1.4 Diesel - Nearing 100,000 2009 - ECS, GP, Battery drain...

[Seiv]

Hi all,

Apologies if there are similar threads ongoing, I'm a newbie and I can't figure out how to search this forum for thread topics.

My July 09 registered S.I 1.4 Diesel car is playing me up. Various issues as below:

Glow plug flashing
Emission control system light flashing
Battery drainage

Could all be unrelated and separate issues but the battery drainage & glow plug flashing is a recurring issue, but only intermittent occasions when it flashes. Sometimes it just stops.

Also when I turn over the key without starting the engine, there is a emission control system and alternator warning light, but it clears when I start the engine... I'm not sure if this is normal?

When the car drives, she drives with no faults or issues. The issues come from wet/cold/windy starts, when the car has been sat in the drive for more than 3 days. I've had two flat batteries in 3 months.

Luckily when I have had the faults I have not needed the car for my job. However, I deliver training across a vast geographic area, which means 5am-6am starts and 100-250 mile round trips to deliver training to paying customers. If i can't get my car to start, a whole training event for my company would be cancelled, which could cause me some tricky employment issues with my boss! So you can imagine why I'm anxious to be pro-active and prevent issues getting worse.

I've just replaced the battery again, garage reckoned it was a fault with the new battery but i'm not convinced!

Also if it is just the weather, the miles I'm doing (I've done 6,000 miles in 3 months, mostly motorway driving) that's cool, I'll then just have to weigh up whether its worth having the risk of an unreliable car for the job I do!

I hope to hear your views, expertise and suggestions. I've booked her in for a 100,000 service and hoping to make a list of things for the mechanic to check, so any suggestions on this would be extremely welcome. Thanks in advance. S

 

[RUM4MO]

Trouble with this sort of problem, a proper SEAT garage would need to check that all the modules S/W is up to date, then check for any logged faults, then if okay, start running a battery drain test over night a few times to quantify what drain level there is.

Now I did not know that this issue was relevant to a TDI car, but a few 2009ish reg'd/built Ibiza SC with the 1.4 16V 86PS engine, did end up having duff/bad/wrong S/W in module j519 which is the BCM, this module controls power source shut down when the car has been stopped, as you can see, any issues with the j519 module can cause the battery to run flat. I had that issue and first SEAT dealer ignored that being a possibility, charged me big money to replace the steering angle module under the steering wheel - and the car continues to flatten its battery, eventually maybe 9 months later I took it to another SEAT dealer who had luckily had a similar issue with a 2009 Polo, so they were willing to accept that my "j519 S/W" was the problem, so a tech support task was raised by their master tech, an answer came back directing them to the code of the required patch, patch applied, problem solved.

Please note, as I have indicated above, if there is no other fault(s) present, getting this one sorted out can take some time and a stubborn attitude by you!

Edit:- and before you ask "can they not check to see if this j519 S/W fix has been applied?" - the answer seems to be NO!

 

[Seiv]

Hi Rum4Mo - thanks so much for taking time to respond to my message. I'm not au faix with the lingo. What does S/W in module J519 mean? Software? And what is BCM? Computer?

I googled around and found in Honest John some software update might fit with the batt drainage (referred to as parasitic drainage?). I was surprised the mechanic didn't take me seriously when I relayed this to him, and didn't want to book me in.

A stubborn woman telling a qualified mechanic his fix/diagnosis might be wrong, sounds like a tough road ahead!

I currently have a charger pack in my boot for the morning troubles, but obviously a complete fix would be ideal.

 

[Maypack]

Have you booked into a SEAT dealer for the work or an independent?

I’m not saying SEAT Dealers Service is better than independent (as there are some very good independent garages out there) but SEAT may be your best choice for the version J519 software (S/W) fix.

 

[Legojon]

Just my 5p worth. If the alternator warning light is staying on longer than it should, has the alternator been tested? If a new battery isn't being fully recharged, it can easily kill it in a matter of months. So I'd be testing and if necessary replacing the alternator first. If you have / know how to use a multimeter, you can test it yourself (should be 14v+).

 

[RUM4MO]

j519 is the VW Group circuit reference for the BCM, this BCM is the Body Control Module, one of its tasks is to progressively shut down or isolate certain power users that are not required when the car is not being used. This job needs doing to minimise the current drain from the battery and so avoid it being discharged when the car is left unused for a few weeks or more.

Now if this really is the problem with this car then that is a nuisance as hopefully most affected cars were sorted out when almost new back in 2009/2010 - that did not happen with my daughter's Ibiza SC, she owned it from new and it was only in 2012/2013 that this issue reared its ugly head- of course by the time that I forced the issue successfully in late 2017, this issue had vanished from the minds and brains of most SEAT master techs and from the knowledge database that they use, so that is why they needed to raise an official technical enquiry/help with SEAT worldwide - and that found this issue that was first discovered in 2009/2010.

Dealers workshop people that are in contact with the public don't generally like any male customers telling them what might be the problem, so I can see that a female doing that is not going to go down well - but it is what it is, I just got lucky as when I approached the 2nd SEAT dealership's workshop that they had had a 2009 Polo in with that issue before I turned up with that Ibiza, without that having happened, I think that I would still be bashing my head against a brick wall with only SEAT UK to turn to - but they normally back their dealership's techs!

Don't give up, having a car that is behaving like that is worse than not having a car at all, I was lucky as that Ibiza was a spare car and I am retired so I just kept going and continued to carry out my own investigation which proved that nothing else was wrong with that car, as long as a SEAT dealership can give your car a clean bill of health as far as actual logged faults are concerned, it only leaves this J519 or BCM S/W as being the root cause of your troubles, so they should charge you for an hours diagnosis, if nothing found they should escalate this as a technical enquiry/help placed on the SEAT worldwide technical help request.

Good Luck!

You are correct this is parasitic drain, that is a test that a tech will check after confirming there is no other fault.

Edit:- I changed "VE Group" to "VW Group" - my mistake!