Damper failure - Related to tyre pressure?

[j.owen]

Driving to work this morning my tyre pressure warning light came on, when I got to work I inspected the tyre and couldn't see anything visibly wrong with it or noticeable deflation. Checked again before leaving work, on the way home I got a "damper failure" message come up on the screen.

Is it possible that this is as a result of the tyre pressure being off? I've set all of my tyres to the manufacturers stated PSI and reset. The damper failure issue didn't reappear on the drive back from the petrol station.

I was suspicious that it was related as it would've been too much of a coincidence otherwise. However, I'm a novice when it comes to anything mechanical/maintenance wise.

Any help/info would be appreciated.


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[RUM4MO]

I have had my first tyre pressure warning from my wife's August 2015 Polo, all I could find out was the tyre that caused the warning, left front low pressure, was 0.5PSI lower than the right front tyre! Now, I can't help but think that what I have had was just an error message and not a true detection of a single tyre pressure being low. That was with my winter wheels still on the car, I would have reset the system when I fitted them on 1/11/16 - but did the system take on the new values?
So, maybe you have had a similar duff warning message.

 

[j.owen]

I have had my first tyre pressure warning from my wife's August 2015 Polo, all I could find out was the tyre that caused the warning, left front low pressure, was 0.5PSI lower than the right front tyre! Now, I can't help but think that what I have had was just an error message and not a true detection of a single tyre pressure being low. That was with my winter wheels still on the car, I would have reset the system when I fitted them on 1/11/16 - but did the system take on the new values?
So, maybe you have had a similar duff warning message.

I'm hoping so, had a simiilar phantom tyre pressure issue with my old Ibiza FR. Just never had any warning messages in relation to dampers so it worried me a bit. Do you think it could've triggered the sensor as a result of the tyre pressure being incorrect?

Either way... It hasn't reappeared from 40 miles of driving so I'm hoping it'll stay that way!

 

[RUM4MO]

I get the feeling that VW group, and maybe other car builders, are just enabling the early detection of possible faults, which is a good thing, but using rough and ready ways of detecting these maybe faults.
I do know that all modern or recently updated VW group cars, if detecting a low priority fault, will only hold that fault in memory for a relatively short period of time - maybe "x" days or "y" engine starts with no recurrence, then clear the logged fault. I've had that twice with this Polo, both were faults that would not bring on a warning light or issue a message - first one was "radio on/off switch faulty intermittent" and the other was "AC compressor control S/C to ground intermittent" when I next scanned that car, in both cases these faults had vanished!
I just wonder if this is a similar thing, ie fault locating system failure - or generally poor bus comms?

 

[j.owen]

It's been about 300 miles without the error re-occuring however this morning on my commute I went over a particularly harsh bit of road (around 30mph) and the damper failure error came back to life.

Tried letting the car sit for a bit this morning and restarting and the error came back. I don't think it's as a result of the tyre pressure this time, think I'll need to get it booked in. From my simple tests (pushing down each corner of the car) I can't see or feel anything noticeably out of place. Will do this more thoroughly when I get home and check for any leaks.

Could anyone shed some light on this please? The car is 6 months old with 2.3k miles on it.

 

[RUM4MO]

I'd agree with your idea of booking that car in to your SEAT dealer, happening twice with not too many miles between after you have had this car running fault free for roughly 6 months, does sound like there is a genuine issue/problem/failure that needs resolved.

The fact that it has "returned/repeated" this fault should mean that your dealer will/can not fob you off with no fault found (NFF) "just bring it back in if it happens again"!

 

[j.owen]

I'd agree with your idea of booking that car in to your SEAT dealer, happening twice with not too many miles between after you have had this car running fault free for roughly 6 months, does sound like there is a genuine issue/problem/failure that needs resolved.

The fact that it has "returned/repeated" this fault should mean that your dealer will/can not fob you off with no fault found (NFF) "just bring it back in if it happens again"!

I have booked it in for Monday next week, just gunna struggle getting to/from work - I've only had the car 3 weeks, it was an ex-demo for the previous 6 months

 

[Sonofzelda]

Any news? I can't hold my breath much longer!

 

[j.owen]

Any news? I can't hold my breath much longer!

I reset the tyre pressure again which in turn resets the damper failure warning, drive another 600 miles or so without it reappearing and no signs of any damper failure

 

[Sonofzelda]

Thanks for the update. The air is sweet.

 

[RUM4MO]

Prior to you resetting the TPS are you checking the latest tyre pressures, ie are you finding any reason for the TPS to be alarming and maybe issuing a damper issue?

If you are not finding any real world tyre pressure changing issues, then if I were you, I'd still talk to your dealer about this and report exactly what you have been finding and how you have been resolving it short term - time will run out for them to be properly interested in this possible fault, as they should be as you have only recently bought it, I'd be using that reason instead of hoping the SEAT car warranty will "see you okay" in this sort of fault.

Working round losing the use of the car is always going to be a pain in the bum, but as you have only recently bought it they should be handing over a loaner car while your one is in for investigation.

 

[j.owen]

Just to give an update on the situation:

After covering another 1000 miles without any error message last weekend it starting appearing randomly and frequently (5 times in 2 days), I called the SEAT Driver Assistance (recommended to do so by my local dealer), the SEAT Assist guy told me that the car is mechanically sound and is safe to drive and agreed with me that it seems like a electronic/sensor issue. He also told me to book it in ASAP.

So today I've just come back from the dealer and they have concluded it is a problem with the Control Unit, specifically the component which controls the Adaptive Suspension. They've ordered the part and I'm going black on Friday to have it fitted, an expensive part too apparently however no fuss on their behalf, good service despite IMG SEAT only being a small branch.

 

[RUM4MO]

Good enough, yes all these control modules are a bit expensive, good to hear that they have trusted their VW Group diagnostic equipment and that it is suggesting "replace control module".

I had an ABS on my brilliant 1991 VX Cav GSI 4X4 2000 early on in its life and it took four dealer workshop visits to get to the bottom of things, even I said that I had proved it was the (expensive) ABS controller, they replaced front sensor, then both front sensors, then both rear sensors before they had to admit what I, basically a logical thinking test engineer, was telling them - experts - not! What really annoyed me in that case was, the ABS reported being faulty to me within 50 yards of that dealer's workshop each time after I collected the "fixed and road tested by the service manager car" and it was winter exactly when you might need ABS to work!