Hey, guys. I spent today in the freezing cold changing the discs, pads, brake lines and fluid. I had the keys in the ignition turned to the third positionso that I could manouver the discs without the steering lock coming on for ease of access to the brake lines. Anyways to cut a long story short I had a bit of hassle with the alarm and the battery went flat. Now I jump started the car from a mates car and everything is fine after a run EXCEPT i now have the engine emmision light on the dash

This one


What could have caused it, and what can i do to fix it? Hopefully without visiting the dealers!

 

If your sure the CEL is on because of what you have done then yank the fuse for the ECU (by your right leg) for a few minutes, and refit fuse.
This will clear the 'alarm' for you. If its still a real problem the CEl will come on again.
The car might idle a little rough as it re learns its idle settings, just get in and drive for a few minutes and it'll be fine again.

HTH.
Steve.

 

Try an ECU reset first of all. Done by pulling the relevant fuse out for half hour or so. If it appears again it would be wise to get it checked out with a fault code reader.

 

Beat me to it!

 

Cheers fella's i'll try that. Any chance i could get the wrong fuse or is it obvious?

 

There is a label in side the fusebox lid. You cant hurt anything else.


Looks like fuse no21 under the dash. It's a 7.5amp mini blade fuse.
Middle fuse, right hand row I think.
In the top of the fusebox you ought to find a small white tool.
Pull it out - its a little toll like a plastic white tweezer, its for pulling fuses

 

I read somewhere that after an ECU reset you should rag the tits off the car, not sure if it does anything but it sounds like fun

 

The ECU reset clears the cars memeory of not only error codes, but it's idle control and fuelling tables.

So once you restart the car, you need to let it sit there for 5-10 mins to re learn how to idle. You will know when it's finished by blipping the throttle. If the car tries to cut out (it never does) then leave it a bit longer until when you do blip it, it goes back to perfect idle.

The thrashing the tips off it came from me Jonesy. It's something i've always done. However, the car must have been suitably warmed up (that includes the gearbox etc rather than just the engine from sitting idling) Doing this sets all the ignition timing and fuelling up nicely from day 1. It will feel nice and pokey

You CEL light may just be from what you have been working on. I would do as others have said, and reset it. Normally you wouldn't do this, as you want to know the code - but seems like the ECU has got confused here.

HTH

 

Please note that this proceedure will not remove the master fuelling tables and WOT fuelling tables

 

err.. What's WOT?