Ed-Preston

Hi all, I bought my 73 plate Sportline hatchback in August last year from (the now defunct) Hayselden Skoda in Doncaster. All was ticking over ok, but I couldn’t become the ‘primary user’ of the car. As I live in Lancashire I ended up contacting my local dealer, Simpsons, and got it booked in with them for them to sort it out. After saying they wanted it for two days, they had it for a week and when I got home I realised the reversing camera was no longer working and it wasn’t saving the S-PIN either. I spoke to their service department and was expecting them to get back to me, but they never did, so I chased it up before Christmas, the earliest they could give me a courtesy car was this week (yes really!) so it went back in yesterday. I picked the car up this afternoon and they said they couldn’t solve the problem with the S-PIN and believed it was something related to to the reversing camera which they told me ‘wasn’t genuine’, and that as it was plumbed through the infotainment system it was affecting/interfering with the S-PIN. I’m not at all convinced by this explanation. They advised me to contact the dealer I bought it from. I didn’t know Hayselden had gone bust, so left Simpsons and tried to call them later. When I bought the car I was led to believe the reversing camera was a factory fit item from new. Is there any way I can confirm this, e.g. option/PR codes and if so where can I get them? I have an OBD reader, would this be able to help? I was also led to believe the car had the auxiliary heater, but I don’t seem to be able to turn that on (thought it was possible to do through the app from the phone too) and I’ve never been able to get the virtual foot pedal to work either. The car is great and drives very well, I’m just getting hacked off with the tech niggles. Any suggestions gratefully received. Thanks, Ed

Thanks knightowl2, just changed mine as well, quick and easy. I had to take out 2 T20 screws to get under the undertray into the gap behind the rear bumper. Once I’d got the clip nearest the centre out (which has the most space to work around) I got a small flathead screwdriver behind the centre end of the reflector and gently pulled, this popped the others clips out.

This post above shows the way the pins go through the arm from the glove box lid.

@mattbuzz on my 2017 Superb it’s not possible to unclip the glove box lid in the way John says as each hinge has a hole which a plastic pin passes through, so there’s nothing to unclip. To get in to replace a missing pin I’ve just removed the 6 torx screws, basically removed the whole glove box and turned it upside down to get to the pin. …and yes that’s how much the dealers charges for a new plastic pin £15.14! Even the parts guy was a bit sheepish and embarrassed when he brought it out, asking did I really need it and did I know how much it was?

I think the part I’m looking for is number 5 in the attached picture, anyone have a part number or a source other than the dealers? They want £16 for two ~50mm long plastic pins, grrrr.

Sorry to resurrected this, but my glove box has just half fallen out when I've opened it and it appears the hinge pin (as arrowed in abcd's pics above) nearest the middle of the car has disappeared completely. I'm flummoxed as the only place I can see it could go would be into the passenger footwear, bit there's no sign of it at all. Any ideas where I can get a replacement without going to the dealers?

Still searching around lokoing for a solution. Some places suggest this is mid-dpf regen, but I don't think so as that seems to be one period of the fan running until everything cools down 10-20 mins, something like that. The situation I'm getting ever so often is the fan runs for 30+ mins, maybe an hour, stopping then restarting again, for hours at a time, so that by the morning the battery is flat. The descriptio here: Skoda Superb Engine Fan Running (even when car hasn't been used) sounds exactly like what I'm experiencing. Their final post was: Does anyone know where the fan relay is and if there's a fairly straightforward way of checking it's working properly? ...also what part number I might be looking for and how much it's likely to cost if I do it myself?

Update number 2. Original battery seems to have been fine throughout the winter, so a while ago I returned the new (unused) battery a little while ago for a refund. Yesterday I’d been away from home for a night, went back to the car the following morning and battery almost completely drained. Enough unlock the doors, light up the dash when the ignition was on and slightly try to start the engine, but not enough to turn it over and get it running. Green Flag to the rescue again for a jump start, back hoe after a 60 mile drive and on charge for the rest of the day at home. Now it’s happened to me twice there does seem to be a bit of a common theme to what’s happening. I’ve noticed for a few days before it’s been flat a few odd things happening with the car, the main one being that the main cooling fan continuing to run on excessively when I park up after a journey. The distance, outside temperature or how I’ve been driving make no difference - 15 mile commute home from work, only about 10 degrees C temp, or as per Friday a 60 mile+, motorway, dual carriageway then country lane drive. Fan was running when I parked up. Came back to the car an hour or two later to get some stuff out of it, fan had stopped, but when walking away from the car the fan started up again. I suspect it’s cut in and out throughout the afternoon, night and following morning, draining the battery. Another odd thing is that the keyless entry hasn’t been recognising my hand next to the handle to unlock either. I think there might be a duff sensor somewhere telling the car that engine/coolant temperature is high and it needs to run the fan to cool it down. Does anybody have any suggestions? I’ve got a Carista since last time, so will plug it in and run a check. Any clues would be gratefully received.

If you go to the French government website https://www.certificat-air.gouv.fr/en/ it should only cost you €4.51, rather than the £18.50 Vignette Shop want. I don’t know what the difference in delivery times would be between the two places?

Have you seen this: https://blog.caristaapp.com/battery-registration-is-it-just-snake-oil-d04944bb0048?gi=4b790fa4b65b? Carista’s vehicle checker suggests it should work for your car: https://caristaapp.com/vehicles/skoda/fabia/nj see the ‘Advanced Service’ bit 🙂

Thanks for the replies and advice folks, the new battery is sat in the garage at the moment, the car of course seemed to start perfectly twice after Green Flag had charged it and jump started me yesterday, but the new one's ready to go next time it fails. I'll look to see if there's anywhere else local I can get the battery coded in. It's one of those 'hidden' jobs, so not easy to find on people's websites - more ringing around required.

Reviving this thread a bit. My 2017 Diesel Superb was completely dead this morning, had to use the emergency key to get in to it. It was fine last night after driving it for 28 miles and about 60 miles on Sunday after it had been sat untouched for a week. Had Green Flag out and the chap has tested the battery and his little Ancel gadget has come back saying it's got a bad cell and is only operating at about 24% of it's original rated spec. Looking at replacing the battery and confused by the apparent options available. The current battery, which I believe is the original, is a Moll 5TA 915 105 B 'EFB+' Simpsons Skoda in Preston are quoting me £213.53 (fitted) for a replacement of the same type, well an 'FC' suffix, rather than the 'B' mine has. I can get a Bosch S5 A08 for £138.95 from Costco (not fitted), which is an AGM battery, rather than EFB/EFB+, which most places I read seem to suggest is an improvement over the original. My concern is whether things will need reprogramming as I'm changing battery types, or whether this won't matter/have any affect? My local Protyre garage has said they could do the necessary if needed for £30 as I'm not buying the battery from them. Any advice as always would be gratefully received. Cheers, Ed

Not had quite that problem, but today on pulling away from work I got the “SOS Emergency Call Restricted. Workshop!” Message, which I’ve never had before but see a number of people have experienced. It was accompanied by the central screen turning off and staying off. As it happened I had to stop a couple of minutes later, so tried the old ‘turn it off and back on again’ approach. When I switched it back in the centre screen came back in as normal, but the SOS error remains. I’ve been out to the car this evening, a number of hours later, and the error’s still there. I don’t know if anyone has any ideas? Some people seem to suggest disconnecting and reconnecting the battery, don’t know if this is a good idea. Also, last week the car went into the dealer to have a wing mirror cover replaced, I doubt they’d have done anything with the electrics, but it’s a bit coincidental. Of course I’m 6 months out of warranty...