GTI - Intermittent steering fault indicator

[Kronik]

Morning Guys,

Whilst driving a few weeks back, I noticed that all the warning and indicator lamps were lit (same indicators that come on when ignition is turned on.) The engine was obviously still running with no loss of power. Steering, brakes etc appeared to still be functioning as normal. I pulled over and switched the car off, waited a few seconds and started up again. The initial indicator lamps came up and disappeared a few seconds later, the yellow steering wheel lamp remained lit and I decided to continue my short drive home. I was concerned that the lamp was still lit after about 1KM of driving but then it suddenly disappeared.

Since that day there have been about 5 instances where I am driving along and that yellow steering wheel lamp will come on and stay lit for about 5 minutes and then disappear again. Every time it happens I feel no loss in the power steering or anything else. The manual states the lamp warning as "Electro-mechanical steering function reduced."

As I've mentioned, I feel no difference with the car when that warning is up but it is worrying.
My concern is that the car is going in for its 15k service this Wednesday and I'm not sure how to approach the issue with VW. I am running APR software and APR airbox & intake.
Is it possible that VW will see these mods and refuse to look in to / fix the problem?
Could the warranty subject also be brought up?

I doubt the software would have anything to do with it....but I will be changing to the stock program before dropping the car off on Wednesday.

Any advice would be immensely appreciated

Merry Christmas!

[buzuki]

Sounds like it may be a steering angle sensor issue. Your flash tune will most probably be ignored regarding this fault as it runs its own ECU.

[irossiter]

I posted this back in September this year but no one seemed to reply to it!! At the 15k service they had a look at it and had not heard of the warning lights and particularly the steering fault light. The cruise control problem they had heard of and said they would replace the cruise control/indicator stalk if the problem persisted. It had been ok until about 3-4 weeks ago and all the warning lights and cruise control surge problem is back and I'm about to take it back again and tell them that I don't want the car back until everything is fixed (and you can give me a replacement VW in the meantime). The cruise control problem is clearly a safety issue and scares the bejesus out of me! Could people PLEASE let us know if anyone else has had similar problems. Aside from these problems the GTI has been the most amazingly complete astounding package that deserves every award it has won over the last 3 or 4 years (my Mk 5 was just as good) so it is a shame that these things happen. I must say that the VW service dept have been extremely concerned about these issues and just like going to the doctor none of the problems appeared in the 2 days they had the car. Below is my Sept post.


I have a similar problem but sounds like different warning lights.
I'm getting very sick of my instrument warning lights coming on intermittently. Has been doing it since day 2 of owning it (now 13 months old). Have taken it to VW service dept 3 times now, including the recent 12 months service. Of course, everytime I take it in, it doesn't play up!!! I posted about this 8 or 9 months ago but no one seemed to reply or have the same trouble. Basically, ALL of my warning lights come up on the right hand clock and my power steering light in the left clock. Right sided lights go out after about 30 secs but the power steering light stays on for another couple of minutes. If I turn the ignition off and start up again all warning lights are gone. First time I took it in I was told the computer was "rebooted" and they couldn't find anything wrong. There was no problem with the steering at any time or any other strange feeling whilst driving when the lights came on. Then about 6 months ago with the cruise control on the lights came back on and I definitely noticed (and heard) a small surge of throttle, increasing speed by about 3-4 km/h. Settles down after a couple of seconds! Then same thing with the warning lights, go out followed by the power steering light. I was not very happy at this stage but again no faults were found.
After the service 6 weeks ago more warning lights but the last 48 hrs they've been coming on every 30 minutes or so and I'm sure I noticed a loss of power steering for a couple of seconds whilst on the freeway! Yes, very happy!
I'm taking it back the dealer but I'm sure it won't play up for them! Apart from the MDI not displaying the correct track on my touchscreen very rarely I simply can't fault the car! My Mk 5 GTI didn't have any of these problems.
If anyone has had similar problems or ideas it would be appreciated.

[Kronik]

Sounds like it may be a steering angle sensor issue. Your flash tune will most probably be ignored regarding this fault as it runs its own ECU.

Thanks for the reply buzuki, I have mentioned the steering sensor to the service guys

I posted this back in September this year but no one seemed to reply to it!! At the 15k service they had a look at it and had not heard of the warning lights and particularly the steering fault light. The cruise control problem they had heard of and said they would replace the cruise control/indicator stalk if the problem persisted. It had been ok until about 3-4 weeks ago and all the warning lights and cruise control surge problem is back and I'm about to take it back again and tell them that I don't want the car back until everything is fixed (and you can give me a replacement VW in the meantime). The cruise control problem is clearly a safety issue and scares the bejesus out of me! Could people PLEASE let us know if anyone else has had similar problems. Aside from these problems the GTI has been the most amazingly complete astounding package that deserves every award it has won over the last 3 or 4 years (my Mk 5 was just as good) so it is a shame that these things happen. I must say that the VW service dept have been extremely concerned about these issues and just like going to the doctor none of the problems appeared in the 2 days they had the car. Below is my Sept post.


I have a similar problem but sounds like different warning lights.
I'm getting very sick of my instrument warning lights coming on intermittently. Has been doing it since day 2 of owning it (now 13 months old). Have taken it to VW service dept 3 times now, including the recent 12 months service. Of course, everytime I take it in, it doesn't play up!!! I posted about this 8 or 9 months ago but no one seemed to reply or have the same trouble. Basically, ALL of my warning lights come up on the right hand clock and my power steering light in the left clock. Right sided lights go out after about 30 secs but the power steering light stays on for another couple of minutes. If I turn the ignition off and start up again all warning lights are gone. First time I took it in I was told the computer was "rebooted" and they couldn't find anything wrong. There was no problem with the steering at any time or any other strange feeling whilst driving when the lights came on. Then about 6 months ago with the cruise control on the lights came back on and I definitely noticed (and heard) a small surge of throttle, increasing speed by about 3-4 km/h. Settles down after a couple of seconds! Then same thing with the warning lights, go out followed by the power steering light. I was not very happy at this stage but again no faults were found.
After the service 6 weeks ago more warning lights but the last 48 hrs they've been coming on every 30 minutes or so and I'm sure I noticed a loss of power steering for a couple of seconds whilst on the freeway! Yes, very happy!
I'm taking it back the dealer but I'm sure it won't play up for them! Apart from the MDI not displaying the correct track on my touchscreen very rarely I simply can't fault the car! My Mk 5 GTI didn't have any of these problems.
If anyone has had similar problems or ideas it would be appreciated.

Hey irossiter. Your issue sounds pretty similar to mine - I use the cruise control quite frequently but I'm not 100% sure that I have had the warning lamp come up whilst the CC is activated. I do however tend to leave the switch for it at the 'ON' position and then press the + button to engage and then brake pedal to deactivate. It sounds plausible that my issue could be related to the cruise control as well but I never thought about it until reading your post, so I will need to test it or just call up VW whilst my car is still there today. Cheers mate

---------- Post added 22-12-2011 at 07:21 AM ---------- Previous post was 21-12-2011 at 07:56 AM ----------

So I got my car back yesterday. $427 for 15k service, including wheel alignment,rotation and balancing...kinda pricey for Christmas just a few days away :/

They couldn't find any problems with the steering sensor and said I must monitor for time being.
Also no questions asked about the mods

[Subarsenal]

Hi Guys,
After reading your problems, I believe I may have similar issue.

I'm driving a MY10 MK6 Golf GTi, Uk spec (without DCC and cruise control stalk). Since week 1 of owning the car, I have been experiencing the yellow steering check light issue. When it happened, the yellow steering check light on the left panel would light up and split second later, the check lights on the right panel, which consist of brake, tpms, ESP and abs, would also light up for a couple of sec before going off, leaving the yellow steering check light on the left panel still on for about 30 secs before going off. Every time it happened, I did not register any degradation in terms of steering control or power loss.

A scan on the vagcom has revealed the following fault:intermittent contact with abs control module. Thus far, under the recommendation I have done the following rectification but to no avail:
1. Wheel alignment
2. Checks on the wires connecting to the abs control module to ensure that they are not twisted and hence causing the intermittent signal.

The latest recommendation from my workshop is there may be a need to change out the steering rack so I'm still waiting their confirmation.

Based on my observation, I realized that the fault tends to occur during mid day when the oil temp can run as high as 107C. I have seen the fault taking place 7 times in a span of 20 minutes during a mid day drive. However, the fault rarely occurs when I drives the car during early morning or in the night.

The car has been wonderful and it really irks me that the fault is persistent with no end in sight. Hope we can keep each other posted on the progress of this fault rectification.

Cheers
Eric
Singapore

[fahad]

Hi all,

It seems like I'm having the same issue...

Were any of you able to get to the bottom of this problem?

The 'power steering', 'abs', 'esp', 'tyre pressure' amber warning lights show up along with a red 'brakes' light. All except the power steering switch off within a second or two while the power steering warning always lasts another 5 seconds before turning off. It always happens when I'm travelling at a steady speed on a straight piece of road.

Arthur from Exoticars (100% recommend him to look after your VW by the way - the guy knows them like the back of his hand) was nice enough to run a quick vcds scan and only came up with tyre pressure warning. I've fixed the pressure in the tyres and reset the pressure gauge but that hasn't helped the symptoms. The only other thing I'm thinking is to have the brake pads replaced which have almost worn out at this stage - but if they were throwing this error, shouldn't only the brake warning be lighting up?

No noticeable changes to the performance of the car by the way when these lights pop up.

cheers,
f

P.S. I've got a MY10 mkV Jetta 147Tsi if that helps figuring out the problem.

[dvestate]

For anyone jumping in here, I had the same issue as above. My local VW updated the ABS Module software to the latest available and after the fault returned ordered a replacement ABS Module and replaced it under warranty.

I will post up on my thread in a week if there are no further issues - GTI - Dash lights flash on while driving

[irossiter]

Yes the service guys finally tracked the fault to the ABS module and replaced it under warranty. My warranty was about to expire in 2 months. I've had the problem from new. Took a while for them to figure it out but one of the service guys suggested it could be that 25,000km prior but was rubbished by his boss. I made a point of thanking him and making sure his boss heard me when they fixed the problem