Emissions Light

[DaveI]

My emissions light came on yesterday (little yellow engine shaped fella) dropped it into the garage today and have been told that the software has been upgraded and it's something to do with the DPF.

Anyone know what it's to do with the DPF and why this software upgrade was not applied last week when the car was in for a service!?

 

[Carnivor]

its seat's way of detuning the car so you dont clog the dpf quite so quickly.

My FR went bang Wednesday!

DPF light came on, doing the usual drill, nice a-road at 1750 rpm around 50 mph in 4th, 20 min's all good again for another 3 months, or so i thought but this time it just wouldn't clear! THEN coil light starts flashing, DPF light on and Exhaust Emissions come on, glad seat-belts were invented and nobody went up my arse as the car engine braked from 50 to 30 and a total loss of power, only the first 25% of the pedal did anything, couldn't get revv's above 2500rpm, limped it home.

called dealer, they said to try the recovery again, tried for an hour on a nice constant 50mph a road, (it usually does the trick in normal conditions), nothing....dealers collected the thing with a tow truck yesterday morning.

Got a call today, they are having problems trying to manually regenerate it, and have tried some sort of software update but its still not clearing.

I have no courtesy car, and am basically f%£k'd work wise.

As i've had it since launch day, a shade over 2 years now, there is no question it has failed on driving styles, i've never gone to them before with this issue, but week 3ish I did have the sensor fail and have to be replaced, but I read the manual and have been good to action the regen when the normal dpf light comes on.

Fingers crossed i get the car back soon, my "off sick" approach to work will run out and start costing me there aswell.

If you get your's back before i get mine back, lemme know if you have less power now!!

 

[JonoUK]

My light came on once, then didn't come on again, when it was in for its service about 500 miles later they said it was a pressure sensor that had gone a bit screwy, so they replaced it under warranty.

 

[Tam]

That all sounds rather strange Carnivor ... mine did the same thing a few months ago now (January??)

Wouldn't rev past 3,000 and no turbo boost at all ,.... but it still drove around ok once it got going ... 80mph downhill on a motorway .. 60mph uphill .. sure had no where near the ammount of power that it should have but was still usable if you were careful.

I had a busy week so couldn't spare the time going to the garage, so ended up doing about 650 miles in it before i took it into the dealer ...

DPF regeneration later and all was fine again


The DPF software upgrade AFAIK is just to make the regen process start sooner, therefore providing more time to resolve before going into limp.


FWIW - I find the easiest way to clear the DPF is to drive on a motorway ... 3rd gear, 4,000rpm ... cruise control on .. 65mph (ish) takes about 5 mins to clear.

 

[Jace]

they said it was a pressure sensor that had gone a bit screwy, so they replaced it under warranty.

Mine went a few weeks back @ just over 19,000 miles, all sorted under warranty.

I do 95% m'way driving too, so it regens quite well.

 

[Michael B]

its seat's way of detuning the car so you dont clog the dpf quite so quickly.

My FR went bang Wednesday!

DPF light came on, doing the usual drill, nice a-road at 1750 rpm around 50 mph in 4th, 20 min's all good again for another 3 months, or so i thought but this time it just wouldn't clear! THEN coil light starts flashing, DPF light on and Exhaust Emissions come on, glad seat-belts were invented and nobody went up my arse as the car engine braked from 50 to 30 and a total loss of power, only the first 25% of the pedal did anything, couldn't get revv's above 2500rpm, limped it home.

called dealer, they said to try the recovery again, tried for an hour on a nice constant 50mph a road, (it usually does the trick in normal conditions), nothing....dealers collected the thing with a tow truck yesterday morning.

Got a call today, they are having problems trying to manually regenerate it, and have tried some sort of software update but its still not clearing.

I have no courtesy car, and am basically f%£k'd work wise.

As i've had it since launch day, a shade over 2 years now, there is no question it has failed on driving styles, i've never gone to them before with this issue, but week 3ish I did have the sensor fail and have to be replaced, but I read the manual and have been good to action the regen when the normal dpf light comes on.

Fingers crossed i get the car back soon, my "off sick" approach to work will run out and start costing me there aswell.

If you get your's back before i get mine back, lemme know if you have less power now!!

Surely if theres a fault with the car, under warranty, they are obliged to give you a courtesy car?

 

[DaveI]

Found the workshop report in the car the other day, it said the fault had been caused by "unsuitable driving style (city driving and short trips)"

What a load of b0llocks, i've done nearly 22k in 10 months mostly motorway! Why can't they just be honest and say it was faulty instead of trying to put the blame on my driving style?

 

[SpursMadDave]

Surely if theres a fault with the car, under warranty, they are obliged to give you a courtesy car?

I was just going to say the same thing, but i think the phrase "a shade over 2 years" is maybe significant.....

 

[Carnivor]

Quick update:

still in the dealers but they have confirmed that the dpf is fine, they were able to bypass the sensors and the car started in normal mode, but after a bit of driving limp mode kicked back in due to the lack of sensor readings, they say its either the back pressure sensor failing or an emissions ecu, not to be confused with the main ecu apparently.

As for the courtesy car, apparently its that way as its tied in with the 2yr roadside cover, but the dealer has promised we'll have "a" car middle of next week, as we have some long journeys we can't avoid ( 60th wedding anniversary, which we will be disowned by the family if we dont attend)

When this thing is back on the road its going to be sold. in the last 2 yrs, its been in the dealers for a combined 6 weeks now, not very acceptable, and as we only have 1 car between me and the wife we need something that can be trusted a little more.

Im currently using my 125 scooter, that to date hasn't broken down from new, now just starting its 2nd year of running.

 

[Goose17]

Fr 550

Coil and emissions lights came on today. Done only 5500 miles since April, how do i fix this myself. Going on a driving holiday today but the garage want it on wednesday?

 

[SpursMadDave]

Coil and emissions lights came on today. Done only 5500 miles since April, how do i fix this myself. Going on a driving holiday today but the garage want it on wednesday?

Have you tried doing 50mph in 3rd gear for a few miles? Ive had both lights once, but was at different times... and flooring it sorted it out both times...

 

[jtr]

I have had the glow plug light come on flashing and won't go off twice this week with the loss of power and into limp mode. Got it to the dealer who said it was likly to be DPF, the car is an 08 with just over 6k on and mostly A roads and motorway driving.

Anyway after having it for a day comes back with nothing the matter and to monitor it. I though these so called super computer recorded everything - guess the one in mine doesn't.

I am not sure if it has anything to do with DPF as it kept losing power when only a week or so old and was told it had the wrong software on!!!

I was also given a Seat leaflet that basically said if you do not follow instructions when the DPF light comes on that they may charge you for a replacement DPF?!?!

 

[flashp]

Did you buy the car from them?
I got mine from a local dealer and I never even saw the leaflet till I downloaded it from a user on the Audi-sport forum. Same as the one to be found here. Not even a conversation about the DPF with the dealer when we bought it
I've had the car 35 days and frankly I'm getting very nervous about all this as I don't alot of the driving that the leaflet suggests I should be. Covered 950 miles so far with no warning lights.
I've suggested to the dealer that, based on sensible interpretation of said leaflet, maybe I should be driving a petrol version, they are getting back to me next week when the sales person who sold us the car is in the office. They are also going to speak to the service manager.

Best of luck to all those awaiting progress on repairs and diagnosis.

 

[SpursMadDave]

Did you buy the car from them?
I got mine from a local dealer and I never even saw the leaflet till I downloaded it from a user on the Audi-sport forum. Same as the one to be found here. Not even a conversation about the DPF with the dealer when we bought it
I've had the car 35 days and frankly I'm getting very nervous about all this as I don't alot of the driving that the leaflet suggests I should be. Covered 950 miles so far with no warning lights.
I've suggested to the dealer that, based on sensible interpretation of said leaflet, maybe I should be driving a petrol version, they are getting back to me next week when the sales person who sold us the car is in the office. They are also going to speak to the service manager.

Best of luck to all those awaiting progress on repairs and diagnosis.

If you have done close to 1,000 miles in just over a month then unless you do 10+ short tips a day you should be ok i think.

Yes there are some bad bad stories of experiences on here but if you look at the poll about DPF very few % wise really... and 1,000 miles in petrol would be about £200+, 1,000 miles in diesel is about £130.... your choice at the end of the day m8

 

[Carnivor]

Well good news, just had a call from dealer and car is ready to collect, it was the ecu that had failed, and done under warranty. My assumption... sometimes the dpf cant always be blamed!!!

 

[Carnivor]

I said well good news, well, down hill, i think they swapped the ecu for a rattle unit its like being in a can with some dried pea's, and they've failed to give the car back with the engine cover on it, back once again to seat it goes...no doubt i'll find more things different (wrong) with it

 

[Yorki]

Just got home today after a week in North Wales around Porthmadog and was interested to read this thread.

Monday DPF light comes on , Car 6 weeks old 2k on clock. This was the second time it had come on since owning car. Most of my miles are done on the motorway on my daily 45 commute certainly not local short journeys.
Tried to get the light off but no good roads in the area and weather terrible.
Wednesday 30 miles after light came on , glow plug light flashes followed by engine management light car drops into safe mode.
Ran my supply dealer who put me in contact with the local dealer in North Wales. They couldn't get it to regenerate after resetting ECU. They fitted a new DPF filter and it still wouldn't reset light on dash. Seat wanted dealer to charge me for filter till I explained my usual driving style. It looked like an ECU fault but dealer couldn't get seat to commit to replacing ECU although they told them I was on holiday and 150 miles from home. I was also led to believe that there isn't any ECU's in the country and a 3 week lead time.
Dealer did various checks and reset but no joy until they used the volkswagen computer as they are also VW dealers. The VW computer has different software which worked. I'm now mobile again.

On a side note the dealer was very reluctant to lend my one of his loan cars for3 weeks to take such a long distance. Seat would not supply a loan car and would be happy to let me and my family go home on the train whilst my 6 week old car with only 2 thousand miles on the clock sat in his garage waiting for parts.
I think the dealer did everything he could and drppped other jobs to sort considering that they don't get the full rate for warranty work ,but Seat customer service was non existance. I now have a very bad feeling about my Seat experience and was considering replacing my wifes car for a new Ibiza . I don't think so.

 

[furry td ice]

The day after my FR 30k service the emissions light came on. Drove to garage who 'replaced exhaust gas sensor' same day. All OK since. Two weeks later exactly the same thing happened to our 2.0 tdi 140 VW just days after its 40k service. Today the VW lost all power on acceleration. I stopped, turned off then back on again and was back to normal. Will monitor but bizarre that both emission lights appeared within days of main dealer servicing - I suspected something to do with the oil change ???

 

[Geordie]

DPF Light

Hi
Am a first time user, and have joined as need some advice.
Car -Leon FR170
Whilst driving down a dual carriageway at approx 60mph, the DPF light came on the dash. Have never seen this one before, car was driving fine and as i was 10 min from destination i continued driving. Later i checked the manual which gave me a solution, and i quote - " drive the vehicle at a constant speed of at least 60km/h engine speed of about 1400rpm for about 10min". Seems to me to be to be labouring the engine??!!
I tried this on the way home later in the day, and i subsequently got 2 more orange lamps come on - the glow plug flashing and the emission control system light on constant. The car was still driving ok tho i noticed some loss of acceleration. I'd had this problem a year earlier when the glow plug lamp had come on and a sensor had needed changing in the exhaust system, so was not overly worried as had been told then car was ok to drive by Seat service.
As i was 10 min from home i continued the journey and contacted the service centre the next morning. AA were called and subsequently car was towed to authorized service centre. It turned out the DPF was blocked due to continuing driving and could not be cleared therefore needed replacing, and here's the thing not under warranty!
Best part of £1400 to replace!!!

My issues are -
Firstly i didn't even know i had a DPF. With something so need of care should i not have been pre-warned by Seat?
My driving is almost all motorway and have done 40k in 22 months and rarely do many short trips.
Reading up on the forum it seems that this filter may need regular clearing by driving at high revs - this has never been mentioned to me at any of my services by Seat main dealers.
If clearing is required at high revs, why does my manual state 60km/h at 1400 rpm?!!
All the directions in the manual state to drive the car to the nearest service centre when any of those 3 lights come on - nothing about stopping for assistance. Garage that has car tells me if more than one light comes on manual tells me to stop -have looked but think not!!
There were no red warning lights or any message in the display panel.
Why does a car still so young need such an expensive part replacing?
If anyone has had similar experience and dealings with this matter with Seat UK would be good to hear from you.
Guess i'll have to pay for repair then take up with Seat afterwards, getting service centre to do me a goodwill form.
This is 3rd new Leon i've had and regard myself as a good customer of theirs, but this seems crazy!!
Thanks in advance
DaveP

 

[Tam]

The car came with a manual yes?

And you read the manual so you knew the specifics of the car yes?

Whats the problem then?

FWIW - i've done over 500 miles in "limp" mode, and the DPF was still able to be re-generated by the garage... perhaps i was just lucky.

p.s. I believe the manual says over 2000 rpm as well .. which if you were only at 1,400 is likely to be why you've had to buy a replacement part.


Lesson learnt i assume, read the manual next time before driving a new vehicle.