SEAT Toledo Auto Power loss

Engine earth strap? Not sure where it is on these cars, but I had a Cavalier which intermittently lost power in wet weather before eventually breaking down and refusing to restart. After some searching for the problem and much head scratching we noticed clouds of steam coming from the area of the gearbox, which turned out to be the wet, corroded and overheating earth strap.

Difficult to diagnose without trying the car, but it sounds like you have the usual 20v coil pack failure. Has the car ever been back to the dealer for replacement coils? If not, then this is your problem. When they fail the ECU sences this and shuts down the affected cylinders and in cases will enter limp mode which does restrict rpm to 3000rpm or less.

Tim..

I have the full service history and there is no mention of coils being replaced.

I took the car back to the garage today and they plugged in their fault finding computer and this seems to suggest that it is either a coil problem or that there is something wrong with an air sensor .

It looks like you might be right! Your explanation certainly makes sense. Are coil problems common on the Seat Toledo and does damp weather make it worse?

Cheers,

Bren

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Coil problems are *very* common on all VAG 4cylinder engines, especially the

20v and turbo engines. There was a non-critical recall for all cars with the 20v engines back in late 2001 --> late 2003 for replacement of the packs, although most fail before the recall. They usually just fail on one or two cylinders, end of story, rather than coming and going depending on weather conditions. In all probability yours will do this in time. I would advise against driving the car when its misfiring any distance or at much speed as there is a danger you'll knacker the catalyst.

So this covers all VAG cars, Golfs, Passats, TT's, Seat Ibiza , Toledo's, etc etc etc.

Dis-regard the AMM meter problem at the moment, until the coil pack has been replaced. A faulty pack can cause the ECU to set a fault code for the AMM.

However the AMM's fail with worrying regularity also, so there is a possibility yours is faulty anyhow. Replace the coil pack, clear the fault codes, drive the car for abit then recheck for any new fault codes.

Symptoms of a failed AMM are very lacklustre performance (though no misfiring) especially higher up the rev range- most noticable when overtaking.

Tim..

Sorry Tim, but you are talking to a novice here. What's an AMM? I guess an ECU is an engine control unit? but I could be wrong. So, is the ECU the chip that controls the engine and the AMM the hand-held computer that reads the ECU?

Since this problem started I guess I have driven the car in 'Limp-mode' less than 20 miles although about 6 or 7 of these have probably been at full possible revs under limp mode - about 3000 rpm as you say.

Do you think this would be enough to knacker the catalyst? There's only about 35,000 on the clock and the car is a W reg so I hope this won't cost an arm and a leg!

Also, if I can't fix it myself and take it into a garage, how do you think they would react if I gave them a print-out of your post?

Do words like shove, a**e, print-out and up, come to mind ;-)

What I mean is, would they think I was trying to tell them how to do their job?

Cheers,

Bren

AMM = Air mass meter- you refered to it in your previous post. Ecu is the engine control unit as you say. VAG- volkswagen Audi Groupe.

Anyhow, who and what is your "garage"? If they are local / independant of any compatance and service a number of VW's they should already be aware of the coil pack problem.

That ought to depict the tack you take with them.

Tim..

Without naming any names, they seem to be very reputable - the RAC recommend them to their customers when they cannot fix a fault by the roadside. They also repair RAC vehicles and the last time I was in there they had a police car on the ramp.

Bren

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My is manual gear if engage the gear it will but my turtle pedal is not working just moving on running slow

If it turns turtle it isn't going to go very fast on its roof!