ESP light & irratic idle

[Rusty]

Hi folks,
can you help?
I was driving to work the other day when all of a sudden the engine management light & ESP light came on and had no throttle response. I stopped the car & turned igition off & back on. The management light went out & throttle response came back but the ESP light has stayed on.
I have now noticed that if you rev the car in neutral and then let it idle, the revs dip to around 450rpm then settle at 850rpm. Apart from that the car seems to be driving as normal.
Can anyone shed any light on this problem.

Cheers
Rusty

[DuncS3]

is it under warranty and do you have VAG-COM? VAG-COM should tell you what is wrong, because if the CEL light came on, it shoudl of registered a fault code.

Of the top of my head it may be a coil pack...

Dunc

[swinello]

try checking the small bore rubber vacum pipe that comes out of the top of the dump valve,this pipe is interconnected to various sensors that connect to the vacum side of the esp system{and so the light comes on},basically its losing its vacum and that pipe is one of the weakpoints due to its location and the possibility of a dump valve change as some people pull this pipe off with vigor it gets a little fatiged, then again it may be one of the other small bore pipes in the vacinity,unfortunaly if it isnt under warranty the dealer may charge you for looking at the problem replacing something you don"t really need and then not telling you the real problem so you have no idea what it is for future reference,i would say have 20 minutes poke about and you may save yourself some money but more importantly time

[MK4ASH]

I've seen this before, its most likely to be your air mass meter. try un-plugging it from your air box and see how it drives. it should fly again but the light may stay on because of the logged fault. You'll have 2 use VAG.COM or take it to a stealer to get it erazed.

Ash

[david7m]

Mine has done that a few times, almost got me crushed on dual carriage way the first time

With mine its something to do with the cruise control, as it only does this when on cruise, was yours? I also have three different maps interchangebale via the cruise control, and think this is related.

I haven't solved the problem deliberately, but have changed these itmes to correct an acceleration problem; four coil packs, MAF, divertor valve, sparkplugs and fuel filter.

But what fixed my problem last week, was having the throttle bodies cleaned !! The car has done almost 40k, and the ADT said they need cleaning at 30k, especially if chipped (running more boost) and have an after market airfilter, as I do.

Car now goes really well, and strong when it comes on boost.

It must of deteriated over time, and this instant fix has made me well chuffed

[david7m]

Forgot to say, it never logged a fault code either !