Dodgy engine repair with.. duct tape! (and a question)
Discussion
My son has recently bought a 2002 A3 1.6.
He went out on Saturday and it was running fine, got home and it was lumpy with the engine management light on.
So I had a look under the bonnet, and found that the rubber breather pipe running from the valve cover into the crank case had been repaired with duct tape!
There was a 1.5" piece of the pipe missing, and someone had simply made a "pipe" out of duct tape and joined the two pieces together.
And incredible piece of bodge work.
So, I inserted a piece of copper tube and a jubilee clip at each end - and fixed that.
My question is - will the engine management light reset by itself eventually, or will I need to get it reset at a garage?
He went out on Saturday and it was running fine, got home and it was lumpy with the engine management light on.
So I had a look under the bonnet, and found that the rubber breather pipe running from the valve cover into the crank case had been repaired with duct tape!
There was a 1.5" piece of the pipe missing, and someone had simply made a "pipe" out of duct tape and joined the two pieces together.
And incredible piece of bodge work.
So, I inserted a piece of copper tube and a jubilee clip at each end - and fixed that.
My question is - will the engine management light reset by itself eventually, or will I need to get it reset at a garage?
graham22 said:
Disconnect battery for 1/2 hour should sort light, used to work on my Ibiza? Will probably need to re-do auto windows function & re-code radio.
I read this on a another forum and tried it - but to no avail.And he doesn't have the radio code (I forgot to check) so now the radio is temporarily disabled!
TonyRPH said:
I read this on a another forum and tried it - but to no avail.
And he doesn't have the radio code (I forgot to check) so now the radio is temporarily disabled!
What car is it as you may be able to get the code online? I had a Mondeo a few years ago and with the help of the internet found the code for the radio.And he doesn't have the radio code (I forgot to check) so now the radio is temporarily disabled!
confused_buyer said:
If it is a generic OBD2 code (which it may be if the EML is on) a basic OBD code reader should reset it. If it is a VAG specific code it may not and you'll need the VW software to do it.
Is that right? My understanding (ie I might be wrong) was that a car of this age MUST be OBD 2 compliant and part of the OBD instruction set is a reset warning light?More likely the danger is that there is something else wrong (seems possible given the care its been looked after) and the light just returns?
balls-out said:
Is that right? My understanding (ie I might be wrong) was that a car of this age MUST be OBD 2 compliant and part of the OBD instruction set is a reset warning light?
More likely the danger is that there is something else wrong (seems possible given the care its been looked after) and the light just returns?
The car has well documented history, with every repair bill since new. I have a feeling that the previous (one) owner just gave up with this last problem, and hence it was bodged so as not to incur the cost of a couple of new hoses.More likely the danger is that there is something else wrong (seems possible given the care its been looked after) and the light just returns?
At least, I hope so!
Since repairing the hose myself, it drives absolutely fine, and the idle problem has gone away too, so I'm pretty sure that once the light is reset it should be ok.
Dr Doofenshmirtz said:
Clearly the lack of cable ties is the main issue here.
hedgefinder said:
not sure where abouts in north yorkshire you are, but if you arent far from Durham pop up and i should be able to reset it with my OBDII tool. it has all bmw and vw specific software.
I'm in Leeds - quite far away I think!! Thanks for the offer though.lufbramatt said:
Have to say I did the exact same gaffer tape bodge a couple of weeks ago on my Dad's old Passat. VW wanted silly money for a 10 inch long rubber breather hose so it's staying like that until I get round to fixing it with some rubber hose and a copper T fitting.
Problem here was, the duct tape was wrapped around... well, nothing but fresh air, so there wasn't even a split pipe underneath the tape - there was nothing there!As a result, when it got hot, manifold vacuum sucked it together, and it then got separated from the two halves of pipe.
Also check out VAG-Com from Ross-tech - there's a limited free version you can download, in combination with a cable off eBay for under a tenner. Lots swear by the full version (around £80) but I think I'm right in saying that the free one will turn off the light for you. I can't be sure as my diagnostic socket has a problem so it won't talk to my car (and neither will a proper Snap-on one, or the main dealers one).
I had a similar problem on my TT recently, a split in one of the many breather pipes gave erratic idle and lambda readings off the scale. Took me ages to get around to fixing it, for no other reason than the appalling lack of access to either end of the pipe.
I had a similar problem on my TT recently, a split in one of the many breather pipes gave erratic idle and lambda readings off the scale. Took me ages to get around to fixing it, for no other reason than the appalling lack of access to either end of the pipe.
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