Electronic Slip Protection & P0431

[EndSupremacy]

Ok, I have a 2005 VW Touareg V8 4.2L. I was driving last night and out of nowhere, the light on my dash came on for my electronic slip protection. I thought I accidently hit the button and turned it off, but that wasn’t the case. So, I’m not really great when it comes to vehicle electronics (yet), but I’m learning. That said, what could cause this problem that I have? Also, to make matters worse, a little later on, my check engine light came on. So I took out my scanner and it gave me 2 codes. P0431 and P0431 Pd. Now I’m not exactly sure what Pd means, So what I did was erase the codes. After erasing the codes, I had about 5 mins of local street driving (stopping at red lights) and every time I came to a light, my engine RPM would drop to about 450-475 RPM’s for a split second, then back to regular idle. Then I make it to the highway and drive home at 65 MPH straight for 40 mins. The car was fine when I got home. My concern is what the heck happened? I have to use my car again tonight for work and I’m going to be driving at least 12-14 hours on and off, not straight.

Topic

[dreamer2355]

http://www.obd-codes.com/p0431

Above is the explanation for your trouble code.

You can easily test your Cat. if you have a scan tool that shows PID data. Just look at the bank 2 o2 sensor voltage. It should be a constant 0.5v. You can also use a pyrometer too and check the temperature of the car inlet and outlet. There should be a 100F increase.

Did you refer to your owners manual for the electronic slip control dash light? I am not familiar with that system, nor have i had to service a vehicle with that issue.

[EricTheCarGuy]

+1 on dreamers post for the catalytic converter code.

As to your traction control that system is integrated with the ABS system so if there is an issue with the ABS it will also compromise the traction control operation. If you did loose tract

[EndSupremacy]

Thanks guys. I was actually able to come across that same website myself. Anyway, I didn’t get a chance to test for exhaust leaks, and O2 sensor voltage, but I did figure out the problem with the slip protection. I realized that my wheels were seriously out of alignment. So I brought my car to school and got a free alignment. Next thing you know, my ESP light is off and I was able to turn it off and on by pressing the button. So my ESP is working fine now. For now, I will leave the traffic light at yellow, b/c I only solved half my problem. I will post back once I get to the testing that I need to do.

[EricTheCarGuy]

That’s a new one on me as I’ve never known alignment to effect the ABS or TCS but if it’s fixed it’s fixed. Keep us posted.

[EndSupremacy]

My only guess is that the wheel speed sensor was out of whack b/c of the mis-alignment.

[EricTheCarGuy]

Quoted From EndSupremacy:

My only guess is that the wheel speed sensor was out of whack b/c of the mis-alignment.

Not possible really as the wheel sensors have nothing to do with wheel alignment, perhaps it’s just coincidence.

[Author]

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