This weekend used the car after 2 months standing. SWMBO sees EPC light then Engine Management one as well. Every time we start and pull away we get one or both lights.

 

Car drives ok around town but on the open road it's gutless. A very narrow power band, slovenly acceleration, and won't maintain speed up inclines, even though it will reach over 70 on the flat.

 

It's a 18 model 1.0 TSI 110 with 15k on it.

Today's drive should have easily fully charged the battery, but the cars still the same.

 

Any ideas?

Maybe it is not happy with the petrol that is in if 2 months old and has a fair bit of H2O content.

 

Best check no wires have been chewed by rodents.

PS

Look in the Air Box at the Air Filter.

I'd guess a coil pack has failed (can become damp with condensation when stored especially in the winter and HT arcs damaging the coil). If it is this then you can damage the catalyst with unburnt petrol from the offending cylinder if you keep driving it.

 

Get a garage to read stored codes - or remove the plugs and smell each one after it has run.

 

 

 

 

Edited 9 March, 20206 yr by bigjohn

I'll refer you to my post under Skoda Rapid Guides re 1.2 Tsi  traction control, EPC lights ...

 

My problem was a failing battery. I used to leave mine unused for days (in winter) and I reckon it was prematurely killing the battery. It was at the time not much over 4 years old. I've only done around 25k miles in 6 years ownership.

 

As a start point get the battery checked, I thought mine was ok, it started the car and everything worked fine.

My Rapid was sitting around 2 weeks in the winter and when I first started the car, EPC light came on. Turned the car off and then restarted and the EPC light was gone till the next time I turned on the car. EPC light came on every other time and essentially took around a week for the check engine light to also come on and then eventually EPC light disappeared. Went to the mechanic and he saw nothing wrong. Removed the check engine light and the car has been fine since. Most likely battery drained when the car was sitting in the cold and caused the electronics to freak out.

My car had a hopeless lack of power as well as dash lights. 

 

Dealer is going to change turbo actuator, but that didn't fix similar symptoms on the 1.2.

 

 

Edited 14 March, 20206 yr by camelspyyder

This  battery/electronic solution offered begs the question...how come long term dealer stock don't do this after sitting on the lot for months? 

 

I'd expect most TSI sold to throw up EPC faults as they were driven away from the dealership if low battery state was the root cause.

On 14/03/2020 at 22:45, camelspyyder said:

This  battery/electronic solution offered begs the question...how come long term dealer stock don't do this after sitting on the lot for months? 

 

I'd expect most TSI sold to throw up EPC faults as they were driven away from the dealership if low battery state was the root cause.

I don't know how they store cars at dealers but I'd imagine that they perhaps disconnect battery to prevent it getting drained completely? Also old used batteries may behave differently to new batteries? 

Also I have seen, heard a lot of cases where check engine light, error codes were caused by dying/empty battery.

The debate on what the problem might be is very interesting but has the problem now been fixed?

No, I have had no car since Thursday, having inconveniently just sold the other one.

 

Waiting for parts, today I hope.

I was told when my battery started to  fail that it didn't have enough power in it to return a strong signal to various electronic components hence the fault lights.

Everything worked in the car, even started the car ok but apparently this can happen when a battery starts to degrade.

For my particular case when I bought the car it had stood from new reg time end of March 2014 until I bought it in August. It had only had 10 delivery miles on it, so what happened to that battery? Well  over 4 years on coupled with only occasional use it has prematurely given up.

Mick this car is barely 2.5 years old. The last one (the 1.2) to fail like this was 2.5 years old as well. Both were straight off the boat with no storage time.

 

If its's going to die whenever I don't drive it for 6 weeks, it'll have to go. 

Am I missing some VW small print that says "If you don't drive it everyday, your vehicle will break down repeatedly and expensively"???

 

I don't live here full time (indeed I never did when I was working either), so I'll have to sell it rather than face monster bills every time I fly back to the UK.

 

 

Edited 16 March, 20206 yr by camelspyyder

18 hours ago, camelspyyder said:

Mick this car is barely 2.5 years old. The last one (the 1.2) to fail like this was 2.5 years old as well. Both were straight off the boat with no storage time.

 

If its's going to die whenever I don't drive it for 6 weeks, it'll have to go. 

Am I missing some VW small print that says "If you don't drive it everyday, your vehicle will break down repeatedly and expensively"???

 

I don't live here full time (indeed I never did when I was working either), so I'll have to sell it rather than face monster bills every time I fly back to the UK.

 

 

 

I understand your concerns, would it be impractical to keep the battery maintained whilst the car laid up?

I keep my other car sorned between Nov and March and keep the battery maintained but that's tucked up in the garage.

I have no garage, but could give it a full charge before driving on arrival at home. SWMBO won't understand that she can't get off the plane and go straight to the supermarket though. 😉

Update.

 

Just like last time, a new turbo actuator didn't fix it. New turbo going on this afternoon.

 

If the "low battery state" issue is so widespread, why don't Skoda/SEAT garages know about it and put a fresh battery in before doing all this work?

 

Modern mechanics just believe and action the codes I think, but have lost the basics.

 

We had an Astra that would not run cleanly when cold, after many unsuccessful visits to the stealer, I went old school and chucked a new set of HT leads on. 

 

Shazam! Crappy Astra fixed ( cheaply too)

 

 

59 minutes ago, camelspyyder said:

Modern mechanics just believe and action the codes I think, but have lost the basics

 

That why I haven't been anywhere near a SEAT garage. The local mechanic a fairly young lad took over from his dad to run the garage, he told me "I should be fitting a TPS sensor as that's the fault showing" he went on to say, so that's £112 + fitting.  Then he checked the battery and told me about it's state and said, I'd go with a new battery first, seen a good few like this, new battery fixed it.

So it did, still cost me £142 as it's the big battery for stop/start.

He didn't even charge the diagnostic fee as I had to wait whilst the battery was delivered, probably an hour. Bet the dealer wouldn't give the same advice/service and price. The last time I used a dealer it was, I'll book you in, in 10 days ok? How much I asked, they reeled off all the charges, I just walked out.

Local garage, drive up, within 2 mins he had his diagnostic machine hooked up, 20 mins later a new battery was ordered and as I said delivered an hour later, he even stayed behind after 5.30pm (their closing time) to fit it, no nonsense stuff.

Edited 17 March, 20206 yr by MickA

Well, having put my back out I had to send SWMBO to pick it up.

 

It runs well, but appears to be leaking oil and I can't get down there to have a look.

 

Back to the dealers as soon as possible I think.

On a positive note , at £11 a month,  the 3 year service contract + a/c service, first MoT and year 3/4 breakdown cover is costing less in total than I would have paid for that turbo actuator. 😉

 

5 hours ago, camelspyyder said:

Well, having put my back out I had to send SWMBO to pick it up.

 

It runs well, but appears to be leaking oil and I can't get down there to have a look.

 

Back to the dealers as soon as possible I think.

I know from other posts that you are not a fan of the 1.0 TSI engine. Perhaps you always had a less than perfect turbo and you may now look more favourably on the engine. Hope the oil leak is a quick fix and good luck with the new turbo.

We shall see. 

 

Another owner on the Octy forum has ongoing oil leak issues following similar surgery.

Leak sorted. SWMBO happy with car. It seems very responsive in town now. I need to try it on open roads.

I wonder have we really had restricted boost in it for over 2 years?

On 23/03/2020 at 08:24, camelspyyder said:

Leak sorted. SWMBO happy with car. It seems very responsive in town now. I need to try it on open roads.

I wonder have we really had restricted boost in it for over 2 years?

I often wondered why you found the car so bad.

 

Haven't taken it out yet due to Covid-19 lockdown. Shopping day soon though.

4 hours ago, Gerrycan said:

I often wondered why you found the car so bad.

 

 

Well having owned a 2014 1.2 for years, I already knew and completely accepted that the chassis was outmoded and not very capable.

But the 1.0's lack of any low rev grunt, and poor drivability, has been there since the start and that was a massive disappointment.

The awful mpg from new improved a lot though, but the cruddy OEM Bridgestones are as bad as they always were.

As a retiree I'm financially stuck with it, so I have adjusted my driving style to suit, but 2-3 years on I'm still surprised by how bad it is, especially when a 1.0/95 SEAT Arona was recently a really pleasant drive in comparison.

First world problems eh?

 

Back to Quarantine now.  Stay safe everyone.