An Emission Control Light has come up on the dash (solid not flashing) of our '56 plate VW Touran 1.4 TSi (61k on the clock)

 

 

the car still drives fine with no symptoms of anything wrong

 

 

This is the light on the dash:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We've only had the car about 5 weeks and so took it to the VW dealership in Hereford, they've said that the tensioner has likely worn and as a result the timing chain has stretched, they've told us that it'll need replacing and the cost will be £1012 to put right.....

 

 

I'll go into worthless Customer Protect 'Gold' warranty another time (or you may hear about it on BBC's Watchdog shortly if they take up the story). anyway the independent garage that we bought the car from has offered to take it back in and sort the problem at their expense and has also offered us a curtosy car for the duration (top bloke by the way, can't fault him)

 

 

 

The problem that I have is that I have a meeting tomorrow and I need to use the VW for a couple of hours, my question really is this:

 

 

- Is the car likely to be ok to use tomorrow or is the light coming on the dash an indication of a high liklihood of iminant engine failure..... or just an automated warning (at 60k miles) to advise you to go and get the timing chain changed as per routine maintenance schedule?

 

I couldn't visually check to see if the chain had stretched, and I very much doubt that it would be visible to the naked eye but as I said, it drives no different to before....any suggestions welcome

 

*the car will be going in pretty much straight after the meeting tomorrow

All its done is logged a fault code,see if someone local will put there diagnostic on it for you..Usually if its a serious problem the vehicle will go into limp home mode so its possibly a sensor has gone out of range and flagged the MIL. As for a worn chain its not that likely to be the issue..

Cars are very sensitive these days, our merc management light is constantly on and as been for years, we clear it but it keeps coming back after 2 days or so.

 

I have put numerous new sensors on it as per the diagnostic....performance is not affected, don't lose sleep over it :yes:.

Cheers guys,

 

 

It went into the VW garage yesterday afternoon for diagnostics check

 

from what I can find online, this light ^^^^^ is the emissions warning light, the engine management light is called the EPC light; which is different to what the guy at VW told us yesterday?

 

The EPC light does comes on when you turn the key in the ignition (along with all of the other lights...oil, battery etc) and it go's out with all of the others. It's only the emmisions warning light that stays on??

 

 

The VW garage said that several faults were logged in the ECU, one being a random fuel pressure issue that they wanted to investigate further.

 

 

The VW report states:

 

D-EVC (Carry out Express Visual Check)

* advisory=Central locking button on drivers door inop.

immediate=O/S + N/S front & rear wiper blades need replacing

immediate=Brake fluid due

immediate=Tyre sealant overdue

 

A-LAB

Attend to EML on. Carried out GFF various faults logged ref camshaft. Follow test plan suspect fault with timing chain & timing chain tensioner causing timing chain to increase in length. Requires replacement

 

T-Notes

Sporadic fault also logged ref fuel pressure, requires further investigation

 

 

Interestingly enough the timing chain check is included in the initial EVC and was not picked up as abnormal according to the technicians report, it was only after they checked the fault code on the ECU that they suspected that the timing chain needed to be replaced due to a camshaft fault log?

 

If the timing chain/tensioner pulley needs replacing as part of the normal/precautionary maintenance schedule then that's perfectly fine but I'd rather know that that's the case and not have the wife flapping at 20,000 feet because she thinks that the engine is going to shit itself on the school run (like our Mitsubishi MPV did the other week on the M4 throwing a rod through the block)