Evening all. Junior is driving in Ireland in his 1.2 htp fabia estate. He has just reported earlier today that the service reminder symbol has come on, then a few miles later the engine management warning light came on. Car seems to be running fine.

 

I would rather wait until he comes back next weekend to get the fault codes read, but did hear of a case where it is claimed this sequence of symbols was eventually traced to a faulty brake light switch. Any ideas, urban myth or should I be concerned?

 

Thanks in advance

 

A

Edited 8 July, 20178 yr by ARWP
Picture added

There is no reason to be alarmed, wait until the car gets home.

If the yellow warning light which says "EPC" is the one that came on, that often is due to a failed brake light switch, if it is the one that is a picture of an engine it won't be.

Service reminder is completely unrelated.

Nice one Wino, I gave him a paper bag to breathe into and you just popped it 

Folks, photo added

 

tks

 

A

1 minute ago, ARWP said:

Folks, photo added

 

tks

 

A

 

As I said...

11 minutes ago, sepulchrave said:

Nice one Wino, I gave him a paper bag to breathe into and you just popped it 

You had insufficient information to reassure...

3 minutes ago, Wino said:

You had insufficient information to reassure...

 

I took him at his word, he said engine management light and service indicator, and indeed it was so...

Last time I saw the "Control system for exhaust" light while driving, the car drastically  lost power shortly afterwards on a slip road onto a busy A34, so forgive my caution in not handing out uninformative platitudes?

Wino, the epc light which comes on due to faulty brake switch throws any fault code to vcds?

Edited 9 July, 20178 yr by makymak

9 hours ago, makymak said:

Wino, the epc light which comes on due to faulty brake switch throws any fault code to vcds?

Yes, but if you want to discuss it any further please start your own topic.

@ARWP - Is this a good place to point out that the "INSP" warning doesn't randomly "just come on"? It will have been showing "Insp in N00 miles" (where N is range 1..9) for the last 30 days or 1_000 miles, whichever is the shorter time period!

All, thanks for your thoughts. Junior is reporting the car is starting and running normally so I'm cautiously optimistic that that we will be able to get the car across over the weekend and will pursue a formal diagnosis thereafter.

 

again, thanks for your thoughts

 

a

A quick update, we drove the car back from Ireland yesterday, after about a hours running at 60 mph the yellow warning light went out and has not reappeared. The car is running fine, 48mpg on the run and no apparent loss of performance throughout this episode - I figure with only 64 BHP to start with any power loss would be immediately noticeable. I guess the ecu has stored the fault code so I'll get this checked in due course.

 

thanks again for the thoughts on this

 

a

 

Good news.

What year is the car?  Just remembering the first time we saw that light on ours, it was the start of subtle EGR problems.  If it's a later car (built after April 2006 I think?) it won't have an EGR valve so it won't be that.

The last time, mentioned above, it was a coilpack failure that took us from 3 to 2 cylinders, your son's car is clearly not in that condition.

 

Car is 2005, 05 plate. If the EGR does eventually need replacement any estimates on likely cost? Any guides to DI Y replacement around?

 

tks

 

a

There's a variety of prices online, from around £40 for the cheapest of pattern parts to about £120-130 for a Pierburg part (OEM supplier). The part number is (VAG) 03D131503D = Pierburg 7.22785.16.0

 

If you look at the diagram here, the EGR is held on by two M8 nuts (item 21; not sure if they are 12mm or 13mm) which are likely to be very rusty, likewise the studs that they are on.  Take some care - wire brush and penetrating fluid - with these to avoid rounding them off or damaging the threads of the studs.  Once those are off you need to get a bit of play in the steel pipe that is now free at that end; I think you need to remove the support bracket bolt (item 22 on that page) and possibly the two Torx bolts (item 28) that hold the far end of the pipe to the inlet manifold. Once that pipe's off the studs you can disconnect the wiring plug and air hose, pull the gaskets and valve off and replace all.

 

I got a genuine Pierburg one from ECP, their site said it didn't come with gaskets, but that wasn't true, it did.