Am I being paranoid?

[Z4Tuga]

Right, so since owning my 2007 2.0 Z4 I have had an engine light coming on every 30 to 50 miles on average. I took it to the dealership a second time as on first occasion they didnt make much of it and suggested to try different fuel. I've picked up the car two days ago and done 100 miles and the like has not come back, which is good news, however, driving at night time today it seems like the light is on but very very faded! Am I being paranoid about this? You can't notice any other lights on the dashboard, just this very faded engine light. I tried to take some pictures (see below) and tried to reduce the exposure as much as possible as my phone tends to enhance the light on night time photos. I think I captured pretty much the way I see it. When the light is ON, as in when turning ignition on, you can tell is definitely on, then it goes off, or at least I think it goes off, as I can still see it very very faded as described. Is this normal, as I've never noticed it before!

First photo is during the start, so light definitely on, second light is after it has gone off.

 

[mr.tourette]

think its just picking up light from the clocks.. looks fine to me

 

[road warrior]

i would be far more concerned about the eml than light refraction. your dealer sounds about as useful as a chocolate teapot. check on here for someone to take a look

 

[Z4Tuga]

i would be far more concerned about the eml than light refraction. your dealer sounds about as useful as a chocolate teapot. check on here for someone to take a look

You tell me! The car went back to have the rocked gasket done due to a leak, and for engine light to be investigated. I was told that the O2 sensors were removed, given a good clean and put back. Truth is the light has not come back, and usually it would by now. I don't know a lot about these things but is there any chance they could have tempered with the lights/fuses/ecu to prevent it from coming on when there is a fault? I don't want to sound too negative and I'm happy the light hasn't come back, and even though cleaning O2 sensors sounds like a temporary fix, at least gives me a clue of what the problem could be (sensors needing replacement).

Anyone in the South West area who knows their stuff about Z4s, 2.0 more specifically, who would't mind having a look/taking a spin on mine to let me know if all feels "normal"?

 

[Marlon]

I had the same warning light coming on intermittently on my 2 ltr. It would come on after roughly 200 miles and I could clear it with a code reader. I never got to the bottom of it and part-ex'd the car soon after.

 

[Crazy Harry]

Looks fine

I had the EML light come on a couple of months ago - read the codes and it was lambda sensor related. Comments on here suggested fuel can be issue and to try a tank of something more exotic than supermarket 'basic'. I cleared the code and 'drove it like I stole it' to Manchester and back from Norfolk. If like me you have no motorways near you or you only do short round town trips take it out and get the exhaust hot - all the way to the tips! Light has not come back

For what its worth I still use supermarket fuel (my RS did just short of 200K on it) with the occasional tank of more exotic stuff which I find is more expensive but gives more mpg (mp£ stays about the same!) - but a long hot trip burns all the crap out of the system and did the trick for me.

 

[Z4Tuga]

Thanks for the feedback. Hopefully light will stay off, and I'll now be in the process of experimenting with different pretrol types/brands as I went with a full tank of Costco's Premium Unleaded when I left the dealer and haven't gone through it yet, but will tomorrow.
Haven't had the chance to go on a long drive on the motorway yet but will soon do it as well and hopefully it will help clearing any gunk on the cat.

 

[road warrior]

I have noticed since my DMV exhaust mod and my sudden desire to wring it's neck to hear the lovely exhaust and consider it's now unlikely I will suffer such a similar fate. I run mine on asda's finest.