[Biturbos4] EPC Light on dash

[Wilson Northrup]

i had this as well, i actually replced the pedal (i donm't remember how 
much, about $80 at clairparts?) but that did not solve the problem.  For 
me i actually cleaned all the contacts at the thortle body, pedal and 
computer, in addition to cleaning the throttle body itself.

I've been OK since... and now i have two good pedals. i guess it could 
have been worse.
wilson


On Thu, 21 Sep 2006, Grant Lenahan wrote:

> I dont have the bentley, so I cant help further there. But I do know 
> something about the EPC. I also believe that the official Audi position is at 
> least incomplete, bordering on wrong.
>
> EPC is electronic pedal control, aka fly by wire.  It is made up of two 
> sensors - one on the gas pedal, one on the throttle butterfly stepper motor, 
> and of course of the stepper controller itself.
>
> EPC comes on when an error is detected in that system. It stays on until you 
> restart the car. During that period the car will often go into limp (safe) 
> mode. Barely driveable.
>
> Often this condition get progressively worse, until its happening several 
> times a day.
>
> Audi wanted about $1000 + labor to replace each part.  I winced and did some 
> thinking.  I believe that this comes from dirt or carbon build-up on any of 3 
> places:  throttle body (impeding the butterfly); throttle sensor race; 
> stepper motor controller race.  This is similar to the buildups that occurred 
> on old carbon-composition potentiometers (volume controls). The solution 
> there was to either 1) clean them with solvent, or, especially if hard to get 
> apart, just rotate it through its entire range of motion many times quickly, 
> the wipe away build up.
>
> I did 2 things on my 00 S4 after this became intolerable:
>
> 1) cleaned the throttle body with gummout
> 2) did an "italian tune up" - intentionally finding lots of opportunities to 
> get the throttle wide-open and then closed again. Unlike a traditional 
> Italian tune-up, the goal is not to run the engine to high revs, but to make 
> the butterfly, and both sensors move through their range of motion.
>
> Never reoccurred.
>
> QED.
>
> Grant
>
> ps: my particular code was generally "implausible throttle angle"
> Maybe just a commentary on my driving, btu I think not
>
> On Sep 20, 2006, at 10:32 PM, Brent Henry wrote:
>
>> The EPC light came on in my 2000 S4 last week.  Would like to find out some
>> more information on what that is.  I dumped the codes and found 2 codes
>> related to it...
>> 
>> 18098 - Malfunction Indicator Light (K83) P1690
>> 18084 - EPC Warning Light (K132) P1676
>> 
>> I looked it up in the Bentley and could not find anything on these codes???
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Brent.
>> 
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