How to Respond When Check Engine Light Flashes on BMW?

Engine problems have become a headache for even owners of best cars like BMW. The engine problems should be fixed earlier as any failures in engine can impact more on vehicle performance. Flashing of any warning light is a sign of a serious issue in a particular system and it is necessary to deal with the problem at the earliest. In this article, you will know what to do if you find the check engine light is flashing.

Why is your check engine light flashing?

One can know what has gone wrong by understanding the sign in the warning light, for example, in check engine light, there is a sign of engine, in battery light, there is a sign of a battery. But how to know if the problem is very serious or not too serious? So these warning lights have special feature by which they flash or change their colour to red if something serious has happened. If your check engine light is flashing, then know that something serious has happened in your engine which has to be immediately addressed. Mostly, the issues that lead to illumination and flashing of check engine light are loss of engine power, wastage of fuel, engine misfiring, engine running very roughly, engine running in limp mode. If a quick response is not done then severe damage can happen to engine and lead it to die.

What to do?

If there is check engine light flashing, then you have to diagnose the problem as soon as possible or else you have to spend more money afterwards to repair the engine. The repair should be done on the basis of causes. You must know what causes the check engine light to flash and then fix the source of the problem to make the check engine light off. Whenever check engine light become on, it stores some trouble codes in the computer of the vehicle. So you have to get an OBD2 scanner to read these trouble codes. These scanners are to be plugged to the OBD2 port located near the dashboard. It will show you those trouble codes with description of the issue due to which the code is stored. You will know exactly what causes the check engine light to flash. Then you can check those specific components that have the issue and get it repaired in any repair shops.

What causes check engine light to flash?

There are number of causes for your check engine light to come on and even flash, but there are only 5 common reasons that mostly cause check engine light to flash, these are –

The gas cap is loose

The gas cap is replaced after you top off the fuel. But if the gas cap is left loosened for a long time, then it can allow the fuel vapor to escape and lead to loss of fuel. It has many harmful effects on the engine.

Bad spark plugs

The spark plugs are responsible for ignition of fuel and make the piston move. Spark plugs produce spark by using electric energy to burn the fuel with air to produce large amount of heat with burned gas that pushes the piston back. But the spark plugs may get damaged due to burning or due to aging and stop production of sparks repeatedly in specific time. This causes incomplete combustion and the power will not be generated properly to run the engine. The fuel will also get wasted. The computer detects this issue and makes the engine light flash.

Bad O2 sensor

The Oxygen sensors detect the oxygen amount to know it the combustion process is going on perfectly or not. If these sensors are faulty or dirty, then it would not detect the O2 amount properly in the exhaust gas and gives wrong information to the engine control unit. The ECU then provides high amount of fuel to the engine, so the engine would not be able to burn that much of fuel properly. This leads to wastage of fuel.

Bad catalytic converter

A catalytic converter is a component of the exhaust system and has great role in removal of toxic gasses from the exhaust by processing the gasses. And helps the car in running efficiently. The carbon monoxide produced from combustion is converted to carbon dioxide. If it becomes bad or clogged then it will not be able to do its work properly, leading to low performance and failed emission test

Conclusion

Some DIY fixes like tightening the gas cap, or checking the sensors and spark plugs and cleaning them can be done by you. But it there is a need of changing the components then you must have to take the help of mechanic for that. Repairing a catalytic converter is also not a simple fix, so taking you r car to your trusted mechanic can solve the issue with a very less time.

Ultimate Bimmer Service is an independent BMW service & repair shop in Carrolton, TX. With factory trained BMW Level 1 master certified & ASE certified technicians; it is a trusted name in Dallas since over 30 years.