Engine diagnostics in Pierrefonds: We have all experienced this situation before. We are driving along in our vehicle, no apparent problems, the road is pleasant, the children are calm in the back seat… When suddenly, an orange or red light comes on on the dashboard. What does it mean? Is the engine diagnostics imperative? Should I stop? Call a mechanical garage? Or do I have to go there urgently? Or does the light indicate nothing serious and continue as if nothing had happened?

Engine diagnostics in Pierrefonds: Orange light versus red light

We’re going to focus on the amber engine light. This is the most common light, as opposed to red. The red light means a fairly serious problem and indicates that you should stop the vehicle as soon as possible, turn off the engine directly and perform engine diagnostics before restarting. If you turn your car key when you start your car and you see it, you’d better forget about your car trip. As you can see, you shouldn’t take any chances with a red engine light – and an engine diagnostics is necessary in most cases.

Flashing engine light

Sometimes the light may come and go – or it may flash. When this happens, you should also find a way to pull over to the side of the road and turn off the engine as quickly as possible. As for the causes, note that a flashing light is most likely to mean either an abnormal catalyst temperature, a sensor problem, a problem with the DPF, or too little fuel capacity. Any of these causes can have dramatic repercussions on your engine and require a complete engine diagnostics. Another note: the engine light, oil pressure light or electronic engine management light, also known as the EPC light, can also make a loud sound to let you know that it’s time to stop and have your vehicle checked.

Continuously lit engine light

To make sure you understand the seriousness of a warning light on your engine, let’s list a few unfortunate situations that could be the cause of the warning light in general. Although we’ve made a small list of these before, it was only for problems that were highlighted by a flashing light. On the contrary, a continuously lit engine light can be accompanied by various disturbing factors, such as jerky acceleration of the car, increased pollution in the exhaust, abnormally reduced power, strange noise…

Finally, the causes for the continuous lighting of an engine light can go from an injection pump that no longer works to an injector that sends too much fuel, through a catalytic converter that is too hot, spark plugs that no longer light (on gasoline cars rather), and many others… It is often difficult to assess the reason yourself, so it is better to trust a specialist in the field who then proceeds to the engine diagnostics in order to find the exact causes of the problem.

For your engine diagnostics in Pierrefonds, a good tip: Rely on recommended CAA garages and use the specialists. To book your vehicle’s check-up with the experts at Autotech Performance Pierrefonds in the West Island of Montreal, schedule a reservation online here.