Focus 05 1.8 TDCi -- Red 'cog' warning light.

RTFM

It would help if you looked up what the warning light meant.

Am I the only person that if they see a red light on their dash that shouldn`t be there (like a red cog for example) stops as soon as it is safe to do so, and gets their car recovered? I don`t have the kit with me in my car to diagnose anything like that, and with the potential to make an engine go pop, I`d rather be on the safe side. Am I paranoid?

Well it depends which red light it is, personally I go to the petrol station if it's the fuel warning light. Or on most VAGs the low coolant warning light. Ford Fiestas tend to blink the brake warning light at you when the pads are low as the fluid in the master cylinder drops far enough to trigger the float on corners. And Ivecos flash the low oil light at you if you restart them whilst they're cold.

I was travelling as a passenger in a car a few years ago when I noticed the oil light come on. After mentioning this to the driver he quickly said 'oh it's been doing that for ages'. Ignoring my advice that the oil light tends to be serious warning he carried on driving. We made it to our destination but two days later we only managed 5 miles on the way home before the engine died - cause oil pump failure!

I tend to take the warning lights seriously (unless it was in my old Fiat Stilo then I would never have got anywhere if I listened to the merry jingle of warning messages that used to come up on the LCD)

Andy

Well thanks for the usual round of "RTFM" and "you're a d*ck" type comments. I LOVE USENET!

The warning light wasn't an oil one, or a parking brake one.

The manual gives the usual advice of "stop the car immeadiately and run away from it screaming" - without actually saying what this light represents.

Just thought some of you might have known. Obivously not.

No matter.

Thanks again anyhow.

So you did almost 900 miles in a car with an unknown warning light - well done you! Then again, I suppose it`s the person who buys the car after you that gets the trouble from you ignoring warning lights, so why would you care?

But a red light shaped like a cog, with an ! in the middle? That`s a different league than a fuel light coming on, and would certainly warrant better advice than a salesman`s heresay. :-)

Well, obviously if it's still lit theres a problem. But the very fact that it went out and hasn't been on since... Meh.

Modern cars with sensors for this and sensors for that, something's bound to be glitchy at some point.

"... Then again, I suppose it`s the person who buys the car after you that gets the trouble from you ignoring warning lights, so why would you care? "

Well, it's an ex hire car, so I imagine it's not been very well looked after as is.

Were you going round this roundabout in a low gear at high revs? A little googling reveals that the focus has a warning light to tell you to change up at 4500rpm. Could this be your light? Logic would suggest this light might have a cog and an exclamation mark.

Steve

And I particularly like this phrase from another forum -

A warning light on the dash alerts the doof-doof wastrels when they're about to hit the red line. ...

Steve

In article , snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com felt he had to say

Means shit.

All the more reason not to ignore it.

Anyway does anyone actually know what it it means? It's not in the Fusion handbook.

So what warnings are stored on the cars computer now then? As an example of why a light coming on then going off again should be of concern, the VW Polo flashes the engine warning light if it detects a fault with the brake sensor that stops the brake lights coming on, but it`s an intermittent fault most of the time. So the light comes on, then goes off and you carry on driving - but you`ve got a fault that will make the brake lights fail again at some random time in the future. A simple check will reveal the problem, and it`s a £10 switch and an hours work to fix the problem, or you carry on driving until it happens again - maybe when you`re in a queue on a motorway and a HGV drives into your rear end because you wheren`t displaying brake lights. A small example of a fault, but one that happened on a friends car (it was repaired as soon as we diagnosed the fault, not RTC), but I think it shows why any light on the dash that you can`t immediately explain (fuel light for example) should be checked out ASAP, certainly not after 900 miles.

And something is bound to go wrong mechanically at some point - which was the case in your original post? nobody knows!

So are you planning on keeping the car long term yourself? If so this is hardly a great start is it? This is why you have a recovery service, so they can come out and have a look, plug their computer into it and see what messages are given, then you can make an informed decision.

In message , Duncan Wood writes

Its the Engine systems fault warning light (vehicles without message centre).

"If it illuminates when driving, it indicates a malfunction of the engine and powertrain related systems. Stop the vehicle and switch off the engine. Have the engine checked by an expert immediately".

surely a bit of common sense ( checking the fluid levels etc ) would tell you whether it's ok to drive The oil pressure light is probably still hardwired to the pressure switch, so I would not ignore that one though.

The example I gave in another post re: a Polo`s brake lights wouldn`t be spotted by a simple fluid check - it took a bit of head scratching and google to figure out what the relevant fault code actually meant ("Unrealistic brake sensor position" or similar). For the sake of sitting round for half an hour or so for someone to come out and plug a diagnostic machine into the car and give you a firm diagnosis most of the time, it`s not worth damaging the car is it?

I`m scared that Ford feel the need to put a light on to warn people when to change gear. How stupid are the people buying fords to make this a requirement? It`s as bad, if not worse, than an iron having a sticker warning you to take the clothes off before ironing them!

Simon Finnigan ( snipped-for-privacy@Hotmail.Com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Fairly common on manual-box cars stateside.

What, you mean the same system that virtually all competition cars have now?

Yebutt they are making cars for Merkins ;-)

Chris