Hi - Picked up my car last week and on saturday after a decent run, whilst sitting in traffic, i noticed that my idle was up at around 1200 -1300 RPM. After hooking my foot under the accelerator pedal and pulling it up the RPM returned to normal. It's done it a good few time since, and my wife has also noticed it. It seems to do it when the engine is hot and has had a decent run. It's never done it (yet) when cold. It is intermittent though and it doesn't do it all the time. I've done a bit of reading on here and think that it may be the accelerator pedal/sensor unit that is faulty.

I bought the car and it came with a third party warranty for 6 months. I called them and they want me to take it into a garage, get a diagnostic report then they'll give me authorisation to get the repair done. Because it's intermittent and i know that there is no guarantee that a scan will pick up the fault, I am reluctant to go down that route... I asked the warranty advisor where i would stand if the scan didn't pick up an error and he said that he would then be unable to authorise the repair. At which point I would then be £65 out of pocket and still have a problem that i would have to sort out myself. That would leave me with a total bill of £65 (scan) £85 (part) and £35 (labour). I would then be cheaper just footing the bill for the part and doing it myself. Clearly i don't want to do that if i don' have to!! That seems a tad unfair if i have a warranty!

Looking for some advice from folks on:

1) the fault - could these symptoms be anything else?

2) will a diagnostic scan pick the fault up? (if it does the warranty will foot the total bill including the scan)

3) what would you/have you said to third party warranty companies to get it sorted in similar situations?

Thanks

Dave

Edited 22 November, 201114 yr by Bumble487

Will be the pedal. Mine started doing similar things not long after i bought my fabia. Changed the pedal and its been fine ever since. Its the switch in the pedal i think but its the whole pedal change. Not too expensive to buy but should get it done through warranty really

Thanks, did yours show up a fault on vagcom?

I didnt plug it in to vagcom. I searched google and here to find its quite a common problem. Dirt and water from your shoes get into the electronics and make things stick. I found a spray of wd40 would help for a few days (while the ignition was off, gave it a spray and move the pedal a few times) but it would soon revert back to high idling.

Also a scan would not pick up on something that it considers normal input, i.e. if it thinks the pedal is being pressed it thinks the pedal is being pressed - the pedal being pressed is in itself not a fault. Need to find out your rights with the warranty and potentially threaten small claims court action. Try the forums at www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk

Also a scan would not pick up on something that it considers normal input, i.e. if it thinks the pedal is being pressed it thinks the pedal is being pressed - the pedal being pressed is in itself not a fault. Need to find out your rights with the warranty and potentially threaten small claims court action. Try the forums at www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk

Thanks, That's exactly my thoughts. Why would a scan pick up an error because the ECU recognised part throttle?!?! It MAY pick it up but I'm not paying for the scan 'on the off chance' it might.

Waiting the warranty company speaking to the garage direct and see of they will authorise the claim. I'm gonna take a video of it next time it happens to have proof of the fault.

Need to find out your rights with the warranty and potentially threaten small claims court action.

Or the retailer directly.

http://www.oft.gov.uk/business-advice/treating-customers-fairly/sogahome/sogaexplained

Note the "if it happens inside 6 months of purchase" bit.

Well, tried again with the warranty company again today and they wont help me unless i provide them with a print out of a scan showing the fault. I even offered to take a video of it and send it to them. Apparently this wouldn't count as proof of a fault. I then said that i would be happy for the car to be scanned if they paid for it rather than me.

Off back to the garage i bought the car from tomorrow to see if they will help (or better just replace the pedal). It's not a huge problem at the minute, but i want if fixed before it gets worse. A throttle pedal is an integral part of the proper working of a car afterall...!