Volkswagen Jetta Junkies banner

2001 Jetta MK4 1.8T EPC & ASR Lights

13K views 7 replies 4 participants last post by  mothemak 
#1 ·
Hi,

I have gone through every post that I could, trying to find a solution to this problem. I bought my wife this car & it ran fine for a few months, then back on Feb. 10th the EPC & ASR light came on & it went into limp mode. This first happened on a very cold morning - something that is very unusual for So. Texas...but it was the coldest day of winter.

I had to drive to an appointment & after I drove it for a while & the engine heated up it started to run fine again & the EPC & ASR lights went off after I turned the ignition off & then on again. But, I have had the problem off & on ever since. And like many other people, turning the ignition on & off would make the lights go off & sometimes not. When the lights come on, sometimes it goes into limp mode, some times it doesn't...sometimes the engine will surge up & down at idle, but it still has some power. It is very strange!

The codes are P0121 & P0221

I have heard that if the ASR warning light comes on, you can just push the ASR button on the dash to turn it back on, but the ASR switch on the dash, does not turn on, when you push it. Does that have any bearing on the problem?

I keep hearing all the horror stories about people pouring $$$ into problems like these, just to have the problem come back in a week or so...something is just not right about all of this. I have never owned a car that did anything like this. I am beginning to wonder if VW may have some sort of scam, like a built-in "failure mode" that kicks in so people have to keep pouring large amounts of money into fixing it.

I DO have both a Scan Tool & a Vag-Com.

Anyway...we think our Jetta is a really great car...we bought it because we were very impressed with it...now we are concerned that we made a bad decision. Any advice would be helpful. If you need any more info please let me know!
Thanks!
 
See less See more
#2 ·
I thought it was odd that no one replied back to offered me any help with the above problem, but I was able to fix this without it costing me any money, apart from the Scan Tool & Vag-Com I already had purchased, although I didn't need either to fix this problem.

Believe it or not, I tried the "Hood & door open, ignition switch on, engine off" method (minus the "chicken dance") & waited for the Throttle Body to finish making its clicking, opening & closing, etc. It has been over a month now & the car hasn't had any problem since. All codes are gone & now the car runs like a champ!
 
#3 ·
The above "method" didn't last long after I last posted...I started having the same problem again sometime later. I just recently was able to really fix it, without buying a new "Throttle Body" from VW for $800. I took the TB off of the engine, disconnecting the electrical connector, vacuum hose & removing the clamp & 4 bolts. Then I removed the 6 clips that hold the cover onto the side of the TB. Once I opened the case, I cleaned the 3 resistor pads with rubbing alcohol & cotton swab, then let it dry. I also carefully bent the little metal contacts down a little more to give the contacts better contact to the pads. They are fragile, so be careful! Then I put the TB back together & re-installed it on the engine. Then I used VCDS-Lite to re-align the TB according to the instructions on the Ross-Tech web site. Once re-aligned, the problem was gone.

Another thing I found helpful is to disconnect the TB electrical connector with the car key in the "on" position...wait a minute, then plug the connector back in.
I hope this helps somebody!
 
#4 ·
Hi, im new to this site but read your post and Im experiencing the same issues, i have a 2001 1.8t wolfsburg ed, i just bought my jetta a few weeks ago, after driving for a few weeks it would randomly kick on the epc light and asr light together and go into limp mode, cycling the key off then on would turn off the epc and bring it out of limp mode and doing it a second time would also turn off the asr light. The asr button and function works properly except when the epc light turns on the button has no effect on the light. The car also randomly runs rough when cold. I read your post on what u did and removed the tb connector with the key on then waited and plugged it back in. The problem dissapeared for about a week then came back. So the next step is cleaning the contact pads and/orbending the pads slightly but i was unfamiliar with the vcds-lite or rosstech system and i didnt want to take anything apart before i had the equipment if it needed recalibrated or realigned. What is the vcds-lite and rosstech? Ty for reading
 
#5 ·
First buy a generic USB OBD-II cable off of ebay for about $16, then go to Ross-Tech.com. You can get VCDS-Lite there...it is free to download & you scan the car, but it must be registered (costs $99) to do any alignments. But I guess it is worth the cost, since apparently it is a must need, as opposed to having to go to VW dealership with this problem & have them tell you the TB needs to be replaced!
 
#8 ·
The EPC light means "Electronic Power Control". It comes on when something is wrong with one of the systems. You will have to hook a OBD-II code reader\scan tool onto the car computer & pull whatever code is making the EPC light stay on. If you do not own one, you can go to Autoazone & they usually will read your car codes for free
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top