Emission Control light on after cam belt change.

[dayks]

:1zhelp:

This afternoon I had my cambelt changed at the local Audi garage at the recommended 5 yr point for an A3 2.0 FSI.

Tonight my wife has just called in that the emissions control light has come on, which is a pain; especially since we are due to drive off on holiday at 0600 tomorrow morning.

Does anyone have any idea if the warning light and the cambelt change could be related? What could be the problem and is it anything I can fix myself?

I wouldn't mind so much, but my idea was to wait until after the holiday to get the work done; my wife insisted that we should get it done before otherwise our luck would have the car fail on the way to Cornwall... :aargh4:

[dayks]

Oh, and by the way, Hi!

Have managed to get useful advice on here before using the search function, but this one has me scratching my head.

[A3_FSI_2.0]

what mileage was on the car, the belt isnt due to changing till 115k! I'm sorry you having issues before going on holiday, that sucks and can put a bummer on your holiday! You really need to get the car diagnosed to find out what the error code is that is causing the fault.

To be honest though, if the car is running fine, forget about it and go enjoy your holiday. At the worst, it will be a leak on an intake pipe that hasn't been fitted right and is sucking air or could be a freak Lamda probe 'omg i'm not happy with these values' error etc. The engine management light can come on for the least of things that will never stop the car from running fine.

[dayks]

A3_FSI_2.0

About 48,000 miles on the car. To be honest I would have left it for a while, but my wife worries about things and I wanted this holiday to go well!

The garage topped the oil up for me at no cost (which I thought was good) but now I have checked it it is filled to above the max. (half way up the cone bit just below the wire - above area A as described in the owners manual.) Do you think that might have any bearing?

Cheers!

[A3_FSI_2.0]

no, it would need to be off the bottom of the dipstick to throw up an error. The Engine Management Light will come on for a missfire on the coil pack, wrong mixture due to say, an air leak/lambda sensor fault or problem even with with the gas recirculation system. If its runnning fine tell the wife its just a lambda sensor fault that just results in potentially a higher MPG and it can be easily rectified on return from holiday, give her peace of mind. The car will be fine.

We get cars in for MOTs with the engine management light on that pass the MOT without an issue, the lights having been on for 6+ months etc. You can try to disconnect the battery for 30mins and if it doesnt come back on it will just have been a hickup.

I know its now late, but I'd head off and not worry about it till you get back from your (prob much needed) holiday.

[bren a3 82]

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[dayks]

Hi chaps, back from holiday now - although we ended up taking the aged Focus. I will try the disconnecting the battery option today and get back with the results.

Cheers!

[dayks]

:biglaugh:

That seems to have done the trick. I left the battery disconnected for a few hours and when reconnected started the engine.

My heart sunk as the car idled like a knackered diesel for a few seconds... but then all was well. Apart from a new amber light on the dash which after a brief flick through the handbook turned out to be the ESP light which will (and did) go out after driving a few meters.

Fingers crossed now that the emissions light stays out and this was just a one-off glitch. Thanks for the assistance A3_FSI_2.0 :beerchug:

[bren a3 82]

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