Engine Management Light.. Which OBD reader

[quik5i1ver]

Got into my car excited about heading to Bedford this evening and as I drove down my road, my excitement died.. The Exhaust emissions light was on and unlike before, it was static, not flashing.. Restarting the car did not clear it so I left it on the driveway and I shall be borrowing my fair lady's Cooper.. The question is, could it be anything other than the lambda sensor? I searched the forum and noted that Reno are likely to charge upwards of £50 simply to hook the car up to an OBD reader so I figured that now would be a good time to purchase one. A quick look suggests that either handheld or cable only into a laptop are the available options.

Does anyone else have one?
Should I look at specific functionality?

Thanks

 

[aarontrophy]

i no someone local to me who is a Renault man no's everything going and he has a fault reader which i can get my hands on if you fancy meeting up i can take you to him?

 

[chrish27]

Hi,

Does the car still run properly, I had the same thing driving on the M25, the light popped on, got my good lady to look through the manual to find out what the hell it was....omission light.

Anyway mine stayed on even when turning the engine off and on again, checked through the forum. Seems quite common for it to go on !! Ran mine for a week like it.

You can check any faults by turning the ignition on and pressing the trip computer switch on the stalk, should give you error codes, mine never did.

When I had my Mot the other day, got Renault to check and clear it, they said all was clear, and must of just come on !!

Chris

 

[quik5i1ver]

Thanks guys,

aarontrophy, thank you for the offer, I think that I may be able to use a guy nearby if I don't manage to work out which reader to purchase. If that fails, I'll drop you a PM - thanks!

I agree that this fault is quite common. I have performed the dashboard fault check before and it will give you a certain amount of information but it does not give you the same level of detail as an OBD reader - my only question is as to which one will give sufficient data..

It could be a one off blip which once reset, won't come back but I want to find out as much information as I can..

 

[hoolio]

Chris (480bhp) did some research into these so should be able to point you in the right direction.

 

[quik5i1ver]

Thanks J!

 

[Xuthos]

My light is on permanently - until I plug in the reader and turn it off - it has no impact on performance at all. I bought the reader from K-Tech for about £30 as i remember.

 

[Luke335]

Rich,
Mine is a scan guage. Give me a call if you want to try it. I'm not sure it will do the job but it's worth a try. If it doesn't then at least I can stop carrying it around everywhere with me just in case!

 

[Cue]

if anyone has a decat this is standard - will come on after 30 mins of motorway driving.

if not it'll be the o2 sensor at fault or the cat - that's pricey but the sensor isn't. I'd lay money on it being the o2 sensor, they are brittle.

re the reader, then it depends on what info you want. you can get them for £20 that will clear the faults but if you want to know more detail then you need to be spending more - and they can cost well into the hundreds

 

[quik5i1ver]

Thanks to all for the comments..!

My mate has just purchased an ELM laptop module so hopefully that will be with us fairly soon but I imagine the T will be sitting around for at least a week once I've confirmed the issue and ordered the part(s)

 

[quik5i1ver]

Managed to find the time to get the car hooked up to the ELM OBD reader lastnight. My mate has purchased some software which gives a whole host of different readings and graphs and has around 18,000 manufacturers fault codes - for around £30 - not bad really. It pointed to the following error:
P0130 O2 Sensor bank 1 sensor 1
Sitting in the car with the doors open, I could smell it running pretty rich - the exhaust fumes were really strong.
So now I need to purchase the correct replacement Lambda sensor. Can anyone clarify for certain which one it is and also where it is located please? Looking on CS, I think it's the upstream (pre cat?) sensor, although I'm yet to find out exactly where it resides.

PR - are you able to supply any diagrams and part numbers please?

Thanks!

 

[murcod]

Try finding someone with an RSTuner (or consider buying one)- it will easily beat any generic scanner for reading fault codes. On my Aussie 182 Cup I only get limited connectivity using an ELM327 interface and my handheld scanner appears to only partially connect :x . That might just be an Aussie ECU software issue though?

I found with an RSTuner it will not only read codes the other two won't, but also gives meaningful plain language definitions of what the code is.

 

[quik5i1ver]

I ended up using my friend's ELM interface into a laptop running some other diagnostic software and was able to diagnose the fault plus look at graphical sensor readings which was very interesting.

Have since replaced the O2 sensor (pre cat) which was a nightmare due to it being in so tight and also lying under the car to do the work.

Now can confirm that all is well!

Thanks for all of the advice above!

 

[power ranger]

I ended up using my friend's ELM interface into a laptop running some other diagnostic software and was able to diagnose the fault plus look at graphical sensor readings which was very interesting.

Have since replaced the O2 sensor (pre cat) which was a nightmare due to it being in so tight and also lying under the car to do the work.

Now can confirm that all is well!

Thanks for all of the advice above!

Glad its all sorted mate!

I'm surprised that no one elses has gone into limp mode when the light came on it did in mine couldn't go over 50mph!

 

[quik5i1ver]

Cheers PR!