Inspection light

[ALD]

Yesterday I noticed that 'Insp 1000' came up on the dash when I put the key in the ignition.

I assume this is telling me the car is due an inspection, but why would that happen when the cars only done 4,300 miles?

I've already had a look around and found how to clear it using the method below, but I find it a bit strange it should happen so soon, the car will be 1yr old in May and was previously owned by Vauxhall.



With the ignition switched off, Press and hold in the Milometer Button.
Whilst holding in the button, Press and hold the brake pedal.
Now, Continuing to hold the button and the pedal, Switch on the ignition.
Hold down the button and pedal until the "insp" light stops flashing and turns to 3 dashes "---".
Switch off the ignition.

[parapaul]

Bet you a fiver the last guy to service it forgot

Reset it yourself, and all will be good

[FIL 4822]

Mine did the same at 7000k and 11 months old.
Perhaps theres a calender in the ECU that brings this up every 11-12 months regardless of milage ?

[ALD]

Bet you a fiver the last guy to service it forgot

Reset it yourself, and all will be good

Aye, I'll reset it later

Mine did the same at 7000k and 11 months old.
Perhaps theres a calender in the ECU that brings this up every 11-12 months regardless of milage ?

that could be the answer, nothing to worry about then thats the main thing

[luckyluke]

Just noticed on my odometer InSP - mileage is only 11500miles and car is 10 months old. It's 1.8VVT, so according to manual service intervals are 12 months/20000miles whichever occures sooner. Should I bother and visit my stealer or simply reset this InSP message?

thanks for help

[Ste]

That is an issue with buying second hand car. You don't know what it has done before or how it has been treated.

Remember, the 20K is MAXIMUM, and the ECM decides the servicing schedule based on a virtual oil quality sensor, that takes inputs from things like number of cold starts, duty cycle, coolant temps, over revs etc to decide when the oil need changing. That assumes everything is working ok of course.

[luckyluke]

I work with oils very close and to be honest (machining ones not for cars though) - to check its quality you need a laboratory unless you need just a simple test - but you cannot expect reliable results. However systems for oil condition check are embedded in very expensive devices and still give you only a rough idea about oil condition.

Of course you should be able to say what car oil's condition may be based on what you mentioned (cold starts, engine load, etc) but I would trust it. From what I've found here and my knowledge I believe it's (InSP indicator) rather conected with the date when the car left factory and counting 20000miles/12months then engine oil's condition.

However I take into acccount car's computer may be right in some way. But if so it should display InSP again very soon (if it's been reset). Otherwise it's only based on some assumptions.

Regarding 'capability' of oils - there're plenty of threads and nobody can tell who's right or not. What I can tell - if it was a diesel or turbo engine, I'd have changed oil every 10k miles as turbine is very sensitive to oils quality. Plus in diesels there's plenty of contamination (soot, etc). With petrol ones, the problem is only when yo're doing very short distances (like my wife - 3 miles a day, petrol tank lasts 3 months ). I change oil in this car every year regardlees the very low mileage as it's 'full' of petrol, water, etc. But I'd say it won't do harmto the engine to change oil every 20k miles if you do many motorway miles or so.

I'm not saying I won't change this oil, as I'm going to do that soon but just wanted to have my 'say' in this endless disscussion . I assume there will be one or two new threads regarding InSP indicator coming quite soon

[ed taylor]

Mine did the same at 7000k and 11 months old.
Perhaps theres a calender in the ECU that brings this up every 11-12 months regardless of milage ?

Thats how it works on mine It give an annual "reminder" irispective of the milage.

[luckyluke]

Thats how it works on mine It give an annual "reminder" irispective of the milage.

I've asked Fiat owners with 1.9JTD vel CDTi if they have similar feature but I bet it works on basis you mentioned

[Ste]

Completely agree with above, without lab tests you really will not be able to know the actual condition of the oil. Of course it is based on calculations and sumptions, how else would a 'virtual' sensor work? However, the oil quality calculation algorythms have been extensively tested and will probably be acceptable for 99% of cases. At the end of the day it comes down to accuracy against cost... Would anyone pay £1000 more for the car just to say that the 20,000 miles service sould have been 19,687 miles? No, probably not.

I am perfectly happy to trust it in my car..