EPC Light and loss of drive

[Aggers90]

Hello everyone. I am very puzzled right now with my 2012 VW Sharan 1.4TSI. My wife and I were driving home on Sunday evening along the M4 and all of a sudden I got the EPC light come up and the car lost all drive. I gradually rolled to a stop (thankfully in an SOS layby as the stretch I was on had no hard shoulder.) When we reached a stop, the engine cut out, and wouldn’t restart, or at least it would restart for about a second and then immediately die. During the 13 hour process between breaking down and being recovered to our nearest VW specialist garage and then home (thanks for nothing AA - that’s a whole other story) between the highways agency recovery driver, the AA recovery driver that eventually showed and me, we had all tried restarting the car on several occasions, and it reached a point where the starter would just turn and there would be no attempt whatsoever to fire. I plugged in my reader and got a load of fault codes coming up, all pointing to fuelling issues. There was:

P3073 (Status pending)

P3044 (Status pending)

P2293 (Fuel pressure regulator 2 - performance problem)

10062 (P304400 Fuel Pump Short Circuit)

10063 (Fuel pump Electrical error in circuit

4363 (P055600: Brake Booster Pressure Sensor Circuit Range/Performance and another possible decryption according to my reader is Fuel pressure control valve -N276 interruption) - if the former, this is odd as this error came up last year and in November/December time at its service (a different garage) they investigated this upon my request having had an intermittently appearing EML for it; their remedy was to replace the sensor, which leads me to believe that there is something more with the electrics given that this fault code has returned more than once since that sensor replacement and without displaying any dashboard EML (either a temperamental ECU or short circuits in the wiring somewhere are my thoughts now…)

2838 (P008700 Fuel Rail/System Pressure - Too Low - another possible decryption is Solonoid valve Servotronic-N119; Solonoid valve for Servotronic-N119.

4270 (P003300 Turbo Charger Bypass Valve Control Circuit, and another possible decryption: Current sensor for magnetic coupling for mech. Charger electrical failure.

So… lots relating to fuel there unsurprisingly. Anyway, at the VW “specialist” they pushed my car into the workshop when it arrived and after I’d left the workshop, it started straight up. They plugged in their reader and no fault codes were present at all. They’re telling me to take it back and drive it and see how I get on. I left it with them to further investigate, but given their lack of willing to call me and me calling them every other day having heard nothing at all on the days in between for updates only to find that no details of findings have been left with their receptionist today and that they’ll be speaking to the technician on Monday, I’m beginning to think that I’m getting nowhere with this garage and that this isn’t good enough - I’m damned if I’m going to risk another 13 hours in the middle of the night waiting to get recovered… so… the matter as always and probably after great expense and no resolution transfers to my own hands.

 

Anyway, I made the suggestion to the garage that it was perhaps a wiring short somewhere as I have weirdly been experiencing some unusual things happening with my fuel gauge recently and since the same garage replaced the leaking high pressure fuel pump only about 5 months previously. The gauge would sometimes read say 1/3 of a tank remaining and 180 miles of fuel left let’s say, and then on a restart, suddenly red on the gauge and 0 miles of fuel. I’m not saying that this is linked as I don’t know how all the fuel system wiring is routed in the Sharan. Anyone know of why all of the above might have happened? The garage are basically saying that if it’s not something they can find on a fault reader, they can’t do anything about it… Sounds like yet another garage I need to abandon for inadequacy… 

 

Thinking of getting shot of the car, but it’s a shame as I do essentially like the car. Any thoughts greatly appreciated!

[Volkswagen Owners Club]

Oh goodness that is a mixed bunch of faults

As you say, my first thoughts were wiring issues.
I would start at the battery terminals and leads including the all important earth leads and connections and go from there.
If you can get it running then do a 'wiggle test' which is wiggling any wires and connections to invoke the fault and bingo there is your problem area

Let us know what you find