Normally I'd refer to my Haynes and try and diagnose myself but I'm at work at the moment and have to drive some distance straight after.

I popped out to the post office and on the way back noticed my Climatronic as dead as a door knob.

Can someone tell me which fuse it is so that I can rule out the obvious before attempting to drive with no way of clearing the fog on the windscreen :p

Any help HUGELY appreciated!

Edited 12 January, 201115 yr by lordrobs

Does this help?

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/175843-fuse-panel-layout/

Thanks, I had that open in another window but couldn't find anything specific to the Climatronic. I ruled out F16 (air conditioning) then the fire alarm went off :p

I'll thaw out a bit then have another look

OK so I tracked it down to a blown F5 fuse which cryptically is associated with: Heated seats (which I don't have), Sunroof (which I don't have), Reading light (which still works :S ) and "Multifunction Switch". I swapped the fuse over only for it to blow again about 10 seconds later :(

Does this help narrow down the problem or simply throw another 100 possibles into the mix?

The car is also running really weird, when I put my foot on the clutch to shift up the revs continue to rise for a second or so making for very jerky up shifts. Last night I also had a CEL light on, the oil light flashed amber for a few seconds after starting the car and the cruise now doesn't work either! All in all the thing just seems to be going into meltdown since yesterday afternoon!

Edited 12 January, 201115 yr by lordrobs

OK so I tracked it down to a blown F5 fuse which cryptically is associated with: Heated seats (which I don't have), Sunroof (which I don't have), Reading light (which still works :S ) and "Multifunction Switch". I swapped the fuse over only for it to blow again about 10 seconds later :(

Does this help narrow down the problem or simply throw another 100 possibles into the mix?

The car is also running really weird, when I put my foot on the clutch to shift up the revs continue to rise for a second or so making for very jerky up shifts. Last night I also had a CEL light on, the oil light flashed amber for a few seconds after starting the car and the cruise now doesn't work either! All in all the thing just seems to be going into meltdown since yesterday afternoon!

It looks like there is a fault/short somewhere in the heater blower or resistor (pretty common on the octavia), one of the control flap motors, any of the switches that control anthing to do with the blower/aircon, including the ignition. Or just a random fault anywhere! If it were me I'd probably have to resort to a garage with an auto-electrical specialist.

It looks like there is a fault/short somewhere in the heater blower or resistor (pretty common on the octavia), one of the control flap motors, any of the switches that control anthing to do with the blower/aircon, including the ignition. Or just a random fault anywhere! If it were me I'd probably have to resort to a garage with an auto-electrical specialist.

Nightmare :(

I've got it booked in with a VW/Audi specialist on 25th (earliest they could book it in) and they seem to remember a similar issue with a Golf so hopefully they will be able to track it down *fingers crossed*

Just in case it is of any use to someone who finds this via a search...

It turned out to be a duff oil level sensor that shorted out and melted the wiring / connector.

Simple fix but still cost a bloody fortune due to diagnostic time :(

Not trying to rub salt into the wounds, or even apply hindsight......I'm thinking more of if this happens to anyone in future.

Would the faulty sensor not have shown up on a fault scan? The moral of the story being do a fault check even if you wouldn't think it would help?

Or am I missing the point?

One might imagine (or hope?) the auto electrician would perform a fault scan before launching his investigation for the root problem?

One might imagine (or hope?) the auto electrician would perform a fault scan before launching his investigation for the root problem?

Indeed. You'd think so wouldn't you?

I performed a fault code scan myself and the car was throwing some odd codes such as the brake light switch but nothing relating to the oil level sensor.

Having had a look at the wiring diagrams it seems that so much of the electrical system goes through this F5 fuse under the incredibly useful label of "multifunction switch" that it is difficult to try and pin it down.

The specialist that I took it to did a cracking job IMHO to find it as quick as they did. I think in total they charged 4 hours labour and that included the fitting of the new sensor and draining / refreshing the oil.

Unfortunately they also found that the sump plug thread was damaged (probably from when I parked on what I thought was a solid grass verge in the show and bottomed it out :no: ) so my next service will also have the addition of a new sump or the cost of getting the current one heli-coiled (sp) :(

Unfortunately they also found that the sump plug thread was damaged (probably from when I parked on what I thought was a solid grass verge in the show and bottomed it out :no: ) so my next service will also have the addition of a new sump or the cost of getting the current one heli-coiled (sp) :(

Might be worth spendin £140 and getting a shallow sump My link I'm planning on getting one when i damage my sump

Might be worth spendin £140 and getting a shallow sump My link I'm planning on getting one when i damage my sump

I'll have owned the old girl for 4 years this summer so these are the twilight years of its ownership for me :p Therefore I'll just get whatever fix ends up being cheapest which I assume will be a helicoil on the original sump.