EPC light?

Sometimes when I "start" my eGolf, I get an "EPC" light on the dash, and then when I put it into drive or reverse, the accelerator pedal does nothing (scary, because the car just rolls back, while I'm pressing the pedal).

Has anyone had this happen, and/or do you know the rhyme or reason to "EPC"? I have two running theories:
1) it happens when the charger door is open
2) it happens if I pressed "start" without having my foot on the brake?

idris said:

Sometimes when I "start" my eGolf, I get an "EPC" light on the dash, and then when I put it into drive or reverse, the accelerator pedal does nothing (scary, because the car just rolls back, while I'm pressing the pedal).

Has anyone had this happen, and/or do you know the rhyme or reason to "EPC"? I have two running theories:
1) it happens when the charger door is open
2) it happens if I pressed "start" without having my foot on the brake?

Click to expand...

I haven't had anything like this. What is "EPC" light?

idris said:

Sometimes when I "start" my eGolf, I get an "EPC" light on the dash, and then when I put it into drive or reverse, the accelerator pedal does nothing (scary, because the car just rolls back, while I'm pressing the pedal).

Has anyone had this happen, and/or do you know the rhyme or reason to "EPC"? I have two running theories:
1) it happens when the charger door is open
2) it happens if I pressed "start" without having my foot on the brake?

Click to expand...

It happened to me too although not to my wife who drives the car most of the time. EPC is Electronic Performance Computer...or something similar... and is an alarm on all Golfs (VW's?) We put it down to the start procedure, as it appears you have already discovered, starting the car without putting foot on brake pedal first will bring up the EC alarm and the car's not going anywhere!

I had this happen. Car wouldn't go and power steering was dead. The yellow EPC warnng light itos NOT in the manual under warning lights. I had restart several times but finally got home

On searching this forum for EPC, I find you have to put your foot on the brake before starting. Going to the overlong manual, I find you do indeed put you foot on the brake before starting, but there's nothing about what happens if you don't and no mention of EPC

Ron

Just had this start happening to me, exactly as you describe, though I'm fairly sure I had my foot on the break as I usually do, my Q5 won't shift from park without it...

Make sure your foot is firmly on the brake (you don't have to stomp down on it). If you do this, car will start every time. Even though I know this, I still get the EPC thing every once in a while.

Agreed, and it still happens to me occasionally too... just to be clear, the important part is that you have to have your foot already on the brake before you push *start*; having your foot on the brake before shifting out of Park isn't good enough.

Unlike with the Leaf, where I only need to touch the brake up until the very first part of the startup chime, with the eGolf I find I need to keep my foot on the brake considerably longer. Basically, I don't take my foot off the brake until the moment I feel the brake pedal sink a little.

I wonder if this is a programming carry-over from the gasoline/diesel models, where they want you to keep your foot on the brake until the car starts up.

I just had this happen on my brand new 2016 SE. I thought I had my foot on the brake the whole way. I notice if I get in hit start and go to reverse right away, sometimes the EPC light comes on too and car won't move. I just shut it down, wait a few seconds, restart with foot firmly on brake, give it a few seconds then move to reverse and it's fine. It's almost like it needs a little time to get all the systems going before you can hit reverse. Not sure if there's something wrong, or it's operator error.

Sptgolf said:

I just had this happen on my brand new 2016 SE. I thought I had my foot on the brake the whole way. I notice if I get in hit start and go to reverse right away, sometimes the EPC light comes on too and car won't move. I just shut it down, wait a few seconds, restart with foot firmly on brake, give it a few seconds then move to reverse and it's fine. It's almost like it needs a little time to get all the systems going before you can hit reverse. Not sure if there's something wrong, or it's operator error.

Click to expand...

Well that must be a safety thing.

SfEvR said:

idris said:

Sometimes when I "start" my eGolf, I get an "EPC" light on the dash, and then when I put it into drive or reverse, the accelerator pedal does nothing (scary, because the car just rolls back, while I'm pressing the pedal).

Has anyone had this happen, and/or do you know the rhyme or reason to "EPC"? I have two running theories:
1) it happens when the charger door is open
2) it happens if I pressed "start" without having my foot on the brake?

Click to expand...

I haven't had anything like this. What is "EPC" light?

Click to expand...

It is the "warning light" at the top of the semi-circle of warnings on the left side of the instrument panel.

Yes. Mine is lit and all other lights are off and car won't move. Stop wait start fixes it.

Sptgolf said:

Yes. Mine is lit and all other lights are off and car won't move. Stop wait start fixes it.

Click to expand...

Push on off switch to off position. Step on brake pedal and continue to hold it down. Press on On/Off switch. You will feel the brake pedal fall away from the pressure of your foot, and sink a little bit. This should start your car every time. Brake pedal first, hold it, then press start button, hold brake pedal until left needle in dash is pointing at 12 o'clock.

Try reading your owners manual, German cars demand a lot of following proper routine from their owners, you need to learn how you have to adapt to your new car.

Yes, I did read the manual and also followed the procedure you outlined. I just did it faster than the car would have liked me to do. Now that I know I have to wait a few seconds, everything seems fine.

Sptgolf said:

I just did it faster than the car would have liked me to do.

Click to expand...

I ran into this a couple of times with other settings in the car before I settled into my normal routine. The car needs time to boot up and trying to change settings like driving mode or turning on the infotainment screen to early can cause glitches.