Mother in law has just noticed the engine management light has come on on the dash.. she has 96 Proton Savvy.. its driving ok, can she drive it home, and to the garage?,both journeys are about 5 miles, or should we get the RAC man out to look at it before she drives it anywhere else? ta everso for any replies Mrs C x
I've just looked in my Volvo manual - 2 warning lights relevant to your problem:
1. emissions warning - drive to your dealer
2. oil pressure - check level and CONTACT your dealer.
Most cars go into "limp home" mode if problem is not too serious to allow you to get to a dealer, but yours sounds like it's running OK anyway.
Perhaps the answer is to ring the dealer in the morning and ask his advice.
The engine is in safe mode so ok to drive home. It is probably nothing more than a dirty sensor which the garage will want to charge you for, maybe more than the car is worth.
Live with it for a while and in the meantime get a car code reader off eBay for less than £30. This will tell you what is wrong and also enable you to reset the light.
My guess is that it is a dirty sensor on the exhause for which a garage will want to change the exhaust. If it is this then pop a bottle of Cataclean (eBay again) in the peterol and run it. Reset the light and that will be that.
Of course this advice is no substitute for actually being there of course!
When this happened to a previous car of mine, I phoned the dealer for advice....which was "take it for a 15 mile run on a fast road and that'll put it right". Bit surprised, but I did and it was. Never came on again.