1.4 AUA Throttle Cut Off with ABS and EPC lights

Still not worked it out yet. But I've found ways of reducing the occurence rate of transient ECU crises by keeping the battery charge high.

I should explain - it's my partner's car. Consequently when it causes her a problem it causes me anywhere between 2x problem and 4x problem in algebraic terms. I like to keep my problem levels low, and right now the easiest and most effective way of keeping this problem away particularly during winter is to keep the battery charged every 2-3 days with the CTEK (which plugs into the same extension as the 60W incandescent bulb I clip onto the cupholder to keep the cabin defrosted overnight).

So the current hypothesis is 205,000 mile alternator (or its regulator) not being 100% healthy, even though the battery is itself fine. The secondary hypothesis relates to my experience driving it after toys have left the pram and my own car has been repossessed by my partner for however long she wants, which is that when the weather is cold I would often make it halfway to work, and then while approaching one particular junction, on pressing the brake pedal and beginning to steer, the warning sound and lights all happen together. Park up, switch off, switch on, reset / warning lights off, carry on to work. But this could still be down to voltage drop. Hence intention to fit a refurbished 110A alternator / new belt / tensioner and see if this solves the issue.
 
Unlikely, I think. Those active sensors, that is those containing electronics, (rather than switched, or resistor based sensors), have internal voltage regulators.
Electrical noise, interference, can generate false signals to a controller, and trigger false faults. All this is quite rare, but possible.
The majority of faults are genuine, and should be investigated as such.
Mac.
 
Hi - just curious when the engine cuts and warning lights illuminate if you switch off and restart does car return to normal for a while - when my yaw sensor was playing up warning lights would illuminate on dash for esp and abs but where cured when I changed sensor ( yaw sensor must be calibrated I believe)
Cheers Dave
 
scimmyowner said:
Hi - just curious when the engine cuts and warning lights illuminate if you switch off and restart does car return to normal for a while - when my yaw sensor was playing up warning lights would illuminate on dash for esp and abs but where cured when I changed sensor ( yaw sensor must be calibrated I believe)
Cheers Dave
Click to expand...
The dash light will clear, when the fault condition is no longer current, (so some can come and go, depending on the fault condition), but the fault code will remain in the log, until a clear fault command is sent, via the OBD port. That's why it's a good practice to clear the faults, as you go. If you don't, then when you do a scan, you have no idea when the fault code was triggered. And so can mislead you into associating it with a recent problem, when in fact it occurred, and was fixed, long ago.
Mac.
 
scimmyowner said:
Hi - just curious when the engine cuts and warning lights illuminate if you switch off and restart does car return to normal for a while - when my yaw sensor was playing up warning lights would illuminate on dash for esp and abs but where cured when I changed sensor ( yaw sensor must be calibrated I believe)
Cheers Dave
Click to expand...
When it was just a G202 for me, I could restart the car and have no cardiac arresting (!!!) until the sensor has been triggered again.
Sometimes it would require clearing the codes with VCDS to clear the error, as Mac suggests. In this case it took longer till the new trigger, as the system had no memory of previous faults.

Edit: ABS/ESP error on its own has never cut me the engine.
 
On an different note, can a power steering be a sign of something?

Yesterday when I was pushing the car in the service, I turned the engine on and noted that power steering became absurdly light, like never before. Revs were jumping from 500 to 1500. Wonder if that means anything.
 
lavandism said:
On an different note, can a power steering be a sign of something?

Yesterday when I was pushing the car in the service, I turned the engine on and noted that power steering became absurdly light, like never before. Revs were jumping from 500 to 1500. Wonder if that means anything.
Click to expand...
The power steering is normally something that can be lost when electrical levels are low - if the effort is much less than normal, either your normal steering assistance is somewhat less than ideal, or it was giving more steering assistance than it should be.

Are our steering assistance levels speed-regulated? Something tells me yes but I am open to correction on that.

Edit - yes I've gone back and confirmed from a couple of other threads that there is speed-dependent modulation of assistance levels, so the implication would be that under conditions where the car is misbehaving its perception of speed is also inaccurate?
 
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I believe there are certain safety related fault conditions that will reduce the level of assistance from the power steering, but not 100% sure.
Mac.
 
I have received astonishing news from my garage: throttle body has lost all the bolts and has been held in place simply by airbox!

I'm scratching my head on how the hell that could have happened, as I have been sure to torque them properly. I guess some loctite must have been added.

Embarrassing, to say the least. Could have fixed that myself if I checked properly the TB. But that's an experience too, I suppose.
 
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