Morning all,

Not had my 2001 VRS long, but the engine warning light has just come on during my drive to work.

Naturally, I'm now bricking it.

It seems to be running fine - except when I stopped, I started the engine again and let it run and it was idling at about 2000rpm before dropping to a normal idle after a couple of seconds.

Yesterday I filled it up with 98RON from Tesco - the first time it's drunk high octane fuel since I got it. Just coincidence? Or could the detergents in this petrol have dragged something through the lines?

And do I need to stop driving it until I can have it hooked up to a code reader?

Any advice greatly appreciated, as ever.

Cheers

You can still drive with the EML on.

The only time I'd say you MUST stop driving is if the oil pressure light comes on (otherwise you can wreck the engine internals with no oil), or if the car is obviously overheating (otherwise you can warp the cylinder head)

Get it code scanned over the next few days, chances are it's just a sensor or a split pipe that needs replacing.

Thanks very much. It looks like you were right - I've just had it tested and the fault code (P1296) points to a faulty temp sensor, according to the garage.

Should be a relatively cheap fix if that is the case, shouldn't it?

Thanks again

The sensor is £28 from TPS or a Skoda dealer. If you fancy doing it yourself it's a 2 minute job and you'll save yourself half an hour of labour fees from a garage.

Thanks - think I will have a go at fitting it myself. Could you just describe where it is (is it on the side of the rad?) and how I get to it? And will I lose coolant from the system?

The garage recommended I drive it and see if the light comes back on, but a new sensor is cheaper than the diagnosis was, so it makes sense to just replace it.

Thanks again for the help.

It's in the coolant pipework immediately to the right of the engine (you need to take the engine cover off to help access to it). There's plenty of pics of the location on here.

If you replace it when the engine is stone cold (at least a couple of hours after driving) you shouldn't lose any coolant.

Procedure is:

1. Engine cover off

2. Unplug multiplug from old sensor

3. Remove retaining clip

4. Pull old sensor and O-ring out

5. Put new sensor and O-ring in

6. Refit retaining clip

7. Reconnect multiplug

8. Engine cover back on

That's it.

Wow - sounds so simple even I could do it. I'll give it a try at the weekend. Hope the light won't come back on in the meantime - I have to use the car for my 80 mile round trip to work every day.

Thanks again for all your advice - very useful indeed.

No probs, hope it saves you some ££s.