Hi 👋

I bought my son a 1.2 2012 Polo for his 17th birthday in December. Seems a great little thing and he loves it.

However it has a few niggles, most I can or have sorted but this one is puzzling me

When you turn the ignition on, you get greeted with a message reading “Error”

No faults in the ecu when I scan it with a snap on diag. The only thing it misbehaves with is when you drive it for a while, the left hand indicator will flash fast suggesting a blown bulb, however all indicators are working

Any clues?

Check the rear light connectors, looking carefully for corrosion of the earth pin.

Thanks Pete - would you suggest that this is causing the indicator issue or the 'Error' message (or both?)

Ta

Possibly both, but I was mainly thinking of the indicator issue. Higher than expected resistance in the circuit can be interpreted as a blown bulb, which then makes the 'double-speed flash' thing happen to alert the driver to it.

The indicators may still be working, and at normal flash rate, it's just the dash telltale and audible signal that speed up in these circumstances.

For reasons I'm not too sure about, the earth pin of the multiway connector in the loom connector for, and the mating pin of rear light clusters, seems to attract moisture and corrosion, not just on Polos either. Brown wire will lead you to this earth pin.

Does the car actually have a bulb failure reporting system (remove one completely to check if unsure).

Edited 25 June, 20251 yr by Pete1

I am sure it does have a bulb failure notification.

I am sure that when it does its little indicator tantrum, it puts up an orange warning.

Is it not referring to the fuel gauge not showing the quality ?

That could well be an ECU issue, but equally a lot of things. How in depth is your snap on scanner going? It might be worth giving it a scan with something a bit more VW-specific, such as VCDS.

Edited 26 June, 20251 yr by Yeti

On 25/06/2025 at 15:03, nige8021 said:

Is it not referring to the fuel gauge not showing the quality ?

No, I was just a bit eager on the photo and beat the guage to registering, the car has a full tank.

1 hour ago, Yeti said:

That could well be an ECU issue, but equally a lot of things. How in depth is your snap on scanner going? It might be worth giving it a scan with something a bit more VW-specific, such as VCDS.

Being honest I had a feeling it could be something ECU or Dash Clocks related.

It does not seem to be causing any issue at the moment though.

So, a bit of a scan and I find 'B200049 Ctrl Module Faulty

No idea what that means.....

https://www.google.com/search?q=vw+code+B200049&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari

It’s saying it’s a failure in the speedo unit

Yeah, I get that, but no real further information

I've had a read round and that looks more like a power steering module fault from what I can see. Guessing the PAS light comes on and goes off as normal at startup?

Thanks for the reply Yeti

Now you mention it, I do t seem to remember the light coming on, I’ll go and take a look and report back

Hi Yeti - I have checked, yes the PS light does come on during the ignition process but goes out again straight away

Still no further forward with this, alway happy to receive help :)