Engine management light question.

[Golfgirl]

I did quite a long journey today and this morning the car seemed to judder a few times on hard acceleration. Not every time, just every now and then.  No lights came on at the time and apart from the juddering the car was driving as normal.  It did this a few times, each time under hard acceleration.

On my return journey this afternoon it happened again a couple of times.  I then tried to make it happen so I could try and work out what it could be.  A couple of times the engine management light flashed a few times then went out, but then it came on and stayed on.  No messages appeared on the display, just the light.  It remains on now when I turn the ignition on.

There is no loss of power (except when the juddering happens) and under normal driving conditions it is fine.  It's just when I give it a bit of welly that it happens. 

Any idea a) what it could be (the manual suggests an exhaust system fault)  and b) if it is ok to drive the car still? And more importantly c) is it likely to be expensive?

I have a friend with VAG COM who is going to scan it for me hopefully tomorrow (but may be the weekend).  As soon as I know any fault codes etc. I'll post them up, but any ideas for the time being?

[B1NCC 1.8T]

Sounds like a faulty coil pack the way you have described it.
Has your car been to the dealer for the coil pack recall??

Even the new "modified" ones can cause problems/missfires

[Golfgirl]

No it hasn't been back for the recall, although it has been in at the dealers for a service and MOT so surely would have been checked for recalls when it was in? Either it wasn't checked or mine is one that's not affected. 

[sub39h]

sounds like a coil pack to me too. they're easy to replace yourself so i'd just get someone local to you with VCDS to look for any misfires on the log and then change the coil pack from that cylinder to another cylinder and see if the fault code follows it

if it does then swap it out for a new one 

[Golfgirl]

Just had my car VAG-COM'd and the following faults found:

000768 Random/multiple cylinder misfire detected.  Upper limit exceeded.  Intermittent fault.  Fault priority 2.
000769 Cylinder 1 misfire detected.

A couple of other non-related fault codes also came up, but the ones of concern are the above.

Anybody know what fault priority 2 means?

[Thor]

Looks like a coil pack is starting to fail, i'd change the one on cylinder 1 and buy a spare too, and keep it in the car.

I think the fault priority shows if the vehicle is safe to drive, ergo, orange engine light on dash is still ok to drive but don't use high engine revs and if it's really serious the engine management light comes up red and you must stop immediately. 

[rich83]

When did you last change the spark plugs?

With misfires you should do the following.....

Replace all spark plugs.

Test car, on full throttle for misfires.

If misfire still persists then change the coilpack on the effected cylinder.

[john87]

I had this,  took spark plugs out and cylinder 1 spark plug (drivers' side) was cooked. Took it to a VW specialist who said that this is a common fault with this model...the washer jet causes water to drip down into the coilpack area and it runs down into the coil below (cylinder 1). The car runs fine again on new plugs and lasted to 34k without this problem being apparent... didn't have to replace coil pack (not yet anyway)

[Golfgirl]

Thanks for the help guys.  Car is booked in a week today for diagnosis

[rich83]

You don't need diagnostics... You need new spark plugs. ;-)

[Golfgirl]

Diagnosis and remedy then   IIRC the spark plugs have been replaced in the last 12 months but I can't find the paperwork at the mo

[Golfgirl]

It was coilpack number 1