Fabia Immobiliser - Skoda can't even fix it

[mears]

Hi

Fabia 1.9sdi 2002 - immobiliser light flashing - Story so far: This was an itermittent problem for over a year but now is more permanent than not.

I have had work carried out by the Skoda garage as no other non skoda garage can do anything with it.

Work carried out:

Key barrel was changed - £200

Wiring checked - £40

Keys checked - No cost

Next thing is the instrument panel - £400 with no guarantee to fix.

I have been told that you cannot by pass the immobilser on this car.

Has anyone tried this? or has anyone got a solution or suggestion?

At the moment I just feel very frustrated as know one can guarantee anything and it is costing a fortune.

Mears :confused:

[homerjh]

i dont know if its relavent but on some cars the immobilisor is integral to the ECU.

so to bypass you would need to get a replacement ecu and recode.

probably not what you want to hear.

the only other way is if there is some method to disable it by flashing the chip or similar (ie like people can change the ecu settings on a laptop).

does the immobilisor still work though, and you just get annoying light?

[mears]

Hi homerjh,

Yes the immobiliser is working but just not correctly ie it should work for me as the owner. Car was in the driveway for 5 days and would not start.

Had to tow it to the garage.

How much is an ECU?

Mears

[VRStu]

Have they changed the receiver ring on the ignition barrell?

I think the immo can be coded out on the ECU but it is more of a 3 party workaround than a proper solution to your problem.

[fordfan]

The read coil is integral with the ignition barrel, so this sounds as though it has been changed.

In my view that only really leaves the dash panel as the culprit. It's a shame that they haven't probably got a similar car there so that they can try swapping the ECU, dash and lock cylinder from to confirm the diagnosis.

Gary at Skospares does a nice line in immobiliser kits, he's supplied us in the past with a dash panel, ECU and key all from one car and I expect that he will even provide a lock set to go with it.

With regard to coding the immobiliser out, there are insurance implications, particularly from a theft claim point of view. I had a hard time the other week convincing Direct line that a Polo had a factory fit immobiliser, they would't accept it at first despite a VAG Com report.

[VRStu]

With regard to coding the immobiliser out, there are insurance implications, particularly from a theft claim point of view. I had a hard time the other week convincing Direct line that a Polo had a factory fit immobiliser, they would't accept it at first despite a VAG Com report.

Indeed, I was trying to suggest it wouldn't be the better solution.

I thought you could buy the reciever coils seperately, you learn somethng every day eh. :P

[Td-eye]

I had this sort of problem, see: http://briskoda.net/forums/ask-tech/key-imobiliser/85896/

in the end it seems to have been the key that was the culprit.

Since using only the spare key there have been no further issues.

I would double check that the problem doesn't lie with the transponder in the key !

Edited 4 July, 2009 by DGW
No need to quote original post.

[mears]

Thanks for all the replies.

Have they changed the receiver ring on the ignition barrell?

I think the immo can be coded out on the ECU but it is more of a 3 party workaround than a proper solution to your problem.

Yes the whole barrel was changed. I was also told by an indepdant garage that the immo could not be worked around. Interesting that you say it can be?

Re:- Gary at Skospares does a nice line in immobiliser kits, he's supplied us in the past with a dash panel, ECU and key all from one car and I expect that he will even provide a lock set to go with it.

Would this mean one key to open the door and a different key to start the car?

Re:- I would double check that the problem doesn't lie with the transponder in the key !

Yes that is a good idea.

I don't think that the garage or Skoda UK is going to commit themselves to pinpoint a guaranteed fix. Which I feel is unacceptable.

There must be a finite number of things that can be wrong?

Key - Checked

Ignition Barrel - Replaced

Wiring - Checked

Whats left - Instrument Panel? or more?

Surely that if it is only the Instrument Panel then they should be confident enough to guarantee a fix. Saving poor old me forking out £400 to find out that didn't fix it either!

It is really ironic that every garage says "Sorry mate only Skoda can sort that issue out"

Yet Skoda can't fix the problem!

Rock or a hard place! :(

Thanks for listening folks

Mears

[Tech1e]

As mentioned do you have a spare key?

[mears]

As mentioned do you have a spare key?

Yes - Results are the same with the spare key.

[mears]

The saga continues:

The car is now not starting at all, the immobiliser light flashes continuously. I have been in contact with a specialist company who repairs instrument panels and they went through a fault diagnosis via email with me.

The result was that they felt that the permanent 12v feed was intermittent or faulty. They suggested that I run a new feed to the panel.

This was done today and the car is still the same.

Now the only thing that has not been changed is the instrument cluster but my local skoda garage will not commit to this being a 100% guarantee fix. So far I have spent over £300

without a fix in sight! The instrument cluster is £400 to buy.

Skoda UK have said they cannot help as the car is out of warranty (2002 plate)

I now hate this car and am about to do a Basil Fawlty and kick and bash it to death!:eek:

Soap box away -- Can anyone suggest a possible route of action / fix / anything!

Mears

[rapidremap]

Hi Mears - see PM

Edited 25 June, 2009 by DGW
Redundant quote deleted.

[mears]

Update to this sorry story is:

Skoda recommended changing the key barrel as that is part of the imobiliser system. Unforunately that didn't solve my problem. They next said we should change the dash instument panel and at £400 i decided to by a second hand one which was £80 + £20 for skoda to re-program the panel. Since then all has been okay not a blip. I think it was sko-spares i bought it from.

Hope this helps anyone out there.

[Dmac1969]

Good to know that its fixed , and you made a good saving over dealer parts as well!

[DGW]

Many thanks for posting how this was finally resolved.

[esseffb]

I've had the same problem on my recently acquired 02 Fabia 1.4 8v and found this thread very useful. I found the intermittent starting very frustrating and it really was a lottery whether i could get where i needed to go.:rotz:

I contacted shark_90 on here and he has been really helpful throughout. He used vagcom to diagnose faults with the reader coil and key signal. Both keys struggled to start the car and further checks confirmed that the reader coil had been changed earlier this year. The wiring was checked and this too had been worked on and proper work carried out. Following shark_90 advice i bought a 2nd hand dash panel and after a little bit of his magic the car is now performing as it should.

Skoda dealerships were, in general, of very little help - they were quoting crazy prices for excessive work that offered no guarantee of success. shark_90 went out of his way to assist me throughout and explained things at a level i could understand. I was at my wits end and could've ended paying out a fortune to crack this but am now back in action at a fraction of the cost.

So in summary for anyone out there with similar problems (or indeed any vag issues) shark_90 is excellent at what he does and understands that your needs are not the main focus of the dealerships. He's also a nice guy who knows more about Skoda, Audi's , VW's etc than any one person reasonably should!

[fenderdanuk]

I have a 2002 Fabia 1.4 MPI and am having the same problems where it is a complete gamble as to whether the car will start or not. I am sick of getting messed around by garages, so have decided to try and purchase a new reader coil which my friend who is a mechanic has said he will fit.

I was wondering if anyone knows a good website where I could purchase this part from. I had a look on e-bay but was quite surprised to find no results.

Also, the ASR light sometimes comes on randomly so perhaps it might be a problem with the dashboard as has been mentioned in this post?

Any help and advice would be appreciated.

[Tech1e]

The coil reader comes complete with the barrel so would need to be ordered from Skoda to key number.

When you have the fault does the car start, run then cut out. Immobiliser light flashing? Fault codes?

If its a weak key signal fault try moving the steering column next time it won't start, see if it does then. Give it a good pull in and out and up and down.

I have made up quite a few looms up to now to replace the factory wiring from the reader to the dash cluster to sort signal faults.

[Stormchaser]

Holy thread revival !!

But very useful tips and guide

[Tech1e]

Holy thread revival !!

But very useful tips and guide

It shows though that some people use the search function rather than just start a new thread. They have found the same issue and have read the thread and asked a detailed question on their fault. Sounds pretty good to me.

[Stormchaser]

Quite agree its good to see very useful old threads come back to life. It can get repetitive on here sometimes.

[vas6150a]

hi all this link may save you a few pounds http://www.clusterrepairsuk.co.uk/#3

[boz123]

Just stumbled across this, I'm having the same problem with my 52 plate skoda fabia. Immobiliser light flashing at random times over the last few months and the car not starting. Eventually it did it continuously and I had to be towed to garage (tried both keys and it wouldn;t start for either). It's currently in the Skoda garage where I have been waiting for 3 weeks for a replacement ingition barrel (still not arrived) - and the garage have been unable to guarentee that it will solve the problem. It's costing £200 - a gamble since they don't seem very confident! I'll keep you posted but may need some advice if it doesn't do the trick. Fingers crossed. Similar to what people have said above, Skoda have said that if the replacement ignition barrell doesn't work then they will need to replace something else (can;t remember what...) - but I remember that they said it would cost around £400! Absolutely no point since the car probably isn't even worth much more than the £600 it would cost to fix it in this scenario.

[Hargo]

Hi,

This could be a different issue but there's a lot of similar problems on MK4 Ibizas caused by dodgy soldering ( from the factory ) on the instrument cluster. Re-flowing the joints on the main 32 pin connector fixes the problem in the majority of cases. It only seems to effect the Ibiza Sport with the 6 dial cluster but it could be a similar problem on the Fabia ? I got quoted about the same from Seat to fix mine, £450 for the cluster and £200 to fit and re code it. Luckily I found a thread about it on the Seat Cupra forum that explained how to remove the cluster and re solder it the pins. Others have had problems with gauges going off or doing strange things as well as the immobiliser and it all turned out to be the soldering on the connector.

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=199145

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=358596

( hope I'm not breaking any rules posting links to other forums, they're purely just to try and help )

I was quoted around £85 from a local tuning company to do it but gave it a go myself and 2 years later all is well ( touch wood ! ).

As I said it could be a different issue altogether on the Fabia but you never know.

Al.

[Frustrated_Fabia]

I had this problem last year then again this year when it became permanent. It seemed to happen frequently on very hot days. Well after waisting money like everyone else having wiring checked and the ignition barrel replaced, I decided to send my Instrument Cluster/Panel (which is very easy to remove yourself) off for testing .

Turns out the main motherboard PCB had moisture damage and a refurbishment was required. They did have the same model in stock for £137, but since I had sent mine off already and would have to pay for the diagnostic anyway I decided to get it repaired which cost me £200.

I have not received it back yet, should be in the next week, but will post here when I do.

Heres hoping this sloves the problem.

For anyone wondering, I sent it off to the following people:

http://autotekelectronics.com/autotek/

Updated 06/09/12:

Well I got the instrument panel back and have been using the car for a week now with no problems at all, looks like it is fixed for now.

Edited 6 September, 2012 by Frustrated_Fabia