EPC (electronic power control) light
A fault in the electronic engine management of a petrol engine. EPC stands for Electronic Power Control; the lamp is a Volkswagen Group convention — Volkswagen's owner pages show it and SEAT's manual names it — and both describe it as the engine-management lamp for petrol engines only. It also lights briefly when you switch the ignition on, as a bulb check.
Yellow / amber
Not defined by regulation: a maker convention
What to do
If it stays on after the engine starts or comes on while driving, drive slowly and carefully to a dealer or garage without delay and have the engine checked (Volkswagen's advice; SEAT says the same). If the engine also runs badly or other warning lights come on, get help rather than carrying on.
Makes differ: what this light means on your car, the other colours it may use for the symbol and what the car wants you to do are set by the manufacturer, so your car's owner's manual is the authority.
- Symbol
- The letters EPC
- Colour
- Yellow / amber
- Standard
- None — a maker convention, described here from 2 makers: Volkswagen, SEAT
Where makes differ
Volkswagen draws the letters EPC in amber; SEAT's manual shows the same lamp and gives no colour. Both keep it separate from the engine-outline emission control lamp, which is the regulated check engine light. Diesel models of the same brands do not use it.
Not defined by regulation: a maker convention
Neither US FMVSS 101 (Tables 1 and 2) nor UN Regulation No. 121 lists this light, so no rule fixes its symbol or its colour. What follows is what the makers cited below say; other makes, and other model years of the same make, may draw it differently.
UN R121 item 30 defines the engine-outline 'engine on-board diagnostics or engine malfunction' tell-tale; neither table has an EPC lamp.
Related lights a regulation does define
Other yellow / amber maker lights
All yellow / amber dashboard lights, regulated ones included
Sources
No regulation defines this light, so it is described from 2 carmakers' own manuals or owner pages, each fetched and checked on the date shown:
- Volkswagen: Volkswagen UK — Engine management lamp (EPC) (Engine management warning lamp on (petrol engines only)) — The amber lamp (drawn as the letters EPC) means action is required: drive slowly and carefully to an authorised repairer without delay and have the engine checked. checked 2026-09-24
- SEAT: SEAT Altea owner's manual (UK English, 2005 edition), PDF (Cockpit, page 79: Engine management) — The warning lamp (Electronic Power Control) monitors the engine management system for petrol engines; if it lights while driving, have the engine checked as soon as possible. checked 2026-09-24
Written in our own words; the makers' pages cover their own models only.