Ect Pwr Light

[nicenic61]

Chupsters,

Got my Mk4 LPG through it's first MOT today for £280, new parking brake cable needed, no other advisories, pleasantly surprised given that I'd bought it against all recommendations from a dodgy dealer in Slough 2 months ago, good price though. Pleased to note that 'headlamp leveling' fault is not part of an MOT, ha ha! Apparantly, LPG forms part of the MOT test from next Spring so all garages have got to buy leak testing kits etc.

Ect Pwr light flashes on occasionally. Switching between Ect, Pwr and Snow mode doesn't seem to alter performance in any way. Runs like a tractor on petrol when cold, better on LPG all the time but LPG consumption is quite low, 16-18 round town and only 25 on a long run. Is there any obvious way of telling if it's in Pwr mode all the time? I suspect it's just a dodgy switch but the mpg is a bit daunting, a service is perhaps needed. Your thoughts, as always....

Thanks,

Nic

[ambermarine]

Chupsters,

Got my Mk4 LPG through it's first MOT today for £280, new parking brake cable needed, no other advisories, pleasantly surprised given that I'd bought it against all recommendations from a dodgy dealer in Slough 2 months ago, good price though. Pleased to note that 'headlamp leveling' fault is not part of an MOT, ha ha! Apparantly, LPG forms part of the MOT test from next Spring so all garages have got to buy leak testing kits etc.

Ect Pwr light flashes on occasionally. Switching between Ect, Pwr and Snow mode doesn't seem to alter performance in any way. Runs like a tractor on petrol when cold, better on LPG all the time but LPG consumption is quite low, 16-18 round town and only 25 on a long run. Is there any obvious way of telling if it's in Pwr mode all the time? I suspect it's just a dodgy switch but the mpg is a bit daunting, a service is perhaps needed. Your thoughts, as always....

Thanks,

Nic

There is I think some misunderstanding here of what the ect power switch actually does.As far as the Mark 1 goes and I have no reason to believe that it is any different on the later marks is hold the gear that the car kicks down to when you gun the throttle, say in a overtaking manouvere .This is a safety feature that makes sure the car does not lose any forward acceleration by changing up into the next gear as would normally happen without the ect power enabled, that way the passing distance speed you have estimated to do the overtaking is maintained and not dibilatated by the lapse of acceleration caused by a gear change.

So to check wether it is on or off is simple, just gun the pedal and if it stays in the kick down gear whilst still accelerating it is on ,if the car changes up a gear then it is off.

As for the snow well that feature was not on the Mark 1 which means my car as never seen snow since the first time I tried to drive it on snow ,the experience terrified me that much I still have nightmares over it sixteen years later.