Not T25, Engine Management Warning light

[Ian and Lins]

We need to get a small car. I'm not used to buying stuf like this, I havn't had a car myself for over 10 years. Lindsay's last car 'died' 'cause the EMWL came on and couldn't economically be got rid of; so MOT failure from this year (so I'm told).
So we're looking at cheapish small cars. We went to look at one yesterday and the seller threw away the comment that the EMWL comes on 'now and again, but it's not a problem.' After our last experience with this problem, we made our excuses and left.
So; can the EMWL come on 'now and again'? If you were viewing a car with this problem, what would you think about it?

[Bluemagicmarker]

engine management lights come on and off all the time on various cars i've owned.

If they are persistent and actually log a fault that needs looking at then I give the local mechanic £20 otherwise I do it myself on a fault reader you plug in remove the code, cost about a tenner
off ebay, horrible cheap plastic thing but it works

The last vauxhall we had you put foot on clutch or something and ignition on stage one and it gave you the error code which you can "google" to see whats up

[Ian and Lins]

Thanks for that.

[Mr Bean]

My last £1K Focus ran for 8 years with the engine management light coming on periodically. It then went out again after about two weeks for varying periods lasting several months to a year or more. I luckily never had to MOT it with the light on though and suspect this would have been problematic as once highlighted - pun - you are more or less obliged to fix it no matter what.
Prior to that I fitted a factory reconditioned £500 short engine in a £300 Mondeo and ran that for about the same time and when it got the rust bug flogged it for scrap at £275.
I finally laid the Focus to rest about six weeks ago having got my monies worth and splashed out just £2K4 for a much newer focus Gia with only 43k miles on it and bordering on showroom condition.
No reflection on thirty year old VW reliability, It just involves a bit more care and attention, and running a cheap "banger" alongside it virtually guarantees something to drive at all times giving one time to fix the van at your leisure.

[Highroller]

My sons 2002 polo does this. The EMWS light intermittently comes and goes. We have plugged it into VCDS numerous times and there are no historical alarms / issues. Seems to come on if you stall it and eventually goes off after a few days.

[ajsimmo]

I'd avoid anything made this century. Plenty of perfectly serviceable older cars out there for peanuts, and no gizmotronics to go wrong.

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[937carrera]

engine management lights come on and off all the time on various cars i've owned.

If they are persistent and actually log a fault that needs looking at then I give the local mechanic £20 otherwise I do it myself on a fault reader you plug in remove the code, cost about a tenner
off ebay, horrible cheap plastic thing but it works

Yep, had one of those for about 7 years, works to read / clear most codes. Generally they don't work for airbag / abs issues.

VCDS, as mentioned above is superb if you're running a newer VW. I've done all sorts with that, but you do need a bit of a techy head for advanced stuff. Deals with abs, airbag and some immobiliser issues.

Also depends on the car.Saabs can have issues with the ignition modules.They throw a error, hold it as pending showing the EML,and then either confirm it or clear it along with the EML. I know quite a few of the Saab specific error codes off the top of my head.

Easy test if buying. Take the code reader (a tenner to buy), see what the problem is, clear it. If it comes back immediately, then the problem is real, then you're into what to fix it.