Mini 1.

[zabado]

Yesterday my wife drove her Mini through some flooding on the road. Ten minutes later a yellow light came on with the shape of an engine on it, I looked it up in the handbook and it says "Deterioration in exhaust emission values. Have the system checked by Mini service".
I know the problem was caused by driving through the flood water, so is there a way to re-set the yellow warning light without going to the expense of taking it to a garage for a mechanic to re-set it .?

[davebro]

You would probably need a hand held fault finder/eraser (cost about £10) but if there is damage e.g to a sensor or whatever the fault may just reappear.

[davebro]

something like this - https://www.joom.com/en/products/6129ff78daf42b010ba3a978

Make sure it is compatible with your car.

[douglas9401]

You might want to try waiting until things dry out a bit.

I had a similar problem with two different vehicles last week and both cleared on their own.

[bhg481]

I agree with douglas. So long as it seems to be driving OK ie, it has not gone into limp mode, you should be OK driving it and it might help to dry it out.

[New Judge]

Back in the day a friend of mine had a very old Mini-Cooper ( a proper one, not the ones that BMW call minis now and which are the size of a Land Rover). He had trouble with the oil pressure warning light coming on frequently. When I next saw him I asked him how the problem was going.

"No problem. Fixed it in a jiffy."

"What was it?" says I, "Oil pump, oil filter blocked?"

"Dunno" he said, "I just took the bulb out!"

So there's your answer. :-)

[bhg481]

NJ - those were the days when you could access the dashboard bulbs without taking the car apart.

[sddsddean]

Those were the days when you had bulbs!...instead of hard wired LED's that need soldering!!

[Hopkirk]

Often these warnings clear themselves if the car is started a set number of times without the fault being detected again. Keep driving it for a few days, turning it off and restarting several times.

[zabado]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply to my question. The light has now gone out, so like a few of you said, give it time to dry out and it has. Thanks again.

[bhg481]

When driving on a flooded road the recommendation is to engage 1st gear and drive slowly using plenty of revs, even if it means slipping the clutch. The idea is to stop water getting into the exhaust system and stalling the engine. If your wife didn't do that it's possible that water ran backwards up the exhaust pipe and got into the sensor.

[Hopkirk]

Unfortunately my engine management light is on, I haven't driven through a flood, and it isn't going out.

I can feel an expensive repair coming on.

[bhg481]

Hoppy - you might be lucky. A couple of years ago I had a similar problem on my diesel Volvo; went into limp mode a few miles from home on the M4. The garage said the fault code implied injector problems, which was going to be expensive. They later rang to say they'd found some corrosion on one of the injector connectors, cleaned it up and all seemed OK; trivial cost.

[davebro]

I had a VW Golf for 3 years - I don't think I went a week without some sort of warning light. Emissions/injectors/airbags. It was a nightmare!
Had my RAV4 (2011) for 4 years now - not a single fault.

[Hopkirk]

It's an Astra, and in my experience the answer is always "you need a new lambda sensor, mate"

Davebro, I know what you mean about VW Golfs.
When I had one I kept seeing the advert that said "there are few things in life as reliable as a Volkswagen".
I felt like kicking the TV in, because it is so untrue.

[Hopkirk]

It was a slight blow in the exhaust on my Astra, causing a sensor to think the engine was too rich.

[bhg481]

Thanks for getting back to us, Hoppy.

[Hopkirk]

I was worried, because he said the fault report could have meant a catalytic converter fault. Fortunately it wasn't.

[bhg481]

You let lucky then. Good.