Is this warning light bad news?

[Mint]

Hi All

I have just returned from 3 weeks hols (not in the Zed, unfortunately) and have just been out for a drive and have this warning light on the dash.




I have looked in the owner's handbook I have for the car and it's not in there - but then I discovered the handbook only covers the 1.8, 1.9, 2.8 and M Roadsters - so I have the wrong book, (mines a 2.2 sport).

Anyway according to the article by Robert in the Knowledgebase the warning light means 'Engine Management: There is an engine management malfunction. Please arrange for the problem to be examined BMW Service.'

The car drives and pulls as normal, oil level is ok, so should I be concerned, very concerned or not drive it and call local dealer?

Also I have booked the Zed in for MOT on Friday, is this an instant fail or will it be ok?.

Any help gratefully received - as always.

Thanks Dave

[wonderloaf]

Hi Dave, I've also got a 2.2 and mine did just the same recently, the light came on but the car drove absolutely fine. I took mine round to my local garage who hooked it up to their diagnostics thingy and they found there were a couple of old misfire codes but no active codes, so they cleared the codes and all has been OK since.

I've had a look in my manual and it says the following:
'Exhaust emission values have deteriorated. Have the problem examined by BMW service.' Very helpful..

If you've got it booked in for an MOT couldn't you ask them to run a diagnostics scan on it at the same time?

[Mint]

Thanks for the reply wonderloaf. Yes good idea, I might get the garage to look at the codes but if it's the 'Exhaust emission values' I wonder if it will pass the emissions test of the MOT.

[DOLLYPEG]

hi just had same in my 1.9z,it was SENSOR but engine management anyway,i likewisewas due m.o.t,passed ok,but i did change some hoses on top of engine ,rubber ones connected to air inlet,but light stayed on didn,t affect m.o.t. you can check air supply ,mixture type things as this is what the light is indicating.garage will prob charge 20/30 quid to run a check,check hoses and carb type things as i,ve said. try disconnect battery for about 30secs then reconnect,this may sort light.

[Zed Carer]

We had the same light on the Z4 a couple of years ago and the fault code was for the LAMBDA sensor and looking at RealOEM the 2.2 appears to have 3 sensors - 2 regulating sensors and 1 monitoring sensor. However in our case the fault was eventually traced to a crack in the exhaust manifold that fortunately could be welded rather than having to get a new one. As others have pointed out could also be a cracked/split air pipe in the inlet system or possibly a blocked pipe in the crankcase breathing system. Hope that it proves to be something simple.

[BladeRunner919]

You need to get the codes read. There is a sticky that lists forum members with diags, or consider investing £40 or so to set yourself up to read the codes. Any speculation on the reason for the light is just that - speculation - and is a sure way to waste money.

[Robert T]

The symbol is listed in the manual for my pre-facelift 1.9, though it appears to be an yellow/amber light, whereas your photo shows it as red. There is a knowledgebase article detailing all the tellatales as listed in the manual here: http://www.zroadster.net/forum/viewtopi ... 18&t=35657

This is what it says for the above symbol:

Engine management
There is an engine management malfunction. Please arrange for the problem to be examined BMW Service.

In general red means stop the car immediately and turn off the engine, whilst yellow means take to BMW service as soon as possible. If it is an emissions problem, then it could be poisoning your CAT, so best to get it checked out as soon as possible.

Cheers R.

[Badman gee]

I find arsenic good for poisoning cats!

[Badman gee]

Get it sorted ASAP dave!

[gookah]

Can be caused by a split in the intake hoses, thats all mine was, changed the hoses and it cleared itself after 3 run outs. but I now have a reset tool but never needed it since

[Badman gee]

Can be caused by a split in the intake hoses, thats all mine was, changed the hoses and it cleared itself after 3 run outs. but I now have a reset tool but never needed it since

Was yours a red or yellow indication?

[gookah]

Mine is a yellow outline of an engine on an amber background, looks to be in the same location, It comes on with Ign 2 position, and goes off just after engine starts, (Well it does now)

[Badman gee]

Mine is a yellow outline of an engine on an amber background, looks to be in the same location, It comes on with Ign 2 position, and goes off just after engine starts, (Well it does now)

His looks red

[TitanTim]

Yepp on most cars (I think) yellow is normally a warning, red as Robert says and in the handbook, pull over and switch engine off, thats why its red for STOP!!

Tim.

[gookah]

May be 2 colour lamps in the same location one lights it amber, one lights it red?
Does this one come on amber with the ignition then change to red? mine was amber before and after...

[Mint]

Thanks all for your comments. The photo colour is not very accurate - it is actually an amber light. I'll see if I can get the MOT guy to do me a favour and have a look at the codes for me.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks again

[Robert T]

As far as I know all the Z3 instrument clusters use white bulbs with a coloured film - even the odometer uses white bulbs with and LCD display and a multi-coloured film - there are no LEDs present - so I don't think it can change colour even if it wanted to!

When I was taking the photos for the KB article, a number of them came out with the wrong colours and it took a lot of photoshop tweaking to get the symbols to stand out from the backgrounds with some suggestion as to what colour the thing lights up.

Edit: And there we have it - Mint has confirmed that it is indeed yellow.

Cheers R.

[Mint]

When I was taking the photos for the KB article, a number of them came out with the wrong colours and it took a lot of photoshop tweaking to get the symbols to stand out from the backgrounds with some suggestion as to what colour the thing lights up.

In hindsight perhaps I should have as well

[joebuck]

HI Mint, This was my first problem when i bought my car about 3yrs ago. As i was a newbie took it right away to bmw. Two problems were found, split in intake rubber hose down near idle control valve,a little y shaped hose running off the larger, secondly code reading showed fault camshaft sensor(exhaust) If i were you i would be looking at all hoses then code reading. Good luck with it. BTW i am your twin 2.2 aegean blue(336) sport lotus white interior- lovely motor.

[Mint]

Update Wed. Went round to a pal who could read the error codes. The codes referred to sporadic errors the last of which occurred 250 odd hours ago (whilst parked in the garage whilst I was on hols). So we reset all the codes and the light went off and stayed off on the trip home. Fingers crossed it is ok now.

Thanks for all your help guys.

joebuck you're the only other one I've heard off - we're pretty unique

[amancuso]

Nothing much to add here, except "LAMBADA sensor??"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8mz9uOvFQA

[Mint]

Nothing much to add here, except "LAMBADA sensor??"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8mz9uOvFQA

mmm not quite what I was thinking of, but a good link nonetheless

[Robert T]

Disambiguation:

LAMBDA = The stoichiometry number λ which describes the composition of the air/fuel mixture - see here - λ is the Greek letter lambda.

LAMBADA = A Brazilian ballroom dance in which the partners press against each other tightly and gyrate sensually or the music for performing this dance.

LLAMBDA = An attempt by the Welsh to cross breed a sheep and a llama.

LAMDA = An acronym for London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Cheers R.

[Z3cade]

Take it out for a good thrashing Dave should clear the cobwebs out!!

[Mint]

Good idea Liam, she has been sat in the garage for 3 weeks

[Mint]

Update 2

Passed MOT - light has stayed off.

V. pleased

[Mint]

Update 3

Over 350 miles now completed and (touches wood) still no light. I think she's ok now.

Thanks for all your comments guys.