Gs300 Mkii Engine Warning And Vsc Lights On

Geedub · July 6, 2012

I've only had the car 7 days and all of a sudden this afternoon the engine warning light and VSC off lights came on whilst descending a steep hill. The car went into limp mode.

I pulled off the road and turned off the ignition. On restarting the car, there's no warning lights and the car is running beautifully again - a 10 mile drive back home displayed no further issues.

My mood changes from panic to confusion at that point ;) This was a cheap car (albeit in lovely nick for a '98), so I don't want to spend money on it unless I have to - on the other hand I need to be able to trust this thing as I do occasionally drive long distances and it'll be a while before I can afford to buy something newer.

Any ideas?

Geedub · July 7, 2012

Update: Well, have driven it around quite a bit today and it's been fine, so I'm going to assume it was a sensor glitch unless it happens again (or anyone knows different).

steve2006 · July 7, 2012

Electronic gizmos as you say sometimes do strange things and then behave perfectly again, if switching off and restarting has cleared the issue you may be OK.

There is a known issue with the GS300 brake system which is unusual in that it uses a pump and accumulator for the power assistance instead of the normal approach of a brake booster/servo unit but keep you fingers crossed it's not that.

There should be a stored code in the memory which if you have another episode can be read to assist in diagnosis.

Geedub · July 8, 2012

Thanks - would the brake accumulator problem light the engine warning and VSC lights and not anything else though? Certainly the brakes feel fine and did even during this episode - and I'm not getting the noises that others have reported (it's one of the things I was careful to listen out for when I bought the car).

ColinBarber · July 8, 2012

The brakes do feel fine with the accumulator/pump fault, unless it gets really bad, but you lose VSC and ABS. You are correct though, you will also get a warning alarm sound too so it sounds like something else in your case. It could be a 101 different things, if it happens again you will need to obtain the fault code to at least gain a start to diagnosing the issue.

Geedub · July 9, 2012

Thanks again, guys - you've been very helpful!

No ABS light and the problem hasn't recurred, but I'll get the fault codes checked out in due course. :)

FWIW I'm completely sold on this car - it's even quieter than my Audi A8 was and just as comfortable. Lovely old thing. I will be in the frame for a more recent one in about a year.