Richmond Posted February 23, 2004 Report Posted February 23, 2004 On Sat, driving through France, the engine warning light (the yellow picture of an engine on the speedo) came on :rolleyes: and has been on ever since. The handbook says to take the car in asap; it's only flashed briefly and occasionally (under acceleration), so I continued to drive it (the handbook says that if it flashes, you have to reduce speed and take it in immediately) :o . The engine sounds to be missing on one cylinder. It sounds much worse at low revs than at high. Acceleration is down and it pulls not at all. It motors along happily (if a bit roughly) at 80 once it's got there. The light came on just after I'd removed snow chains (Spider Spikes, which don't go round the 'back' of the wheels, not conventional chains), which cannot have anything to do with it (?) and the rear washer is being weedy (could a leak from the washer pipe have knackered some crucial bit of electronic control circuitry?). The car is off to the dealer asap for a bit of diagnostics, but any suggestions as to the cause of or solution to the problem gratefully received; I hate being wholly in the hands of a dealer. Quote
Ivor_E_Tower Posted February 23, 2004 Report Posted February 23, 2004 Did it come on 3 times by any chance ;) Quote
seatkid Posted February 23, 2004 Report Posted February 23, 2004 ;) hehe nice one Ivor.. Remember reading somewhere that misfires can trigger this (emission monitoring software in the ECU) Weedy rear washer = leaking under carpet pipe!!! Maybe a damp ECU if its one that under the seats. It probably froze and came apart like mine did a few years back. Serves you right for going on exotic holidays (just jealous). Quote
Guest nimrod Posted February 23, 2004 Report Posted February 23, 2004 misfireing loss of power! I'd hazard a guess and say coil pack failure! due to the misfire unburnt fuel is being passed through the exhaust system and being picked up by the lambda sensor! the sensors saying that the engine is running very rich and is showing this up as fault? do a google search on the VW newsgroups for coil pack failure's, it was a regular feature on there! contant use of the car with this problem can cause premature cat failure! Quote
seatkid Posted February 23, 2004 Report Posted February 23, 2004 see here for reasons why the light comes on. (then search for MI lamp) Quote
Richmond Posted March 5, 2004 Author Report Posted March 5, 2004 Turned out to be a coil problem. The mechanic who looked at it with me told me that there is one coil for each plug on the V6, which seems a bit excessive. The bloke who reported after running the diagnostics said that the 'coil pack' had failed, and that there is one per bank of cylinders, ie 2. The rear washer is working now, must have been frozen. The mech told me that on my Galaxy, the rear washer pipe runs through the roof lining, so leakage will not affect any electronics under the seats, which is apparently the locking/alarm unit only, the engine management kit is behind the dash area. It was fixed under warranty. I hope it's not going to be a regular occurence; if there are six coils, it probably will be. The dealer did not have a coil in, had to order one, which I think odd. Otherwise, the service was excellent (Dagenham Motors, Hounslow). Quote
Dave-G Posted March 5, 2004 Report Posted March 5, 2004 "the rear washer pipe runs through the roof lining" eh? Quote
Guest nimrod Posted March 5, 2004 Report Posted March 5, 2004 The rear washer is working now, must have been frozen. The mech told me that on my Galaxy, the rear washer pipe runs through the roof lining, so leakage will not affect any electronics under the seats, which is apparently the locking/alarm unit only, the engine management kit is behind the dash area. it may run through the head lining when it gets near to the rear hatch but it runs along the passenger side of the car in the inner sill panel along side the wiring loom, if you remove the plastic trim cover that runs along side the foot well its under there as far as i'm aware the coil packs on the V6 are one per cylinder on the later models, a coil pack/distributor on the early models and one per two cylinders on the 2.3 Quote
Richmond Posted March 5, 2004 Author Report Posted March 5, 2004 That's what I thought, about both for washer and the coils, following what I've read here. There certainly appears to be 1 coil/plug (why?). The 2nd mech seemed to be talking about the coil pack which Nimrod says is on older models; doesn't give one a lot of confidence, does it? Quote
Guest nimrod Posted March 5, 2004 Report Posted March 5, 2004 this is the old coil pack. http://chris.quietlife.net/passat/coilpack.jpg and i'm struggling to find a decent picture of the later coil pack! but will keep looking :D Quote
Taliska Posted March 5, 2004 Report Posted March 5, 2004 Hope I'm not being dim here, but VW had a hell'va problem with failing coil packs and they've had to replace loads of them. I think that they decided not to publicise the issue too much as it was too costly to replace them all under a recall so are just fixing them as they go wrong. Is this related in anyway shape or form to the above topic? Taliska Quote
Dally Posted March 5, 2004 Report Posted March 5, 2004 The current V6 variant with the 24 valve 204ps engine definitely has one coil per cylinder - 6 in total - they're called "coil on plug" The old 8 valve V6 variant had the all in one coil pack as nimrod has already stated. V6 owners - keep that extended warranty rolling! Quote
Guest nimrod Posted March 5, 2004 Report Posted March 5, 2004 The current V6 variant with the 24 valve 204ps engine definitely has one coil per cylinder - 6 in total - they're called "coil on plug" The old 8 valve V6 variant had the all in one coil pack as nimrod has already stated. V6 owners - keep that extended warranty rolling! 8 Valve V6 :D Thats 1.3333333333333333333333r Valve per cylinder more like 12 valve's :D Quote
Dally Posted March 5, 2004 Report Posted March 5, 2004 nimrod Oops! I meant 12 of course. Cheers! Quote
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