Car cuts out, EPC & Emission Light come on!!

[love_my_golf]

Hey,
Hope you guys can help, i was driving yesterday(as you tend to do in a car) when my car cut out, for no apparrent reason. When i started it back up my EPC light & my emmisions light were on. While trying to move off i had no power whatsoever, my foot was to the floor and the rev counter didn't move. nor did i! After turning the engine off and restarting i managed to get my car bunnuy hopping onto the side o the road, i tried restarting numerous times but still no power. I ended up waiting with engine off for 5 minutes before i managed to get power back. All the way home both the EPC and emmisions light stayed on.
On the way to and from work today the emissions light stayed on, no sign of EPC!
I have VAG-COM and decided to check for fault codes however as per usual when i get around to it the problem has been resolved, so no faults show up with VAG-COM.
This is not the first time this has happened, and its kinda annoying, especially since i dont know what the problem is.

The car is a Golf 1.6SE 16V 2000

Any help much apprieciated,
thanks guys!

[sr-performance]

Hiya mate,
I've never used vag-com, i use launch.. but thought your vag would have found a stored code?
Try another diagnostic tool as it should have picked it up..


steve

[Vasto]

my car has the same kind of symptoms, cuts out no stalling lose of power but no hopping. according to the AA in 2005 from the history ECU needs to be repogramed i still havnt got around to it tho mines a 1.4s w reg.

although ma gearbox jus gave way and at one point i was doin national speed on motor way but rev counter was at 0 for some reason and the oil lite flashing? not to sure what that was about

[sr-performance]

Hi mate,
Have car on diagnostic's, it's the easiest way to find your probs..

steve

[love_my_golf]

So I ran diagnostics(vag-com) no problems found. However i replaced the dreaded brake light switch as suggested in other posts. car seems fine so far.

After taking apart the old switch one of the contacts was corroded and not making contact so hopefully this is problem sorted!

[sr-performance]

Best fix is a cheap fix...

[love_my_golf]

Lets hope so!

[bigshineybike]

My fix even easier.
I have been reading about brake light switches became obsessed even, today repalced the switch only £11 but took a while to arrange collection so car off road for past week.
The switch was an easy fix and the car seemed ok till I realised the brake lights still were not working.
Changed the two bulbs.
All is now fine.
I must admit I took the old black switch apart and it looked good inside, judging by the damge under the dash ( lots of broken plastic clips) the main dealers must have already been in there, during the first four years of our cars life it was always VW serviced.
I fully thank the content of this forum for the diagnostics
thanks every one.