Dashboard lights issues

[Ian A]

Hi, 

Hope this is in the correct area , also posted in the Maintenance section which I see could be wrong, apologies. 

I'm a Brit living here in Poland, some things are difficult to get around due to the language barrier and other issues, hence I'm asking for advice here. I can speak a bit of Polish but discussing the intricacies of intermittent car issues are beyond my realms... 

Focus 1.8 tdci 2003 (mk 2?) which I bought maybe a bit neglected a couple of years ago, immediately gave it a full check up and service at official  Ford service centre, since then have had it regularly checked and serviced at mixture of local mainstream garage, local electrical mechanic and Ford. 

Recently the ABS and handbrake dash lights are on either full time or 90% of the time.   Mechanic checked everything, said brakes are all fine, sent me to the electrical guy (who speaks no English at all)  who sent me back to mechanic, blaming brake pads (they look fine).  

After replacing vacuum pump (oil leak)  and getting an oil change a couple of weeks ago, now the oil warning light is on, oil level is perfect. 

My initial question is, despite starting to get all this looked at a couple of weeks ago, in 2 days I have a four day business trip that I need to use this car for. I don't mind driving with erroneous dash lights on if there's no real problem, but could this be a sign of more serious issues? 

(Additional info, lights wired up last year to come on automatically with ignition). 

Thanks for any feedback, hope it's not an unanswerable question. 

[jeebowhite]

to be honest, its a bit of an open ended book. There are a number of potential issues, from minor electrical niggles, to faulty sensors, to failing modules, the only real way to tell is to get a code reader on it.

 

ABS and handbrake lights together, could indicate a failing ABS module or pump, ordinarily if it was ABS alone, it would probably be a sensor of its own is failing and giving erroneous feedback, the handbrake light would indicate perhaps a bad switch, but together it raises more concerns. 

 

As to the oil leak, and warning light, it would indicate its not getting sufficient pressure, which may be a fault in the sensor or wiring...