Electrical Faults look here!

[dawpooldad]

Hi,

a saga of potentially serious faults with a simple solution!

Rear Wiper motor not operating!

Seized gearbox on motor caused by constant water ingress, due to by stem seal breaking down and leaking.

Released seized crank mechanism and fitted an improvised seal. Rebuilt and cleaned with fresh grease and everything was tickety boo until six months later when:-

Front Windscreen wipers started operating on their own!

This happened on a long journey on a hot day and fearful of a blown fuse or a burnt out motor, I was using the screenwash fit to bust. With some respite, for about ten minutes, each time the engine was switched off and with regular fill ups, I made it home. Then, after leaving the car overnight, it was OK.

Two days later, wifelet reports in an almost tearful 'phone call that "It's started again!!!!"

Checking through the forum did not immediatley cough up an answer, so I started to check connections, switches, fuses etc. During this investigation, the rear wiper operated itself once, by itself and it was almost like, did I see that or was I imagining it!

So, off came the rear wiper motor again.

When stripped down this time, the motor, gearbox and circuitry were soaked again. The improvised seal had failed and water poured out of the unit! The interesting thing was, when I pulled the connector to the rear unit, the front wipers stopped! Obviously, some kind of short on the connector and/or the CAN bus.

So a new unit was ordered from Bickerton and fitted. Octavia was back to normal and wifelet was happy once again. Until:-

A few months later, Wifey was bringing me home from a lads curry night, when a speeding pillock in a Sirroco took the drivers door mirror off. It had completely disintegrated! (it's a good job he didn't stop, as I tanked up enough to deal with him!). So, Ebay consulted, new primered unit ordered and whilst waiting for it, I gave the car a thorough wash, wax and polish. Then:-

Central locking goes crazy, not unlocking, locking itself, not working on the fob etc.

Again, I turned to the forum and found that water ingress into the drivers door and the convenience unit was the most likely cause. What a pillock! with the mirror missing there was a direct channel for water down through the hinge where the cables go!

So I waited until the new mirrror arrived, was painted and ready to go on.

When fitting the mirror, I removed the door card and checked the connections to the convenience unit, the door locks, etc and found that they were all completely dry! Where do I go now, was water ingress a red herring?

Suffice to say, after fitting the mirror, things went OK and central locking went back to normal. For a few days anyway and then, yes, another call from Mrs dawpooldad (who was rapidly losing patience with said Octy) saying that the central locking had "gone mad" again.

Cue, another immediate removal of the door card to double check for watery connections, but everything was bone dry.

Whilst doing this job, the Mrs breezed past, on her way to other car, to resume previously aborted shopping mission, with a "by the way, the back squirty thingy isn't working!"

Eureka!, I thought, and made a beeline for the rear hatch cover. On removal, everthing was bone dry, but there was a familiar smell of screenwash in the boot. So, another perusal on the forum revealed that there was a pipe join behind the l/hand side trim in the boot.

The trim was duly removed and yes! the pipe joint had split apart and was pouring a mix of alcohol and water all over the connectors in that area. This was probably due to icing up during the recent cold spell.

So, everthing was dried off with kitchen roll and the gentle application of a hair dryer and reconnected. Also, I fitted a waterproof cable shroud over the pipe, so that if the pipe comes apart again, the offending water is directed away from the connections.

Two weeks later with no further electrical funnies, Mrs d has returned to her preffered Octavia and all is forgiven.

In summary, the common culprit was the rear screenwash in one form or another.

I hope that this will be of assistance to any other Octavia owner experiencing similar problems.

Rgds

dawpooldad

[felicia16v]

very common fault in the estate cars, the cd player usually packs up first as the wires are thinner. done some that were so corroded I had to cut the connector blocks out and solder the wires together

[jpd]

The same thing has been happening on my car and this write up helps hugely. Many thanks.