Emissions light on VW Polo - anything to panic about?

[A911DOM]

Ive had a mail from my G/F this morning saying that her Polo decided to play up on her way to work this morning.

It displayed the 'emissions' light on the dash and when she tried to accelerate fairly hard it kind of held back then shot off again...

Any ideas???

Cheers
Dom

[DieselJohn]

Possibly Lambda sensor failure? It's a petrol I'm guessing?

Edit to add: If it is, the worse case scenario is your cat will degrade, shouldn't happen instantly though. Trip to someone with a diagnostic computer is on the cards unfortunately.



>> Edited by DieselJohn on Thursday 20th April 10:45

[A911DOM]

DieselJohn said:

Possibly Lambda sensor failure? It's a petrol I'm guessing? Edit to add: If it is, the worse case scenario is your cat will degrade, shouldn't happen instantly though. Trip to someone with a diagnostic computer is on the cards unfortunately. >> Edited by DieselJohn on Thursday 20th April 10:45

Yeah, she's booked in to the garage at 4 today - Just trying to get an idea if its likely to have a financial 'impact'...

Cheers John.

[a2z]

Can't be sure if it was the emmisions light on our polo (it was a while ago) but the coil pack had gone (a warranty recall)

[A911DOM]

a2z said:

Can't be sure if it was the emmisions light on our polo (it was a while ago) but the coil pack had gone (a warranty recall)

Its only 3 year old so I guess this is a possible also...!?

Cheers.

[DieselJohn]

A911DOM said:

DieselJohn said: Possibly Lambda sensor failure? It's a petrol I'm guessing? Edit to add: If it is, the worse case scenario is your cat will degrade, shouldn't happen instantly though. Trip to someone with a diagnostic computer is on the cards unfortunately. >> Edited by DieselJohn on Thursday 20th April 10:45 Yeah, she's booked in to the garage at 4 today - Just trying to get an idea if its likely to have a financial 'impact'... Cheers John.

It could be any of a few other sensors as well, MAF or MAP.

I'm not really sure what the point of having seperate emissions and engine warning lights is. It's hard to think of something that affects one but not the other.



>> Edited by DieselJohn on Thursday 20th April 12:02