Can anyone help re this...........

By some unknown method I keep finding a small pool of water (definitely water) in the bottom of the speedo sensor connection socket. It would appear that the water is running down the wires and finding its way into the connection plug. I have absolutely no idea how this is happening but this has now caused the failure of two previous speedo sensors (the positive connection burns through and gets burned away. we have tried to make the wiring loom waterproof (self amalgamating tape all the way from where the lead disappears into the wiring loom). we have tried to find a water leak but cannot.

Has anyone heard of this problem before and can anyone suggest a cure?.........I am considering drilling two small (3mm) holes just around the base of the speedo sensor so that it can drain away but I would definitely like to cure the problem at source

We are now on the 3rd sensor....they seem to last for about 5 - 7 days the speedo starts to become unstable and when we look at the sensor we find a little pool of water there , we then clean it out and the speedo is fine again...........It is driving us bonkers!!

Thanks etc

Tom

Hi Tom.

Interesting you say this as I have gone through sensors myself and never found out why but did put it down to water as if it was dry the speedo would work but when wet it would play up but since its been wet a while now I have no speedo at all now.

Is it on the drivers side it causes you the problem? I have just been replacing both sides but put it down to wiring after doing two

Mark (and anyone else out there)

Thanks for this reply..........I thought there must be someone else out there experiencing a similar problem. However, I can't really add much more than my previous post......To elaborate a little further we self amalgamated the whole of the wiring loom from the sensor connector block back to where the wiring for the sensor enters a thicker part of the wiring loom which in our car (a bog standard 1.4 8v) was at the right hand end (as you look from the front of the car) of the cylinder head. It was very awkward and to chase the wiring back any further would have been a serious operation so we didn't bother. I have seen a post elsewhere about this and the writer was going on about (I think) water becoming trapped in the wiring loom in the scuttle panel and then finding its way through gravity to drain into the connector of the speedo sensor and then the water sits in there but I couldn't really understand his description. I have tried to think outside the box and toyed with the idea of extending the length of the bit of the wiring loom that supplies the sensor and bending it so that the wiring makes a 'u' shape below the height of the sensor so that any water that finds its way there will drip off the wiring as it cannot travel uphill but this is a bit obtuse. What we did do was drill a small (3mm) hol at the bottom of the female plug of the sensor so that it will give the water an opportunity to drain out as it collects.........Currently this has restored the function of the speedo but time will tell whether this works or not.......

To be honest I am really disappointed in the car as a whole.....lumpy tick over (see previous posts), fuel gauge veering all over the place intermittently (this seems to have mended itself), failed reverse light switch, failed PAS sensor (what a filthy job replacing that!!), lack of power, poor acceleration, economy not too clever......not even a boot light as part of the original spec.....pretty poor in my view from Skoda........I own a 1.9 tdi octavia 2 and have previously had a 1.3 felicia - both cars were/are absolutely brilliant - dead reliable in all weathers etc etc but this Fabia (and I know the history of the car -73,000 miles).

So, I hope this helps you with your post. Thanks v much for taking the time to post on this topic.

To be honest I was hoping that someone would post - 'Oh, that happened to me and it is fixed by this' but it doesn't look like anyone has read this who knows the solution.

I never thought I would be writing this but I think we will be saying good bye to this car soon, unless it suddenly starts costing a lot less

Regards

Tom

AFAIK there is no speedo sensor on models fitted with ABS, as speed is read from the ABS sensors.

Also VW wiring connectors are designed to be waterproof/resistant. They have a rubber bit internally that seals when plugged, and grommets on the wires on entry to the plug.

Edited 3 March, 201313 yr by anewman

Thanks for the info Tom.

I wish I could help but I haven't been able to find the solution yet. It sounds as though you are on the right path though.

I know for sure it is connected to rain as like I said previously if I was out driving in the dry it would be fine but when it started raining after a few miles the speedo would then stop functioning.

I will certainly try your method of repair and let you know.

Anewman.

Yes the sensors on mine are abs sensors but still sit in same position.

I think I should make things clear here....I am talking about the speedo sensor or sometimes this is referred to as the distance sensor - this is the one that is to be found sticking out at the top rear of the gearbox.

To describe further when we 'self-amalgamated the wire going to the sensor, I think I may have made the mistake of wrapping all thre wires up together rather than wrapping each wire individually and then wrapping the whole lot thus leaving a possible space for thw water to ingress but this is real n'th degree stuff and in any event I should not have to do all this........

Tom

(thx again everyone reading/contributing)

Edited 3 March, 201313 yr by ThomasP