Othen

I had not driven my 2013 diesel estate elegance (with the bi-xenon lights) at night for a while, but this morning had to leave home at 02:00 to take my son to Gatwick for an early flight and noticed that whilst the lights are as bright as always, the dip beam cut off seemed to be very much lower than I recall (main beam seems fine). There doesn’t seem to be any manual adjustment in the cabin, but presumably there is some sort of load compensation system, could that be affecting the dipped beam height? The lights still do the ‘dance’ when they start up, so I’m guessing the mechanisms are all working, and the motorcar passed the MoT just last week - it just seems (to me) that the dipped beams cut off much closer to the the motorcar than they used to. I have not investigated yet, mainly because I’m not sure what I’m looking for. Is anyone able to give me any guidance on what and where to look for possible causes? Alan

I’m pleased to report that my Superb diesel estate did the 660 mile round trip to Paisley and back from Skeg-Vegas yesterday with no problems. 😎

Does the scraping noise only happen the first couple of times you brake after the car has been standing for a few days? If so that will just be rust on the rotors - and normal. If it does it all the time it will probably be worn pads. All those warning lights appearing more or less simultaneously does suggest a sensor on which they each depend, directly or indirectly. The ABS wheel speed sensors would be the most likely suspects. If you have a diagnostic programme it will probably tell you which one has failed (Carista did for me). Good fortune, Alan

Thank you for that. I agree the Superb diesel estate is a great motorcar - 50 MPG and the road tax is only £35/year. Like you I see no reason to change it, and I’m looking forward to another decade of motoring with it. 😎

It looks like there is a happy ending to this story chaps. The Superb passed the MoT today, with just one advisory comment - the rear brake pads are getting a bit thin (I’ve ordered some and will fit them before the winter). I noticed that Carista reported that the glow plugs on cylinders #2 and #4 were faulty, so I’ve ordered a set of new ones and again will get them fitted before the winter. Many thanks for the help and advice. Alan

The new ABS speed sensor came with the postie this morning, once the rain stopped I got it fitted. This is a fiddly rather than difficult job, the sensor is secured with a single screw (T30 head) which is a bit difficult to get to. The plastic sensor was really hard to get out - I suppose 12 years of weathering had made its mark, but it did come out in the end with a bit of levering via a large screwdriver. The new part was even more fiddly to fit - I resorted to carefully cleaning the hole with an artist’s paintbrush, then using some silicone spray to lubricate - eventually it fitted into the right place, but this took a longer than the guy in the YouTube video. I’ve just started the motorcar and been for a short spin round the block. There are no warning lights, which is good, but then the warnings had cleared themselves previously and the fault was intermittent, so I may not know whether I’ve fixed the problem or not for some while yet. Fingers crossed!

Yes indeed, the Amazon part did seem a bit too generic. Hopefully the ‘Parts for German cars’ sensor will arrive on Thursday. Many thanks, BRISKODA is such a marvellous resource. Alan

Many thanks. I’ve ordered the corresponding right hand rear: EBay sensor … it should be here Thursday or Friday.

Many thanks, and I see your point. I’m a bit of a ‘do it now’ sort of chap though, and if I could get the right sensor shipped for tomorrow and have it fitted I know that would make me happy. See the post with the Amazon part listing above, does that look like the correct piece? Alan

Bearing in mind the comment above, an Amazon search shows this replacement part: Replacement on Amazon … that can be here tomorrow, and is only £12 delivered. Is anyone able to confirm this is the right part? Do they differ from left to right and front to rear? It looks like I have about 2 hours to order in time for the Prime delivery tomorrow- so any comments would be much appreciated. Alan

Ah, thank you for that - it sounds like exactly the same problem (also see part 2 of the post). In that case I may see if I can find the part locally tomorrow and have it fitted before the service and MoT next week. Best wishes, Alan

… continuing from a service station on the M6, somewhere near Carlisle. The other faults were: Power steering, but connected with the ABS, and: … … the turning lights, so connected with the power steering fault, and thus the ABS module. The motorcar seemed fine in spite of the warning lights (except the stop/start system didn’t function) so I decided to continue the remaining 259 miles to Fabulous Skeg-Vegas rather than spend the rest of the day waiting for the AA to ferry me home. I got back here to ‘Vegas with no problems (apart from having to look at 5 warning lamps). I left the motorcar switched off for about half an hour before taking the house/dig/cat sitter home - and all 5 faults cleared during the start up routine. It would be pretty unlikely that I have 5 unconnected faults that occurred nearly simultaneously three times over, so my theory is I have a bad ABS sensor on the offside rear wheel, and that creates a chain reaction that cause the other 4 error messages. Does that sound like the most plausible explanation? By chance the Skoda is booked in to a local independent garage for its annual service and MoT on Monday (5 days time). I’m sure I could fit a new sensor myself, but the sensible plan would seem to be to warn off the garage that a new ABS sensor will be required, and have it fitted during the service and before the MoT next week (I can use the ancient Volvos until then). Does that sound like a sensible plan? Have I missed anything? Has anyone had a similar experience. Any advice or comments would be much appreciated. Alan

My 2013 Superb Elegance diesel estate has been very reliable since I bought it 12 years and 95,000 miles ago. These days I use it almost exclusively for long trips (I have a couple of 1960s/70s Volvos I use around town), hence the Skoda doesn’t get used often. I had just such a journey this week - visiting my son in Paisley - some 350 miles distant from Skegness. I left early on Sunday morning, and after just 100 miles I had 5 warning lights come on a.most simultaneously: ABS, stability control, power steering, lights and tyre pressures. This had never happened previously; I pulled over at the next services on the A1(M) to investigate. Fortunately I had the Carista dongle with me, and I was able to reset all the faults in a few minutes. There was no reoccurrence during the remaining 250 miles to Paisley or during a couple of days worth of local journey in and around Glasgow with my son. I set off from my son’s flat at about lunchtime today (Tuesday) and had only got about 50 miles before exactly the same issue occurred, 5 warning lights almost simultaneously: This time I was close to a service station, so I checked the tyre pressures and lights - no problems there. By the time I’d switched off and on again those three lights had disappeared: … and the other two extinguished during the engine start up procedure (without the aid of Carista). I proceeded towards Lincolnshire again, only for exactly the same fault to happen again. This time I was quicker with the Carista diagnosis and identified 3 faults before they were reset: …. Firstly, and I think most importantly, there had been an issue with the offside rear ABS speed sensor. I’ll continue this post in a part 2 so I may include a couple more screenshots. TBC…

I suspect the issue on my car occurred for exactly the same reason: I don’t use it much. The answer may be to drop the blower motor down once a year and give it a really good spraying with WD40.

Thank you. Only time will tell; what I have discovered is that removing and replacing the blower unit is really easy - at worst I’ll have to buy a replacement and fit it is 5 minutes. I’ve read a number of accounts on these pages saying that with a bit of WD40 the fix lasts a very long time.

I’ve answered my own question here chaps. After a bit of searching these pages I found some posts which told me the blower motor was in the passenger footwell, covered by a single sheet of foam insulation, here it is: … it is a bit fiddle, but the whole unit just unscrews (about 1/8 turn clockwise looking up at the motor) and with some finagling drops down without even removing the electrical connector: The spindle was just stuck - there was no obvious reason why but it freed up with a few spins by hand and a bit of WD40. The unit was equally fiddly to re-fit, and difficult to find the right start and finish points for the locking tabs (I hope I have it all right). It all works fine now and I’ve removed the fault code with Carista. This whole process only took about 10 minutes and seems to have cured the problem completely. I’d booked the Skoda in for an air conditioning re-gas on Tuesday, I’m not sure it really needs that now, but it hasn’t been done for some years so I’ll get it changed anyway (and the cost is only £65). Alan Addendum: credit to Sanmart here: Sanmart post

The climate control on my 2013 Superb diesel estate Elegance model suddenly stopped working yesterday. I bit of investigation this morning has shown it to be a mechanical issue, and (after a false start) I’ve confirmed the fuse is okay. The next suspect is the blower motor itself - does anyone know where I may find it so I can check it out? I don’t have a workshop manual, only the original owner’s handbook. Alan

Many thanks - you are exactly right. I was dubious about opening that end because it has an air bag warning on it, but gave it a go and hey presto: … I’m guessing the fuse layout is a mirror image of the diagram in Mr Skoda’s handbook, so fuse #22 is that solitary 40A at the front on row #4? I’ve checked that and it is fine, so the next suspect is the motor itself. Does anyone know where I may find it (I don’t have a workshop manual, only the handbook)? I’ll also start another thread asking for help on this issue in case it doesn’t get noticed. Many thanks. Alan

The air conditioning on my 2013 Superb diesel estate suddenly stopped working yesterday. I’ve had a look at it this morning and the issue seems to be the heater fan not working, as Carista reports: … the first thing to check should be the fuse, the handbook says it is #22 and situated behind a panel at the left side of the dashboard. My problem is the fuse box doesn’t seem to be there on my motorcar: … am I being very dim, or has Mr Skoda changed the location for the fuse box but not updated the handbook? This is probably a really simple issue, is anyone able to assist? Alan

I’m really pleased I got the battery before this cold snap, I think the original battery would have struggled in this weather.

When subscribing to the Carista app take note that it will attempt to set up a reoccurring payment. I bought the special offer (year for about £25), when I checked ny Apple Pay account it had established an automatic annual renewal at £60. I’ve cancelled that, but it would have been quite easy to miss it. This is sharp practice by Carista - one often employed by insurance companies and the like.

Thinking about it - I don’t think it did. If I recall it only had fields for the capacity, the manufacturer and the serial number. I’ll check that when I get a moment tomorrow, just in case I’ve misremembered that.

Ah! No my fat fingers, I meant Exide 70AH battery in the first sentence. The original was 67AH, so the change was to 70AH. Well spotted. Alan

I got round to changing the battery today - a new 90AH Exide battery had arrived a few days ago. Thank you for the help and advice to everyone - swapping the old battery out was simple enough and all the fault lights disappeared once I'd swung the steering to and fro a couple of times. The Carista dongle prompted me to the app store as soon as the BT connected to my iPhone. The Carista software is simple enough to use - I chose the year's subscription for about £25 option - I probably could have got a free month by going for the £60/year/pay monthly option and cancelling it straight away, but that seemed a bit tightwad to me and I'm happy enough with £25. The software allowed me to change the capacity to 70 AH, the manufacturer to Exide and I gave it a different serial number, that only took a few minutes. Before I disconnected I ran the diagnosis programme and it picked up and cleared a few fault codes. I took the motorcar for a drive - long enough to get up to full temperature - and was surprised that the Stop/Start system has fixed itself. It probably stopped working a few years ago, but I never much liked it so that hadn't bothered me. Anyway - everything is working fine now and starting is no longer laboured. The old battery is still holding about 12.5v - around 80% charge - so I'll keep it as a workshop 12v source, which is always handy. Best wishes for a prosperous 2025. Alan

The ad says there is a free version of the app plus a free one month trial of the full version. Depending on whether the battery registration stuff is in the free or subscription version will dictate whether this is a once only use or not. At £27 it is cheap enough to be a burner. I’ve done some Internet reading this morning, opinion seems divided upon whether it is necessary to re-code the battery or not. Quite a few owners say the motorcar just learns itself over a few miles driving, others say the world will probably end without it. I haven’t found anyone that says they had significant problems having changed the battery but not registered the battery yet, although perhaps folk would not admit that? Having ordered the Carista I might as well give it a go now. One more question if I may: when I order a new battery do I need to specify the code: 7P0 915 105? If I do so will that necessarily be sufficient to make sure the replacement has the right form and electrical specification? Alan