EPC light....NOT GOOD!

tegwin · Post by **tegwin** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 3:13 pm

The EPC light just came on in my GTI....

Was fine thismorning when I drove the 4 miles to work...jumped in it to come home and the EPC light pops up...

I serviced the car three weeks ago, but I cant imagine thats had any effect on the EPC after three weeks, and hundreds of miles...

I have checked the coolant, oil levels etc and the engine seems healthy...It sounds ok and appears to have normal power application...

So how serious is the EPC light? Should I be getting it looked at right away, or am I ok to drive the car as I normaly would until I can get it looked at?

I dont have VAG com which is a pain...its nopw at the top of my list!

Any thoughts?

ModifiedMadness · Post by **ModifiedMadness** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 4:37 pm

It might not be this but it can be as simple as your brake light switch having gone meaning you have no brake lights.

Happened to me, and when I saw EPC comes under Engine Management thought this will be expensive.

Bepe · Post by **Bepe** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 5:12 pm

my light came on when i let my gf drive the car when shekept stalling it several times, this made my light come on!

R.I.T.B · Post by **R.I.T.B** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 5:22 pm

Mine came on the other week, drove it for about 25-30 miles on short journeys and it turned itself off, I think mine was something to do with the brakes because none of the lights were working. All fine now thou

tegwin · Post by **tegwin** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 7:43 pm

Lol...Just drove home and couldnt figure out why everyone got up my arse when I slowed down....

It appears I have no rear brake lights

Im going to try replacing the sensor ( I assume its on the peddle under the dash?)

Just hope I dont have to reset the ECU for the EPC warning to p*** off...

1 GTI · Post by **1 GTI** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 10:14 pm

The brake light switch is easy to change. Only need to take off the panel above pedals and thats held on with 3 or 4 torque bolts. The switch is positioned right above brake pedal, it is quite fiddley but easy. 5 minute job no problem

thedees1 · Post by **thedees1** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 11:06 pm

done mine this morning too, 7.49 inc vat for the new switch from vw, put the new one in and the brake light s wouldnt go off . after a bit of fidling about i eventually got them working fine.

the epc light will go off automatically, you dont need vag com to reset it

polo_gti21 · Post by **polo_gti21** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 9:34 am

my lights wount turn off and when i went to vw to speak to my mate he reckoned that you only get one chance to set the switch or the lights will stay on all the time. its a fiddly job because of where it is but its easy. good luck.

tegwin · Post by **tegwin** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 12:01 am

Think its sorted (touch wood)...

Popped over to VW dealers today and they had the part ready and waiting on the front desk...

It looks totaly different to the origional but it fits....They even let me put the part in before paying, just incase it was wrong...

Top marks to them!

One more problem sorted

womble68 · Post by **womble68** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 10:15 am

Seems this problem is happening to us all recently. I had it happen about 2 weeks ago, and replaced the sensor that someone has replaced previously (the parts was date stamped 04 2004) with the new part mentioned by tegwin (black different shape and with a white tip, appears to work on a different mechanism, and looks like it definitely won't fail - older purple part must fail due to some issue with the Spring, not sure what since they're sealed). EuroCarParts appear to be selling the older part (a copy part of the older part), and this didn't work any way. In the end I went to Dane VW and as with Tegwin they let me try it, and even gave us a hand, and all good