You are two miles from home. No-one else in the car. You don't have to 'be somewhere' in a hurry.

The Engine Management Light comes on. The car is losing power. Would you drive home? Or park up and seek advice?

 

I would stop and pull the code on my Accessport and see what the hell it is...

 

If the CEL is constant, I'd attempt to drive home! If it's flashing, I'd pull over immediately!

2 miles, I'd probably shut down the car, put it in neutral and push it home... Rx8's are pretty light!

 

Naw....come on guys...........two miles? As long as it wasn't the oil low light or overheating , I would nurse it home.
It may not start after that and you'd need to get the code read and then figure out what it was. Could be a simple as loose gas cap.

 

Been there with a flashing CEL. I drove home. Then the next day I drove to the dealer, barely getting there as the car ran worse and worse.

Plugs, coils. O2 sensor and cat needed replacing. The cause was bad coils. I suspect the O2 sensor and cat were taken out by the extra driving. No apparent harm to the engine.

Ken

 

Definitely drive home. Pushing it would not be easy if it was just you.

 

I would have unbuckled and jumped out the car, IMMEDIATELY (remembering to tuck and roll...)!!
That's what I would do

Or, take Mazurfer's advice

 

Don't be alone, just drive it home...its only 2 miles...as others suggested. I used to drive a car with a check engine light on for almost a year, and nothing serious happened to it. Anyway, when you get home, then you find out whats wrong with it and get the code read. Better be safe than sorry. Update us on whats wrong with your car will ya.

 

Turn off all accessory power and drive home.

The wankle can run very hot without seizing up or causing catastrophic damage. It's not something to be done often if ever.

Probably depends on where you can safely leave your car if you did choose to walk.

 

No engine damage due to superior engineering of the moving parts. It would take immense heat for a length of time to cause engine damage.

 

+1 ... or use my bluetooth elm reader to see WTF was going on... It tends to have the code descriptions in addition to just the digits

 

limp home mode it back home... unless its flash it maybe something stupid like evap gas cap leak as stated above.

 

The diagnostic at the garage reported a failed coil which is being replaced this afternoon.

When they stuck the diagnostic computer on it, would it also throw up a failed O2 sensor or a failed cat or are these masked by the coil fault. In other words, fix the coil then check the diagnostics again to see what else is wrong....have to confess that that approach seems a bit cocka-mamey.

 

Does not sound cockamamy to me. Fix what the diagnosis says, then re-check to make sure all is OK.

On my incident, they immediately found the coils and O2 sensor to be bad, and suspected the cat might be gone. After they replaced the coils (plus plugs and wires) and O2 sensor they checked again and determined the cat had been to Melmac. That sequence makes sense.

Ken

 

Thanks for the update. So what I think you're saying is that the diagnostics won't show up if there is a cat problem until at least any coil and O2 sensor problems have been fixed.

Melmac? I'm over the other side of the pond and not familiar with this term.

EDIT: Car now fixed. Just the coil pack. Cat is fine as is the O2 sensor. Happy bunny.