No, nothing supernatural, or at least, I hope not !
The engine management light came on in my wife's Qashqai the other day. Bit of a puzzle as it seems to be driving ok. However, I took it into our local indie to check it out, and he was totally flummoxed by it. Because, the fault code suggests a problem with the gear position sensor / stop start system. The former being the gizmo that shows which gear you're in on an auto, and the latter being self explanatory. As her car isn't fitted with stop/start and is a manual...well, you can see why he was scratching his head.
He's contacted Nissan technical and they can't shed any light ( sorry about that ) on it either other than "maybe it needs a software update" ( oh joy )
So, he's given me the car back ( no charge bless him ) but with the wee orange light still on.
I've been googling around for a few minutes and it turns out that this is a known fault among Qashqaistas. Seems that it's an early sign of a shonky battery and that replacing it should make everything better. Given that her car is 9 years old now, and still on its original battery, it's got to be worth a try hasn't it, before I go paying the Nissan dealer squillions to plug it into whatever they plug it into, to do whatever the pluggy inny thingy does?
You'd think anyway, wouldn't you?
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Wed 20 Sep 17 at 16:24
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given that a lot of cars throw up mysterious errors prior to a battery failure (ABS is favourite) then yes, a battery swop is well worth the effort
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I have seen various cars over the last few years that have had sporadic electrical gremlins and warning lights displayed.Very often caused by a poor/low battery issue.The vehicles do not have a starting issue,but if the battery voltage drops below around 10 volts under cranking,then some of the electronic modules throw a wobbly.
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Thanks chaps, got to be worth a try hasn't it?
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>>> before I go paying the Nissan dealer squillions to plug it into whatever they plug it into...
You may have to do that anyway after the new battery as some codes... even if spurious... can only be cleared by dealer level diagnostics. Very much depends just how sophisticated the indie's gear was.
But yes as others have said above a tired battery will often throw the most obscure fault codes. Our CLK had spent a month on the dealer's forecourt prior to our purchase the other week and many of the systems had various codes because folks had been viewing it and playing with the gizmos taking the battery right down but still just enough to start.
I condition charged the battery and cleared all the codes... they've not returned.
I'd advise giving the indie a little profit from his efforts buy getting him to source and fit a new battery then running a code clear and recheck to see it it's done the trick.
Only if that fails will it need to go to the dealer to put the light out. If so hope they are better than the BMW dealers here who quoted me £182 min to run a diagnostic and even then they mis-diagnosed the issue. Of course I refused to pay and they accepted that. Bought a £24 used part on Ebay... cleared the code with my pocket reader/diagnostic and all sorted.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Wed 20 Sep 17 at 17:47
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New battery's got to be cheaper than a wing door mirror ;>)
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>> New battery's got to be cheaper than a wing door mirror ;>)
>>
The old ones are the best ones!
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The pocket reader gizmo you mention, are they a generic item, or do you have to get one for a specific car/brand, and are they expensive/difficult to use?
Sorry for the multiple question, just I've never encountered one before, but if it's an affordable and relatively straightforward thing to use, well, I might drag myself screaming into the 21st century and buy one.
I'm alright with feeler gauges, a screwdriver and a socket set...
;-)
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There are four stages of diagnostics really...
A generic code reader from Ebay for £30 which will usually give very basic engine codes on all makes of cars but not cover other systems well or at all. For me near useless.
Then the £80-£150 make specific code reader (what I have for Mercedes, BMW & VAG) which usually cover all systems such as ABS, airbags, climate, gearbox and many many more in addition to engine. Plus they did deeper with regard to what the likely issues might be.
Then there is the indie mechanics pro version of such things... more tablet or PC based type gear costing into many hundreds and more.
Then the dealers top level stuff.
The "pocket" ones I have are iCarsoft and Foxwell.
This...www.gendan.co.uk/product_FXNT500.html
and this... www.icarsoft.com/web/icarsoftus/allproducts/benzscantools/2012/201212/20121228230032r1i3z_1.html
and this... www.icarsoft.com/web/icarsoftus/allproducts/bmwscantools/2012/201209/20120903132152wpq0p_1.html
They have proved invaluable for my DIY but even if you aren't going to do the work yourself it's nice having an idea where the problem might be when you take it into the dealer.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Wed 20 Sep 17 at 21:37
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All three readers I have will also display live data in running so you can look at a large amount of parameters such as revs, speed, voltage, coolant temp, outside air temp, air temp within inlet tract, barometric pressure, boost pressure, fuel rail pressure, EGR operation and loads more.
They will also reveal car data such as mileage recorded (not always same as speedo shows), number of times the car has started in its life, how many hours it's run for in its whole life.... fascinating stuff.
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Management light on for a day?
That's nothing dear boy, on my last Astra it was on for two years. Nothing bad happened.
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>> Management light on for a day?
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>> That's nothing dear boy, on my last Astra it was on for two years. Nothing
>> bad happened.
and then it died.
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I had a Mondeo which had its airbag light on for 180,000 miles. Little yellow fat guy graphic. Became quite attached him, he was like a little mascot. That'd be an MOT failure now of course.
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>> had a Mondeo which had its airbag light on for 180,000 miles
I had that. Traced it to a dicky multiplug under the passenger seat; it couldn't tell whether the seat was occupied or not (which dictates which 'bags fire in a crash).
Academic now of course.
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Depends of course on who you know.
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>>>Management light on for a day? That's nothing dear boy, on my last Astra it was on for two years. Nothing bad happened.
Yep that's the problem with the engine light... does it really mean anything important? On my daughter's Polo when it has a period of short runs and the battery doesn't get a proper charge it will throw the EML light on which of course worries a 22yr old about to start a 100ml trip.
The three times it's happened it's proved to be a couple of sensors disagreeing for a short moment in time which puts the light on until I check it is the issue we expect and just turn it off.
However personally I'd not ignore an EML unless you've had the codes read and are sure it's only the issue you think it is. On cars with timing chains it could indicate it's stretched and about to jump a tooth or few and scrap the engine.
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Well, I fitted a new battery this morning and reset the orange light by using a wee trick nicked from a Qashqai forum. All you do is start the engine with your foot on the brake, and it does something that switches off the warning light. Took it for a test drive and so far so good. If it was the battery, it should be fine now. If it's something else then :-(
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>> Well, I fitted a new battery this morning
>>
Nice to see you're not a member of the "I'll keep my battery at least 20 years - come what may" brigade.
;)
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Nissan Qashqai - 08 1.6 Mysterious light - Zero
