The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph's College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
Electric Park Brake and Fault. These symbols (left/above and below) are all or might be Electric Park(ing) Brake (EPB) Fault Indicators. The circle in brackets remains the basic image used to denote a vehicle’s brakes and in the case to the far left adds the lightning bolt, which denotes electricity. It will flash or remain lit if a fault is detected. Two indicators add the wrench or spanner below or alongside the circle to indicate that service is needed.
The vehicle will be safe to drive, but the parking brake will not operate properly. Note that some manufacturers may have two indicators come on, seemingly to differentiate from other brake issues.
The text symbols with the word PARK are actually all Electric Park Brake On Indicators as well as Fault Indicators, if the light is seen when the brake is engaged and the ignition on. The light will remain on for a short time after the ignition is turned off. The final two lights show the Auto (electric) park brake has been turned OFF. Those lights will be turned off when the system is re-engaged.
The indicator to the left has long been used simply to indicate that the parking brake is engaged. It is now crossed over to the realm of electric park brake faults. Unfortunately, the correct owners manual for the make and model showing the indicator or a competent auto shop will need to be consulted.
If however, if any of these lights flash, it may indicate a fault. In most cases, if the light goes off, the system is working properly. If it continues to flash or remains on while in motion, find a qualified service station as soon as possible. The brake may actually be engaged, so check to be sure it is not. The double symbol is found in some new (2024) Ford vehicles.
Note that the PARK symbol is also used as a mechanical Park Brake Indicator. It simply means that the park, hand or foot brake has been left on.
The text symbol holding the acronym on the left will also
indicate a fault in the system if illuminated. If this light is seen along with a Stability Control warning indicator, have the Stability Control System serviced as soon as possible. That system, not the brake, has an issue that needs to be resolved by your dealer or authorized service center.
In any case, the parking brake is also the emergency brake, so don’t wait. Have it repaired!
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2012/11/electric-park-brake-fault-indicator/
These are Owner Manual Indicator symbols. The image of an open book with a letter ‘i’ or exclamation point inside indicates that the driver should reference the owner’s manual. It is generally associated with the display of a text message or a series of text messages shown in center message display on the instrument panel.
Unfortunately, the driver may need the manual to discover what the image means!
If you need a copy of your manual, you can find electronic versions for many makes and models here. Some links can point you to printed manuals as well, if you prefer.
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2012/11/owner-manual-indicator-symbol/
Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2012/11/least-distracting-typefaces-is-this-the-plan/
These are Start/Stop System Function and Trouble Indicator symbols. The first picture symbol, an exclamation point in a circular arrow, is used in Canada and overseas. U.S. models use the third version in text. Despite the term “Starter System”, it does not indicate a bad starter motor, but rather a problem with the Start/Stop system. The i-stop System works in the same manner but under an odd name. These indicators may also flash when indicating they are indicating a malfunction.
The circle shaped arrow or double arrow is a standard icon for Start/Stop systems, whether it indicates a problem or simply says the system is on or off. The exclamation point, however, does indicate a problem with the system. The strike through indicates the system is off. If it flashes, there is a fault in the system.
This image with the ‘A’ inside and the exclamation point outside is used in Europe. The ‘A’ stands for Automatic Start/Stop, as its function takes place without a driver’s intervention. Note that if a problem with the system occurs, the vehicle can be operated normally. It will simply function without the fuel saving benefit of the Start/Stop and your dealer will need to be contacted.
Start/Stop systems are fuel saving systems that allow a gasoline-powered engine to shut down at typical idle times, such as at red lights, and restart with the touch of the gas pedal. If a problem occurs, the engine can be restarted using the Start/Stop button. The images to the left are more variation. The first adds the Economy abbreviation ECO inside the circling arrow to make the point that, when operating, the system adds to fuel economy. It represents an Intelligent Start/Stop System, which is no more than a naming inconsistency. The second simply notes that the Start Stop, or Auto Stop, system is active.
These two black and white indicators will ultimately be driving drivers nuts. On, off, crossed out or not? The images are being used in message centers found between the dials on instrument clusters, which makes this a departure from our attention to the red, amber, green and blue icons used on the remainder of the instrument panel.
The image on the left says the engine is ready to restart. The image on the right indicates the Start/Stop system is turned off. In this case, a button or switch somewhere on the dashboard with a similar symbol can be found and pushed to reactivate the system.
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2012/10/startstop-system-trouble-indicators/
These are Side Airbag Off Indicator symbols. The picture symbol is found in vehicles sold in Canada. It shows a man in a seat belt next to an oval airbag with an X through it. The text version is found in U.S. vehicles.
If this light comes on when there is not someone sitting in the passenger seat, have the airbag checked by your dealer or authorized service center as soon as possible.
The only time the the airbag should be off is when sensors in the seat does not detect enough weight in the seat. The force of an airbag deployment can harm small adults and children, so the air bag is intended to remain off unless adequate weight is detected on the seat.
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2012/10/side-airbag-off-indicators/
It is an odd conundrum. Car dealers desperately wish that all drivers understood everything about their cars. And yet, given the alternative, the same dealers wants drivers to call them for answers whenever questions come up.
Any call is an opportunity to sell service, even warranty service, and the associated relationship and even dependency this builds between driver and dealer. However, there is an unrecognized danger here that has been experienced in the industry before. Customer fatigue.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Toyota correctly read into the frustrations of high-line automobile customers, principally those of Mercedes and BMW. Their vehicles, test beds for the latest and greatest features, tended to spend an inordinate amount in service bays. The end result was an entirely new line of vehicles that snared a lion’s share of the luxury car market by naming reliability, and thus customer convenience, as its mantra.
Unfortunately, that line, Lexus, while having raised service standards, now subscribes to those old mantras.
What is developing today, while different in scope, draws a close parallel to the events that resulted in the creation of the Lexus brand, not to mention Infiniti and Acura. The latest advanced features, while generally quite reliable, are not immune to requiring service. And many of these feature require a new level of driver participation. Navigation systems and Bluetooth connection requirements for example.
The problems experienced by drivers with the MyFord Touch system, while extreme, will hopefully serve to open some eyes in the industry. Turning the car into a rolling computer requires a level of knowledge that many, if not most, drivers do not have the time or patience to attain, and that may be simply out of reach for some.
So manufacturers struggle with wanting their customers dependent upon them, and simultaneously with educating those same drivers on the latest features. All too many drivers are frustrated, angry and at times even afraid of their vehicles. The landscape is ripe for a manufacturer who can find a new path to building cars that manage to include the latest and greatest while making their drivers a seamlessly connected part of the system.
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2012/09/new-car-problem-your-dealer-wants-the-call-no-matter-whose-frustration/
Drivers and automotive service personnel are often very different animals. But they share one trait. New technologies have them all dazed and confused: drivers trying to understand those technologies and service personnel saddled with trying to explain them, and getting those explanations to stick.
Despite years of failure, car companies continue to believe that education is the way to go. Over the last 12 months, Ford, General Motors, Volkswagen, and Lexus have all set or reset education initiatives. Just like those that have come and gone, these new initiatives will likely fail, leaving all involved still dazed and confused.
The question must finally be asked. What do car companies know about education? Given the continued difficulties they face when introducing new features to consumers, the answer would have to be very, very little. The reality is they know nothing about education, just as educators know nothing of building cars!
Please do not misunderstand. We will not advocate for the improvement of consumer education. If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, then the automobile industry is already suffering from a collective insanity.
So why does education fail? We can think of two major failings. First, we have seen salesmen and service personnel alike make the same fundamental mistake and whether or not you have recently purchased a new car, you have likely experienced it too. It’s the ‘watch this’ problem. All of us have had someone sit down at a computer to ‘show us’ how to do something. We watch the results on the screen while someone else’s fingers manipulate the keyboard and mouse. In the end, we are left with absolutely no idea what was done to get to the result.
Still, that’s not the real reason education doesn’t work. The question is, how do any of us actually learn? Think of what you remember from school. Any school. Not easy is it?
So, the second reason is that in fact, we learn by doing. And repeating. Over and over. So, a driver will learn how to connect a new cell phone to his infotainment system by connecting at least three of them. Hopefully in rapid succession. A driver will finally understand what to do when the tire pressure warning light comes on the fourth time she has to deal with it.
Unfortunately, all that information can and will be lost with the passage of time. And time will pass between the sightings of a trouble light or the need to connect a new phone.
So, what is a car company to do? How about an infotainment system that does a show and tell on connecting a new phone. The instructions are out there and accessible to a connected infotainment system. And yes, we said ‘tell’: verbal instructions as well as on-screen visuals. How about connecting that voice to the instrument panel to that same infotainment system and having it give at least a rudimentary explanation for that warning light that just came on? Either could easily include an option to call the nearest dealer or roadside assistance for help.
Now those would be steps in the right direction, unless the car companies are not actually tired of frustrated drivers and service personnel.
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2012/08/dazed-and-confused-automakers-education-dilemma/
Least Distracting Typefaces – Is This the Plan?
Least Distracting Typefaces
In late September, 2012, an item reported by Automotive News stated that a group at MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) was doing a study on typefaces that would mitigate driver distraction. That is, typefaces that would be the least distracting.
Sure enough, a bit of additional exploration turned up work at the MIT Age Lab conducted along with the New England University Transportation Center and Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc. The exploratory study wanted to see if “certain type styles can reduce glance time — the time away from watching the road when driving while interacting with in-vehicle displays.” (see the press release here)
So, in a period of time when State legislatures are banning text messaging using cell phones because of the dangers, private companies – with a clear vested interest – and universities are studying how to reduce the time it takes to read text produced by in-car displays!
Is this really the best we can come up with? Has common sense left the building permanently alongside Elvis?
The press release linked above actually cites National Highway Transportation Safety Administration statistics stating that 26,000 crashes reported to police in 2010 “involved adjusting a device/control integral to the vehicle” and that “glances longer than two seconds are correlated with an increased crash/near-crash risk.”
Is There a Better Way?
While the intent of the research is laudable, wouldn’t it make more sense to remove text altogether? If a GPS system can give audible turn by turn directions, can’t text be shifted to spoken word? Glance time would drop to zero and maybe 26,000 crashes would be eliminated, not simply reduced.
Seriously, lets teach cars how to talk about itself, not just where the nearest pizza shop is.
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY