Engine EPC and Electric Diagnostic Lights & 'Silent' Stalling

[jamiecreek]

Hi everyone,

I would really appreciate some advice from you all.

I have a 2002 (52) Ibiza 1.4 Sport (100bph), and have some issues with it.

Background:
Since day 1 it has occasionally thrown up an EPC warning light, followed by an engine electrics light. They would go away after a day and not return for several months. I had the logs read by a Seat dealer during a service and they said it had shown an intermittent Lambda filter error, and that it would cost £240+ to fit a new one. I passed.

Over the last month, this has become an every day occurrence. The EPC light will come on seemingly as I just try to pull away from stationary. The car sometimes (half the time) notably stutters when this happens, then pulls away normally. If I restart the engine, most times the EPC light will go off, but the engine light will stay on.

Then, more weirdly, the car has started occasionally stalling at random. No judder, no rough idling, I'll be slowing down towards a roundabout or into traffic, and whilst idling (coasting on the clutch) as I slow down, I'll notice the battery light come on, and the power drop out. Once, the battery light came on, but I was able to rev the engine up and it recovered - the battery light then went out. Mostly, I need to restart the engine though.

I took it to a garage called Vee Ws for its annual service yesterday and asked them to look into it as well. They went with a cautious (on my finances) approach, and said they'd do the full service and that hopefully that on its own might rectify some of the issues. After the service, they said the logs showed some intermittent issues but nothing serious. They reset the onboard computer to its basic/default settings and said they hoped that would sort it. They also said they noticed the throttle body was pretty dirty (done 71,000 miles), and that if the service doesn't sort it, that they would try to clean that up and see if it did the job.

Anyway, 10 minutes after I pulled away from the garage, the lights came back on and today the stalling re-occured.

I feel like this could turn into one of those 'wild goose chases' where its a case of trial and error, replacing different parts to see if it works. This scares me greatly!

Has anyone experienced any similar symptoms, or would anyone recommend going to a proper Seat Dealership/Services team to take a look? I wonder if maybe they may be more likely to find the underlying fault?

Having said that, I've always found Vee Ws in Bristol competent and most importantly, cost-effective. It may be possible to ask them to try and source used-parts while they try different 'fixes'..

Thanks for any advice you all can give.

Jamie

 

[RUM4MO]

So, did your service place then clean up the throttle body and carry out adaption? If not then that needs doing as a first try to sort this out. BTW, EPC is something in German that equates to "Electronic Power Control" - which means "drive by wire" - ie the throttle (body)opening is controlled by a remote controller not a cable attached to the throttle pedal - which still points to the throttle body needing attention.

I'd doubt if the emmissions light problem will stay away - in fact it will probably only get worse and when that happens the probe will need changed - did the service place tell you which probe was logging faults? At this age I'd thnk that it would be S1 - the one fitted into the "manu-cat".

 

[jamiecreek]

Thanks for your explanation of the car system - sounds like the throttle body is a fairly logical/likely fault location then.

The garage felt it would be better to see whether the full service sorted it out before paying for additional labour to clean up the throttle body, so as yet, it hasn't been cleaned up.

As for the emissions light - I'm not quite sure what you mean? The dashboard warning lights have always been the same 2 - the EPC and the Engine Electrical Fault lights.

The first time those 2 lights came on, the Seat Dealers said it was a faulty Lambda Sensor. This was about 4 years ago. I opted to leave it as I didn't have the dosh then to pay what they quoted.

Just this last month they've started coming on frequently, and the stalling has started.

I guess its possible that the current, frequent fault is the throttle body, and the infrequent fault may well still come back (ie the lambda sensor issue).

Anyway, thanks again - I have this fear that this issue could be one of those black holes for my money.. trying different solutions at much cost, until its fixed.

 

[hazel69]

hello there i have a seat ibiza 1.2 2001 model and all of a sudeen its doing teh same cutting out for a couple of seconds and then i get power back or if i drop it a gear it starts up again. this has been happening for 2 days untill today the epc light came on. have no idea what to do or what has caused this any ideas???? x

 

[jamiecreek]

I get the impression the EPC light is a bit like Windows old 'Illegal Operation' error. Its perhaps a catch-all diagnostic light that needs proper equipment to debug.

As it happens, my car's in the garage as I type, being sorted out.

Having reset the error logs at the service a couple of months ago, I finally got the money together to get it all sorted. They checked the logs and it was full of lambda probe errors, so they're changing that. They also said the throttle body was really gunked up, so they're dismantling that and cleaning it up.

Should be ready later today, costing just under £200.

 

[wogga]

hello there i have a seat ibiza 1.2 2001 model and all of a sudeen its doing teh same cutting out for a couple of seconds and then i get power back or if i drop it a gear it starts up again. this has been happening for 2 days untill today the epc light came on. have no idea what to do or what has caused this any ideas???? x

Hi i also own an ibza that hs started with similar probs. Been to garage 3 times not yet fixed. Will not idle and drops revs trys to cut out.been on diognostic problem with manifold absolute pressure still not sure whats causing this will let you know if we ever get to botom of this.

 

[superkully]

I had the EPC light come on this week (1.2 12v AZQ, 2003). The EPC light was on and the engine would lose power but not stall, letting go of the pedal and pressing it again worked or as previously mentioned, dropping a gear and then back up.

And I searched to find a solution.

Before I ordered a new accelerator pedal assembly (~£85), I thought I'd try and check if it was the pedal potentiometer and whether I could just replace that - that was fine.

Checking out the rest of the system I noticed both filament-bulb brake lights had blown.

Replaced and all is good. EPC light is out and no more power loss. I hope this helps someone before they get done in by their smiling local stealers.

Check your brake lights - make sure the contacts are clean (I have an early-ish car and the contacts needed a rub down).

 

[rick cupra tdi]

ive got the same problem one day both lights are on shudders but some days its fine brake lights work fuel filter changed any one kno please helf its on a ibiza cupra pd160

 

[kanishka14]

I drive an 04 Ibiza and I had the same issue as the original poster. I cleaned the throttle butterfly valve with some air intake and carburetor cleaner. Just took the engine cover off and sprayed a generous amount into the butterfly valve, let it soak and cleaned as best I could with some paper towels. I repeated this a couple of times and the issue seems to have gone away with this fix. Hopefully it will work for others with the same issue.

 

[Guncha]

I had the same problem - EPC, CEL and stalling. No problems with brake lights
1. Replaced MAP sensor (expensive) didnt solve the problem
2. Brake pedal sensor (cheap) didnt solve the problem
3. Cleaned throttle and made adaptation - (cheap) solved problem. I am driving without stalling for 2 months Fingers crossed

 

[Martyn27]

I have a similar problem. I noticed my engine light come on and popped it into garage. They said it was a Lambda filter and quoted me £110. I passed. As I was driving away the EPC light came on. I turned back and said it could of been due to unplugging the equipment impropperly and reset it, although it came on again.

I am going back tomorrow to get a Brake pedal sensor which I was quoted £30-£40 for. Is this not likely to fix my problem, based on above?

 

[codename8ball]

Hi all, having the same problem, the seat garage are saying it may be the cam belt? My garage had already replaced the brake switch cable and the map sensor...

If anyone knows what this actually is it'd be good to know as I reckon it's likely to start getting expensive pretty soon!

 

[Martyn27]

Hi all, having the same problem, the seat garage are saying it may be the cam belt? My garage had already replaced the brake switch cable and the map sensor...

If anyone knows what this actually is it'd be good to know as I reckon it's likely to start getting expensive pretty soon!

I never found out. Both my Engine light and EPC light went off again a month ago and haven't came back on.

 

[codename8ball]

Thanks for the update. Mine previously went off for a month or two, but then came back with a vengeance... Ended up in limp mode on the m62 the other week! Hopefully yours will be kinder.

I'll post back if I get anywhere with it, otherwise it might be a webuyanycar.com job!

 

[codename8ball]

Just as an update, the issue on mine seems to have been the throttle body - garage charged me £40 for the fix and it's running fine ever since.

 

[Guncha]

Just as an update, the issue on mine seems to have been the throttle body - garage charged me £40 for the fix and it's running fine ever since.

Thats fine!
Take off engine cover, then undo 4 bolts.
Wash all carbon out of throttle body and change the seal.
40 quid its ok