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Periods of rain. High 56F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch..
Partly cloudy skies during the evening will give way to cloudy skies overnight. Low 46F. Winds light and variable.
Last month, a new customer brought in her 2015 2.0-liter Volkswagen
GTI S. She said it had an engine coolant leak and the electronic power control (EPC) light was on. The customer noticed a small amount of coolant in the engine bay and had intermittently seen the EPC light go on the past few days.
First, I want to explain what the EPC light is. I spend a lot of time explaining complex systems, yet I’m pretty sure I have never mentioned the VW EPC light before.
If the car’s engine control module detects a problem, it has the option to limit certain systems from running at their peak. Two systems that can explain this are the car’s traction control and cruise control systems.
For instance, if the engine control module detects a misfire (ignition system), it can shut down cruise control or traction control. The traction control needs full power from the engine to operate properly. If the engine is down on power, the traction control cannot react properly, putting the car and its passengers in harm’s way.
Also, if an engine misfired for long periods of time, it could damage the engine or catalytic converter. We almost always use cruise control on long drives. Logically, the cruise control should be shut down so that the engine does not sustain serious damage. If the engine has a slight misfire and the cruise control is on, the driver may not even know that damage is being done.
The purpose of the EPC light is an early warning that deters the powertrain from more extensive damage. This type of early-warning protection is called “limp home mode.”
Once the customer’s car was in the shop, we connected the scanner and pulled fault codes. We pulled codes 15075 (cylinder disabling), 17178 (databus), 15131 (cylinder number 3) and 23652 (heater support pump). We knew we were looking for a power issue and a coolant leak.
Because this was the first time we worked on this car, we asked the customer for her service history. After studying the codes and checking the service history, we knew we had to pull spark plugs and check inside cylinder No. 3. The spark plugs were not that bad.
We then put a borescope inside cylinder No. 3 to look for carbon. There was carbon, leading us to be concerned about the injector, because of the cylinder disabling code. We also knew that we would have to check the water pump due to the heater support pump code. There was a strong possibility that the intake and exhaust valves would have a large amount of carbon buildup, based on the misfire and disabling codes. We then called the customer and got authorization to pull the intake manifold and check spark plugs for how bad the carbon was.
Once the intake manifold was off, we gained visual access to the water pump and the valves. We ran a resistance test on the auxiliary water pump and found it worn. We also discovered a large amount of carbon buildup on the intake valves, exhaust valves and injectors.
With the intake off, we pressure-tested the cooling system and found that the coolant leak was coming from the engine oil cooler. We then got authorization to replace the No. 3 injector, clean the intake and exhaust valves, and replace the water pump and engine oil cooler gasket.
After the repairs, we pressure-tested the cooling system again. There were no more coolant leaks, so we put everything back together. Once the car was running, we cleared codes, did a test-drive and ran all the monitors. The car ran great and passed all the end-of-line tests.
The interesting thing about this repair was that the check-engine light never came on. The car’s EPC system gave an early warning, so I guess it worked perfectly. Moral of the story: Never ignore the warning signs.
Matt Pataky owns Sunnyvale Foreign Car Service, 15 Pioneer Way, Mountain View. For more information, call (650) 960-6988, email sfcsmv@gmail.com or visit sunnyvaleforeigncar.com.
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