Engine lights, ESP, Immob and MAF HELP please

[TapMyHed]

Hi All,
New member!
My wife has a 1.6 beetle. 106000 miles. Bog standard, no air con. Lovely little thing however it has a couple of issues I'm trying to resolve. So any help and advice please chirp in and tell me your thoughts!

I have rosstech vag comm and a lead so can interogate the ECU/modules.

Faults:

1. ESP light occasionally comes on. Wife says usually on a tight turn or braking. No fault codes on VAG. Any ideas? I'm thinking front wheel speed sensors.

2. Engine light comes one, VAG says mixture too rich/too weak. I changed the MAF twice (first one was faulty) but not with a chinese rubbish. Not BOSCH either but Hitachi item. Seems the second one has sorted the lights out however, No 3 below.

3. Once warm, and stopping at junctions etc, engine tickover at 750 will surge by itself up to 1200 ish then back down, wil do this several times (did this with the original MAF so is not a new problem). Just before it starts it appears the engine RPM is dropping below 750, so it would seem like its 'blipping' itself to stop it cutting out. Has stalled a couple of times.

4. Once in a while the car refuses to start indicating that the wrong chipped key is in the lock, does not work with spare either, but leave it for a few mins, lock/unlock the car and its fine....any suggestions?

With VAG COM fitted and engine running I look at the measured blocks for the ECU and find MAF flows at tickover to be about 5gs. Lambda reading seems very strange (forget off the top of my head what that said).

Anyways. I have the car booked in this morning for a cam belt and water pump replacement, and have suggested they have a quick look at the running parameters and feed me back a suggestion as I generally fix all my own faults, just dont have time at the moment for the cam belt though.

Can anyone offer some sound advice/reason for erratic running at tickover, MAF values at tickover, Lamda values at tickover etc...I need a good baseline to compare against.

I would like the car to have no problems!!! As wifey drives the kids around in it...I'd hate for her to have an accident or break down because of it. Beers for the best suggestions that sort these issues out!!

[02newmag]

i dont know if this will help but to test the maf you can disconnect it. the car will still run but using other values instead of those from it allowing you to determine if its faulty or not.

[TapMyHed]

Come on chaps!!! Some of you must of experainced some of these issues!

Make this forum a great one, share your experiance!!

I'm a member of several forums for several toys I own, and these forums are superb with advice seemingly endless!!!

I need a hand with this bug and I know some of you have experianced these, so please find the time to share!

Thanks,

[Vee.Dubster]

Come on chaps!!! Some of you must of experainced some of these issues!

Make this forum a great one, share your experiance!!

I'm a member of several forums for several toys I own, and these forums are superb with advice seemingly endless!!!

I need a hand with this bug and I know some of you have experianced these, so please find the time to share!

Thanks,

No personally experince to share I'm afraid, I did 60K trouble free miles in my newbie.

However... I do have some very good fault diagnostic guides for the 1.6 and 2.0 petrol models, they are in PDF format, if you PM me your email address I'd be happy to send them to you.

[lindy@sandys.eu]

I'm a girl without tecky solutions but I have had all of these faults on my 2.0, 2000 (X) BUG.

The key problem I initialised by dropping it! The solution was a new battery in the key fob (I managed this myself and found a web site that told me how to reset the key and it actually worked!). This stopped the stalling too.

The key I frazled though the magnetic 'exit sensors' at House of Frazer I haven't found how to rectify myself so they remain in my drawer unuseable to start the car (but fine to open it). I keep my eye open on the web for solutions and try them all - no luck so far.

My Engine warning light has been on for 5 years now. I had 5 Lambda probes over the course of 3 years. In the end VW said this was a known fault. The nice man at Lex had a look at it for me and said all the readings were in the right place. He resets it every service for me and as I sit at the traffic lights the light goes back on.

The ESP light comes on in ice or when I swerve. (I thought this was suppose to happen - but note I am a girl). Turning the engine off and on again sorts this out until another hedgehog crosses my path.

She is 10 years old, I have had her from new and I know all her little ways and am happy that the car is safe enough for me and my little runs - although the more I read about the Lambda probe and fuel economy the more I am tempted to spend a few pennies on a new probe .....
I hope this helps in some small way to let you know that you aren't the only one.

I'm only sorry I can't give you baseline figures that I understand. I have some little graphs that I am sure you would understand that detail my Engine Warning light emmissions 5 years ago (I bought them home in the hope that one day I would get time to understand it)

[TapMyHed]

Thanks Lindy!

I'll try the battery thing this weekend. As for the 'known problem at VW' this has saved me some money as I was going to give them the car to sort out....since its a known problem, I'll bet they would not of told me!!

I'm tempted to change the Lamda sensor anyway, due to age of car as I can get hold of one for 25 pound because it does not have the connector on the end, I just have to crimp it in place of the old one.

I wonder just how VW managed to sell a car with so many silly little issues and not damage the VW branding for reliability!!!!!! Amazing!!!