VW Polo - Engine Management Warning Light

luckwudaveit

I have a 57 plate VW Polo 1.2 with about 35,000 on the clock. On Tuesday this week the Engine Management Warning Light came on so I popped into the VW dealer where I bought it from this morning. They said it would be £75 + VAT for a diagnostic check.

As I had turned up without booking they could only spare an hour on it, but couldn't diagnose the fault and they said there were "a lot of problems identified." I asked for specifics but they weren't forthcoming, other than the lambda sensor was one of the faults.. I re-booked it for Tuesday morning when they said it will need another hour's work and the price will now be £55 + VAT for each of the hours.

However, I did a few errands on the way home and miraculously, the warning lamp went off. I have just started it again and hasn't lit up again.

Any ideas on possible causes of the fault, why the lamp has suddenly gone out and on whether I should go back on Tuesday?

As an aside, I purchased extended warranty on the car (£395) which is still valid, but the garage (Arnold Clark) cannot say whether the warranty will cover it until they know the cause.

Thanks in advance for any help.

e999sam

The warning light on my Seat Ibiza(virtually the same car as a Polo) kept coming on intermittently when checked it kept coming up with different faults. This carried on for some time. Eventually the problem went away after I had to have the break light switch fixed.

motorguy

Basically the car has logged a fault when its doing its startup checks and has thrown the management light on.

If it successfully starts a predetermined amount of times without the fault reoccurring then it knocks off the management light off. This could be 10 or 20 successful starts.

I wouldnt get too hung up on it. If it reoccurs and stays on for a few days then have them have a look.

luckwudaveit

pgilc1 wrote: »

Basically the car has logged a fault when its doing its startup checks and has thrown the management light on.

If it successfully starts a predetermined amount of times without the fault reoccurring then it knocks off the management light off. This could be 10 or 20 successful starts.

Thanks. That's interesting as I did do a lot of start-ups today and its quite probably hit the pre-determined amount of times.

Still not sure whether to go back on Tuesday. I haven't paid them anything yet, so owe for today's work, albeit uncompleted work.

annie1975_2

Our management light has been on for about 3 years now. Had it in the garage,and got it all checked over. Nothing wrong anywhere,its doing no harm.

e999sam

Isn't this know an MOT failure?

annie1975_2

No. Ours has passed 3 MOTs, with the light on.

forgotmyname

I presume your last 3 MOT's were not under the new rules that started this year, And becoming even stricter later this year.

Warning lights are going to be a failure as things progress.

But things seem to change on a daily basis, When they get complaints.

Johnmcl7

The new MOT rules affect the airbag, traction control and ABS lights (although I don't think they've come into effect yet) but they don't affect the engine management light.

To the OP, I'd wait and see if the light comes on again and if it does take it to a decent independent and get them to have a proper look rather than just read error codes. The onboard diagnostics at times can be handy but at other times useless if giving erratic fault codes due to a problem somewhere else.

John

WolfSong2000

I had something similar with my 11 year old VW Polo and was told it was "faulty electrics". Garage said they "fixed it", but it comes back every now and again...I leave it a while now and it normally goes away. For the first few months I owned the car, though (I bought it second hand) literally every week/every other week *something* was going wrong with it...utterly exasperating!

luckwudaveit

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

To the OP, I'd wait and see if the light comes on again and if it does take it to a decent independent and get them to have a proper look rather than just read error codes. The onboard diagnostics at times can be handy but at other times useless if giving erratic fault codes due to a problem somewhere else.

John

I think this is the course of action I shall take. I've been out for a few trips today and no sign of the warning light.

I'll call them Tuesday morning (public holiday here on Monday) and tell them the light has gone out and I won't be bringing it back. As for the £75+VAT I owe them, I shall query it - I don't expect I shall get far.