EPC light

[danntsi77]

Today i was driving around town and noticed there was a huge lack of power / boost from the turbo, I pulled over and looked at the dash board and the EPC light was on, not flashing just solid.

I pulled over, turned the car off for about 30 secs and then restarted. Everything was all ok after that, normal power etc......

Ive just had some looking around on Google and a few owners of various 1.2 tsi engines said that they have had this happen before and it was due to a "malfunctioning of the wastegate position".

The car is booked in for brakes to be done next friday so i will mention it then to service staff........but has anyone else had this experience?????

[JexL]

had this last week

[PoloDave]

yes, it is most likely the wastegate. I took my car to the dealer for some rattles coming from the engine bay at cold start and they said there is a recall active for all 1.2 tsi's to add a spacer on the wastegate and solve this issue.

Never had it happening to me though, but they did not fix the highly annoying rattle :/

[gavs]

...a recall active for all 1.2 tsi's to add a spacer on the wastegate and solve this issue.

We used to do this on early turbo-diesel toyotas to get more boost out of them, seems odd that the spacer will fix the wastegate issue. I know of one case that springs to mind that the actual wastegate itself was defective and failed, so the whole turbo unit was replaced.

[buzuki]

the spacer changes the voltage the ecu sees from the wastegate. Id imagine the voltage it sees before spacer fitted is out of spec, so ECU just shuts of the wastegate altogether hence the CEL on and no boost.

[danntsi77]

one thing ive noticed at times and could be related maybe........is normally when overtaking, on the upchange from 3rd to 4th the car is doing around 4000rpm.......there is a hold off on boost from the turbo for about 3 or so seconds, then it comes on boost and revs out very nicely to redline. I just find it very worrying when im overtaking a truck etc......its so bad sometimes that the car barely accelerates and causes me to be on the wrong side of road longer than i want to be.

[PoloDave]

that is exactly what happened to me yesterday, even after the 'fix'. Also have this sometimes when slowing down for a traffic light, and just before coming to a full stop the light goes green and I accellerate again, the turbo won't boost in 2nd gear

[gavs]

Sounds like your turbo is on the way out Dan. If it makes you feel any better, you're not alone with this issue. Like the GTI has dodgy oil consumption, the 1.2 TSI has dodgy turbos, just not to the same extent.

[Gambit]

I had the EPC light come on after 70kms on my brand new GTI, when i was running it in. Reset and its never come back. Strange!

[danntsi77]

Ive had the car since it only had 7000kms on it, 36000kms currently, its done the laggy turbo thing since day dot, i assumed that it was the overprotective ecu giving the dsg time to get another gear ready.

if i use a bit more of a controlled method by increasing the throttle instead of just stabbing it doesnt have that delay in boost after an upshift.