Lots of warning lights! Brakes, PAS, ABS, etc...

[gray1978]

Hi All

I'm getting intermittent warning lights on the dash which seem to reset if I turn off the ignition and restart the car.

Got in the car yesterday morning and had the red brake warning light flashing, flashing engine management light, power steering (PAS) and ABS lights on. Turned on and off and all the lights with the exception of PAS went off. Drove from Coventry to Chester with no issues and suddenly all the lights come on again with a nice warning 'beep', no PAS and speedo stuck on 0. Limped to Chester services and the PAS was definitely not working. Checked the brake fluid (loads in there!) Waited 5 mins, started it back up, all fine! Even the PAS was working again.

Had intermittent lights throughout the day but drove back from Liverpool to Coventry last night with no warning lights or issues what so ever.

Same thing again this morning, PAS warning light got 5 mins into my journey and all lights come on, no PAS, speedo on 0. Carried on and 5 mins later all the lights went off with the exception of the PAS warning light, the car gave a little 'jolt' and the speedo started working again.

So generally, intermittent brake warning, engine management, PAS and ABS lights.

Any ideas? I've done a bit of searching and narrowed it down to the following...

Battery on the way out (car is 6 years old)
ECU / Sensor problem
Water in the PAS pump electrics
PAS pump on its way out (£££)
Seat's generally not liking the cold and wet weather :-(

The car had a major service before Christmas, new cam belt and a new air inflow metre. Also had an MOT last Monday.

Any ideas? I'll take it to my local garage this week but they've started charging for diagnostic checks now. Bit worried about driving it but needs must :-(

Thanks

 

[propane94]

I had a similar issue, I had some wires rubbing together around the air box and the terminals on the fuses in the engine bay were corroded. Seat fixed both and nothing since.

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[gray1978]

Still having problems, it's going the garage tomorrow. It's now momentarily glitching (lights flash on and speedo drops to 0) and then coming back to life with a little jolt, bit un-nerving at 70mph. Also still getting the lights coming on and staying on, whenever I come to some lights I'll turn the ignition off and restart and all will be well. Probably doing it 2 or 3 times on my 20 mile commute.

There is a new development now that the dreaded emissions light has come on and stayed on. Could it be trying (and failing) to do a re-gen when all the warning lights come on?

Bit gutted as I sunk the best part of a grand into it late last year in an effort to keep it on the road for another couple of years. Seriously considering getting shot of it, there's some good deals on VWs to be had at the moment :-#

Hopefully will be good news from the garage tomorrow.

 

[dm222]

Power steering pump usually doesn't throw an abs light unless it is something to do with the steering angle sensor wich it is used by both systems, i this case I would bet it's the battery 6 years it's about time and PAS is the first thing to fail when the battery is goind bad.
By the way my brake pedal and steering sometimes get stiffer togeher too, they seem to have a relation between them I don't undestand.
I don't have errors, please post your findings.

 

[propane94]

Sounds like an electrical short or loose ground point, similar to my issue. I know what you mean with it jolting back to life sometimes, not very pleasant. Restart fixed mine temporarily.

I dropped it off to get fixed and all the codes were gone, no errors, not even intermittent ones. Never went wrong for them but they thought they found the case, and so far it seems they did.

The emissions light could be a side effect of the problem, either is cant read something and throws the error, or all the interference and restarts has stop the re-gen. Either way if you fix the other lights and glitch you will probably find the cause of the emissions light, hopefully nothing serious.

Hopefully the garage can at least tell you the cause, probably some rubbing wires or loose terminals. How many miles does yours have??

Best of luck with it

 

[gray1978]

Cheers, I hope it is just the battery, looking at all the warning lights just makes me think £££! Any idea how this will show up when they hook it up to the computer?

Definitely the time of year for the battery to die.

 

[gray1978]

Sounds like an electrical short or loose ground point, similar to my issue. I know what you mean with it jolting back to life sometimes, not very pleasant. Restart fixed mine temporarily.

I dropped it off to get fixed and all the codes were gone, no errors, not even intermittent ones. Never went wrong for them but they thought they found the case, and so far it seems they did.

The emissions light could be a side effect of the problem, either is cant read something and throws the error, or all the interference and restarts has stop the re-gen. Either way if you fix the other lights and glitch you will probably find the cause of the emissions light, hopefully nothing serious.

Hopefully the garage can at least tell you the cause, probably some rubbing wires or loose terminals. How many miles does yours have??

Best of luck with it

This is what I'm worried about, I've read elsewhere that the codes won't show up if the lights aren't on when they check it. I'll mention possible battery / alternator to them too.

1.6 TDi 10 plate and done 62k

 

[propane94]

Lets hope it's nothing serious and it is just a battery or alternator. As you said the car is 6 years old and we have just had winter which kills batteries.

 

[gray1978]

Car still in the garage, I dropped it on them without calling so it's at the back of the queue! They have had a quick look and are saying it's a 'communications problem, possibly caused by water ingress'. Have done some more digging on here and the load signal cable keeps coming up, often sheared by hitting potholes (yep, do lots of that!) or water getting in. Could it be that?

Lots of posts saying that if it is the load signal cable the battery won't charge below 2000rpm, which would explain why I get the problem when it's cold but it was OK on my run back from Liverpool to Cov (mainly at +2000rpm).

 

[dm222]

Car still in the garage, I dropped it on them without calling so it's at the back of the queue! They have had a quick look and are saying it's a 'communications problem, possibly caused by water ingress'. Have done some more digging on here and the load signal cable keeps coming up, often sheared by hitting potholes (yep, do lots of that!) or water getting in. Could it be that?

Lots of posts saying that if it is the load signal cable the battery won't charge below 2000rpm, which would explain why I get the problem when it's cold but it was OK on my run back from Liverpool to Cov (mainly at +2000rpm).

There is one simple way to test that, if you have that problem the battery light doesn't come up when you turn the key without starting the car. If it's ok then the light should appear and go away after you start the car.
It also throws an error you can check with vcds.

 

[VeeFource]

There is one simple way to test that, if you have that problem the battery light doesn't come up when you turn the key without starting the car. If it's ok then the light should appear and go away after you start the car.
It also throws an error you can check with vcds.

That would depend on whether it was an intermittent fault or not I'd have thought. If a wire's insulation's worn but the wire hasn't severed it may be behaving itself for now

 

[gray1978]

Some weird news from the garage tonight. They're trying to find the fault and need to get at the ECU but have found that there is some sort of security cage around it and they will have to chisel it off!!! Very strange, anyone ever heard of this? He says it must be some sort of security thing maybe in response to ECUs being nicked in the past?

I suppose this is one of the problems with used cars, you don't know the history.

Anyway, the saga continues :-(

 

[dm222]

Some weird news from the garage tonight. They're trying to find the fault and need to get at the ECU but have found that there is some sort of security cage around it and they will have to chisel it off!!! Very strange, anyone ever heard of this? He says it must be some sort of security thing maybe in response to ECUs being nicked in the past?

I suppose this is one of the problems with used cars, you don't know the history.

Anyway, the saga continues :-(

Do the test I said above... if it is that you just need to fix the wiring, although I think that problem is more frequent in the 6L's

 

[RUM4MO]

Some weird news from the garage tonight. They're trying to find the fault and need to get at the ECU but have found that there is some sort of security cage around it and they will have to chisel it off!!! Very strange, anyone ever heard of this? He says it must be some sort of security thing maybe in response to ECUs being nicked in the past?

I suppose this is one of the problems with used cars, you don't know the history.

Anyway, the saga continues :-(

Yes VAG have used shear screws to secure the cover for the engine ECU for a while, I don't know if they are still using that on new cars, can't remember!

 

[gray1978]

Yes VAG have used shear screws to secure the cover for the engine ECU for a while, I don't know if they are still using that on new cars, can't remember!

Cheers, the garage said it was the first time they'd seen it. No doubt chiselling the buggers off contributed to my £170 labour bill.

 

[gray1978]

All sorted, a pipe near the air intake rubbing through a wire. The same garage replaced the airflow meter back in November, wondered if the two could be related but life's too short to argue about these things!

£170, guess it took them a while to find the problem.

My little Ibiza owes me a good 12 months of problem free motoring now.

 

[VeeFource]

Propane94 mentioned wires rubbing together by the air box in the 2nd post of this thread, could this be a common fault?

If so could anyone kindly do some pics so we know where to check?

 

[propane94]

Glad it's all sorted, seems like this could be a common issue over time and mileage. Haven't heard of it before mine but a lot of seat owners aren't on the forums anyway.

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[dm222]

What wires are those near the airbox?

 

[propane94]

I shall have a proper look tomorrow, but I think they run to some of the 12v high current fuses next to the battery. These fuses I think power systems like PAS, ABS, Glow plugs etc