Error code P1553

**Fozmondo** · 08-05-2007,06:54 PM

I Have just got an error code on my wifes polo 1.4 16v
17961 Barometric/Manifold pressure signals: Implausible Correlation
P1553-35-10 ----Intermittent

Help Please !!!

**shooey88** · 08-05-2007,07:29 PM

is your car showing any other faults of idling high or erraticly/stalling/cutting out at all? the fault you mention normally appears when throttle body dirty and manifold pressure sensor contaminated and both require cleaning. another possibility is an air leak from manifold a cause.

**Fozmondo** · 10-05-2007,04:24 PM

Thanks for reply Shooey
Today I have cleaned the throttle body and the sensor both were very dirty but still getting same error
Some Details:
When car is first started EPC light is not on. and only comes on when revs go past 2800. The car seem to run ok but get a slight judder when maintaining a speed. (no judder when accelerating or decelerating)
Yesterday when my wife was driving to work ( car had been running about 10 mins ) she told me it was juddering very badly and the engine check light came on. She stopped and called out the AA he told her it was the coil. Car idles at 850 rpm and seems smooth. Im puzzled in my experience a faulty coil is worse when you accelerate. But I may be wrong.
Any Ideas???

**shooey88** · 10-05-2007,07:27 PM

the judder does describe a misfire....which would point to coils being a common fault...however, if this was the case you would have ur emmisions light flashing and fault describing misfire cylinder 1/2/3/4 etc
did you set your basic setting with ur throttle body after you did the clean correcly? or have an air leak from your manifold? as from my experience if this repair isnt done properly it can make things worse and bring on the EPC light and cause accelerating juddering if basic setting isnt performed after clean. did u use VAG COM and do basic settings?

**Fozmondo** · 11-05-2007,07:46 AM

Reset with vag-com after cleaning. Last night went out in car, my missus was able to get the car to repeat the fault she had. Was a pretty bad misfire felt like it went down to 2 cylinder at one point. Emissions light came on. Swithched off car for ten mins then it started ok. when we got back I plugged in Vag-com and ran the missfire test. showed up as randomly misfiring on all 4 cylinders. So as you can Guess getting a new coil today. will keep you informed about progress

**Fozmondo** · 14-05-2007,10:50 AM

Ok replaced the coil with a new one, drove car for about 15 mins then fault occured again. Switched car off waited for 5 mins then started up again with no probs. Drove for about 20 mins with no missfires ???? Vag com reports missfire on all 4 cylinders. when i got home i was checking for any possible other faults and found that the timing belt was loose. cant get to tensioner easily so waitng for a clear day (no rain) to do job. any tips would be appreciated.

**shooey88** · 14-05-2007,12:16 PM

on the 16v you should have 2 tensioners and 2 cambelts (is that the same as your engine!) and are common to break.
do u think its slipped a tooth if belt loose? that can cause poor running...
so just check the timing...u can do this without dismantling anything. just by turning the engine over by hand and checking the timing marks.
fitting a cambelt on them is quite difficult if your not experienced.
there is cases that the 16v engines on the golf suffer from valve problems causing low compression and sticky valves. this results on low compression but normally on one cylinder though.
do you have a misfire recorded on just one cylinder?

**Fozmondo** · 14-05-2007,07:13 PM

Got two tensioners one on the short belt connecting the two cams, and one on the long belt, crank to cam. This is one that is slack. Could you tell me where the timing marks are, im hoping for no rain tomoz so i can get it done. Ive got to take the ribbed belt pulley off to remove the plastic gaurd so i can get at the tensioner. (bloody stupid design) Tensioner is a toothed wheel on inside of belt. Cant find any info on my elsawin only shows the 8 valve diesel
Thanks for your help Shooey

**shooey88** · 14-05-2007,07:30 PM

how good r u mechanic?
your gonna find it absolutely difficult...you need a special tool to lock the two camshafts in the correct timing position. it goes through the holes on the 2 camshafts.... locking them together in its TDC. you then see if a mark of the bottom crankshaft pulley lines up with its notch.
ur engine is notorious for the tensioners breaking....i have seen so many go. if the top small belt tensioner breaks its causes horiffic damage to the valves...ouch

**Fozmondo** · 15-05-2007,08:16 PM

Well finally got some clear weather to have a go at fixing the problem. After removing all parts around cam belt found that the plastic surround on the tensioning roller had shattered and the belt was running very loosly on the bearing, so got new one 24 quid from GSF. Set everthing up and found belt had skipped 1 tooth. You dont need a special tool for setting the cams just some 8mm bar, 2 pieces. There are some holes in the cam cover that need to be alligned. Anyway car is all back together and running like a dream no engine faults in EPC. ( quick little bugger )
Just like to say big thanks to you Shooey, Help much appreciated.

Fozmondo