Engine Management Light

Hi,

At the end of December my EML came on and the car went into - what I now understand is - 'limp mode'. I took the car to the nearest garage, which was a Halford's autocentre. After chaging me £50 for diagnostics, they tried a new coil pack and that didn't appear to be the problem. After 4 hours of waiting, they discovered that there was a problem with the fuel injector number 4. So another £150 later, I drove away and have not had a problem until this Friday (14th Feb), when my EML came on again, and the car went into limp mode.

I managed to get into my work's car park and wait for the breakdown to arrive. After moving the car to behind the breakdown van, it felt fine to drive and the breakdown ended up following me to the nearest halfords (in case it was their fault). They decided that it wasn't a problem with the fuel injector and it fact it was the throttle body (£280). However, Halfords also said that the code had cleared and the EML had turned off; so I decided to drive away and do some research. Unfortunately, 2 days later (today), the same thing happened again, which brings me here.

I have read in many places that a common problem seems to be rain water leaking through the washer pump on the bonnet and dripping through to the engine underneath (the throttle body appears to be directly underneath). The comments I have read have also suggested that a simple and cheap solution is to seal the valve, dry the affected area (I wouldn't know how!), and trick the EML into turning itself off.

I am wondering if anyone on here has also had the same problem?

Thanks

Welcome to the forum gozzy9

I have read in many places that a common problem seems to be rain water leaking through the washer pump on the bonnet and dripping through to the engine underneath (the throttle body appears to be directly underneath). The comments I have read have also suggested that a simple and cheap solution is to seal the valve, dry the affected area (I wouldn't know how!), and trick the EML into turning itself off.

I am wondering if anyone on here has also had the same problem?

This topic covers the Leaking washer jets causes damage to fuel injector on the C3


The MIL/EML will turn itself of if the fault has cleared after a pre-defined number of engine starts. So it sounds like you have an intermittent fault.

You can dry things with come kitchen roll or an absorbent cloth. Some WD40 can be used to drive damp from places.


You can buy a cheap OBD reader or a more fully featured lexia system which will give you similar or the same features as Halfords diagnostics. With these tools, get the P codes and start diagnostics from there. The fully featured lexia does more and more thorough diagnostics but has a steeper learning curve.