Panic strikes whenever you see the engine light flash on the dashboard and this happened to us the other day. It was unfortunate it happened a few days before we wanted to use the car to drive interstate. The most recent thing that was done, was my father-in-law cleaned the top of the engine with WD40 (that’s what he claimed after discovering dry droplets of water on the engine bay and noticed how clean it was). I can’t honestly say that it was this that caused the problem or that he is to blame but it did seem very coincidental
Now when the engine light goes on, it means that there is an error code in the ECU and you need to find out what it is to troubleshoot the problem. So the lights that went on after you start the engine were the Engine Light, The VSA light and the Triangle Light. When you drive the car the light that will remain on would be the orange engine light. Yes, it was also a hot day!
To get the Error code from the car you would need to either go to the Mechanic (they charge $20 – $50 use their “special machine” to read the code) or you can buy an ODB reader and use a mobile phone app to get the code. I have my own ODB reader so I used the second method. The ODB reader was purchased from eBay for only around $10 so it’s worth it or you can get one from Amazon.
It looks like this:
You plug this in the ECU port under the steering wheel:
You then need to pair the ODB with your mobile phone and install an app to read the code. The apps that I ended up using is called Torque Lite and Car Scanner ELM ODB2. They both did the job in reading the code. I’ve had the ODB for a while now and just used it to see what information I could obtain from the ECU but this time I needed to get the code and it was pretty straight forward. Just start the app (screenshots from Torque Lite) and select Fault Codes:
The error code that was reported was P2646:
After some investigation and researching the error code translated to “Rocker Arm Oil Pressure Switch Circuit Low Voltage”. People in different forums mentioned about replacing the Oil Pressure switch which is located at the back of the engine. I decided to just give it a clean (since it might have just short-circuited from the WD40″. This is the location of the oil pressure switch:
There are two electrical cables that need to be disconnected (it’s possible all I needed to do was to disconnect these cables and give them a clean but cannot confirm if that would solve the problem). I just went ahead and removed the switch and cleaned it. 
Note, I didn’t actually removed the switch as I didn’t want to disconnect/cut the white cable tie (see below), I left the switch hanging after removing x3 10mm socket bolts. They are located here:
The other thing to note is that since there isn’t much space behind the engine putting the 3 bolts back was very time-consuming. It took me more than half an hour trying to put it back because I couldn’t align the 3 bolts. It was a matter of just guessing where to put the bolt and then tighten it.
After putting the switch back, I reset the ECU by disconnecting the battery cable for about 10-15 minutes. After reconnecting and turning the engine on, the problem was fixed. Hopefully this helps someone out there and good luck.
DISCLAIMER: I’m not a mechanic so what might have worked for me might not work for you!
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I am an entrepreneur based in Sydney Australia. I was born in Vietnam, grew up in Italy and currently residing in Australia. I started my first business venture Advertise Me from a random idea and have never looked back since. My passion is in the digital space, affiliate marketing, fitness and I launched several digital products. You will find these on the portfolio page.
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