Dajoca

I shall take a look tomorrow morning. Thanks for the info.

Hi again. I have just today looked at the car for the first time after it broke down again last week with no battery charging taking place. I was aiming to put a test on the alternator / regulator to see if it was something simple. Got in the car and saw that in my absence the mileometer had gone from 130k to 650k miles? Turned the ignition key, all of the dials went haywire, there were 6 warning beeps from the dash and the LCD display looked like this. Here's a link just in case the image is blocked. http://1vision.org.uk/car_trouble/h2ad87e28#h14ad6689 I suspect that even if it is a simple fault, it will cost an arm and a leg to diagnose, so it is very likely that the car is going to be put out with the recycling this time. Any clues? TIA.

Hi IulianE. Thank you for the reply. I will take a look at that later today (if it decides to stop raining for 10 minutes).

Hello and sorry. It's me begging for help again. Given the grief I have had with the Octavia 2001 dashboard electrics, I am ready to give my car a stern telling off. Original post here: http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/180788-no-dashboard-lights-and-engine-wont-run/page__p__2172026__fromsearch__1entry2172026 Thought I had solved the problem of the dead display and associated non running engine, when I found a possible dry joint in the dash display. Re-soldered, refitted and car started fine except for battery light continuously lit. Found out today that the battery is not charging, when the car died on me. Car will run, but is doing so on battery power alone. It seems far too coincidental that the Alternator would have died at the same time as I had the dash and all of the relays out to find the original problem, so the question is this; Is there any connection or relay under the dash or within the display that would prevent the alternator output from reaching the battery? I cannot test the Alternator output ATM as the weather is horrendous, but when I measured across the battery earlier on it was 8 volts and dropping, so no recharge was taking place. Any ideas and does anyone have a layout of the charging circuit for a 2001 Octavia Ambiente 2.0L? Thanks in advance

Update. It is now working again..... Yay! I re-soldered the suspect connection and reassembled the dash. Hey presto, the car sprang to life, with one glitch, in that the battery symbol on the dash is now permanently lit. If that is the only penalty, then I am happy, but I just hope that the solder connection was the only culprit for the total breakdown of the car, because it is a nightmare to fault find. Thanks to all here again for their help, and if anyone can shed light on why the battery light would be lit, I would be eternally grateful.

Cheers SP-1 and thank you for the reply. I'm not too bad with soldering, but I wanted a reality check before tackling it, just in case I was way off.

I have just had a very long and detailed look at the board from the display and apart from a few very small bits of waste solder, can only see this as a potential villain. http://1vision.org.uk/car_trouble/h2ad87e28#h2ad87e28 Is this a possible dodgy joint because of the way the solder is in a shiny ball rather than a grey pyramid like the others?

Well true to form it has just happened again. Started the car and the Oil warning light flashed on, so checked the oil which was fine. Started the car again and the dash display started flickering, then all of the dials went to zero and all lights except the battery light went off. The display is once again dead and the engine will not run as the car turns over and then dies instantly. Last time I removed the entire dash and display, which got the car running again, so I thought it best to try the lower dash connections and the display separately this time, to see if I could isolate where the problem is. Ripped out the lower dash and removed all connectors, solenoids and fuses and reseated them. Also did the same with the steering column. Tried to start the car, but no change. Have now ripped out the display again and am looking for any dry joints, but without success so far. I guess the next step is a display repair, but I am reluctant to go to that expense if that isn't the problem. I have read lots of complaints about the display dying, but not any about it also disabling the car with it. Any ideas at all? Thank you in advance.

Mr Baldwin you are a genius. Everything is fully functional again and I surely must owe you, Paul and the other guys here quite a few pints at least. My only concern is why it all just died completely in the first place and fingers crossed it doesn't do that again. Thanks very much again.

Once again thank you. So the CCU will re-set if left without power?

Almost everything is working great, but I have two glitches now that I am truly baffled by. I dicovered I had broken fuse 5, so I have temporarily replaced it with fuse 15. I now find that the windows do not function from the inside door switches, but do from key in the door lock. With fuse 5 in place, turning on the ignition locks the boot, but turning on the headlights unlocks the boot. Without fuse 5 in place the boot will lock when the ignition is turned, but not unlock again. At least the dash is functional and the engine runs, so I have transport to some degree. I also have a new found respect for anyone who works with the random chaos of auto electrics.

Darn... That seems to be exactly what I did, and definitely not the ECU then, but I am remembering it as a black plastic box to the right of the steering column and above all of the relays. (Could easily be wrong though) I take it the airbags are non functional ATM and a reset with VCDS is a Skoda only job or can any garage with the correct gear reset it? On the plus side everything else seems to be working as it should, so once again thank you for all of the help.

One last query is that having refitted it all, the Airbag light is now illuminated all the time. Any clues as to what I may have disturbed in regards connections or relays to cause this? Thanks again

Hi Gents. It is all working again (for now)... Stripped out the cluster and dismantled the right side of the dash to gain better access to the loom and relays and also what I presume to be the ECU. Unplugged and replugged all connectors and relays, checked loom for wear, stripped down cluster and checked soldered joints. Couldn't find anything obviously amiss, but upon refitting, the whole lot sprang happily to life. Had a bit of doubt when I visited a cluster repair website and they stated that the car should run without the cluster connected. It doesn't, so I was concerned that it was a different issue affecting the engine anf the display. But upon reconnecting the cluster, all lights, bells and whistles kicked in and the car started nicely. I was unable to check the supply on the wires identified by RWBaldwin, as that part of the loom is completely and tightly wrapped and would require the wrapping to be cut off to even see the wire colours. I am therefore hoping it was a connection problem, especially as it took the engine out with it, but I would really like to thank all of the members here for the great help and advice given. Assuming the issue is solved, would it be helpful if I was to post photo's of the various screw points and connectors / relays involved? Cheers all and thanks again.

I have just had a look at the two parts of the loom that go to the back of the cluster, but can't see enough to ID those colour wires tonight, so I will have to have a better look in the morning, but thanks very much for all the help.