Exhaust warning light flashing-whats the most likely fault? EDIT with fault code

[winrya]

Like many others recently I've been suffering a slight hesitation around 4000rpm.  On full throttle it feels like the car hesitates and then goes back on full power.  It seems like there may be similar stutters above this rpm but is much less noticable.

I took the car to votex in the week to see if it had logged any fault codes and it hadn't, he ran the computer watching the 4 cylinders on idle and there were no misfires.

At this point i was told to leave it to get worse as it could be plugs, coils or even injectors?

The car has now been sat for a few days and when I went out for a drive earlier the problem has suddently got much worse.

On full throttle it was stuttering (from 3500rpm) and would stop at 5000rpm but you could feel there was no power left above there.  I tried dropping to 3rd again and it did it again but the exhaust system warning light flashed on the display for a few seconds and went back off.

At this point I drove home normally and the car was completely normal in these conditions.

I now presume it will have logged a fault code and secondly, I expected the EPC light on a misfire (coils/sparks), does this indicate an exhaust problem?

Cheers for any input guys,

Ryan

[winrya]

Thanks to G4V VW, I have now got the fault that was logged


Sunday,04,July,2010,19:07:54:01291
VCDS Version: Release 10.6.0

                Address 01: Engine       Labels: 06F-907-115-AXX.lbl
Control Module Part Number: 1K0 907 115     HW: 1K0 907 115
  Component and/or Version: 2.0l R4/4V TFSI G00 0070
           Software Coding: 0403000318070160
            Work Shop Code: WSC 00632 210 83439
                      VCID: E3CE27BC5B3D
2 Faults Found:

000768 - Random/Multiple Cylinder Misfire Detected
               P0300 - 001 - Upper Limit Exceeded
             Freeze Frame:
                    Fault Status: 01100001
                    Fault Priority: 0
                    Fault Frequency: 1
                    Mileage: 69809 km
                    Time Indication: 0
                    Date: 2000.00.00
                    Time: 12:34:11

             Freeze Frame:
                    RPM: 4708 /min
                    Load: 87.8 %
                    Speed: 95.0 km/h
                    Temperature: 82.0°C
                    Temperature: 27.0°C
                    Absolute Pres.: 1000.0 mbar
                    Voltage: 14.097 V

000770 - Cylinder 2: Misfire Detected
               P0302 - 001 - Upper Limit Exceeded
             Freeze Frame:
                    Fault Status: 01100001
                    Fault Priority: 0
                    Fault Frequency: 1
                    Mileage: 69809 km
                    Time Indication: 0
                    Date: 2000.00.00
                    Time: 12:34:11

             Freeze Frame:
                    RPM: 4708 /min
                    Load: 87.8 %
                    Speed: 95.0 km/h
                    Temperature: 82.0°C
                    Temperature: 27.0°C
                    Absolute Pres.: 1000.0 mbar
                    Voltage: 14.097 V


Readiness: 0000 0000

Should i be presuming this is indeed a coil pack?  If so, should i replace just the one or all 4 and what about spark plugs?

The sparks were changes approx 6000 miles ago

Cheers

[SteveP]

To confirm its a coilpack you can try moving it to another cylinder to see if the fault follows it 

[bacillus]

IMO if one coilpack goes bad, it's best to replace all 4 at the same time.

[winrya]

Would you suggest coil pack is most likely at this point as I'd rather not drive it around at this point?!

[bacillus]

Would you suggest coil pack is most likely at this point as I'd rather not drive it around at this point?!

I would let G4V VW log the car.
You need to log, at minimum, blocks 015 and 016 and it should tell you whether or not a cylinder is misfiring.

[G4V VW]

Would you suggest coil pack is most likely at this point as I'd rather not drive it around at this point?!

I would let G4V VW log the car.
You need to log, at minimum, blocks 015 and 016 and it should tell you whether or not a cylinder is misfiring.

I'd be more than happy to if i knew how to use it properly 
Havn't had it long and only good at reading codes and changing a few options (xenon's, seat belt chime etc) at the moment 

If anyone can tell me how i will do this for Ryan 

[bacillus]

Just open vcds then click on the select button> click on 01-Engine> click on measuring blocks -08.
Put 015 in the first group box then click go. Do the same in the next lower box but use 016. After you've done that, click on Log at the bottom right corner.

Take the car to a clear bit of road and do a pull from 2 to 6.2k rpm in third gear. before you start click Start at the bottom of the screen and stop at the completion of the run. Then press done close. The file will be saved at C:\Ross Tech\logs. Post what you get here if you can't dechiper it. btw you must have Excel installed to view the file.

hth

[G4V VW]

Thanks pal, Everydays a school day for me 

I'll give it a shot if Ryan wants me to 

Gav

[winrya]

I'm thinking of swapping the coil pack, seeing if I can replicate the misfire and check if it has moved cylinder.

Do I need a special tool to remove the coil pack and is there a specific one i should swap cylinder 2 with or not.  Also, i presume they go left to right 1-4? 

Cheers guys and cheers Gav, looks like i may need your assistance again sorry

[bacillus]

Do I need a special tool to remove the coil pack

There is a dedicated tool to remove the coilpacks safely but it can be done without it by using a long nose pair of pliers.

[winrya]

Right, got the coil packs out in the end and swapped number 2 with 3.  Now I'm still getting the hesitation on full boost as it drops on and off.  However I cannot now get it to pop up a fault light

Is there any chance this could be my DV leaking boost or does a misfire definately point where I'd already been looking?

God this is frustrating

[winrya]

And also, should the coil packs look silver and shiny when used because neither were...

[PDT]

A light on the dash doesnt mean that the fault isnt there, read the codes and see if the missfire has swapped to the cylinder that you changed the coilpack to. A bit of discolouration is 100% normal, dont worry.

[winrya]

A light on the dash doesnt mean that the fault isnt there, read the codes and see if the missfire has swapped to the cylinder that you changed the coilpack to. A bit of discolouration is 100% normal, dont worry.

Thats good to hear ref the discolouration.   I didn't realise it logged a fault without a light on the dash.  When it was only occassional last thursday it didn't log any faults although it is much worse now.

If there are no faults do i need to start logging?

Thanks again,

Ryan