Hi guys

I have had a problem with this car pretty much since I brought it. But with a pathetic warranty it has never been sorted.

Over the last few weeks it has got progressively worse, here is my story:

Symptoms

• Flashing lights or turning lights on sometimes results in stereo cutting out.
  
• Power steering cuts out when steering more than slight angles (e.g. parking and not general driving usually). This is an intermittent issue, so you can imagine it is rather hard to garages to troubleshoot.
  
• Early signs of the power steering about to fail will be a significant dip in the headlight beam and stereo cutting out. These are the two electrical utilities that I use the most however, with some further testing it also effects the air con fans power, brake lights, dashboard lights, electric windows and basically anything electrical.
  
• Restarting the engine fixes the issue 95% of the time.
  

Tried solutions with no success

• Been to Skoda dealers 7 times (Freeborn Southampton x5, Sparshatts of Botley x2), neither party seems to be able to diagnose the problem. The one time I got the error to replicate on a visit, they insisted it was an Alternator, and replaced it within a week I was back there with the same issue and demanded my old alternator back and a refund.
  
• Installed a new battery.
  
• Checked fuses (dashboard not battery).
  
• Cleaned battery terminals.
  
• Replaced leaking door panel allowing water to get into rear foot-well, in case the issue was down to water getting in.
  

I have noticed a lot of people complaining about Steering angle sensors being faulty on early models. I guess mine might fall into that category, BUT if it was a Steering angle sensor issue surely it would not effect the car when flashing the lights, as there has been no command sent to the ECU for power for the steering. (Excuse me if my understanding of the way the electrics work is too simple or wrong)

Another issue that people have complained of is the earth wire wearing thin, is this the small brown wire from the battery? Again excuse ignorance.

Somebody else mentioned a DRM wire too, not even sure what that is?

Please help me with this, had this car nearly 2 years now and when it works I love it to pieces, when I can't steer or use my lights though, somehow the romance is gone.

Thanks in advance...

Matt

Assuming you have cleaned the connections from batt to chassis, and batt to alt. There is another common problem where the wire to the alt is faulty iirc? I briefly read about it on the forums a while ago.

I would hazard a guess that the problem is a dirty connection somewhere. Go from the simple stuff like power/ground to alt, then to ECU. Perhaps the bus bar on top of the batt (where lots of red wires are).

Thanks buddy and i gotta say your fabia looks awesome. Im putting some 16" octavia wheels in mine soon.

Dirty connection seems like a good shout. Where is another matter as the connection is not fully broken. Goin to auto electrician on tues, gonna try and stay and see if i can check some of these wires over with him. Still open to more suggestions though.