EPC light: My car is "chugging!"

[Jay-2Tsi]

After a steady day's driving (only done 30 miles in a sensible manner), I got to within half a mile of my home and all of a sudden the oil light came on followed by the EPC light, right at the same time the car started chugging and spluttering. Being my first car and being it cost me a lot of money I am now panicking about this. The car still runs albeit in a spluttering fits and starts sort of way. I have to keep rev's down to prevent more spluttering. It doesn't start straight off as it always has done prior and upon start-up there is a lot of white 'smoke' coming from the exhaust.

I don't want to use the words 'mis-fire' because i don't know enough about engines to say but If I imagine what I'd think a misfire would be I'd say similar to whats happening.

I aren't the most technically savvy when it comes to cars I just need someone to please give me
A possible reason for this. And what is required to put it right if poss. I really appreciate your input. Thank you so do much :-)

James.

[martdy]

Total guess but could be intake manifold. If you search "intake manifold " and have a read it might give some pointers
What age and mileage is your car ?

[Jay-2Tsi]

4 years and 56k. Thanks for the pointer I will do my best to research it. If it is that what am I looking at in terms of work/cost, could you say? Thanks very much

[Jay-2Tsi]

I lifted the bonnet with the engine running and the main engine block seemed to be rattling about a lot more than usual, and to put it another way, the car sounded like it was an old 15 year old banger.

Pardon my lack of "engine etiquette" so to speak as I say I'm an Aircraft Engineer not a mechanic.

[Cuprabob]

Sounds like it could be a faulty coilpack causing a misfire.

Need to get it in VCDS to confirm. If it's a coipack it will show up as an "intermittent misfire cylinder no." pointing to which 1 of the 4 it is.

[Taylor127]

I had a similar thing on my tsi but caught it early so wasnt that bad but it had that shake too it.
I serviced it plugs oil filters ect and.it qhent straight away.
Prior to that I had the intake manifold changed under warranty as a fault was found on the throttle body itself.


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[Jay-2Tsi]

Thanks for replies.

It seems like one min it was good as gold and the next second it just went tits up just like that. I've experienced no probs prior to this; it's not a slight issue that has got worse. One min great next min chug chug pop pop !

Will explore your responses and I can't thank you enough, I've been in a right stinking mood ever since :-s

Cheers.

[capster]

Had same problem myself, turned out to be a coilpack failure.

I would advise you change all four and as a belt and braces measure also change the spark plugs.

Coilpacks are a known problem with VW.

[Jay-2Tsi]

Had same problem myself, turned out to be a coilpack failure.

I would advise you change all four and as a belt and braces measure also change the spark plugs.

Coilpacks are a known problem with VW.

My mechanic mate popped down yesterday and he used his VCDS and it came up Cylinder 1 misfire detected. He removed individual coils and no1 wasn't sparking so im fairly certain it's that.

Spark plugs no problem I'll pop for them today but where do I get a coil pack from? Anyone?

Thanks for all your help with this everyone

[salsajoe]

Could try TPS if you have one in your area - genuine VW parts but less than the dealers.

[rehmondo]

This happened to my car on Friday, although I have the constant exhaust light - the EPC came on for the first time yesterday and has since gone.

My car is 5 years old in October, so far done 71k, car only chugs when idle and when spontaneously putting the foot down - speaking to one of my mates he reckons the oxygen sensor in the exhaust has gone, but that's a guess, only a diagnostic will show where the fault lies.

Booked in for Tuesday now.

[RoccoTom]

The same symptoms appeared today on mine - car juddering, uneven power delivery, EPC light on and an intermittent catalytic converter light. Luckily I was only a few miles from a VW dealership and they will investigate it on Monday. The car is only 10 months old and has covered 6,500 miles.

From what I've read on a few of the threads, it's down to the coil pack or a misfiring cylinder. Anyone else able to shed any more light on the problem?

Thanks
Tom

[Cuprabob]

It'll be a coil pack

[RoccoTom]

It'll be a coil pack

Thanks, Cuprabob. Do you know how quick or easy a fix that would be for the VW people? I'm hoping they're not too busy to sort it by New Year.

[Cuprabob]

It's a 5min job to plug in VCDS to see what cylinder is misfiring and another 5mins to swap over the offending item. Most common fault on petrol cars these days so they will have one in stock. In the unlikely event they don't they will take one off a showroom car.

[RoccoTom]

Well, sadly not as quick a fix as you had suggested. Apparently it's a faulty injector and they need to order the part, which means it won't be fixed until Saturday at the soonest, if not Monday.

I've insisted that they don't do "a wee wash o' the car" for me - I'm quite happy to have unscratched paintwork and the car was virtually spotless when I dropped it off.

It does at least perhaps explain why I've had lumpy running since new: http://www.sciroccocentral.co.uk/forum/ ... 25&t=14821" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[RoccoTom]

Well, I collected the car this afternoon, after a week and a half without it, and all seems well once again. A new injector was fitted and they did a general health check, which is all reassuring - and it's nice that it's all covered under warranty.

[Eberkos]

ive had the same problem today,

set off from a roundabout and the car slowly lost power and then cut out.

rang the rac, car got plugged in cylinder 4 is the problem. changed coil pack and made no difference, still struggled to start and when it did still got white smoke.

car was recovered and is in storage til the morning and its going to vw to investigate further, hopefully nothing serious. anyone got any ideas if it is not coil pack from cylinder 4

[Slyesco]

ive had the same problem today,

set off from a roundabout and the car slowly lost power and then cut out.

rang the rac, car got plugged in cylinder 4 is the problem. changed coil pack and made no difference, still struggled to start and when it did still got white smoke.

car was recovered and is in storage til the morning and its going to vw to investigate further, hopefully nothing serious. anyone got any ideas if it is not coil pack from cylinder 4

Hi There, What was the outcome of your problem? I have the same problem.

[lloydie63]

Similar happened on my car turned out to be a sparkplug in #3 cylinder.