We explain why motorists should never ignore their cars dashboard warning lights

Equipped on a lot of vehicles today, will be dashboard warning lights, which can switch on when the car detects a problem or for example that the car requires a service. On some cars, depending on the cars brand will actually be the number of miles till when the car next requires a service, so our cars dashboard can often tell us a lot about the vehicle.

Depending on the manufacturer of the vehicle, will depend on how many sensors there are around the car and what those sensors around the car are reading.
For example, the electrical sensors purpose can range from warning you that you’ve just left the fuel door open, right through to much more of a serious issue, such as for example the water temperature exceeding a set limit.

However, the mistake that some motorists make is this, some motorists think that their car is still running, even though a warning light is on, and they sometimes mistakenly then ignore the warning light as not something that needs attention- this is a mistake.

Let us be clear, you should never ignore any warning light on your dashboard, the simple reason is that it can sometimes cause more serious mechanical failure, and damage to your car.

Let’s give you a common scenario, you might see a battery warning light appear on your dashboard, and you might think well, the car starting fine, and you might mistakenly think that you can ignore this as you might think, well the battery is working, otherwise the engine wouldn’t turn-over.

However, what the warning light might actually be indicating to you, is that the car’s alternator has developed a problem, so although there is a charge already held in the battery now, it might no longer be charging up well it is running.

Then sometimes at the most least convenient moment, perhaps when you are many miles away from home, your car won’t start at all, and it’s only then that the motorist will suddenly see that they wish they had taken heed of the notice, and got the car repaired or a trusted mechanic. Also, some cars wont even attempt to start, that’s if there’s not sufficient charge in the battery, so this is why warning lights shouldn’t be ignored, as sometimes larger problems, and inconvenience, such as a car not starting can sometimes occur.

We are now going to look at some of the warning lights that the can appear across different cars, and why they shouldn’t be ignored.
Please do note however, that these are just some of the lights that may appear, there are many more warning lights that can appear, it does depend on the car you drive, so if in doubt do get your car seen to by a mechanic.

Steering Wheel Sign

If a steering wheel icon appears dashboard, or the LCD display within your car, then this might indicate that there is a problem with the car’s power steering.
When a mechanic works on your car, they might find that there is a lack of power steering fluid in the system, they might also find that it more of a serious problem, for example that the power steering pump has a problem.

Engine Warning Light

You should never ignore an engine warning light appearing on your car, some motorists do sometimes and think that the car is running fine, that’s to say they may think because they can’t hear any unusual rattles, they then may make the mistake of thinking that it’s fine- however, do not ignore any warning lights on your dashboard.

Even if a car sounds like it’s running fine, there might be a problem that is occurring under the bonnet that’s not making a noise, ignoring such a fault may lead to more damage to your car being incurred. A mechanic should therefore be consulted.
“We would therefore never recommend ignoring an engine warning light, on your dashboard.”

Faults codes

Sometimes a vehicle will simply display a warning sign, sometimes within a triangle, and sometimes might even display a fault code, for some vehicles therefore this could be displayed on the cars dashboard for a multitude of different reasons. This can range from the window washer reservoir running low, through to other problems, such as a problem with the cars exhaust and catalytic convertor.

For some cars there are sometimes a huge amount of sensors under the cars bonnet, and connected to exhausts, doors, seat beats and fuel cap lids. These car sensors can therefore monitor everything from the airflow into the engine, right through to monitoring exhaust gases the other end, these sensors can then be triggered when a problem is highlighted with the running of the engine.

When you meet our mechanics, we are able is to use our own diagnostic equipment, that is we can connect to the car’s electronic control unit (ECU) and we can therefore ascertain what the problem is with the car and the exact fault.

It could be that is the cars overrun on its service date, for example for a full service, or it could be something to do the cars DPF will the ad-blue system example.
Why engine and dashboard lights should never be ignored
We therefore at our garage never recommend ignoring any warning lights that may appear on your vehicle.

Our highly trained mechanics are well versed with working on many different types of cars, manufactured by many different car manufacturers from across the world.
This means that our car mechanics don’t just service and repair just one brand of vehicle, we instead work on many different brands of car.
So, whether you have a problem with your car’s hybrid electric system, or your cars ad-blue system or perhaps there is a problem with your car’s exhaust and DPF? Our mechanics can work on any brand vehicle, whether it be petrol, diesel or a fully electric vehicle.

Our mechanics can also work on hybrid vehicles as well, if you would therefore like a quote in order to service or indeed to repair your vehicle our mechanics and our friendly team which are located city of Cardiff in Wales can offer you a quote.

Please do note that we work on any brand of car, ranging from super cars, right down through to saloon vehicles, to book your car in today for a service, such as a full service, or to get your car repaired why not give us a ring today?