Check engine light

So had the freelander a couple of months and the check engine light comes on 1 day and off the next . Drives well no loss of power .
What will the cause likely to be ? Is it always a faulty o2 censor ?
I can’t get it to a garage as no insurance or m o t it’s just used as a off roader
Thanks

Engine light will cause a fault code to be stored in the engine management system. Could be a number of things. Suggest you read the fault code and this will guide the fault finding.

andyfreelandy said:

Engine light will cause a fault code to be stored in the engine management system. Could be a number of things. Suggest you read the fault code and this will guide the fault finding.

Click to expand...

Thanks will any reader do the job ? They seem cheap on eBay

Zarakoff said:

Thanks will any reader do the job ? They seem cheap on eBay

Click to expand...

Yes pretty much. For quick testing I use a Bluetooth OBD2 dongle and link it to my Samsung Note 9 using the Torque App. It's the cheapest and fastest way to get basic engine codes.

Zarakoff said:

What will the cause likely to be ? Is it always a faulty o2 censor ?

Click to expand...

Not always. The engine ECU is capable of identifying hundreds of incorrect parameters, so there's no guarantee it's the O2 sensor. This is why a quick code read is so important.

For a light to come on and go off again on its own its an intermittent fault.
An intermittent fault is logged as pending (within the OBDII protocol) and will only turn the light on when logged 3 journeys in a row.
Likewise 3 clear journeys will turn the light back out.