just bought a 2nd hand car, obd light came on for 30 seconds

rachaelpie

If you bought it from a dealership, I would just pop it in and tell them, ask if they can have a quick look. I work at a dealership and we get little things like this all the time, at least if there is something wrong you could be covered under a 30 day warranty. Hope that helps.

Nodding_Donkey

rachaelpie wrote: »

If you bought it from a dealership, ..................................at least if there is something wrong you could be covered under a 30 day warranty. Hope that helps.

A bit longer than 30 days if it was a trade sale.

colino

As above, if its from a bona fide trader, take it back. If it's not, get it code read and find out what's wrong.

PollySouthend

Thanks, took it back to the dealer. They gave it a look over and couldn't find anything and the light hasn't come on since.

They said its something to keep an eye on and probably because it hadn't been used in a while. Is this likley?

Stoke

When did the light come on? Had the car been sat for a while, or had you been driving for a bit first?

If it's gone off, then it sounds to me as though it was a Pending fault (Google pending fault obd). This is a fault which is logged but isn't stored and if the fault can't be reproduced after so many engine cycles then it will go off and be cleared. If the fault can be reproduced then it will be stored as a DTC (Diagnostic Trouble Code). A pending fault can come on for a number of reasons. I once got one when I stalled the car in traffic. It went about 30 seconds later.

Those ELM327's are excellent. Even if they last a year, they can save you a lot of money. Mine is a few years old and still going strong.

colino

Not a BMW by chance? Some of them don't leave it to the fuel guage or merely the low fuel warning light to alert the driver they need fuel, they stick on the eml as well. (In fact some of them do the same trick if the petrol cap hasn't been tightened down too).

PollySouthend

It came on after 10 mins of driving on a roundabout it came on.

Its not a BMW but the fuel was about 20%.

Thanks for your replies, just hoping it will run ok as don't have the money to fix it! It runs fine so guess I will just carry on for now

neilmcl

You were driving on a roundabout for 10 mins :eek:

Seriously though, did it come on and go off straight away, do you know what light it was exactly? Could it have been the traction control kicking in?

PollySouthend

Lol. It went off after a couple of mins. Its the engine looking light, thought it meant water but looking in the book its the obd light - pretty much the most annoying light to come on!

arcon5

I think some members need to read up on the difference between a warranty and sales of goods act. Because a warranty and statutory rights are not interchangeable concepts.