________________________________________

Hi All,

I have a very sick Octavia 2.0 tdi Elegance Estate on a 2005 plate.

I have owned this car from new and its always given good service.

The car started to Overheat wile towing my Caravan but not into the red(110 degrees) I pulled onto the hard shoulder and stopped the water & oil levels were normal but the cooling fans were not running(Given the temp they should have been). and let the car cool whilst waiting on RAC unit to respond.

I then tried to restart but no joy. RAC plug in and run diagnostics and found no faults, but still would not start!

Then while doing paper work for recovery tried the car once more and started fist time and run normally RAC followed me for 5 miles on M/way and met up again to check all was well but still no cooling fans but temp was never over the 90 degree norm.

We continued our journey and travelled an other 70mile with no problems the started to experience a judder Misfire/No fire whilst on Cruise disengaged and put foot down to find not response just more apparent missing. Lifted off and started looking for a lay by got an other 3miles with no problems as long as light throttle was applied, pulled to a stop and the engine has not fired since.

No error codes were shown when RAC re-run on diagnostics.

The car was recovered to the dealer and they can find nothing wrong(other than not running!!) and still no fault codes are found.

They are telling me that it needs an ECU (£900) plus labour (£300-400) but cant assure me that this will fix the non starting issue.

If anyone has any thoughts I would be very grateful.

Scott.

[email protected]

First obvious point is that you didn't refuel before the problems started did you?

Assuming that one is safe there are 101 things that can go wrong before they should ask for an ECU from you.

I'd suggest checking fuel flow, the accelerator potentiometer, the MAF as obvious candidates.

The fuel flow they should be able to check easily and the other two you can test on VAG-COM and check what the requested values are against the given values.

Are any warning lights coming?

If there are relays it may also be worth replacing the octy II equivalent of relay 109, which passes power to the main systems.

HTH

Cheers,cheezemonkhai

I did fill fuel about 120mile before the car stopped so probably ok, I will ask dealer to fit new fuel filter and check out bowl for the obvious!!!!!.

I have been told there is fuel present at the injectors and that they can't do a compresion test unless the car is running! seems odd to me.

would the accelerator potentiometer stop the car running?, the MAF?. would this not throw out a fault code?

there are no warning lights coming on?

I will also ask the dealer to check relay 109,

I have been told the cars can have problems with fuel pumps, relays & the injector wiring looms in the head.

thanks again

scott

I think its the standard response from a dealer who does'nt know how to fix something. I once got told i needed a new ECU for a boot release that was sticking.

Chances are the ECU is fine, its a PC os sorts. If its failed then the car prop will be dead, unlikely.

No fan running means failed fan, connections, relay, fuse, temp sender or airlock in coolant. Could be running ok and temp sender saying incorrect reading. Maybe find a good derv specalist and try them?

Let them fit an ECU only if it fixes 100% the problem for sure!

by this MY is very frequent feiled fan1 - bigger

inside fan1 is ECU for both fans.

check plug by fans, fuse in E-BOX and voltage in blue/red and red wire in fan´s plug

Edited 7 July, 200916 yr by rolbar

I don't see why it would need an ECU unless there was a specific ECU fault or lots of faults that perhaps led them to believe it was that.

Sounds like a fuel delivery problem to me.

Rereading this I've just remembered something coming up here before like this.

Get the fans fixed, if the fan switch (I think it's the switch might be a relay or controller etc) stops working then it can short and if it shorts it sends other systems crazy and can cause odd effect with the car.

Can't think of other possibles past what's been mentioned here. Hopefully that will sort things.

I'd consider another dealer though, as I'd not have much confidence based on what you're saying. Checking the fans is an obvious one if you've reported these haven't been firing! Bit strange they're passing over all the more rudimentary stuff and going straight for an ECU swap :eek: - and really quite unlikely that change will cure these issues anyway....

Steve

NO but a change will net them £900 - cost on parts and a huge amount of profit on labour as I can't believe it's a multi hour job to swap a box and let the computer work.

A very big thanks to all who have responded,

I have writen to Skoda Uk and I'm awaiting their reply before moving on this.

I am very likely going to recover the car back home and purchase Vag-com and start a-fresh myself.

Checking Faults codes

cooling fans, senders, relays

Fuel pump, relay & filter

Compresion tests (dealer informs me that this cant be done on a non starter)????????

And if the worst does transpire I will replace ECU from a breaking car and reprogram it myself (This the dealer tells me can't be done!!!!!) but clearly has been done on VAG COM no probs.

:confused:

Getting someone who already has VAG-COM to check the car over might be a good idea. I think the key lies with a good dealer and technician, who can logically go through the issues and hopefully reach a satisfactory conclusion

Steve

The fan switch issue causing a short didn't present any fault codes when time I put a car with a similar issue on VAG-COM. Personally I'd take the car to a local indy and get them to fix the none running fan. It won't cost much and will probably be cheaper than buying a VAG-COM lead.

If you want to be really sure, then unplug the cooling fan and change any blown fuses and take the car for a short drive on a cool day. If the car behaves then get the fan fixed/changed. Obviously if you do this, stop driving before the car gets up to normal temperature as you have minimal cooling.

Also some searching brings up this which may help:

http://briskoda.net/maintenance-performance/engine-cooling-fan-doing-its-own-thing/137422/

Cheers guy's,

The car's a non runner!!!!

Nobody(Indy) wants to touch it!!!!

I go away on hollidays on friday and plan to leave it till I come back home and make a start with the items listed including striping out and checcking/drying e-box.

Scott

A very big thanks to Cheezemonkhai, SHARK 90 and everyone else that has responded.

I have declined the dealer recomendations for the £1300-£1500 ECU replacement and I recovered the car home on a mates beaver tail.

I removed fuel filter and checked contents in clear bottle. OK but still would not fire up.

Parted and checked every accesable block connector in engine compartment All OK except:-

I found very bad corosion on fan terminals with a build up of rust covering the whole block and signs of recent water.

I cleaned the connectors and dried out. removed the pos+ battery terminal for 20 miniutes while doing the above, and the car fired straight away on reconection!!

So there we all are a badly corroded shorting/gounding fan connector can screwup you car big style,

But i'm even more anoyed at the hours of dealer time this lot has cost me, when an untrained mupet like me can fix the car for free, a total saving £1300-£1400

Downside is the fans still will not run, but the car doesn't go over 90 degrees while driving or parked.

So going to try a sender, thermostat if its accesble or a fan set if the other 2 dont sort it out.

thanks again Scott:thumbup:

Sounds good matey, glad to hear its fixed.

Its the reason i dont let alot of ppl do work on the cars ive had.

They need stringing up for not spotting and/or checking problems like that! Name and shame me thinks

Glad you're making progress

Steve

To be fair from the point they said you can't do a compression test on a non-runner they were proving their stupidity.

Glad you got it sorted and I think a personalised and public vote of thanks to the dealer concerned is warranted here - so eveybody else knows to ster well clear of them.

Nice one, told ya it would be simple!

Hi,

Just a little pointer, Octavia use the same fan control unit set up as 8P chassis A3 and water ingress into the fan control unit will screw it up. The unit is mounted low down on the fan shrouds and feeds the fans via a couple of thick wires. These tend to get corroded and as they are into the fan control unit they are likely to blow the unit. There should be a strip fuse on the battery, check this and if this is intact, change the control unit.

HTH:thumbup:

just a quick update,#

the car is still running great 7 months and 10kmiles and no sign of a faulty ecu.

many thanks again to all who helped on the forum.

for the record it was Ingram Skoda Ayr that proved to be so helpful with my problems.

I bought my car new there and can asure all, it and I wont be back!!!

Scott

Did Skoda UK ever respond to your letter? They should be ashamed that one of their franchises is so inept.

Great news that the car is going fine and a big tick in the Briskoda Forum box

Did Skoda UK ever respond to your letter? They should be ashamed that one of their franchises is so inept.

Great news that the car is going fine and a big tick in the Briskoda Forum box

Yes I had a number of contacts and got to a high level in the management, but got palmed off very quickly when they realised I had over 120k miles on the clock and started talking of expected lifetime running costs.

BLAH BLAH!!

the one real positive is I've started dealing with Henry's Skoda in Glasgow told them the whole story and they have offered me full rate discounts for service and parts, no doubt to steal me as a customer .

its only 50miles further but feel more like a valued customer once again.

Scott