Problemo... shudder, halt and engine management light

[aarondgibson]

Hi, new member here...

I have a 54 plate 1.2 12v Ibiza from new.

About a fortnight ago, the yellow deformed tap engine electric fault diagnosis light came on. Unfortunately, cash and time have been tight and it has been coming on every 2-3 days since. Car is getting progressively worse to drive. I occasionally need to pull over and stop as the car completely loses power and won't move.

It doesn't shudder or judder when it is idle, but it sure does when I drive it. Sometimes the light flashes as well. How long can I drive it like this in this condition?

It seems to be like back in the good old days in my golf when it seem to drop power because a cylinder was out or something like that. It has just under 50000 miles on it and had a service at Christmas, but I don't know if the sparks have been changed since new.

Keep reading things on here and Google about coil packs, ht leads and spark plugs, but not sure what the problem is. I've had 3 golfs before this and all of them have suffered from electrical probs. Bit concerned about the cost, as the dealer told me it "apparently" needed a new ABS module two years ago, which was replaced under warranty. Don't really trust my 2 local dealers, and can't really afford to shell out something ridiculous like £700, when all it may be is spark plugs.

I live in south east london. Can anyone tell me am I frying my car? And where I could go, what I could do, or is it a simple job I could do myself, with a Haynes, a bit of time and some spare parts to stop this stupid light coming on, and regain a smooth drive and more power.

Lastly, if I am unsure, should I get the dealer to look at it?

Sorry for the ramble/rant...

Cheers


Aaron

 

[stax84uk]

Me and mother have the same car (she fell in love with mine) she had the same problem recently, hers was a blockage in the fuel filter.
Ive had a coil pack go. and that led to the car going into safe mode, so no quick get away for me and the engine management light flashing.
Also, I had the timing chain go, fine when stationary but very hit and miss when driving, and that was a constant management light.
If your car hasnt restricted itself then you cant be doing too much damage. Swear these cars are more intelligent than most humans

 

[RUM4MO]

I'd say without reading the engine fault code(s) you are really just guessing - and any advice given will also end up being a guess - and that can end up getting expensive even before you sort the car out! I have VCDS - new version of VAG-COM - but that is the expensive but best route to go down if you need/like to dabble with car problems. If you only need to sort this problem - and maybe a few more in the future, the cheaper route would be to buy a scan tool from Gendan - it costs about £40 delivered to your door and is self contained - maybe take a lot on www.gendan.co.uk its description is VAG+CAN or something like that (actually it is called VW Audi Seat Skoda code reader). I bought one of them just to have in the glovebox - you can read > note down > clear faults and keep on doing this until you have used these codes to get better advice on what to sort/replace. You might need to post your results as the provided fault code listings are not too extensive - but you can ask on here for an interpretation or find a better listing FOC on the internet, at least if you buy this tool you will be able to find out what the engine system thinks is wrong.

 

[Rory101]

Hi, new member here...

I have a 54 plate 1.2 12v Ibiza from new.

Ours is 54 plate, bought Sept 04, and it's covered by SEAT Assist (the AA really) for 5yrs. If yours is too, then call them out next time it does it (they will come to your house, so you don't have to be on a journey) and they may be able to tell you what's wrong. You'll need to say it's broken done, not just playing up, but a 3cyl car with 1 cyl not working isn't really driveable.

We've called them out 4 times due to coil pack failures (last one was last week).

You can check if it's covered by SEAT Assist by calling them on 0800 262622.