Spanner light on Dash

Soldato
Joined
27 Mar 2016
Posts
7,540
Location
Bristolian living in Swindon
Hi all

So I'm not very good when it comes to cars and their dash lights, this morning when I arrived to work the Orange spanner/car symbol came on but went off after a few minutes, I let the engine run and it came back on and the cooling fan ramped up as if the engine was hot...

Can anybody help me out as to what kind of sign this is?

I will be getting it home and booked into a garage but atleast if I have some sort of idea what it is I can explain to the garage

2013 Corsa 1.2
65000 miles

Thank you
 
It simply means the car is due a service based on either time or mileage since the service light was last reset. You may be able to turn it off without a diagnostic tool if it bugs you
 
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Pull the bulb, sorted.

Could be anything tbh, if you know someone with a Carly get them to plug it in and see what it says. Or buy one yourself and never worry about this again.
 
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So the fan ramping up doesn't mean anything serious bud?

No, that's normal, modern cars have low coolant water capacity so they come up to temperature quickly for emission purposes. That means they have low thermal capacity reserves so they rely heavily on the fan when there's no ram air through the radiator core. I.E, etopped after a run, or in heavy traffic. It's not an engine management light that signifies a problem, it's merely advisory for it being due a service.
 
Thanks for the replies you lovely lot... So the fan kicking in and the light coming on at the same time is more a coincidence... I'll get myself a plug in reader for sure
 
Isn't the service light on Vauxhalls a message saying "InSP" coming up on the trip computer? It certainly was on my old Astra and that's easy to clear, there are plenty of guides on YouTube how to do it. The spanner icon came up when something went wrong (usually the coil pack) before putting the car in limp home mode.
 
Isn't the service light on Vauxhalls a message saying "InSP" coming up on the trip computer? It certainly was on my old Astra and that's easy to clear, there are plenty of guides on YouTube how to do it. The spanner icon came up when something went wrong (usually the coil pack) before putting the car in limp home mode.

When I start the car it does say INSP on the dash where the mileage is displayed, the dash light I got this morning (spanner through car) has now gone out and never came on during the drive home... Got in touch with the garage and they have booked me in for a service.
 
I've just done a quick Google search and lots of people seem to be saying it's not a service light. Check the manual.

I think I could be a sensor light or something that's not serious enough to trigger the 'check engine' light. Not that's I've looked very hard.

RTFM! :p
 
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I've just done a quick Google search and lots of people seem to be saying it's not a service light. Check the manual.

I think I could be a sensor light or something that's not serious enough to trigger the 'check engine' light. Not that's I've looked very hard.

RTFM! :p

Yeah I done a google search and it came up with the same car with the same issue, the guy in the video said about 2 sensors that could be faulty...

I will get the manual out the car tomorrow morning and have a flick through
 
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