List of error codes

[yerrmann]

Hi Folks

i just got car back from Volkswagen garage.

I drove car up from Paignton to Aberdeen Saturday - Sunday towing caravan no problems at all.

Monday fueled up with diesel and half an hour later when I went out and started car up an "Emissions Workshop" light came on.

The Car Superb 2.5 is driving fine then just loses power.

I put it into VW Garage and got it back with the following list of error codes

01375 Valves for engine shorting to ground

17809 EGR Valve short to ground

01686 Control module for cooling fan short to ground

01262 Solenoid valve for boost pressure short to ground

"All above intermittent faults"

He has checked power supply tests on all and it is "OK"

"Diagnosis Faulty ECU"

He reckons I need a new comp. and must take it to the Dealership to have this done. Problem is that the Dealership in Aberdeen is not the nicest after I stopped buying from them. I have an external warranty that covers ECU so not overly worried if they pay out

Any advice appreciated.

jimw

[yerrmann]

Hi Folks

i just got car back from Volkswagen garage.

I drove car up from Paignton to Aberdeen Saturday - Sunday towing caravan no problems at all.

Monday fueled up with diesel and half an hour later when I went out and started car up an "Emissions Workshop" light came on.

The Car Superb 2.5 is driving fine then just loses power.

I put it into VW Garage and got it back with the following list of error codes

01375 Valves for engine shorting to ground

17809 EGR Valve short to ground

01686 Control module for cooling fan short to ground

01262 Solenoid valve for boost pressure short to ground

"All above intermittent faults"

He has checked power supply tests on all and it is "OK"

"Diagnosis Faulty ECU"

He reckons I need a new comp. and must take it to the Dealership to have this done. Problem is that the Dealership in Aberdeen is not the nicest after I stopped buying from them. I have an external warranty that covers ECU so not overly worried if they pay out

Any advice appreciated.

jimw

Car still in garage Skoda Specialist Aberdeen. Dropped it off on Thurs. to be looked at on Friday.

Finally phoned this morning to say that there is a loose wire somewhere. Quoted me three hours at cost of £180 to find it.

When I phoned this afternoon still not found what fault is. So much for warranties. Does not cover wiring faults. Manager told me can take as much as ten hours to trace a wiring fault. Charging £60 an hour labour rate---------- Why am i am not surprised?

Edited 1 August, 2011 by yerrmann

[rotodiesel]

Any insurance which is useful will be an exclusion.

The only people who are bigger robbers than the insurance companies are VAG.

Choose your car carefully and look after it - cheaper and better than insurance.

rotodiesel.

[rwbaldwin]

The usual cause of those codes is a faulty ECU power relay.

[yerrmann]

The usual cause of those codes is a faulty ECU power relay.

You are the second person to mention ECU to me about this fault.

I went to collect my car this evening. Specialist Skoda told me they had fixed a relay but it was still showing error codes but the light on the dashboard had now gone off.

The Garage had taken the car for a thirty mile test drive and had no problems with it.

After speaking to the Ladies at reception I then had a long discussion with the Service Manager and the upshot was that I was told the car had not been fully repaired as there were still error codes but they had only estimated three hours and even though it had been worked on for more than three hours they were only charging me for three hours for looking at the car, even though they had worked on car for much longer but failed to diagnose the problem and fix it.

I asked if they were unable to fix my car. I was told they could but they would not be able to get near it until next week.

In meantime I was left paying £206 for a car diagnostic checks and repair of one faulty relay.

The Faulty codes were still showing on the garage diagnostic check but the error light on panel had been cured.

I asked if I could leave the car and receive a courtesy car. Was told there were none available.

After much discussion I agreed payment of £206 and if problem problem re-occurred it would go back in for further investigation with an agreed maximum of five hours labour to be charged to find the fault and repair it.

Guess what I took my car to go home but did even manage to get fifty yards down the road when the warning light came back on with "Emissions Workshop".

I turned the car around and went back. Low and behold. Staff did not know where to look::::::::::::::

I was found a courtesy car.

I have been told my car will not be attended to until next week at the earliest but at least we have agreed a maximum limit of charges for no more than another five hours investigation. That will bring charges to find an electrical fault to eight hours of investigation at £60 an hour. I wish I could earn that kind of money!

[rwbaldwin]

You are the second person to mention ECU to me about this fault....

It's not the ECU itself, but a relay called the ECU power relay.

This relay is used to switch power on to the engine sensors on loom connection 87a. If this relay is faulty, you often get 'random' sensor faults being logged.

Seeing your fault list, I would have immediately replaced that relay. The part is cheaper than the time it would take to check it.

Part: £15(ish), fitting time: less than 15 minutes.

If that didn't fix it, it would take about an hour to check all the power feeds for the sensors and the signal to the relay. Cannot imagine what they would be doing for 10 hours.

[yerrmann]

It's not the ECU itself, but a relay called the ECU power relay.

This relay is used to switch power on to the engine sensors on loom connection 87a. If this relay is faulty, you often get 'random' sensor faults being logged.

Seeing your fault list, I would have immediately replaced that relay. The part is cheaper than the time it would take to check it.

Part: £15(ish), fitting time: less than 15 minutes.

If that didn't fix it, it would take about an hour to check all the power feeds for the sensors and the signal to the relay. Cannot imagine what they would be doing for 10 hours.

Thanks folks The Info gleaned has been most helpful and I will keep you up-dated as to the outcome.

I really don't know why I say it because on past experience this is much of what I have come to expect, but I am just so disappointed in Specialist Skoda with this whole episode. Car has been in for three working days, cost £206. even though they admitted it was not repaired.

Get ready to take car home and I drive less than fifty yards and the original warning fault light returns.

Again a sincere and real Thank you!

[yerrmann]

SPECIALIST CARS ABERDEEN DEBACLE

I had an e-mail today from Specialist cars

I phoned them to be told how after having my car for 9 days they had finally diagnosed what was wrong.

It had gone in with a warning light and "Emissions Workshop" showing.

I had been informed that the E.C.U. was at fault and would require to be replaced.

I passed this info onto Specialist Skoda Aberdeen when I took the car in.

They investigated and decided there was a fault in the wiring some place. Oddly enough with exception of drivers seat everything electrical on the car worked perfect. They charged me £206 for replacing a relay switch and informing me that the fault had not been repaired, but they had managed to get warning light to go out. (Drivers seat is still not working).

After long discussion, I paid and left. I did not drive forty yards before warning light came back on with exact same fault.

I immediately returned the car back and was informed that they would investigate and try to trace the fault.

That was on Thurs last week and heard no more until today Tuesday

GUESS WHAT? WAIT FOR IT.

My E.C.U. is faulty and will need to be replaced. I have been without my car for 9 days, paid Specialist Skoda Aberdeen £206 and I am now informed that the very information that I passed on at the start, IE. The E.C.U. was faulty is correct after all.

It gets even better because I have been told that the part will cost £599 and can take up to five hours to fit, but even better still, the part is on back order and will not be available for 8 days.

You could not make this up

Be honest folks and remember I am a minister (Vicar)

Is there a more inept dealership than Specialist Skoda Aberdeen?

I have owned three previous Skoda cars without having any real problems but I have to say, even though I like my Superb, it's comfy car to drive, I am finished with Skoda. I really don't need the hassle

Edited 9 August, 2011 by yerrmann

[rwbaldwin]

I have to say I'm not impressed.

I would expect them to check the ECU relay and sensor looms before replacing the ECU. I would not want to order an ECU, fit it, code it and then find the fault is still there. Worse still, I wouldn't want to find that the ECU failure was caused by one of the rare wiring faults that can see off an ECU (they have very good protection these days but it can still happen).

Let's be generous and say two hours (or even how ever long they have already taken). At that point, they should have eliminated the relay and the looms and confirmed it was the ECU. What have they been doing for the last 8-9 days?

5 hours to fit, code and test an ECU? I would have thought 90 minutes to 2 hours would be more like it.

I hope after all this it is the ECU (despite not having hands on this car, I do have some doubts because of the combination of codes).

Good luck

[rum4mo]

Well maybe I'm writting this to support, in general Specialist Cars as down here near me they run a VW Van Centre and they really do help me where possible with VW car bits. Anyway, I had a VX Cav GSI 200 16V 4X4 (yes all that was written on the boot!), got it secondhand with a Network Q extended warranty, outside the original new car warranty period but inside the extended warranty period, it came up with an ABS fault. Booked it in and the got "it will be cheaper for you if we cover the labour and give you discount on the parts" chat, so they diagnosed F/N/S wheel sensor, replaced that, I paid up,drove about 50 yards, ABS light on again, turn round back to garage, booked back in for the next day, they replaced the F/N/S sensor again and the F/O/S sensor, drove about 50 yards, ABS light on again, turn round back to garage, got told top man had taken for a test drive but it got booked in again for next working day which was a Monday, I drove home, disconnected ABS controller and "looked" back into it with a high impedance DMM and it looked like one channel was faulty, anyway took it back in on the following Monday and told them that I thought that the controller was faulty, they replaced both rear sensors, drove out, 50 yards later ABS light on, drove home and shouted at them on the phone, next day all four sensors were replaced, same problem when I drove again, shouted at them on the phone and then got told that it must be the ABS controller whichs costs a fortune,is not returnable and the way these warranties work they are obliged to do the stupid things that they, so far had done, I'm guessing the "good" extra replacement ABS sensors went back into workshop store. Anyway, about a week later the new ABS controller arrived, fitted in five minutes, car sorted. I think that your experience reflects this way of working, paying for an extended warranty mean that you are obliged to stick with how they work - these warranties, in some cases, like your and my one, just don't let the garage sort your car quickly as they could if you were outside warranty, they are just another of societies leaches as they are essentially insurance policies taken out on your behalf to cover repair risks.

[CRC]

SPECIALIST CARS ABERDEEN DEBACLE

GUESS WHAT? WAIT FOR IT.

My E.C.U. is faulty and will need to be replaced.

I've never played with ECUs on cars, but I've played with plenty of PLCs (programmable logic controllers) in industrial situations, and they both do pretty much the same thing - they read sensors, work things out by software and make things happen accordingly. In all my experience, I've never known a PLC "lose" or "allow to become corrupted" part of its programme. It either works perfectly, or not at all.

If it was me, I think I'd contact a reputable "chipping" company and ask them to come and take a look at the ECU. They have the ability to recode the ECU and to replace it with the original programme which came with the car, so I'm pretty sure they could compare what's in your ECU with another original V6 code.

They should immediately be able to tell whether or not your ECU is playing up by the response they get when talking to it, I would have said?

[rwbaldwin]

I've never played with ECUs on cars, but I've played with plenty of PLCs (programmable logic controllers) in industrial situations, and they both do pretty much the same thing - they read sensors, work things out by software and make things happen accordingly. In all my experience, I've never known a PLC "lose" or "allow to become corrupted" part of its programme. It either works perfectly, or not at all.

Correct, but that's not how they usually fail. It is almost always a hardware fault in the ECU.

The ECUs do memory self tests and report any failures. There are specific errors for this.

[yerrmann]

Problem I have with Specialist Cars is was it was they and not Warranty Direct (external Warranty) who were asking they do investigation.

When I put the car in I informed them of the original diagnosis given to me "It was a fulty ECU". They then decided it's not ECU.

We think it's wiring and according to them they then spent 9 hours trying to trace a non existent wiring fault. In fairness when the car went in I was told three hours plus parts to diagnose and repair it and that is why I agreed to pay for the three hours supposed investigation IE £206 charge.

Specialist Cars claim that they then most generously did me the favour of not charging for a supposed other 6 hours they claim to have spent investigating a non existent wiring fault. Yesterday I was then informed "Mr Weir, we now think it's a faulty ECU that is wrong with your car. Repair Cost Parts and five hours labour £1036.

In fairness Warranty Direct have now authorised repair.

My moan is the way that they have been so dis-ingenuous with the truth throughout the whole episode.

When I challenged the receptionist today about this, itw as silence. I mentioned to her how she had informed me that "They had no courtesy Cars Available They were all out" only to produce one from thin air when the car went wonky less than two mins after paying £206 and driving 40 yards down the road fromthe garage.

Her response, "Ah but Mr Weir that car is one that is for sale" I am left to wonder why it has Specialist Skoda Aberdeen Cars stamped in large letters across the boot as a courtesy car would have.

I don't mind paying if it is needed but I do hate people giving me a run around and insulting my intelligence because I obviously know sod all about cars.

Edited 10 August, 2011 by yerrmann

[CRC]

At least you got the warranty company to pick up the tab in the end ...

Edited 11 August, 2011 by CRC

[rwbaldwin]

I freely admit to not knowing what the ECU looks like on my car, but there is a local re-mapping company that offers a "take it out, post it to us, we'll remap it and send it back to you" service, so I would assume that the ECU is a piece of cake to remove and re-fit? Doesn't sound like a 5 hour job to me ....

As I said in post #9, it should take about 90 minutes to copy the coding, replace the ECU (remove scuttle panels, etc to get to it), put the coding back, code it for the immobiliser and test that all is OK.

...I think of the ECU as being the processor that's fitted on the motherboard, but presumably the hardware faults relate to the rest of the motherboard?

ECU (Engine Control Unit) is used to describe the whole 'computer' as it is a single replaceable part. Microprocessors used in control applications can have A/D convertors and I/O in the same chip so it's not really the same as a PC processor.

[yerrmann]

As I said in post #9, it should take about 90 minutes to copy the coding, replace the ECU (remove scuttle panels, etc to get to it), put the coding back, code it for the immobiliser and test that all is OK.

ECU (Engine Control Unit) is used to describe the whole 'computer' as it is a single replaceable part. Microprocessors used in control applications can have A/D convertors and I/O in the same chip so it's not really the same as a PC processor.