It's not just hitting some resonating frequency is it? As my car gets older I find certain speeds that just make it vibrate a bit more than usual. Go faster!

Oi! Read ya private messages you ;)

 

Maybe. I'm not sure what that'd feel like, but next time it happens I'll try and check what my speed is and if there's any effect from changing / maintaining it. (It's entirely possibly I'm naturally changing speed when it happens, which might be why it lasts a relatively short time.)

So, um... poopy pants.

:/

Normally I wouldn't be too worried by the check engine light. Sure I'd want to check what it was, but anything majorly urgent has a separate light (brakes for instance) or the car will just refuse to work.

Could be your ecu has picked up something related to your problem though, but quite often it's just a symptom it's found rather than the problem itself.

Get down to a garage and ask them what's wrong. Whatever they say, don't agree to any work. Once you're home with Internet (you do have Internet at home these days, right?) you can work out if it's something you can do your self or if you need to start ringing round for quotes.

Yeah, it has come on once or twice before (solid, as it was tonight) and then not been an issue a couple of days later.

There's a fair few posts online suggesting it could just be a computer glitch, and (so long as the car is driving as normal) it's not something to worry about. If it was a serious problem, it would switch to the emergency programme.

The one thing that has me a little bit nervous is that I think Wednesday evening it was on the emergency programme, when the light came on - half a mile from home it started flashing and the car wasn't driving right (apparently limited to 1500 RPM or something), though it drove as usual tonight when I briefly tested it, so dunno. :/

If I remember I'll check it in the morning and, if it's still on, check with my local service centre about getting it diagnosed, and then go from there.

We had our car serviced this week. The mechanic noticed that when the car is started, a green airbag light comes on for a while. The garage phoned Claire (I was at work) and offered to see why for the reasonable sum of £49.

This is the light that shows that the passenger airbag is switched on and working properly. It stays on for a minute and then goes off. It's completely normal and nothing at all to worry about. Might be time to find a new garage...

Get to a garage.

I'd be refusing to pay that.

Oh don't worry, Claire didn't give them the go ahead. To be fair, they called first but others may have been thrown into a bit of a panic

You need a new pair of scissors, that cutting out is appalling. S'all wiggly. Were you doing it while driving?

Good, now time to find a new garage.

If its a diesel it could be the EGR valve is sooted up. YOu can change them easily and get cheap reconditioned ones from Ebay. I had to do it 4 times on my Alfa (yes its was an Alfa and yes the electronics were dodgy). The best buy for me was the ECU cable and some free software to help diagnose without going to the garage first.
 

My missus's old Fabia had that. Started intermittently and got worse. Garage checked it and said that the engine temperature sensor had failed. Not a big or expensive job to replace it apparently.

IME, that's usually a lambda sensor fault, which would also fit in with most of the other issues you've described. A fault code check would confirm, it's an easy fix but usually needs a specialist tool 

code check first though

Never had to do a lambda sensor, but presumably a crows foot would also be fine? Or do you need the extra vertical grip length of a socket for those buggers?

Fucking hell. I'm glad my service garage engineers only speak German and I don't.

a crows foot might work, they are usually rusted in pretty good

Hah, what isn't?

I had the engine light come on in a rental on the 3rd day of a 1-week rental (it was a newish, low-Km car). I phoned the rental company, and they told me to ignore it.

Uh oh, I said "rental" three times...