Driving into work this morning I used the cruise control for the 1st time for the motorways, and after 30 miles or so of leisurely cruising on the M25 I took the M11 junction and as I pulled onto the M11 I floored it in third. Rapid acceleration was followed by a sudden loss in power and the EPC and ASR lights both ignited on the dashboard. Engine went into limp mode and I immediately head for the hard shoulder. Coming to a stop I revved it once, but it didn't really do much. Switched off the ignition, waited 2 secs and started her up again. Gone were the lights, and back was the power :confused:

Will have to check the fault codes tonight...

SOunds like you've bought a right old nail there, Q.

Scan for fault codes and look out for one which reads something along the lines of "engine torque limit esceeded".

or overboost maybe?

I've had overboost go off in mine. Car ran fine but no turbo (if that's what you mean by limp mode).

Pulled onto the side of the road, turned off engine, restarted, everything OK again. I was cacking myself, but Ross then reassured me (I was on my way to get it serviced )

He did a scan and there was an overboost message logged.

Didn't get warning lights though. Guess I don't have quite enough torque yet

No, the limb mode was definitely full limp mode. Could hardly make it to the hard shoulder (had to cross an entry slip road). Tonight will tell.

Not having used VAG COM on a laptop in the past myself, do you connect it up, then switch on the ignition (without starting the car), before starting the VAG COM application?

You can do either. If you connect it up and start VAGCOM first, it should also find the ECU.

Thanks Nick.

I find that mine will find the ECU before I start the car, but having started the car it then decided there is nothing at the far end of the cable!!! have just ordered a new cable to find out if it was a dogy Serial -> USB adapter that was causing problems.

Hmm, my version of VAG COM doesn't allow me to scan automatically, so I had to do it the hard way:

17743 - Engine Torque Monitor 2: Control Limit Exceeded (P1335 - 35 - 10 - - - Intermittent)

01314 - Engine Control Module (013 - Check DTC Memory - Intermittent)

01304 - Radio (49-00 - No Communications)

Have cleared the faults, but I'll bring the lappy into work tomorrow just in case...

Oh, I forgot to add that it happened twice on the way back home too. The second time I had just switched on the cruise control again and it was accelerating from 60mph up to 70mph. Just as it hit 70, it threw the fault and I had to pull over again. This was in 5th gear.

Lots of googling and none the wiser...

Found two relevant 'solutions' which I'll be trying out over the next couple of days

my friend just did a k04 in his jetta. he pulled the same codes. we found out the problem. it has to do with your asr system. your producing more torque then the system can handle and that throws the codes. if you turn your asr off then the problem will go away and the car will drive normal. let me know how you make out.

and

Mine throws that code every time i use cruise to increase the set speed. Real gentle acceleration, with bugger all boost. Never had it other than when using cruise.

Wonder if this is something that can be written into the map? Obviously you don't want to have 420 odd Nm of torque and find the car's brain won't allow it to pip 350 or something like that.

Does it only do it if you have been using cruise, Im intrigued to know as Im hoping to have cruise fitted to mine

I think its a common problem with big turbos... or at least IHI ones..

IIRC Wilkos IHI golf does exactly the same thing... again only when using cruise control.

As Jason says I think raising the torque limit is something that the mappers take care of. I was talking to the REVO guys about it a few weeks ago when they were in Portsmouth.

I think its a common problem with big turbos... or at least IHI ones..

IIRC Wilkos IHI golf does exactly the same thing... again only when using cruise control.

Only speculating being a techo numptie but these cars have self learning ECU's so if you drive the car on cruise for a while its all nice & gentle. Then if you switch off cruise & give a big dose of Right Foot does the sudden change send the ECU into panic mode.

Question for Q, are you running max boost all the time, I doubt if Ive turned mine down more that 5 or 6 times as I rely on the right foot to regulate it, Ive also done prolonged very gentle drives & never had a problem when I suddenly nail it.

Im just bemused as to why its cruise control related ??

I never experienced what Q did....although I did have an overboost error when I put an N75J on the wrong way round....car went into full limp mode...no turbo.

All was better after clearing the error code....was before the IHI was fitted though.

May be a call to Jabba for a quick discussion....maybe something to do KK and boost controller being wired into the same loom (?).

Well going on what Adrian has just said, and bearing in mine that Q has recently had cruise control fitted - there must be a problem with that (No sh** Sherlock )

Does seem strange. There must be an answer out there somewhere!

It's too early to call for me if it related to CC, but it does sound a likely candidate. I've been at home ill, so I haven't driven the car since it happened on Tuesday. I'm running on low boost.

Hopefully I will be back at work tomorrow and able to test the CC theory.

Thing is CC tends to floor it effectively to get up to speed if you set it high, if I set mine to 70mph and am doing say 30 in 3rd, then hit resume to re-enable it, it goes up to 70mph pretty darn sharpishly.

Not sure why it would be worse than booting it by hand but it wouldn't surprise me, you are probably more sensible in that gear then the CC would be, i.e. you'd drop a cog instead & plant it

Q - In fairness and defence of Karl in his abscence I don't think it could be directly related to anything he has done in the fitting of the CC. It may be something as simple as the amount of throttle the CC is requesting is significant enough to cause the over torque. Perhaps try logging throttle position when applying CC and see if it takes a large chunk.

I stand by my mapping theory - It needs to be mapped out by increasing the torque limit threshold.

The reason it may not have been evident for Adrian is simply different driving styles.

I think, as Adrian says a call to Mike is in order.

For sure...I'm not saying Karl is to blame here...more to do with KK, the way it works and whether it has some compatibility issues with the boost contoller and IHI.

Best to talk to Michael....I suspect it is something to do with the electronic throttle and KK....the throttle is mapped to open right out to get the turbo to spin up quicker...combine this with KK...and full on acceleration.......

I use CC a lot but rarely use it to resume the set speed because of the relatively uncontrolled acceleration involved, especially if a large speed change is involved. I much prefer to use my right foot to accelerate smoothly as I wish and then select resume when near the set speed.

Hang on chaps, I don't hold anyone responsible for anything. Karl did a fantastic job (again) and I do not doubt any of his work. All I was saying is that the car never had a problem until I had the CC installed (and used it). On the Monday after installation I only used CC for brief moments as I was still enjoying the power my right foot was wielding. On Tuesday morning I drove 30 odd miles almost exclusively at 70mph on the cruise. Then when I had to slow down and take an exit on to another motorway, as I floored it out of the long bend it went into limp mode. On my way back it happened twice of which I can only the exact circumstances on the 2nd occasion. I was cruising at 70mph, then had to slow down (coming out of cruise for that) and then when I was driving around 60mph I hit the cruise resume button. This took my speed back up to 70mph again and as it reached it, it went into limp mode. Again, I had been using the cruise for longer periods prior to that.

I'm sure that if I do a bit more testing I'll be able to pinpoint what makes it go into that mode, and I'm sure that Mike at Jabba will be able to map it out of the system, or that there is a work around for it.