Fault code 590081 logged in Air Con controller

[rum4mo]

Well, seeing as I've updated my Carista to V3, I thought that I'd give wife's August 2015 Polo 1.2TSI a quick scan - Carista found a fault in the Air Con controller, it reported "fault code 590081 ABS Inlet Valve - Left Front (N101)" - well that is not a very handy description, I'll need to advise Carista of that incorrect fault code labelling!  Anyway, I scanned the car again with VCDS and also reported this fault but gave it a more plausible label, ie " Control Circuit for A/C Compressor  B10A9 11 [008] - Short to Ground Intermittent". Car is obviously still under first year warranty so it will get looked at during its first service - but, any clues as to what normally causes this from personal experience, I know it could be the compressor itself or wiring or controller.  I've searched the internet for answers but while that exact fault has been reported a few times, no follow up "what fixed it" postings happened!

[Peter.C]

Hi,

Did you discover what was the cause of this fault code? I have the same on my Octavia VRS, and I don't have long left on my warranty to get it sorted if it's something to worry about!

Thanks.

[rum4mo]

No, it ended up clearing itself from memory, which I thought was a bit annoying, though I have printed that stored fault out from  VCDS scan just in case it gets repeated.

 

Apparently it can be caused by a software issue in at least the Fabia MK3, which has been addressed by Skoda, but I think that you would need to see it happening a few times before your dealer would apply that software update, but you never know unless you talk to them about it.  On the other hand, it might just be a genuine system fault!

[Peter.C]

Thanks for your reply. I've saved the VCDS log in case it disappears from the ECU memory. I see you've also posted about this issue in another post, and again mention the software update. Do you have any further information about the software update? My car is going to the dealer this Friday and I would like to be armed with as much information as possible so I can suggest to them possible resolutions in case they don't put 2 & 2 together and fix the problem first time. Thanks!

[rum4mo]

No, sorry, but maybe you should use the wording given in the suggestion given to me in that other posting.  It seems that a lot or some of the newer groups of controllers have been programmed to dump low level warning fault codes if they do not repeat within a certain window in time! This was what was said to be happening in the case of the AC controller on my wife's Aug 2015 VW Polo, but in older controllers, I've always found that logged faults stay stored for ever, so if you are lucky, your car has what could be called "an older" type of controller and it will hold that fault until it has been manually cleared.

 

The real version of what happens when that fault is current is, as you might expect, no chiller effort being given. So maybe add that into the equation when you report it, ie say that you have noticed the AC chiller stopping working now and again?

 

Edit:- also, I'd guess that the only reason that you "had" to run VCDS on that car was because you had noticed the chiller not working now and again - just to cover your back in case this sort of thing appears like a customer doing something "illegal" to their car? (cheating by going looking for logged faults)

Edited 25 October, 2016 by rum4mo