I have recently bought a MkIV VW Golf S (51 reg)thats done 50k miles.
About 5 minutes after leaving home today the Exhaust Emission warning light started blinking, then after a couple minutes of blinking it stayed lit up and it hasnt gone away.
Does anyone have any idea of why this would happen? The manual says that it could be something to do with a Lambda probe fault?
Is there any way I can confirm what exactly is wrong with it?
The car generally seemed to be running fine but I am a bit worried that this is going to get expensive.
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You are going to need to find someone with a scan tool to identify the code(s) that will be logged, then carry out the neccessary tests to pinpoint the problem.
Certainly the O2 sensor could be a problem area but it may not be as simple as replacing the sensor as it could be a faulty sensor earth, heater supply, heater earth or signal wire fault, so don't rely solely on fault codes for your diagnosis but, having said that, on a more cheerful note VAG are exceptionally accurate with their codes.
Andrew
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Simplicate and add lightness!!
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Cheers for that Andrew.
By coincidence i have the car booked in to have some other work done on it next tuesday so I will ask them to look at this as well. Do you think I would do any damage to the car it if i was to keep driving it until then?
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My beetle had the light come on, when i put it in to get serviced all they told me it had a lambda fault as there is two lambda's on this car i asked which one was faulty they said they would have to take the car back for 3 hours to pin point the fault, so i told them where to go rip off merchants
The car has sinced passed its MOT emissions no problem with it running very slightly rich very minutely
I'm going to buy a scan tool OBD2 from e-bay for £30 and fault find it myself , you can also turn the fault lights off with this tool when it has been repaired
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Yeah I get the feeling that they will try to tell me that it will take some time to pinpoint the fault - at around £100/hr it could be quite expensive.
And they probably wont be able to fit me in for the next couple of weeks in which time something else will probably go wrong with this.
It got a MOT in november so it is not due for another test for another year. I might check out that scanner that you mention.
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Yeah I get the feeling that they will try to tell me that it will take some time to pinpoint the fault - at around £100/hr it could be quite expensive.
And they probably wont be able to fit me in for the next couple of weeks in which time something else will probably go wrong with this car.
It got a MOT in november so it is not due for another test for another year. I might check out that scanner that you mention.
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I have also been told flashing light means an active fault when the light goes steady the fault has cleared.
My light also came on about the 50k ish mark
Also been told these lights are easily triggered and nothing to worry about by a VAG mechanic told me its an easy way to extract £500 form some mugs so the service managers can hit their targets, these lights could easily be switched off but VAG would rather make a song and dance and an easy £500
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The light blinking erratically is the system picking up the fault, when it goes steady the system has dropped into LOS mode (Loss Of Signal) or 'limp home' whereby the ECU is running the engine on a preset programme and by and large ignoring the sensors. Modern systems are so good the difference in performance can be barely perceptible so you shouldnt do any damage short term.
Be careful going down the cheap scantool route. Whatever you do, DONT scan the airbag controller.
Andrew
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Simplicate and add lightness!!
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LOS(limp 'ome) actually stands for LIMITED OPERATION STRATEGY tho' loss of signal is pretty accurate.
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Just testing!!!!
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Simplicate and add lightness!!
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Hi - My emission light issues were solved in my Golf (mk4 GTi 1.8T) with a cleaning of the MAF sensor (or replacement depending on circumstances) and also the cleaning of the throttle bodies.
The efficiency of the two lead to triggering the emissions light. Not an expensive fix either!
HTH
Michael
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