Engine management light?

Hi guys, I'm new to cars, just bought my first car (22nd april) from a used car dealer 2002 Citroen c3 1.4 SX. On the test drive the engine management light came on, dealer to,d me it was because the fuel had run out (me being naive, believed him) bought the car, filled the tank up, took the car out and kept getting the engine management light beep at me and then the car would cut out. My friend tried driving it and it didn't happen for him. Took it back to dealer who again assured me it was probably some dirt had been picked up when he ran the fuel down. He said he would clean it out for me so took my car and 'sorted it'. That was last Friday. I've been driving the car everyday since and no problems at all until yesterday afternoon when the car was stalling (at first I was unsure whether it was just me - only passed my test 3 weeks ago). But not long after, the engine light came on again and caused the car to cut out. It's worrying me (walked today instead of using the car). I don't know what to do really. Has anyone had any experience of this?

Hello Penguin84. Congratulations on passing your test and welcome to the world of motoring and breakdowns!

C3s are clever little cars in that they have engine management systems. The light is confirming that there is a problem but not telling you what it is. I'd suggest you try to get the codes read from the engine management system, this will usually tell you exactly what the problem is. It might be you have to pay a garage to do this unless you have access to a code reader or a friend who has one.

Armed with the information you can then go back to the dealer who sold you the car and see what they are prepared to do to fix it.

For what its worth, and this is only a guess, but I don't think dirt in the fuel is the problem as modern cars have a fuel filter. Its possible for the filter to be blocked but this normally takes years to happen and is cured by changing the filter.

Thank you for your quick reply. Will any garage do this check and how much (on average) will they charge? Thanks again.

Most garages will be able to provide some sort of test. The amount of detail they can give will depend on the equipment they have. A Citroen dealer should give the best results but will probably the most expensive, an independent Citroen specialist would be good but you can always ask around to see what your local garage can do and what sort of cost.

You could try the garage that you are thinking of for servicing in the future, they might help out?