Malfunction light malfunction

I have a 2001 Jimny that has never shown any signs of life in the leftmost panel on the instrumentation panel - specifically this means that the Malfunction Indicator Light or Check Engine Light does not work.

I tried a 'Maxitrip' trip communicator but got a 'no communication' error. This all makes it a bit difficult to do troubleshooting.

Does anybody have pointers to how I can either fix the MIL or get the error codes out of my Jimny?

Thanks,

Jim.

Have you tried replacing the light in the instrument cluster for the check engine light? If not, pull it apart, should only take a couple minutes as its just a few screws. Pull the cluster out and find the light for the CEL. Inspect it to see if its blown, or doesn't exist! If you can't tell if its blown or not, temporarily take a bulb from one of the other areas that you know works and put it in the CEL, reconnect the ribbon and turn the ignition on and see. Alternatively you can install the CEL bulb into another area which you can turn on at your own pleasure, i.e. the indicator bulb, to test if the light works.

The Maxitrip looks like it uses the OBDII sensor, the issue is Suzuki didn't use the standard setup for the OBDII (still uses the same plug). There is some info on this in the forums somewhere so I would have a search and see what you find.

If you manage to fix the CEL there is a 4? pin connector under the glovebox which if you short circuit 2 of the pins will cause the CEL to flash according to the fault. But get a copy of the workshop manual so you know which one

Hi Sandez,
Thanks for the pointers - will pull the unit and see if I can make any sense of it. I was expecting it to be more complicated. Probably just my aversion to electronics coming through.
Jim.