There Is Little Logic In Warning Lights
We’ve taken thousands of calls in service departments over the years and there is nearly no end to the way drivers describe the various warning lights that pop up on their instrument panels. These, of course, are not car people, just average every day drivers trying to describe a symbol that was presumably designed to be universally understood around the globe.
The Best Example
The Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) symbol is the least understood of all and sees the greatest variation of descriptions. It is also what prompted us to pay attention to and collect more descriptions of other symbols. The TPMS light is supposed to be a slice or cutaway of a tire. In all our years in the automotive industry, we have never actually seen a tire slice or met someone who has seen one. How are average, every day drivers supposed to recognize it the first, second or even the third time they see it?
Some TPMS warning light description are:
- An exclamation point in parenthesis
- An exclamation point in brackets
- An exclamation point in a horseshoe
- Flames – destined to be a classic
- A wishbone
- An exclamation point in a fish bowl
- An exclamation point in a cup
- And, a real favorite, a candle in a glass!
Other Examples
The descriptions fall out of each person’s life experiences. So take the example of a recent call from a lady who was driving at the time (which is important to the story) who said there was a flashing red light on her dash. When asked to describe it, she said, “well maybe a man riding a horse”.
So, imagine someone who perhaps breeds horses, or simply rides them as a pastime. She’s driving and cannot actually stare at the warning light. Plus its flashing, which can give the illusion of movement. It turned out she was not wearing her safety belt and the Seat Belt Reminder light was on!
The example that really told us we had to post these, was a call that described a red warning light as a Genie’s lamp! We love it, and can only imagine the driver had just watched a favorite cartoon with her kids! It is, of course the Oil Pressure light. Most vehicles simply don’t go through oil like they did years ago, so seeing this light is actually quite rare, but no less important than it ever was. More to the point, the old style oil can image is completely missing from recent generations’ day to day experience. Thus it gets interpreted as something that actually is familiar.
This one was described as a “green dot with a line through it”. The driver was at the wheel at the time, which is the only explanation for that description for this Cruise Control symbol.
You’ll love this one. We’ve had a number of drivers call this one a “P with a sailboat next to it”! How a sailboat could ever be associated with a car is anyone’s guess, but this Park Assist symbol includes what is supposed to represent a radar signal bouncing off an obstruction. The obstacle looks just a bit too much like a sail.
This version of the differential lock symbol has been described as a letter H with an X in it. Some manufacturers include a tell tale with Os in it to indicate free wheeling. We await a tic tac toe game description from a driver!
This is easily recognized as an image of an automobile. However, it has eyelashes! Of course, the eyelashes actually represent light beams emanating from from lights. Tailights in this case. A light out indicator in fact.
Sadly, we’ve heard a dozen descriptions for the Check Engine light that have nothing to do with an actual engine seen from the side, and never thought to save them. We do remember one customer who called it a fan. At least there is one in the image!
Since first running this article, a customer called to talk about the movie camera light on her dash. We’ve also heard of a driver who thought it resembled a “personal underwater exploration vehicle”! The fan becomes a propeller. That light did not have the word “Check” embedded in it. And we just heard from a man whose son described what eventually turned out to be the Check Engine light as “three elongated circles with some lines connecting them.” We can’t see that no matter how hard we try!
Most recently came the possibility that it was a helicopter! Again, a version of the light without the word “Check”. Now, we can actually see this one from both the fan on the left and what is supposed to be an air cleaner at the top but how a driver in an automobile comes to think of a flying machine remains a mystery!
We’ll post more as they come up, for any and all symbols.
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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
Maybe the most troubling about the “Prodigy” lights is that when one of them crops up, it indicates a problem or malfunction has already occurred. For instance, there is no gauge to indicate a change in the anti-lock brakes. If a malfunction occurs, a tell-tale appears. The same for an electronic throttle, the power steering, the stability control system, or any of the other advanced, and often electronic, systems.
Drivers need help and at DashboardSymbols.com, we are developing tools to do just that. The first tool is a Smartphone app that includes some 100 image and text tell-tales and their descriptions. The App is currently available for Android and Blackberry phones and under development for the iPhone. We ultimately intend to change the way vehicles communicate with drivers. In the meantime, if you are confused by the symbols that show up on your instrument panel, go to 
And it is the single most misunderstood warning indicator you will see on your instrument panel. A number of issues with today’s cars and and the people who service them come gift wrapped in this one symbol. The symbol shown to the right is a rarer version and is discussed below.
The Automotive Knowledge Gap
The Knowledge Problem
There is a serious automotive knowledge gap dividing dealers and drivers. According to the National Automobile Dealers Association, in 2012 there are over 17,000 new car dealers in the U.S. and Canada. There is no data available on this next point, but dealers I’ve worked for currently average some 1,700 calls per year to the service department related to electronics issues. If the average holds across the industry, it means that new car dealer service departments handle nearly 30 million calls a year related to electronics issues. Thirty million! And growing.
Does Education Work?
The auto industry has been beating its collective head against the wall for decades over the issue of driver education. “If only drivers would learn…” All the while it is building the equivalent of the VCR with a clock only a select few know how to set. The difference is that a VCR will only leave you stranded in the middle of a movie or TV show if it fails – not in the middle of nowhere.
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, then the auto industry is wearing a collective straight jacket. The gap between the auto industry and the knowledge they wish drivers possessed continues to widen. It has 30 million + reasons to find approaches other than “driver education” to user issues.
Instead, it is headed in the opposite direction, building in additional functions, view screens and app capabilities to the already overburdened driver.
The National Transportation Safety Board made headlines recently when it recommended banning the use of cell phones while driving due to the distraction it offered the driver. While I happen to think they are barking up the wrong tree in regards to cell phone calls and conversational distraction in general, driver distraction is an issue that has only begun to surface as a safety concern. And vehicle manufacturers will find themselves front and center when it does.
Automotive News recently quoted Gary Evert, a Division Director at Acura R&D as saying, “Technology is only as good as the driver. The vehicle almost always has more capability than the driver can handle. Anything outside the customer’s understanding is waste.”
He may be looking to avoid technological “waste”, but Mr. Evert at least has a more realistic view of the driver. The industry as a whole however is unlikely to slow its headlong pursuit of the latest toys.
——————————————————————-
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