Yellow Motor Warning Light On - Safe To Drive?

[CrystalWill]

On the way home to visit family last night this light came on. Manual advises it's either total lack of petrol (not that) or problem with electronic throttle control.

Car seems to drive normally, just judders a bit when it's idling. Is it going to let me down or will I be ok to drive the 2 hours back to London and get my dealer to look at it?

IS200 Sport

Any thoughts much appreciated!

Cheers.

[ChrisIS200SportTTE]

Which light exactly?

[steve2006]

I wouldn't really like to say, obviously a fault has developed but without a diagnostic code read it could be lots of things.

What you don't want to do is drive it that distance and possibly cause further damage.

If you are in a breakdown organisation could you not call them out to your present location first, at least you will have more information as to the problem and then if they don't transport your car home make an informed choice.

[steve2006]

Which light exactly?

From the title description I assumed the Engine Management Light?

[ChrisIS200SportTTE]

Thr reason I asked is if it's the EML the advice from the handbook is to get it to your nearest Lexus dealer not total lack of fuel or a prob with the throttle body.

[CrystalWill]

It's this light. The manual says it is categorically one of those two things. Isn't petrol because its got half a tank.

[ChrisIS200SportTTE]

I think your reading the handbook wrong mate. That's the the engine managment light (EML) the handbook may be saying to check the fuel and throttle body first before getting a diagnostic. It certainly isn't categorically one of those 2 things.

Your car is telling you there is a fault. You need a diagnostic to obtain the fault code which will tell where the problem is. It needs plugging into an OBD2 code reader to obtain the code.

Lexus will diagnose it for you for about £45. Or buy an OBD2 code reader from eBay and do it yourself. A list of OBD2 fault codes are here....

http://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/

Codes staring with PO are generic for any car using OBD2.

A list of manufacturer specific codes is here...

These start with P1.

http://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/lexus/

As you can see it could be many many things. As for driving the car, if it doesn't go into limp mode (can't go over 2500rpm) then the fault isn't going to damage your engine if you drive it, but you do need to sort this as you could be making things worse.

[ChrisIS200SportTTE]

As you can see my handbook days take it to a dealer. I also read the bit about the fuel and throttle. It says and I quote

"a. The fuel tank is completely empty

b. there is a problem somewhere in your engine or automatic transmission electrical system.

If it comes on have your vehicle checked by a Lexus dealer as soon as possible.

If this lamp comes on and engine speed does not increase with the accelerator depressed there may be a problem somewhere with your electronic throttle control system"

It's not saying its def one of those two. Hope all this helps but bottom line is you need a diagnostic.

[CrystalWill]

Ah ok. Yes, I obviously misread it last night. Will get it looked at ASAP. Thanks all.

[TigerFish]

Where abouts are you? Someone on here may be able to read the codes for you. I'm in Basingstoke and can do it if you are close to me.

[ChrisIS200SportTTE]

Yeah same here mate, I could read them for you. I'm in Somerset. :)

[Rory]

Oxygen/lambda sensor is my guess