1500, 1000 then at 500 engine cuts out and needs “dealer” computer to reset😜

Seems a bit illogical to cut at 500 miles. Id have thought some form of limp mode would bring the message home then a cut much nearer run out of adblue. Most advice seems to be that it will run on reduced mode without adblue, but will not restart until sufficient adblue put into tank. It’s synthetic urea, so after a good session in the pub you could top it up with the real stuff. But then still be unable to drive.

 

[Dustydog]

Seems a bit illogical to cut at 500 miles. Id have thought some form of limp mode would bring the message home then a cut much nearer run out of adblue.

Das Deutch

 

[JTQ]

Could be to protect you from actually driving on to the point of running out?
Some Adblue systems need a dealer to purge and reset it up after they run out of fluid, it is not necessarily simply refilling and drive off.

If they stop things with still some left, then you could just refill it and not incur a dealer visit, and the extra cost that brings.

 

[Hutch]

Sorry folks, is it not total stupiddity nor refilling your Adblue stuff at the first warning, a bit like with a diesel car, you have a fuel gauge, then a warning light to show your low on fuel, if you run out of fuel, you then have the hassle of bleeding the fuel system.

 

[otherclive]

Articles by the AA, RAC, Nationwide Fuels and others say if you do run out the car will still run but with lower performance but it will not restart once the engine has been switched off. But it may be different for various makes/models and “ yes” not all cars can be just filled up by the driver, and some Audis require a minimum of 5+ litres before the car will restart and run normally.