VW POLO: engine control unit

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

VOLKSWAGEN ELECTRONICS

Electronics has taken over the modern day car, a trend that started prior to 1994. Since then motor vehicle electronics technology has taken on a completely different form. With the advent of OBD (On-Board Diagnostics) there has been strides to standardize automotive electronics in all vehicles with relative success. With the arrival OBD II automotive electronics standardization was close to uniform, however there were other derivatives, among which was EOBD (European OBD). Thereafter, CAN-Bus was introduced which is now the defacto standard for all cars built after 2008 internationally. All cars built from 2012 only sports CAN-Bus, and are not backward compatible to older ODB II protocols, like KWP2000 for example. This move implies every auto technicians who financially invested in ODB II scanners will have to get the latest equipment in order to scan the latest cars. Just look at the Audi Q7 with its 50+ electronic modules all of which are CAN-Bus only.

Audi Q7 has more than 50 Electronic Modules.

The hexadecimal list of Electronic Modules below are just an idea of what can be expected in current and future motor vehicles many of them having as many as 24 different module versions, many modules are incompatible with the various models of Audi, VW, Skoda and SEAT, each with its own features and coding.

01: Engine

02: Auto Trans

03: ABS Brakes

05: Acc/Start Authorization

06: Seat Memory - Pass Side

07: Control Head

08: HVAC

09: Electrical Control

0E: Media Player 1

0F: Digital Radio

10: Park/Steer Assist

11: Engine II

13: Auto Dist. Regulation

14: Susp. Elect

15: Airbags

16: Steering Wheel

17: Instruments

18: Aux. Heater

19: CAN Gateway

1B: Active Steering

1E: Media Player 2

20: High beam assist

22: All Wheel Drive

25: Immobilizer

28: Heating / Air Conditioning (Rear)

2E: Media Player 3

30: Special Functions II

34: Level Control

36: Driver's Seat

37: Navigation

3C: Lane Change

3D: Special Function

42: Door Elect, Driver

46: Central Convenience

47: Sound System

4F: Centr. Electr. II

52: Door Elect, Pass

53: Parking Brake

55: Headlight Range

56: Radio

57: TV Tuner

5C: Lane Maintenance

5F: Information Electr.

61: Battery Regul.

62: Door, Left Rear

65: Tire Pressure Monitor

67: Voice Control

69: Trailer Controller

6C: Back-Up Camera

6D: Trunk Electronics

6F: Comfort System II

72: Door, Right Rear

76: Park Assist

77: Telephone

AUDI : - SOME ENGINE CONTROL UNITS AND CODINGS

Engine:

Controller: 8E0 909 518 A,
Coding: 0011581 or 0016711

Controller: 8E0 909 518 AA

Coding: 0011501

Controller: 8E0 909 518 AC
Coding: 0004501 / 0004581

Controller: 8E0 909 518 AF
Coding: 0016701 / 0016751 / 0016581

Controller: 8E0 909 518 AK
Coding: 0016711 / 0016751 / 0016501

Controller: 8E0 909 518 AL
Coding: 0011584

Controller: 8E0 909 518 AS
Coding: 0011511

Controller: 8E0 909 518 AQ
Coding: 0011501

Controller: 8E0 909 518 F
Coding: 0016701 or 0016751

Controller: 8E0 909 518 G
Coding: 0016581

AUDI Automatic Transmission
codings will be covered in Future Blogs.

VIN Number identification
will also be covered in Future Blogs.

Volkswagen’s new modular architecture
will also be covered in Future Blogs.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

WHY ENGINE LIGHT COMES ON

EPC LIGHT

Seeing a VW or a Volkswagen or Polo da Volkswagen or a VAG car or a new Polo on tow, is becoming an all too familiar site, - view picture below. VW cars are seen piggy-backed and carried to service centers on a daily bases because VW owners are encountering serious trouble with their Volkswagen cars.

Many Volkswagen drivers are often stranded on the high ways or freeways whilst driving to and from work because their VAG cars are throwing tantrums, by going into limp mode and turning on the EPC light. Most VW drivers have no idea why engine light comes on.

I've been late for meetings on several occasions because of this. On a few others, I couldn't make it to the bank in time because the Electronic Power Control -EPC- circuit incapacitated my VW Polo Classic 2.0L Highline. The worst was when I took my daughter to the dialysis clinic and the Electronic Power Control (EPC) light came on, because I ran over a speed bump a little too fast. This resulting in "Limp Mode" causing my daughter to be substantially late for her dialysis session. This could have been a life or death situation but fortunately it wasn't.

I took this photo with my cell phone. The picture quality really isn't good, so therefore the
Bluemotion badge to the left of the right side tail light isn't clear at all. But I couldn't pass-up
the opportunity to capture a VW Bluemotion 2012 loaded on a roll-back.

Anyway, lets look at why this very risky and inconvenient issue haunts most VAG car owners. All Drive-by-Wire cars (since 2000) has an Electronic Power Control (EPC) light. The EPC dashboard warning lights are not exclusive to VW or VAG cars but affects most other new cars regardless of its manufacturer though the common denominator is Drive-by-Wire and an Engine Control Unit (ECU) often called the Powertrain Control Module (PCM) with an embedded microcontroller supplied by the same manufacturer. EPC stands for Electronic Power Control which is controlled by the ECU (Engine Control Unit). In essence the Engine Control Unit (ECU) is a microcontroller with associated circuitry which control the sub-modules in the car, all connected together by either OBD II or CAN-Bus. Certain outputs from these sub-modules can activate the Electronic Power Control circuit, especially if the reason for sending its signals to the ECU (Engine Control Unit) could cause damage to the engine or is a danger to the passengers. For example, if the car runs out of oil, or if the emissions exceed the prescribed level, or if the car hits a speed bump a little to hard or if a brake bulb fails.

In the first case the oil level sensor will detect that the lack of oil in the crankcase and since there is a possibility the engine may seize-up, it sends a pulse train to the PCM to activate the Electronic Power Control (EPC), which cuts the power to the engine, making the car go into "Limp Mode" and switching on the EPC warning light. In the second case the lambda sensors on either side of the catalytic converter will detect the fuel rich exhaust fumes and send a pulse train to the PCM to activate the Electronic Power Control (EPC), which cuts the power to the engine making the car go into "Limp Mode", thereby limiting carbon pollution and and switch on the EPC indicator light (epc warning light) . In the third case the engine knock sensors will detect the suspension knock as the car hits the speed bump and will send a pulse train to the PCM to activate the Electronic Power Control (EPC), which cuts the power to the engine making the car go into "Limp Mode" and switch on the EPC dashboard light. In the fourth case, one of the Electronic Control Unit or Body Control Modules (BCM) sensor will sense that a brake light is open-circuit, send a pulse train to the PCM to activate the Electronic Power Control (EPC), which cuts the power to the engine making the car go into "Limp Mode" because in that condition the car is not roadworthy. The EPC dashboard light is a very graphic demonstration that there is something amiss in you VAG that needs to be remedied.

There are several other sensors strewn throughout the car and many of them can have an effect on the Engine Control Unit (ECU) and cause the EPC light to come on. Sometimes when the EPC fault light comes on, it may be a spurious error, based on past driving cycles. A driving cycle is calculated from the time the engine starts and drives -which should be a min 5 minutes- until the engine is switched off. It could take three drive cycles to clear a spurious error but if the fault persists it has to be diagnosed on a VAG-COM diagnostic tester.

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