'Stop when Aladdin's lamp lights up on your dashboard'

brussels - Motorists know warning lights in their cars so badly that they call panic alarm centers far too often.

That concludes the Belgian VAB, the ANWB of our southern neighbors after an online test. Only a quarter of car drivers know what a certain light means. Those who respond well when a certain light is on, can save a lot of costs.

Only one percent knows the warning light of the tire pressure. A quarter the light when the catalytic converter is broken and half of them only touch on a defective particulate filter in a diesel.

We all know the lights for battery and oil problems. Yet six out of ten think that you can still drive on. The damage that then arises is much higher than the ten or twenty euros for a liter of oil. With a damaged engine you will soon lose 3,000 euros.

'Please, read the instruction booklet of your car', says Joni Junes of VAB in Het Nieuwsblad. 'Those lights can indicate a serious problem,' says the body that is often panicked by people who say that their dashboard has suddenly changed into a 'cooking pot' or 'the lamp of Aladdin'.