VW warning lights

shayser

This evening I got warning light on the dash display - the letters EPC, when I started the car to go home from work. Home is about 5 minutes away through the town. I got home and looked up the manual and it says "Engine Fault, have the engine checked as soon as possible". 5 minutes later I had to go out again. When I started the engine another warning - this time for the exhaust. Manual says "a fault has developed during driving which has reduced the quality of the exhaust gas (e.g lambada probe fault). Reduce speed and drive carefully to the nearest qualified dealership."

How serious is this? The thing is, I've sold the car. It will be traded in in 4 weeks against a new car. Really don't want to be handing over lots of cash at this stage, if it can be avoided.

It's a MkV GTI.

crosstownk

There a number of things than can cause either warning light to come on. TBH, the only way to be sure is to get a daignosis done. Try and get it done sooner rather than later just in case it develops into something more serious.

I had a similar warning light come on in my punto a while back. It turned out that it was just a loose connection in the downstream lambda. I just separated the plugs, made sure they were clean and spayed a little wd40 on the contacts. The problem has not been back since.

R.O.R

Is it accompanied by lumpy running and hunting on idle? Could be either the Air Flow Meter or the throttle body needs cleaning - very common problems on VW engines (had same on my Skoda).

If it is this then won't cause major problems by driving as normal although your engine may stall under breaking. Easiest way to get rid of the warning lights is to unhook the battery for a few minutes (make sure you have all Radio codes etc.). This should clear them for a few days.

Chunks

R.O.R wrote:

Is it accompanied by lumpy running and hunting on idle? Could be either the Air Flow Meter or the throttle body needs cleaning - very common problems on VW engines (had same on my Skoda).

How do you clean the throttle body? I've a MkIV GTI golf.
Is there any way of telling if the throttle body aint working properly by driving the car?

JoeA3

not sure about the Golf, but a friend of mine with a Polo had this exact issue a few weeks ago. Turned out to be a fault with the brake lights - i.e. a simple problem, unrelated to the engine. Strange.

$Leon$

Is it out of VW warranty? 2 Years from date of first registration.
Best getting the problem looked into ASAP.
You might get VW goodwill on the problem if it is outside warranty but i think very few MkV GTi's are out of warranty yet. Don't think they came out here till around spring-summer 05.
If it is something like a lambda probe u might do more damage by driving the car.
The dealer your trading in to might be willing to cover some of the costs of getting it done now rather than he have to replace the cat in a few months.

macrubicon

JoeA3 wrote:

not sure about the Golf, but a friend of mine with a Polo had this exact issue a few weeks ago. Turned out to be a fault with the brake lights - i.e. a simple problem, unrelated to the engine. Strange.

Had the same problem with a Passat TDI - it will blink the coil light if it detects that there are no brake lights working ! ( or im my case your wiring loom is frayed... ) Must just use a different warning lamp on a Petrol...

They had to plug it in to see what the exact problem was.

shayser

A few days ago the air from the blower got hot and there was a smell of burning. Also, for a while now if I have to break hard the engine revs hard - this may be normal as far as I would know.

Dealer goodwill.

What's that Warranty was up in March. Can only seeing myself having to pay up so close to the trade in.

crosstownk

Dealer/Manufacturer goodwill is where you pay a portion of the cost of repair and the dealer/manufacturer contributes the balance. It is not warranty - just goodwill towards the customer. Since warranty periods moved to two years, goodwill contributions are less common, but you could get lucky - no harm in asking.

If you need to clean the throttle body then remove the intake hose just ahead of the throttle body and spray in some cat friendly carb cleaner - that will usually do the trick.

Gilhooley

I had a check engine light warning on my 2000 VW Golf for around three months and decided to finally bring it to the dealer to check it out. It cost me €170 for a diagnosis during which they found nothing wrong. The reset the light and it hasn't been on for the last week. Seems like a very expensive charge to just reset the Check Engine light.