SEAT Leon (1999 - 2005) - 00 1.6 petrol engine cuts out

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Wed 2 Jan 2008 18:14
00 1.6 petrol engine cuts out - Mark_2513
I have a 2000 Leon 1.6 S Petrol.

First of all this has been an ongoing problem that seems to be getting worse and Seat claim that nothing is wrong with the car. The problem has been occurring since I changed my battery over.

The engine does not turn over without me giving lots of throttle, and when it does eventually turn over it cuts out straight away. I have to keep my foot on the throttle to keep the engine turning over. Once the engine has warmed up the idle sits just below 500 RPM but then as soon as I put the clutch down the rev counter just dies and I loose all control.

Has anyone got any ideas, I am really desperate as I do not feel safe driving the car any more.

Edited by Dynamic Dave on 02/01/2008 at 18:34

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Wed 2 Jan 2008 18:25
Engine cut out - Screwloose
Mark

If this is the AUS code 16-valve engine; then it's likely that the ECU has lost it's throttle body adaption and needs to relearn it.

If the dealer won't help; take it to anyone who understand VAG engines and has the right equipment to re-adapt it.
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Thu 3 Jan 2008 19:33
Engine cut out - Mark_2513
Thanks a lot.

The car is going to another garage tomorrow to have its code read. Hopefully it will come back with that code and we will finally know what the problem is. I have found the dealer to be so unhelpful. You dont know off the top of your head how much it roughly costs to sort the ECU out with this type of problem?
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Thu 3 Jan 2008 20:18
Engine cut out - Screwloose

It's not really a problem with the ECU itself; it's more of a learning issue. The ECU needs to re-learn the relative positions of the throttle plate so that it can accurately control the revs.

It's 15 minutes work for someone clued-up.
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Fri 4 Jan 2008 16:03
Engine cut out - Mark_2513
My car was seen today and I have been told that there was a fault with the vacuum sensor and the throttle sensor. For the two of these this would have been £160 which was reasonable, but then they looked at it further and as the car was not turning over without giving a lot of throttle and holding the throttle to keep it going they believe that it is the throttle body that has gone. Does this sound right to you?

They are looking at it on Monday and are going to clean it all up to see if this works, other than that they claim that I will need a whole new one which will cost just for the part £300 as they can only get them from Seat or VW, not good!!
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Fri 4 Jan 2008 16:35
Engine cut out - Screwloose

That sounds totally implausible. Wozza "vacuum sensor" when it's at home?

Throttle bodies can fail; but if they haven't cleaned it, then they haven't even re-adapted it yet! Saying it's faulty before those necessary steps smacks of guesswork!

Who are these people? Have they even got the tackle - or the know-how - to re-adapt it?
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