EPC - Visit workshop

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duncanh

Active Member
Joined
Aug 31, 2005
Messages
242
Location
Wiltshire
Car
BMW 520d SE F10, formerly c220cdi estate (for 12.5 years and 345k miles), before that w124 and w210
"El. Power Control EPC Visit Workshop" message

Car is a 2002 W203 c220cdi estate, 213K miles.

I had this fault yesterday, accompanied by a complete shutdown in the fast lane of the A34 yesterday. It was rather frightening.

I managed to move left and coast to a layby (over half a mile away) with no brake servo and no power steering. When I stopped and switched off and on again, it started straight away, and appeared to run with no problems. However it did the same twice more, approximately every 20 miles.

The error message (El. Power Control EPC Visit Workshop) stayed on for the whole journey, even after stopping and restarting.

I got home and changed the fuel filter. However the silly little plastic clip holding the fuel hose tight on the outlet side of the filter disintegrated, but I pushed the pipe in and the car started fairly easily (just a few cranks - I had filled the filter with diesel).

The error message was gone. Needless to say I will not use the car until I put on a new fuel hose from the filter to the high pressure pump. I am hoping that I can get this on without disturbing the outlet hose from the high pressure pump (it does seem to be in the way).

Given that the old filter had covered over 100K miles (I know I should have changed it, I bought one over 2 years ago but never got round to fitting it), am I being over-optimistic in thinking that I may have solved the problem?

I am nervous about taking it out on a long run as a complete power shutdown in busy traffic is not a nice experience.

I will report back after I have got the new fuel line fitted and ran for a few journeys.
 
Ah , I remember the days without power steering or brakes ....... you could actually feel what was going on when you turned the steering wheel or braked .....

Happy days .

( not so good when you are used to having it )
 
Ah , I remember the days without power steering or brakes ....... you could actually feel what was going on when you turned the steering wheel or braked .....

Happy days .

( not so good when you are used to having it )
But in those days cars weighed less than a ton and were running around on 5.20 to 5.50 section tyres on 15" rims. Even the E type on Dunlop R5 racing tyres (a factory option) was only running 6.00x15 tyres.
 
Had the very same thing happen several times on my W210 - always when full throttle was used. A brilliant first-time diagnosis and fix by Olly saw no further recurrence. What colour was the filter you removed? Mine was very black-looking!
 
I got the angle grinder on the old filter. The paper element was chocolate brown and had quite a lot of bits in it.

I looked back over my records, and I am ashamed to say that the old filter covered 153K miles. It was changed in Aug 04 at 60K miles, now on 213K.

This morning I did a 60 mile run without incident, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that the problem will not occur again.

Where would I be without this forum? I keep reading about dealers swapping parts until they solve a problem, whereas the collected experience of all of the members here usually points more accurately towards a solution.

Time will tell if I have cured the problem, if not, I have eliminated one possible cause at almost no cost (I needed to fit the filter anyway).

Thanks again for all of the advice and guidance (especially Ollie who seems to get straight to the solution).
 
It died again - EPC Visit workshop

The fault recurred this evening. I pulled out to overtake and the engine died with the EPC message.

This time it did not start. I tried for about 20 minutes then called the recovery people. Ten minutes later it restarted, just as the recovery wagon was arriving. (Must be nearly a record, 10 minutes from call to arrival, well done Britannia Rescue).

The mechanic plugged in his little hand held diagostic device, no fault recorded. Not a good sign as the car should have logged at least 4 EPC faults and three times into limp mode.

He offered to call for a recovery wagon to take me and the car home, or said I could risk the rest of the journey (about 40 miles).

I drove (slowly, no fast acceleration) the rest of the way home without incident.

I need to get the codes read. But I don't want to travel far, and I don't want to go to a dealer.

Also the car has been harder to start since this trouble started last week. It always started immediately on the first touch of the starter. It needed a good crank for most of the last week, and a couple of good cranks today.

I am leaning towards an injector problem at present. Will the codes pinpoint the cause, or just point in the general direction? I don't want my wallet to be subject to trial and error diagnosis.

Any recommendations in North Wiltshire? I guess they would need a Star to be sure that they can read the codes.

Other than the fruitless attempt at reading the codes today, the car has not had its codes read for over 150K miles. I dread to think what they will point to!
 
Duncan I feel your pain. I've just bought a 2003 C220 CDI Avantagarde and had the same symptoms as you - although the AA chap thought it was because I relied on the fuel gauge too much.

Anybody else know why this could be?

My car was being driven in reserve but showed 80 miles in the range - further why would an ECP malfunction show up?? Surely it would inform me I need to fuel right??

Apologies in advance for any schoolboy errors - it's my first MB and only had it under a month with 80K.

Cheers fellas
 
just to chip in lads, my old bus had similar symptoms, albiet the filter was pretty clean...

todays verdict ( I've seen the bits now )...

6 new injectors, new HP pump & one unhappy merc owner :bannana:

140k on a filter is either very lucky, or very something else !
 
My problem was caused by faulty injectors.

I had to have my my four injectors and high pressure pump refurbished (can't complain, the car had done over 200K miles), and the problem went away.

The EPC fault is caused by faulty fuel rail pressure, this usually points to either the injectors, high pressure pump or blocked fuel filter. I suppose it could be caused by lack of fuel, especially if your guage is inaccurate.

The first few times it happened to mine it would restart straight away. Towards the end it would only restart with a squirt of Easy Start in the air intake, and if I got the revs over 2000rpm it would die. I am told this is a classic symptom of injector problems.

Unless you are confident that it was lack of fuel, I would get some checks done, particularly an injector leak-off test.

Where are you located? Someone on the forum will recommend a good garage near you.

What did the AA man do you get you going, did he just add more fuel?
 
6 new injectors, new HP pump & one unhappy merc owner

What mileage had your car covered?

My Indie recommended refurbishing the injectors and the HP pump, and my wallet feels much better for that. It came in at about half the price of new ones. Time will tell if was the right decision.
 
mine has done 140k, 1 owner prior to me, full MB history :)

I guess, that sometimes this can happen. It was all pretty sudden, as within about 100m the car just ground to a halt & died. No noises at all, no indication of low rail pressure, just a quiet engine :D

I was going to go for refurbished, however the internals of the pump have gone around the system now & seeing the one injector, it was knackered, it literally was dribbling derv like a 3yr old. I'm based just near ashford Kent, I've got a good mecchie who is flushing the fuel system, new filters, new pump & 6 new injectors.

I figure it's no point doing it on a shoestring, as I'm planning to drive to Andorra soon, can't be doing with unreliable car :eek:

HTH :)
 
It happened to my W202, when the belt let loose, the steering was so hard, I could hardly steer. I was on A1(M1) toward A14 and the engine overheated. The water pump broke. I was lucky to get it repaired the same afternoon together with the front brake disks replaced. I was £300 out of pocket.

Lucky the engine still works fine thereafter and after 7 years.

Tough old boots.
 

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