So what is it that the dealer can do that you or I couldn't? And will they reset the light for free?

Cheers,
Daz.

 

You don't need to take it to a dealer to kill the CEL. I would HIGHLY suggest grabbing a Haynes manual. They're only $17 here in the states and will give you all the information you need. However, having said that...

You need to find out where the CEL is being thrown from. Most likely it's the fuel system (socket A2). It could be the ignition though (socket A6). To find this out, open the hood and on the passenger side of the car (well, passenger in the US - opposite side of the battery), there will be a diagnostic unit. Take off the covers and find the "A" block (will be black, not light grey) and there will be a black wire attached to it. Take off that wire, that's your diagnostic probe. Do the following...

(get a pad and pencil to write down any codes)
1. Insert the selector cable (probe thing) into socket A2
2. Turn ON the ignition (don't fire up the car, just put it into the run position)
3. Press the test button (next to the big A on the test block) once for about 1 second and release it
4. The red LED will start to flash a sequence of 3-digit numbers. For instance, to display a 1-2-1, it will go flash-pause-flash-flash-pause-flash. A 1-1-1 means all is well, no fault detected.
5. When it's done with that code, press the button again to display the next code and do this until the first code is displayed again.

To reset the codes on that system...
6. Remove the selector cable, turn OFF the car.
7. Reinsert the cable in the same socket as before and turn the ignition ON again (remember, don't fire the car up)
8. Press the test button and hold it for 5-6 seconds
9. Release the button and after 3ish seconds, the LED will light steady (won't flash codes)
10. Press and hold the button again for another 5-6 seconds and release it. The LED should go out.
11. Turn off the ignition and remove the cable.

After you are done and before I fired up the engine, I would run through steps 1-5 again to make sure that it is displaying 1-1-1 as the code. This means that it's reset and should be good to go. If this doesn't turn off the CEL, try the other socket...

 

Ok guys, thanks for all the advice! I've done all you guys said, apart from the service light. Will tackle that in two weeks. It's time now to take this beauty on the road. We're doing a 3k-4k mile round trip from Central England, to Spain and back. The car is running really nicely, and we've spruced it up a little! Take a look:

http://oxford.facebook.com/album.php...4f&id=36804117

The event is actually for charity, raising awareness for the teenage cancer trust: http://www.justgiving.com/derbybrakeawaycrew

Thanks again for all the help guys!

Daz.

 

You're running in the Gumball 3000??!!?

 

Haha, no, it's a Student version... (With much worse cars, no offence to our volvo!)

This our page on their site if you wqant to check it out: http://www.justgiving.com/derbybrakeawaycrew

 

^Ugh Student version...So I'm going to assume there will be lots of breakdowns on the way.

This definetely sounds fun though...Too bad it's not the real thing, otherwise you'd get to see some major supercars.