Amber engine man light on - Series 8 Ducato (1 Viewer)

[Nigel L]

Hi all, driving down to Cornwall this morning, and a ping from the dash with message ‘check engine’ appearing and amber engine warning light now on.
Being an amber warning light, is it still safe to continue driving?
Being a Sunday, not going to be able to talk to anyone at a Fiat Professional garage until tomorrow. Do I call the RAC, will they have the necessary diagnostic tool, or just point me to the Fiat professional people?
Van seems to be running absolutely fine, but don’t want to continue with journey if not advisable.

van is 6 months old with 4K miles on.

i did fill up with Adblue yesterday (first fill) but have driven couple hundred miles since with no problem.

any thoughts very welcome

 

[suavecarve]

Hi all, driving down to Cornwall this morning, and a ping from the dash with message ‘check engine’ appearing and amber engine warning light now on.
Being an amber warning light, is it still safe to continue driving?
Being a Sunday, not going to be able to talk to anyone at a Fiat Professional garage until tomorrow. Do I call the RAC, will they have the necessary diagnostic tool, or just point me to the Fiat professional people?
Van seems to be running absolutely fine, but don’t want to continue with journey if not advisable.

van is 6 months old with 4K miles on.

i did fill up with Adblue yesterday (first fill) but have driven couple hundred miles since with no problem.

any thoughts very welcome

COuld be several things.

One of them that might be favourite is it is a warning for the first service considering your milage

Should you feel that is a likely thing then there will be youtube videos showing you how to lose the annoying orange light such as "Put key in ignition, turn on but not start, push brake, turn off, perform a back flip and start engine" or something similar or less acrobatic. Then the light disappears.

The problem is doing this when you dont know what the orange light means

 

[bigwood]

I am not Fiat savvy but I was told that an amber warning light is advisory but a red warning light requires immediate attention.
The RAC guys should have diagnostic equipment and should be able to advies you if it’s ok to carry on.

 

[suavecarve]

If you decide to crack on to the campsite then meandering around looking at other vehicles til you find one similar to yours and asking if they have a diagnostic machine would be in my game plan

 

[Elsie2010]

Hi all, driving down to Cornwall this morning, and a ping from the dash with message ‘check engine’ appearing and amber engine warning light now on.
Being an amber warning light, is it still safe to continue driving?
Being a Sunday, not going to be able to talk to anyone at a Fiat Professional garage until tomorrow. Do I call the RAC, will they have the necessary diagnostic tool, or just point me to the Fiat professional people?
Van seems to be running absolutely fine, but don’t want to continue with journey if not advisable.

van is 6 months old with 4K miles on.

i did fill up with Adblue yesterday (first fill) but have driven couple hundred miles since with no problem.

any thoughts very welcome

RAC should have their reader to see what the fault is. Maybe an idea when you're back to pick up an OBD reader to keep in the van...they're cheap as chips, you don't really need a fancy expensive one.
Any management warning light in theory, should be treated as a 'pull in and stop' - however, many do travel on an Amber one if its not gone in to limp mode. I assume yours hasn't gone in to limp mode, and if so, may not be anything too serious...could be something as simple as fuel cap not put on correctly (like happened to us!) Or a faulty battery (like us!)

Hope you get fixed

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[RedFrame]

On a van of that age pull over when safe to do so (services or such like) and call out AA/RAC/Fiat they will have the tools to tell you what it is and if you are OK to continue your journey.

Don't invalidate your warranty.

Cheers
Red.

 

[Elsie2010]

On a van of that age pull over when safe to do so (services or such like) and call out AA/RAC/Fiat they will have the tools to tell you what it is and if you are OK to continue your journey.

Don't invalidate your warranty.

Cheers
Red.

Very good point from Red regarding your warranty

 

[Millcourt]

Check your engine oil and coolant levels. If oil needs topping up, the orange light will likely not go out immediately but after driving a while and restarting, if low oil level was the cause, the orange warning will reset to off.

 

[Nigel L]

Thanks for all the replies guys.
have rechecked the adblue cap is on, checked coolant, carn’t check the oil, as it’s dosen’t have a dipstick!! However, the gauge on the menu is showing three quarter full.
Have left it for a while and re-started it, and light still on, saying ‘check engine’. Think I am going to give Fiat assist a call, as you say not worth risking invalidating warranty.

 

[Nigel L]

RAC been out (they do all the Fiat assist calls), it’s a particulate filter sensor issue. Tried to re-set it, but no joy, so looks like a trip to the dealers is on the cards.
Have to say, very impressed with RAC, from reporting the issue, a van was with me within 30 minutes

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[RedFrame]

They given you the go ahead to drive it? If so you will find that after a while it will go into limp mode, ours did.

Cheers
Red

 

[Stealaway]

Mine has been on - and off again a few times over the last three years from new.
As has my airbag faulty lights

 

[Nigel L]

They given you the go ahead to drive it? If so you will find that after a while it will go into limp mode, ours did.

Cheers
Red

He said should be ok to drive but get it to a dealer asap. But, yes, there is a risk it will go into limp mode.
My issue is this. We are on holiday, approx 300 miles from home, we are fairly close to a Fiat professional dealer, who I will talk to in the morning when they open, but I very much doubt they will be able to look at it straight away. The RAC man said that Fiat Professional will only recover the vehicle to the nearest Fiat professional garage, should it need to be recovered. So, I am hoping it won’t go into limp mode, so can continue with holiday and at least get it home, and booked into my local Fiat professional garage.
The cost I suppose of the ever strangling of the engine for tighter emissions, resulting in more sensors that can then keep triggering warning lights etc.

 

[The Wino]

On our cars if we get a dpf warning we just give them an "Italian tune up" for about 5 to 10 miles and it clears. BTW Italian tune up is drive it like you stole it.
On our transit based MH we had a yellow warning light last week I checked all the fluid levels and belts and it went off after about 5 days for no apparent reason. I had thought it would be the EGR valve as that went on our previous transit after a similar mileage the mechanic said that the problem is motorhomes get driven too gently.

 

[RedFrame]

If the RAC (acting as Fiat's agent) have advised you that you can drive it then i wouldn't contact Fiat until I got home.

If it goes into limp then, as long as you have no hills without crawler lanes to contend with, it'll get you 300 miles home without issue.

If you contact Fiat, they're unlikely to have a DPF sensor in stock and, as you say, unlikely to be able to fit you in sooner rather than later... But if they also say you shouldn't drive it that would trump the RAC advice and then you're stuck.

Just my thoughts.

Cheers
Red.

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