gpa

On my 95 WRX there is a warning telltale that goes off after starting. It's 4th from the right, but it isn't in the UK manual I have.. It looks a bit like:

LLLL
=____=

.. very approx! (Tricky without using graphics!)
Anyone know what it is for?!

Thanks,

Graham

Mark McE

Yeah, i've got a '95 with the same warning light - i assumed it means the cat is unhappy if it comes on.

What it means precisely e.g. too hot/cold very/slightly broken I don't know.

Could be wrong altogether.

gpa

Hmm... Good idea, but I'm not sure how it would monitor the cat. I wondered if it was related the intercooler. Surely someone out there must have "the knowledge"!!

clarence

Is that in Japanese characters? Is that light unique to Jap spec cars?

gpa

No, not Japanese characters, just a poor attempt to draw the symbol. It's just a red picture of what looks like a pipe, with a fatter section in the middle, and wavy heat? or something lines above it. Seems to be only on Japanese cars...

yee_har

Yes, we have this "steaming turd" light on our (ahem) FTOs. (Cue obvious gags from FTO-haters!)

It's orange (rather than red); described in the handbook as "Exhaust Warning" and, so long as it goes out after a few seconds, you can assume it's o.k..

gpa

OK.. Yes, a good description! I guess it refers to the cat then, or maybe something to do with the turbo....

Mike Owen

Yee_Har

Now come on Chris. Why would we hate FTO owners?

subaru manchester

GPA on the wrx cars they have a heating element lower down the front pipe it acts as help to warm up the cat,sounds like a fault on the sensor get someone to clear the trouble codes stored in the ecu and retry the vehicle,peter.

gpa

Peter, thanks for the explanation. The light goes out on starting the car, so I assume there is no fault, but it's nice to know what it means in case it ever comes on full time!
Sounds like a good idea, too, pre-heating the cat.

Mike Tuckwood

Yee_Har.

Hi Chris, what made you buy one of those then?

Mike.

Only joking. (looked at them myself at one point).

Paul Wilson

fulloon are you running the standard ECU? As (and I'm no expert here) my cat light came on when I lost one of the coil packs hence unburnt fuel in the cat. If the map on your car pumps too much fuel on hard throttle from light throttle could be that. Or cat might not have been warm if you were on trailing throttle a few mins after start, then booting it = normal overfueling into cold cat.

I am guessing on this one.

But if you are worried a tenner to your local MOT shop and they'll do an emmisions test.

What car have you got anyway?

Fullonloon

Hi

I have had the cat/exhaust red light come on this morning as I was accelerating hard on the motorway, it only came on briefly, and as I backed off the light went off, and stayed off. Will this be ok, or do I need to get it checked out>? It has happened once before under the same circumstances.

Fullonloon

It was fully warmed up. I never drive hard when its cold. Its running the standard ecu - with induction kit/SSbackbox. Could it be the cat on its way out? Incidentaly - it was noticed on the weekend that its putting out some black smoke on gear changes and sometimes when coming off boost. There has been no noticable performance loss? I would guess that to be a fuel problem as its black smoke.

Loony