Hiya,

A friend had just inherited a 2001 1.4 16v Fabia from a family member. It's been stood for a couple of weeks and won't start in today's cold weather. EPC light is on, which I guess is emissions/electronics related.

Any quick suggestions or does it need checking out with a fault reader?

I've not got a manual to hand as my Furby is still at the menders, hopefully back in a couple of days.

epc light is electronic power control.

its fly by wire throttle.

what the car doing exactly?

is it trying to start but not catching?

cos if it is or its starting but only idling then start it with acelerator pushed to the floor..

Charging the battery might help too as mine did this alot when my battery was low.

Just been on the phone to him. There's power as the lights etc all work. Turn the key and the starter motor isn't going. Given the freezing weather, I'm thinking it's the battery.

Battery did indeed have a low charge. Charged it up, and it started but wouldn't rev above about 1400 then the anti-stall appeared to kick in. Initially sounded very tappety, but smoothed out after a couple of minutes. EPC light still on.

Another topic on here indicated a brake light problem might also be related to the EPC light, so we checked and a bulb was out. Changed it and all is now OK. Quick trip around the block and the car drives OK.

I think I'll stick with my vRS - get a bulb warning on that, not limp home mode!

EPC light can be activated by a dodgy brake light switch, not a dodgy bulb, so you may not have cured the problem. I'm not sure, but pretty certain that the EPC light would not put the car into limp mode. I would be inclined to have faults checked for piece of mind - although low battery can throw up some gremlins.

Have something to add to this - I had a brakelight bulb fail and the EPC light came on this morning and would not go out. I changed the bulb and the EPC light is not on any more. So... it CAN be caused by a dodgy bulb, it seems!

Cheap fix

EPC light can be activated by a dodgy brake light switch, not a dodgy bulb, so you may not have cured the problem. I'm not sure, but pretty certain that the EPC light would not put the car into limp mode. I would be inclined to have faults checked for piece of mind - although low battery can throw up some gremlins.

EPC light can be brought on by a dodgy bulb, when a bulb blows it can log a open circuit fault in the engine ECU.

So do the PD diesels have EPC? IIRC The place on the cluster where the EPC light is has a glow plug light on mine.

They dont have EPC on a diesel, there is no throttle.

The do however have a drive by wire system.

EPC light can be brought on by a dodgy bulb, when a bulb blows it can log a open circuit fault in the engine ECU.

So why didn't the bulb failure light come on?

Not all models have a bulb failure light.