Whats wrong with my car

[leedslad]

can any one help please a light showing a engine and a spark saying check has come up on my dash what does it mean and is it going to cost me big style and it seems to be missing looked in handbook and it says some thing to do with my exhaust emissions  but what is wrong with it please help

[W36 EJO]

Could be a variety of things wrong. That light is just a general light warning you that something is wrong, though yes, could be emissions. Yo uneed to get it checked out ASAP by either a dealer, VW Specialist or anyone with VAG-COM to find out what the engine's fault actually is then go from there.

[Jimbo Mc]

The emmisions light coming on often means a lambda probe or mass airflow meter problem, both common on MK4s. I found that this could come on when the car seemed to be running fine.

I dont know if this is much of a trick but I found that if you get in the car and turn the key very quickly as soon as you put it in you could make the car not start as it hadnt had time to link the immobiliser/transponder key. Following this when I started normally the light didnt come on as if something had been reset?! If you do this and the light comes back on at some time I suppose you will know you have got a problem.

Not much of a tip but it worked for me cos my emmisions light came on from time to time as if the car had 'farted' but it was running fine and once the light was reset it didnt come back on.