I have an Octavia Elegance coming up to 4 years old in August.

A month ago, the ABS and Anti-Skid lights came on. It was due a service anyway so I had it serviced and the Skoda garage (Silbury at Cramlington, Northumberland) reported the following on the service sheet :

'Requires offside rear ABS sensor and offside rear ABS wheel sensor'

They assured me that the brakes were fine and quoted £320 to have the sensors replaced. A week later, the red handbrake light came on as I was driving and has stayed flashing on and off ever since! I 'phoned Silbury who said that it was almost certain that the handbrake light was linked to the ABS sensors and it may require a sensor control unit. They could fit me one for £960 including labour!! So at the moment I'm driving around with 3 warning lights displaying on the dash but safe in the knowledge that the brakes are OK.

I'm not mechanically minded at all and wouldn't be able to verify what I've been told nor try to fix it myself.

So here are my questions :

The MOT is due at the end of July. Would it fail the MOT because of the warning lights?

Do the quotes for the sensors/control unit sound reasonable?

Is it worth getting a second opinion from a non Skoda garage who can use diagnostics?

Can you give me any further advice as the prices quoted by my Skoda dealer really seem rather high?

Cheers.

MOT fail - Yes, see http://www.motuk.co.uk/manual_340.htm reasons for fail (D)

Sensors - The sensor is in 2 parts, a "chopper disc" that rotates with the brake, and the electronicy part that measures rotating speed. The discs rarely break, but do occasionally need cleaning. A competent garage with real mechanics would probably do this rather than just saying "replace the chopper disc. Until this is done, you can't actually say that the sensor needs replaced if you say that the disc does.

At least they've correctly told you that the brakes still work (but won't anti-lock properly).