car switches off while idling

aggi

hello,

after a bit of advice before i go to garage and will be quoted hundreds of ££. i have noticed today while beeing stuck in traffic that if i leave my car iddling it starts to shake and engine goes off unless i rave it? it never happened before, it makes impossible to drive the car in traffic. gone to check the battery but been told it is fine. and now the yellow engine tap indicator came up. im driving seat cordoba 1.4 petrol 8 years old car.
any ideas?

thank you in advance

mgdavid

aggi wrote: »

....... and now the yellow engine tap indicator came up. ......

you can look that warning light up in the Owners Handbook and find out what it means.

maria777_2

i had a golf that did this..and there was a warning light came on which looked like a tap - the problem with mine was a hole in a pipe - i think it was a servo or serbo??? pipe - AA man advised that because of this hole the engine was sucking in too much air and that was upseting the balance which is why it got juddery and cut out - he put tape round the hole which lasted ages and when i finally did get it sorted - it cost about £17 for the pipe and the garage didn't charge me to fit it ..just a clip apparantly
hopefully thats your problem as easy to sort -

LewisR09

Could be a few things. I dont know much about that engine but on my old car that happened due to the idle control valve getting stuck. Also as mentioned the pipe the the MAF or MAP? cant remember the name of the sensor but if it splits it can cause erratic idle/stalling. Both were relatively cheap repairs.

forgotmyname

Has it ever been serviced?

A proper service where they actually replace parts not a kwik fit £99 special where they change the oil if your lucky and check expensive items they can change quickly and charge you £££ for.

Parents nearly took their car there, Lucky escape when i showed them the list online, Change oil and everything else was a check, Any low fluids would be charged extra to topup and if they needed to replace any other filters, plugs leads, etc all extra..

andy8442

Sounds like an early version of the Stop Start technology! Aren't you lucky.







......Sorry.

cb1979

Sounds like a split pipe, or maybe a faulty EGR valve,i had a similar problem on a 1995 passat once and it was the EGR valve
If it was mine i would take it to a Seat dealer for a diagnostic test as you have a warning light on they will be able to tell straight away whats wrong
They will know what it is then rather than a local garage guessing whats wrong

passatrider

andy8442 wrote: »

Sounds like an early version of the Stop Start technology! Aren't you lucky.







......Sorry.

That's what I was thinking!:rotfl:

Nearly_Old

It is worth checking the air inlet pipes between the MAF and the throttle body as any splits / holes do cause cutting out when idling. Quite often it is not the main pipe but some smaller offshoot that may not be immediately visible. Have you looked on a Seat owner's forum to see if others are having a similar problem? It's becoming a problem on BMW's M52 engine as the cars are now 10+ years old and there is a small pipe below the main pipe that perishes. The problem on the M52 engine is that no fault codes are generated so some people have spent £'s on new sensors, etc before the real fault was found.

Sorry but can't resist telling you this - I've been up to Scotland a few times recently and I stay in Kingskettle. The restaraunt / hotel's owner drives a 99 Seat Cordoba and he is Spanish. He was stopped on the A92 for speeding and the police saw the funny side that he drives a Cordoba, his name is Fernando Cordoba and he was born in Cordoba!

Strider590

Do the obvious stuff first, check the oil and coolant levels......

Low oil would be very bad.
Low coolant would cause serious over heating.
Both could cause your problem.....

Failing that i'd be looking at the idle control valve, then the MAF/MAP sensor, followed by the lambda sensor.

Turn the radio off, listen for strange noises (the ones you might have tried to drown out with the radio 6 months ago).

Which light is coming on?

newbutold

I had a similar problem and it turned out to be a faulty spark plug. I guess it could be many different things causing it. Are you a member of the AA or Rac, maybe you could call them out?