Emissions light on - immediate problem?

clearingout

I wonder if anyone can help?

Recently had an MOT and am generally happy with my mechanic. Have an 04 Vauxhall Meriva, just over 60k miles on the clock.

Light came on when driving earlier today - consulted the manual and it says it's 'emissions'. Apparently if it's on, it needs to be taken to a garage to be looked at and if it's flashing (which it's not - yet at least!) then there is a risk of damaging the catalytic converter.

Am a single working parent - need to work in the morning but can use a taxi if I have to (arrrgggh!). Will it be OK to drive (approx 10 mile round journey for the day) and have my mechanic look at it Tuesday (as I'm less pressured Tuesday from a work perspective and can afford to be in late but I can't tomorrow) or should I really not drive it at all?

I would normally call the mechanic but it's Sunday and feel bad about doing so!

Any help gratefully received.

Hintza

I would try a bit of Italian tuning and take it for a decent run using more revs than normal to blow away any cobwebs.

clearingout

what do you class as a 'decent run'? We did 120 miles on the motorway on Friday?

GAZ237

It will need to be hooked up to diagnostics to see why the light has come on.
The damage to the cat would come from unburnt fuel getting into it which would be caused by the wrong air/fuel mixture.
It could be a faulty sensor causing the wrong mixture or if the car is normally only used for short journeys its just a bit coked up.
Will be fine to use for a bit, but as has been said in a post above. Take the car for good thrash with high revs through the gears and a blast down the motorway if ones near.
If your lucky it will clear itself and the light may go off ( sometimes it may need resetting)

It could even be the cat is starting to get blocked(honeycomb in the exhaust) so a good blast may clear it a bit.

colino

Very unlikely to be a catastrophic fault needing immediate attention and it could be anything from a loose hose to a pin-!!!!! hole in the exhaust. I'd be really worried if I drove a v/x for any length of time and the dash warning lights didn't come on.

colino

Sometimes I despair about our overwhelming scale of deskilling and zealous over protection of everything, right down to a lazy swear filter.

GAZ237

clearingout wrote: »

what do you class as a 'decent run'? We did 120 miles on the motorway on Friday?

Depending on how you drive. You can easily do 70mph down the motorway without ever going over 2500 revs.

Its probably needs a good thrash 4k plus, but obviously don't redline it.

Richard53

colino wrote: »

Sometimes I despair about our overwhelming scale of deskilling and zealous over protection of everything, right down to a lazy swear filter.

It's annoying, isn't it?

I had to laugh when the software on a motorbike forum I used to visit turned one poster's legitimate word 'rearsets' (footrests sited more to the rear of the bike than normal) into re****ts. It took me about ten minutes to work out what it should have been (having substituted virtually every four-letter word I knew in there and got nothing).

Nice to know we are treated as adults.