I just bought a 2003 privately and the engine light turned on 1 hour after
 

Hello

As title says, I went and bought a second hand 2003 volvo c70 convertible and I love it. Everything with the engine drives really smoothly and powerfully.

I took the car for a 30 minute test drive on the highway on Sunday and the engine light was not on. I went and bought the car last night and drove it 8km to my fathers, then had the car idling for about 15 minutes while we played with the roof. During the idling, the engine light came on. "Engine management system malfunction". I thought nothing of it and turned the car off for about 20 minutes, then I drove it home and the engine light didn't go off all trip. Car drives the same as it did on the test drive, but I'm worried about the light. It says in the manual to drive to a volvo dealer to be checked, is this necessary straight away or do I have other options to find out whats up.

Thanks
..

you need to have the car scanned for fault codes. Most shops can do this - dealers certainly can but may charge a 1 hour diagnostic fee. You also can try "renting" an OBD2 scanner for free from Autozone - they are looking to sell you the parts. The OBD2 port is usually under the dash on the drivers side (look for a plug thats like 2 inches by 1/2 inch - kind of like an old printer cable connector. Plug the reader into that, turn the key to position 2 and you will get the codes. Write them down and post.