GreenMeanie

Changed coolant temperature sensor to the new green type & also changed the fuel filter - Engine issues solved! Thanks very much everyone.

Right then, massive thanks to vrsPhil. This is why my car is poorly 17664 engine coolant temp sensor open circuit - intermittent 17656 start of injection timing control deviation - intermittent 01221 Crash sensor side airbag fault Will get a new coolant temp sensor (of the new type) and report back. As for 17656, anybody know what this could be? It cleared and didn't come back on a re-start. And slightly off topic, anybody know where the crash sensor is?, I thought something like this might come up as the airbag light is on.

Thanks All, Hopefully, I've arranged a diagnostic read for later on today so will see what comes up before changing sensors (mindful of your comment pauldazzle about the CTS) As a bit of an experiment last night on the way home I drove 90% of the way (Motorway-ARoad and Town) like a granny, never going above 2000RPM, accelerating with all the verve of a sloth getting out of bed. Then for the last 5 miles or so drove it like I stole it and there were no engine issues!

Trundlenut, you're right - Traction control (ASR) does use the same wheel speed sensors as ABS and the brakes, but it (should!) also control engine power, otherwise you'd just smoke your brakes if done for long enough. Where is the coolant temp sensor located?

OEM's spend a lot of time tuning the ABS/TCS/ESP systems on different models of cars. I tune jags and land rovers and there's often quite a big variation in calibration between variants of the same vehicle depending on how sporty it's supposed to be, when interventions occur and how strong they need to be, so i'm not surprised you can feel the difference. If you start playing with your engine maps, springs ARB's, dampers etc then if the calibration is quite tight you'll probably see all sorts of unusual false interventions, since that's not what the car was tuned on. I'm surprised how loose the calibration is on my 110TDI, only really see it on snow

Thanks all, using the diagnostics forum I'm hoping to hear back from someone with VAG-Com in my area. Sounds like MAF would be an easy one to tick off, i'll give it a go tonight. Interesting thing for me is the relationship to engine temp, car is fine cold, fine warm (needle on 90), but poorly hot (has been on 90 for 5mins). I also read on another thread that the TCS system on this model looks at the MAF for something, which could explain why my TCS (ASR) lamp comes on when the issue occurs. Thinking out loud here, I assume the TCS system needs to know how much engine torque is being produced to control slip. If there's no torque sensor on the car (is there?) then it must predict it based on fuel flow, air flow, rpm etc..

Hello everyone, I've not had much to say on this forum before, mostly because my car's been fairly reliable up to this point... Perhaps someone could shed some light on this engine issue i've been having. I have a 2002 Octavia 110 Elegance TDI with 165K. I look after it for the most part, use the expensive longlife oil, get the cambelt done on time etc. It gets driven up & down the motorway most of the time so has a fairly easy life. It starts a bit like a tractor and chucks out a bit of diesel muck under hard acceleration, but I think thats typical. On the way to work yesterday, I was accelerating from 75 to 80 on the cruise control and got a noticeable regular engine hesitation or jerk. I disengaged cruise and tried to do the same with the throttle and the same thing happened. A slight hill came up and the car didn't want to go up, the speed dropped to 60 and the car kept jerking. Then the traction control light came on (Yellow trangle inside a circle - The same as when you press the ASR button). No, I wasn't driving on snow! I found the only way I could drive it was to use the throttle really really gently. On slower roads, regardless of gear if I put my foot down more than 20% the car would hesitate and reluctantly pick up speed. It gets worse the higher gear and higher load you put the car under. If it were a 2-stroke go-kart i'd say it was running way too lean, or misfiring. I stopped the car and had a look under the bonnet and nothing looked out of place. Re-started the car and the TCS light had gone out. Drove off down the road and the same issue again. As for a cause, i'm pretty certain the TCS lamp coming on is an effect rather than a cause, as I develop TCS systems for a living and normally when the controller detects a fault, like the engine is misbehaving it shuts down and puts the lamp on. If it were a wheelspeed sensor or something I would expect the ABS not to work, but it works. This makes me think its an engine issue but I could be wrong. Reading around on this forum, it sounds to me as though it could be sticky turbo vanes, so I tried the Mr Muscle Oven cleaner as per the (excellent) guide. When pressing down on the actuator linkage it felt pretty good, obviously the spring is stiff but it didn't feel gritty or stuck. When I took the car out for a spin after a 2 hour soak, I did a gentle warm up and then when the coolant hit 90 did some hard accelerations and all was well - happy days. However, on the way to work again today its done the same thing. It only does it when the engine is hot (i.e. it's been 90 for a good 10 minutes). When the engine is cold it's fine, likewise the idle is fine. Incidentally, recently before the issue I'd been thinking how good the bottom end torque was, which made me think it could be turbo related. Anyway, I'm a bit stuck now. Any suggestions? I'm thinking maybe fuel filter or MAF next, it hasn't had a fuel filter for about 40K and the problem is worse at higher revs/ torque demand so will try this first. Something else that may be relevant/irrelevant is for the first time in a year or so the car sat doing nothing for a week in the snow whilst I was abroad. First time I ran it I start to get issues. The other thing that made me think turbo, is that because of the snow the TCS has been working occasionaly and these work by killing engine power in conjunction with the brakes, I know from my work that this sends all sorts of unburnt nastiness into the turbo & cat. Anybody around Aylesbury way with a fault reader? Thanks in advance Cheers Phil

Hello, Does anyone know where I could get a new standard front ARB for a 1.9TDi 2002 Elegance. I've seen plenty of bush kits and droplinks online, but not the bar itself. Is it main dealer only? Cheers

I have a similar issue with the same vehicle, front end is all wallowey in the corners and a lot of free play on centre. Inside wheel feels as though it has a mind of its own. Very noticable suspension graunchy sound turning left but not right. The car has new bottom arms, ball joints and dampers all round. Took it down to skoda and they've reported that the front anti-roll bar and bushes are knackered and the lower wishbone outboard ball joint on the near side has a lot of play in it, which i was rather suprised about given its only 5000 miles old. Might be worth a look. My octy is 140k

Had a wiggle of the tensioner and it felt ok. Bit the bullet and took it down the dealer, still no repeat of the battery warning lamp. They found nothing except reporting the drive belt was worn, which they changed. Car is currently driving ok so will see how it goes. Having not seen the old belt I don't know what was wrong with it, but it had done near 130k so sounds plausible. Thanks everyone for your help

I couldn't really get to the tensioner pulley, I could move the rod of the stabilus damper. At idle the aux belt does make a bit of a noise, steam engine noise is the best description i could give

Update: Drove the car to work this morning - no issues This evening, I've taken the undertray off and boost hose to get a bit of a look. Difficult with the access available to see anything, however I managed to get my hand on the alternator pulley and it felt like the last picture looks in the previous post. The pulley is there, its round with grooves on, flat top and there don't appear to be any cracks. Wiring appears to be intact Couldn't get near the tensioner pulley so no idea what thats like but the damper is connected to something reasonably solid. So, I think the pulley and Aux belt are ok, although it does sound quite noisy at idle. The battery is showing 12.8V with the engine at idle, turn all the lights, AC, Radio etc on and it drops to 12.2V at idle. Rev the engine upto 3000RPM and you see about 13.6V, so it would seem the alternator is doing something? How do those numbers sound? My feeling is the alternator itself is on its way out. Diagnosis ongoing Cheers everyone

Hello Everyone, What a great forum, I think my question has been answered already but I would be grateful for a second opinion. I have a 2002 TDI Elegance with 130K on the clock. Driving home from work today I saw the battery charge light flicker a few times then what felt like an engine hesitation coming off a roundabout. I also heard a noise which sounded like something dropping onto the undertray. The battery warning light did not come back on but strangely the steering felt a bit lighter. My immediate thought was Aux drivebelt, so I pulled over (in the dark) and found the drivebelt was still attached and it appeared to still be tensioned. I had a quick look under the bonnet in a well lit forecourt and could not see anything untoward around the aux belt or inside the battery box. The engine re-started fine with no strange warning lights. The Mrs thinks i'm seeing things, but one thing that has defintely changed is that having left the car to cool for a while, if you then re-start the engine, put the headlights on and slowly rev the engine in neutral, when you get to approx 2500rpm you hear a click from somewhere behind the instrument cluster and the headlights get a touch brighter. From reading this forum I understand this could be a few things as below - unfortunately I don't have any equipment around me this instant to investigate further. Will try and get a multi-meter tomorrow. So: - Alternator has gone - Will check for 14V with multimeter and under load - Seized Alternator pulley - Broken tensioner mechanism - Corroded alternator battery wire - Melted fuse box on the battery - Some other electrical gremlin What do you think the most likely fault is, as i'm currently trying to work out whether I can drive the car to work in the morning!? Is an alternator change something that can be done with a socket set and spanners, but no access to a ramp or jack? Failing that, can anyone recommend a good garage near Aylesbury? Will update with a diagnosis. Thanks in Advance Phil

Hello, I have an 02 TDI and its behaving a bit peculiar at low revs as well as making a right kerfuffle on startup. I think the latter might be glow plugs but the former sounds like it could be this sticking turbo vanes problem. I hear it is common, would someone be so kind as to post the link to the subject. Just wondering if there are any simple checks I could do? Also, I don't know if this is related but sometimes when accelerating on the motorway, the car seems to chuck out a right load of soot. I know all diesels seem to do this anyway, but it appears more than normal, could this be due to using halfords oil instead of the VAG recommended stuff? Thanks in advance.

Hello, I replaced rear discs and pads at the weekend, haynes said I should slacken off the brake bleed nipple to stop dirt getting in the ABS valves as you wind the piston back in. I couldn't undo the bleed nipple and thought being more manly with it would snap it. Is it unwise to not bleed it at the same time? Cheers Phil