RJVB

I have a VGate ELM327-based dongle (WiFi), and use "Car Scanner OBD" with it on both iOS and Android (on a ChromeBook Tablet). I saw the latest version even does some coding but comes with so many warnings that I haven't yet dared to experiment with it.

This reminds me: an Audi SUV owner once told me he couldn't change the battery himself because the vehicle had to remain under tension. Sounds like an urban legend meant to make us pay for even the simplest interventions but suppose it isn't, that doesn't apply to our Octys I hope?

Same here with many of the interesting Lidl DIY products, they have a good reputation for their price so disappear quickly - but as you saw we can order online. I don't suppose they mean "take the battery out when starting the car" too, do they? I admit I don't really see the point of charging a car battery from this kind of powerbank. Now if it could do that through a cig lighter plug it could be helpful in a case like mine (I park on a sort of public sidewalk in front of the house). I do have a solar trickle charger that's supposed to compensate for the draw of the electronics that have to be always on; without that my battery would probably not have survived this long, esp. not with the lockups (it's probably the original one).

Googling the problem a bit it does seem that others have searched for waterproof replacement switches (given the suggestions Google made)... Do you get Lidl products in the UK? This booster seems interesting for the price (sadly they don't have the model without compressor in France): https://www.lidl.fr/p/ultimate-speed-demarreur-avec-compresseur-et-banque-d-alimentation-200-a/p100361665

Well, this is what came up on my scanner: Not sure what the "speed step sensor" bit has to do with the light switch?! The one I have installed says Mexico Z1J-1623 1Z0 941 431 J YYV 1000 9058 And has a VW logo as you'd expect given where I got it (the workshop/seller more or less on the grounds of the French VAG import hub) in the neighbouring town. Bummer: now my battery is indeed flat 😞

I suppose I can also take out the part itself (already done) and see what its label tells me? That's a lot cheaper than what I paid. When there's a sufficiently long dry spell today I'll check the fuse box behind the driver door for signs of water. But I suppose that blowing the fuse for a fog light will cause a warning message or light on the dashboard?

BTW, if you know of a cheap source in the EU I'm interested!

Last time it did cost me almost 70€. A lot cheaper than an injector, sure, but still a sum I'd just as well spend on something else. Main reason though is this: if this is water related and the thing apparently sits in a location where it isn't as well protected as the designers of the switch would have liked to think it can happen again at any time, never mind the fact that this time it took almost 7 years to failure. I live in a region where front foglights are a welcome extra (frequent fogs and even more frequent wildlife) and it's a legal obligation to have a working rear fog light. So yeah, I'd like to know if there's a way to get a failed switch working again. Didn't mention it, but last time this happened I tried to understand the failure of the old switch, even took it apart. Impossible to tell what was wrong with it (of course I didn't know how it was supposed to behave). Come to think of it, the car was almost exactly 7 years old then. Maybe the switch has that famous itch?

I must just have blown the 2nd rotatory light switch. Last time was in the summer of 2016, after I'd left the car with a towel clamped in the driver against the sun which must have dripped onto the switch after a surprise rainstorm. This time too I had sunblocking "socks" on the front doors (for parking only) when the weather changed and I forgot to remove them. Not as far forward as that towel but I presume water must still have been able to run along the frame and onto the dashboard. I don't recall exactly what the symptoms were back then; now the low beams are turned on as soon as I turn on the car. High beam works too, but no fog lights, and my ageing battery won't appreciate the continuous lights-on. Turning the switch back and forth makes it clear that it's waterlogged. I've managed to dislodge the switch from its compartment (push the dial *in* when at the 0 position and twiddle a bit, helping from behind with a finger stuck in through the glovebox). Is there any hope that it'll come back to live once dry? Is it safe to just dose the thing with contact spray (maybe even before it's dry), or would that not make a difference? Also, is this a known issue, and does anyone know exactly what the water does? If that device just contains slip contacts it shouldn't be as sensitive, right? Are there other ways the water can get into this switch, via the air-intake below the front window for instance? Strange though that there's no water at all in the glove box below, and the floor mat against the wheel well wasn't soaked either. My car has never been watertight so a good shower always leaves water on the floor, but that's not usually a problem. It looks like I *am* going to figure out a way to put some kind of cover over the switch, or maybe pack the internal part with a plastic bag. Or just always keep a spare... In 2016 I also blew an injector shortly after finding the light switch defective. Really hope that's not going to happen again! (Is there a diag function the workshop can check to see if there's an impending failure??) Thanks in advance for any advice!

FWIW, I had the seals on the (front?) doors done just after I got my Octy, which was just over 4y old at the time. I remember that the seals were really expensive, the mechanic complained how annoying the procedure had been, and the car didn't get any more watertight.

Thanks, I'll have a look at Carista. (I'm not going to pay for 2 apps though. ^^) I have a sept. 2009 model, but I think there were no non-facelift models with the 1.6TDI engine with particle filter. Anyway, my foglights do have the extra compartment with regular lightbulbs on the outside. It always annoyed me I couldn't use those. In the UK? I'm pretty certain it isn't the case here, or else nobody cares because those fancy shaped LED things remain on at night in a good portion of the cars I cross. Often annoying because of glare. (I don't know about the UK, but one way around that would be to use coloured lights, orange for instance. A priori it's allowed to decorate a vehicle with those, and might even work better for visibility purposes.)

Hi, I finally offered myself an OBD interface, the VGate iCar Pro Wi-FI OBD2. Anyone here have experience with it (also with things like "better leave it out unless you really need it")? Also, what app(s) do you suggest? I've got an iPhone (SE1) but also a ChromeTab that can run most Android apps. For now I've tested with the basic version of "Car Scanner" which seems to work (but is quite slow in reading out the diagnostics), I haven't yet figured out if there's a real point in buying the full version (or what the difference is between that, and the yearly subscription version). I'm not planning on doing lots of tinkering, but I might want to activate the aux. bulbs in the front fog lights as daylight running lights and maybe put LEDs in there. (I have LED parking lights but I have to turn those on before I switch the car on lest one or both are reported as faulty.) Thanks!

Re-reviving this old thread since I just found the same fault in my diagnostics. The top one is the hard-to-access one, the one related to the AC? Any chance that this is why I my airco isn't (or seems not to be) working?

This reminds me of a study about ABS benefits I read long ago. I can't remember the details, but IIRC there was a difference between a) drivers accustomed to non-ABS braking; b) drivers not having that experience but no ABS-specific knowledge (i.e. taught "just brake as hard as it takes") and c) drivers who'd learned to exploit ABS. The latter were the safest drivers, the first the least. But just to be certain, when you say "de-clutch", you actually mean *engage* the clutch (pedal) so that the engine can't stall? Initially I'd thought that you meant to release the pedal in order to benefit from the extra engine braking power... That's what I do, but keep my foot ready on the clutch to engage it as soon as I hear the engine is no longer being driven. I haven't yet had much emergency testing, though (knock on wood).

Thanks, I also didn't know about declutching. I've only know vehicles with ABS, but this wasn't taught... (sadly the 1.0. has about 0 engine break, so you learn to use the brakes for everything...)

We've got rubber floormats in our car, so little chance they get in the way Usually a bit of frost doesn't pose a problem esp. with winter tyres, but today's event could certainly have involved a dose of fallen leaves too. The 1st time must have been in May or June, so no ice possible. If there are no known issues that could be at play here we'll just continue to use the car (fortunately 90% of the trips taken in that one are on largely empty country roads), and trust that the implicated systems are all designed in such a way that any errors are communicated to the driver. IOW, anything that would show up now in the VSDC would give rise to a warning light and/or message on the status screen?

My partner has a 2018 Fabia 1.0 TSI Break with around 55k km on the odo, and claims to have had 2 braking glitches over the past few months. The first caused her to warp the parking gate at work, the 2nd was today where apparently it took her some 40m to stop from doing 40 km/h, with the ABS engaging. There may have been frost on the road, but almost certainly no black ice, and she drives on low-mileage winter tyres. I wasn't there so I can't put things into context, but there were apparently no warning lights. Are there known issues that we should be concerned about, like ABS sensors that signal false positives without testing faulty?

Now out of curiosity: those of you who replace the unit: - was it entirely (or almost completely) dead? - after how many years of service? My car is from sept. 2009 so just over 12 years old (yikes...). I haven't found any trace of this being the 2nd replacement so the unit must be as old as the car. In itself that sounds reasonable, but I have a strong suspicion the turn signal bulbs (including the one in the LHS rearview mirror) are as old and a lot cheaper... (In short, I've yet to encounter any LED bulb that makes true on its promise of lasting so much longer than a traditional bulb...)

Thanks! Looks simple enough, but not under the current weather conditions ... and I can't get the part fast enough to install it for my upcoming trip. Workshop job it is then... 119€ for the official VW part (around 70€...) plus installation. I don't know if they calculated the official suggested duration or just guessed; usually they're cool enough to adapt the price also if they spent much less time than foreseen. PS: that's not a Golf, or else it pretends really hard to be a Skoda (check the logo on the hatch...)! ;)

I did do a search but didn't find anything in the more or less recent results, so if you have a link I'd appreciate. With "rubber pull", do you mean the thing for pulling the hatch closed, that's basically on the far end seen from the brake light? It does sound like the sort of thing you'd rather not do outside in the weather we're having (I've been waiting for a dry and not too cold spell to swap the wheels on my SO's car too...). And sounds like my workshop might charge way more in labour than I'd hoped (we'll see what their quote says)!

The third/auxiliary brake light of my 2009 Octy Combi has had a few failed LEDs for quite a while now and yesterday I got my 1st "please check 3rd brake light" message on the dashboard when driving back from a rehearsal. I checked the light upon arrival; didn't work with the rear hatch up but when I closed it and hung a bag from the antenna I could see it worked. No such luck today though. Probably not the worst problem, and I saw the LED version comes in at less than 30€, a lot less than I feared when I saw you have to replace the whole thing. Curious observation: I also get a warning for a front parking light which I replaced with an LED bulb, unless it's on during the start-up test because the thing is perfectly fine (slightly too high resistance, probably). But I get the warning for the brake light only after having braked; holding the brake when I turn on the contact doesn't cause a warning either. How easy is the swap (knowing I'd have to do it outside in <10°C temps)? Is it supposed to be deactivated when the rear hatch is open, even with the engine running? And: the wiring and/or any switches to disable the thing wouldn't happen to be among the things known to fail on this make or model? BTW, I saw 2 compatible models on the oscaro.com site. One clearly (by TYC) look like mine, including the little protruding thing that holds the rear window washer spout and has "for vehicles with LED. The other (https://www.oscaro.com/feu-stop-additionnel-van-wezel-7622929-8972073-1428-p#) is shown with a sketch of the hatchback Octy but still has the same list of equivalent Skoda part numbers. No mention of it having LEDs or instead use traditional bulbs. I must say I'd just as rather have that.

Hi, Can someone confirm that 185/60R15 tyres on traditional steel wheels will be compatible with our Fabia Combi "Clever" from early 2018? My workshop warned me that sometimes steel rims in the smaller legally allowed size won't fit because of the disc brakes ... but IIRC the spare wheel is of exactly that dimension. Anyone experience with this brand and model of tyre? https://www.allopneus.com/vredestein-snowtrac-5-185-60r15-88-t-68628.html

The oil light came on in my wife's "new" Fabia III with the 1.0 TSI 70kW engine (95HP). Indeed, the oil level was just under the min level on the dipstick. I couldn't see any obvious traces of oil loss under the engine and the manual claims that up to 0.5l/1000km oil consumption is normal *after breaking in* (I call that high, my Guzzi consumed much less). This car as a bit over 20000km on the odo, so it could have emptied the entire oil reservoir in half that distance. Still, is this normal for a car that is driven rather calmly, see basically no city traffic and rarely drives less than 15km per trip? The more urgent question is what to top up with. Apparently there's a chance the car has 0W20 in it and that apparently shouldn't be mixed with anything else. How strict should I take that, what will happen if you do mix in some 5W30 or 5W40? BTW, I'm a bit surprised that 5W30 is used for the long-life interval, and 5W40 for the 1-year interval. The W40 spec should resist a bit better to higher temps, no?