Signs Your McLaren Needs Immediate Repair

Warning lights’ sole purpose is to inform you that something isn’t quite right. When your car’s computer receives a signal from a sensor that is outside of a predetermined range, a warning light is triggered. Some warning lights can be turned off by simply topping up tire pressures or changing a bulb, others need more diagnostics.

We recommend going through your McLaren’s owner’s manual and familiarizing yourself with the various warning symbols and what they mean.

When a sensor in the engine or transmission is triggered, and logs a fault, your McLaren may go into limp home mode. In limp home mode, the car’s performance is greatly decreased, maximum RPM and top speed are also limited.

This happens because your McLaren knows something is seriously wrong, and instead of leaving you stranded on the side of the road, or putting the drivetrain under additional strain that could cause catastrophic failure, it limits itself to a safe level allowing you to get the car back home or to the nearest repair center.

While exhaust smoke is expected, the color and amount can be a signal that something is wrong. Excessive amounts of black smoke is most often associated with your engine running rich. While this may be something as minor as a mass airflow sensor reading incorrectly, it can be as serious as a malfunctioning injector dumping fuel into the engine. If left unattended, damaged injectors can cause cylinders to hydrolock.

White smoke is a sign that liquid is being burnt off. While it’s fairly common in cars that have been sitting around for awhile, if it doesn’t clear up after a few minutes, there may be a head gasket leak, and coolant is leaking into the engine and being combusted. Similarly, leaking head gaskets can lead to hydro-locked engines and pitting to the cylinder walls.

Finally, blue smoke is a sign that oil is being burnt up. Overfilling can cause oil to find its way into the combustion chamber, but it is more likely that the piston rings are worn and are not sealing against oil correctly.

Either way, having a registered McLaren repair Technician diagnose your car is the only way to truly know what’s happening.

Putting your foot flat in your McLaren (on a race track of course) should immediately pin you to the seat as your car accelerates into lightspeed. If your McLaren is hesitating to accelerate, over-revving before gearing up, or taking a millennia to downshift, this is usually an early sign something is wrong, or is about to go wrong, but still falls under the “normal operating range” and has triggered a warning light.

Hesitation when accelerating can be caused by many things. Worn wastegates, old clutches, dirty transmission fluid, and worn oil are just some of the things your technician will investigate while diagnosing your car.

Go to any race track and there is one golden rule: race cars should never leak. This is especially true for McLarens, as they manage to extract every ounce of performance by taking full advantage of every component, absolutely pushing the car to its limit.

.The downside of McLarens being so high-strung? The smallest leak can lead to catastrophic damage if left unattended. While the coolant expansion tank will allow some fluid to escape, especially after a spirited drive, leaking oil or hydraulic fluids should be investigated immediately