Exhaust Emission Warning Lamp

Sam2005

While driving our VW Polo today, Exhaust Emission Warning Lamp indicator lit up. The car was hot inside and the engine was also hot.

Please can someone advise me before I take the car to the garage for inspection. Thanks in advance.

forgotmyname

Is it the emissions light or is it the engine light? Lots of people get them mixed up.

Engine hot how high on the temperature gauge? Checked the water level?

Model, Year, Engine?

ridethelightning

Is it a diesel? with dpf? If so take it for a short blast, let the engine warm up fully then keep the revs above 2200 rpm and speed about 60mph (motorway or dual carriageway are best) for about 15 mins. This will cause the dpf to regen and clear the fault light.

High__Flyer_2

Interesting, Mine has done the same, a 56 Plate 1.2 Polo.

I called the AA and they say it's the Camshaft Position Sensor, I was told that it's an indication that the cambelt would need replaced.
This model has a chain, not a belt, after speaking to VW They said it'll be around £600 to replace the chain.

rodenal

High__Flyer wrote: »

Interesting, Mine has done the same, a 56 Plate 1.2 Polo.

I called the AA and they say it's the Camshaft Position Sensor, I was told that it's an indication that the cambelt would need replaced.
This model has a chain, not a belt, after speaking to VW They said it'll be around £600 to replace the chain.

Ehhh - what!????

Did they read the codes and then tell you the cam position sensor was duff or just decide it was the cps over the phone??

In no way shape or form does a sensor indicate the belt may need changed, only a crystal ball could tell you the cam belt was about to snap. If it's at the right age / mileage for one then that's a different matter but they should not be giving out mixed up information like that.

With regards to the emissions warning light (most likely a different light to the cps light, though some cars may just have a generic check engine) the best thing to do is have the codes read and a live diagnostic done.

Most likely culprits are lambda sensors or could be the cat or maf or anything controlling fuelling, best way to tell is check the graphs done on a run

s_b

these things stretch chains
this would put the light on as its out of mesh with the crank sensor