I went to start my 1.4mpi a couple of days ago and for some unknown reason the battery was almost dead. Managed to start it with a booster pack and then found the PAS light on and the steering very heavy. Switched off and restarted engine at which point PAS light went out but ECU light on and has remained on ever since and although it seems to drive OK the steering is a bit heavier than before the problems began.Forgot to mention that after getting it started and going for a short run I put the battery on trickle charge overnight until fully recharged.

The independant garage that looks after my cars did a diagnosis which came up with PO606 which I understand is the ECU and they have suggested that the unit be taken for possible repair to Autrotronix in Colchester. However, even if it can be repaired, they (the garage) are not sure that they could reset it correctly. However once reset,they think the steering will revert back to normal.

I have seen a thread in this forum about resetting the ECU by disconnecting the battery for 40 mins etc and my question is whether it would be worth me trying this before it went for repair or would it make matters worse.

Also, if I were to try this, would my ignition keys and third party remote locking still work. (I know the electric windows have to be reset and the stereo reset...if I can find the code.)

Sorry to be so long winded.

I appologies if this comes over as blunt but stop, you're jumping way, way ahead on this and potentially spending money you don't need to and seem intent on spending more without any mention of basic checks being done. It's like googling your symptoms when you're ill and telling your doctor what your diagnosis is no matter how unlikely.

First go back to the start. You say you had a flat battery, how old is the battery? How far do you normally drive the car for and how often? Do you let it sit for extended periods unused? Has anyone bothered to check the draw on the battery with the car off? Is the alternator OK and the belt tensioned? Those are the things you should be looking at first before anyone plugs anything into the OBD port. If they weren't done then you're wasting your time and money.

Now you took it to a garage, I'm guessing that cost more than the £6 you could have spent on a generic VCDS lead and downloading VCDS lite but i'm assuming they will have at the absolute minimum have checked the battery as a flat can cause all sorts of random faults to be logged, I also take it they will have cleared the fault codes and then driven or at least run the car to see if they are logged again?

Computer aided diagnostics are too often taken as gospel, they aren't. The PAS system is one of the highest draw items on your car, the ECU doesn't know you have a flat battery, all it knows is the required voltage going to the pump was too low, this reduced the PAS function out of spec and it put on a light, before you spend another penny get the battery checked, even Halfraud's do free checking. I suspect you'll find that the charging system or usage pattern are the issue, not the ECU.

As for repairing your ECU it's very unlikely that an ECU that manages to get through the ignition/diagnostic checks from you turning the key and starting the engine and then lets you drive to/from a garage is going to need repair. I'm not saying it's impossible but it's pretty unlikely.

No worries...I appreciate your bluntness and your advice.

In fairness to the garage (actually a one man operation), he was up to his neck in work when I called in and so all he did was do the fault reading diagnostic but didn't attempt to clear....but he didn't charge me either.

You've got me thinking about the battery condition. I've had the car a couple of years and it has never previously let me down despite being only mainly used for intermittent short journeys (fuel consumption too high to go far). All I was doing prior to it failing was using a car vacc plugged into the cigarette lighter port.

Battery should now be fully charged as I did about 30 miles yesterday afternoon but have had trickle charger on for past 20 mins and it initially showed just the red charging light (ie. battery not fully charged) and is only now flashing green indicating almost fully charged (changes to solid green when complete). Therefore there is obviously some degree of drain,more than just from the clock I would have thought.

So, I will take your excellent advice and have the battery (and drain) checked on Monday before taking any further action. Presumably new battery ,if required, will involve then having to reset the ECU and other electrics so will it be safe to get it done at ATS or similar outlet or should I go to where they have resetting software. I am not bothered about the stereo...least of my worries....but

don't want to be stranded by ECU being out of sync with immobiliser etc.

PS. Green light now solid so has taken about 30mins trickle to fully charge

There will be no fault with the ECU, it will 99.9% be elsewhere in the car. Do not spend any money on the ECU and first get the battery checked out. The PAS is part electric so a low battery will cause the PAS light to come on.

Fortunately I don't need to use car over weekend so will get battery checked on Monday morning. I feel a bit happier now even if it means shelling out for a new battery !! Thanks gents...I think you may well have saved me a fair bit of money.

A new battery will set you back £40 from Euro Car Parts (including the BRISK25 discount code) and is a 5 min job to swap over with only basic tools required, a top end Bosch will set you back £58.50. The likely problem with a battery swap is it won't clear the fault codes or lights, you'll need someone to re-set them or spend £6 on the kit to do it yourself.

I have the same car and do about 95 miles a day, it averages 41mpg on a run which is about 15-16p a mile at the moment. The £20 extra it costs per 1,000 miles it makes up for in reliability and simplicity to fix when things do go wrong.

Edited 9 March, 201313 yr by Avalon

I will invest in the resetting kit....is something I've been meaning to get but kept putting off. Not worried about the actual nuts and bolts aspect of swapping battery...can do that for sure...just the risk of losing data that might leave me immobile (although I do have Britannia Rescue Homestart) . Envy your mpg. I know better than to expect much from local running but even on longish trips (50+ miles on A Roads) brim to brim refuels indicate only about 35mpg and that is driving like a Grandad ....which infact I am.

The only thing you'll loose on a battery swap is the radio code A portable code reader/reset tool is circa £40, if you have access to an old laptop or net book a generic vcds lead is about £6 and the lite version of VCDS is free and will reset the fault codes. This may be cheaper than paying someone to do the job.

Great...that really has set my mind at rest. Have just bought my wife a new laptop so the least she can do is let me use it to do the resets !! Watch this space........

...didn't have time until this morning but then had battery and alternator checked. Alternator OK but battery was in poor condition so bought a new one.

After fitting,ECU light remained on as before with my basic code reader showing PO606 as the only

fault.

Eased and started engine ...light out.

Switched off and restarted engine.....light still out.

Restarted a third time and light back on !!

Tried the ECU reset as per the Tech Notes in this Forum but light back on after the 40 mins disconnected/30mins idling.

Same fault code and erase only working for a couple of restarts.

Took it for a short drive. Seems OK although ....and it may be my imagination....the steering seems a bit heavy but no other warning lights other than the ECU which I have now given up trying to erase.

Am still clutching at previous comforting words of advice that if the car starts and runs OK the ECU is highly unlikely to be faulty but haven't a clue as to where to go from here.

In my experience, next stop Skoda workshop to run a diagnostic and identify fault. Ok, you might get an independent to do the repair work whatever it is, but I'd never trust a non specialist dealer to correctly diagnose a fault. Others may of course have a different experience, but I've had my wallet seriously burnt before.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

What are you using to clear the DTC's ?

Just had a quick search and the link below seems like a familiar story

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/103114-engine-warning-light-ecmpcm-processor/

Have used only a very basic Maxiscan which,on reading the mpcm thread, is clearly not able to do all the necessary resets which would presumably account for the PO606 code to keep returning.At least,thanks to your initial advice, I have established that the problem was almost certainly caused by the duff battery (brake lights OK) so hopefully more sophisticated diagnostic/resetting software should now put things right.

Again,many thanks for your input and also to Sterver750. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of confidence in local dealer (Bristows) who only took on the franchise shortly after the Fabia 2 came out but if needs must.........

Spend £6 on buying a generic lead and use VCDS lite on a laptop, it's a lot cheaper than a trip to the dealer.

Update

Had the ECU reset by a Skoda dealer (Hayes,Little Cacton) last week (only cost £18.00) and thus far ...touch wood... all seems OK. Unfortunately PAS remains spasmodically heavy but they didn't find any fault on diagnostics. Will have it investigated further but am meantime reading up and trying to assimilate all the numerous PAS threads in this forum.

Avalon...many thanks for your help. Although I have decided against going down the generic lead and VCDS lite route ( with my limited mechanical knowledge I fear it would be like a hypochondriac reading a medical dictionary) I do very much appreciate your

advice which has already saved me from rushing out to replace ECU.

JP

I've been through PAS failure so can help you with that as well

When the weight changes do you notice the headlights flicker/dim and the same with the dash (much easier to spot when it's dark)?

The basics are check the fuse strips on the top of the battery box and fuse in the fuse box, check the earth strap from the battery and have a free battery check done to make sure it's not a duff battery. After that check the PAS fluid level, it's a take the battery and airbox out job but it's only basic tools. If the fluid is below the top of the dip stick top it up, if it's significantly below then expect the rack to be leaking into the gaiter somewhere if you don't have a puddle on the drive.

After that it gets slightly more expensive and it's a case of swapping the angle sensor. Before doing so you should check the voltage on the pump but it's a long shot. The mpi's angle sensor is £104 from memory after rebate (you return the old one for a refund). My local dealer was more but Rainworth came good as usual for parts.

The job itself is easy *if* you have access to ramps or a pit. I wouldn't do it without. It should only be 30-45 mins labour. The reason it's this long is the sensor cable runs from the pump (near side front) to the drivers side and working the cable out from it's route is time consuming. Do it from the pump connection back as the sensor won't pass the other way.

Since having a new battery the headlights now barely flicker whereas before it was significantly more noticable.

It's bitterly cold here in Felixstowe so I will wait until a warmer day before checking the PAS fluid (no signs of leakage on driveway)and fuses !!

Don't have access to ramp or pit so will have to leave angle sensor change if required to a garage.

Thanks for continuing advice.

JP

Update:

ECU light continues to operate properly.

PAS problem was indeed down to fluid leak which has been sorted for a very reasonable price by local indie VAG (mainly Audi) specialist and it is now back to former lightness.

Again my thanks to Avalon for excellent and potentially money saving advice regarding these problems.

So very relieved and,under the circumstances, only mildly irritated to discover yesterday that some kind person has helped his/herself to the cover that goes over the rear wiper nut and one of the rear door handle cover plates.....clearly not all Skoda owners are as decent as Briskodians !!

Glad it's sorted and wasn't too expensive.

Pretty poor that someone felt the need to steal parts from your car, I've seen it on other brands (a Scooby was striped at Elvington a few years back) but not so much with Skoda apart from the wind deflectors and a bumper on here in the last few months.

John

At least your all sorted now, and I guess you must be really pleased that you did not buy a replacement ECU at great expense.

Now enjoy the car the way it's meant to be.

I would probably have tried to get ECU repaired rather than buy new but very relieved it didn't come to that....likewise expensive PAS parts.

Was somewhat suprised that bits were taken from car.....most Skoda owners in Felixstowe (apart from yours truly) need both hands for their zimmer frames !!

Anyway I think we can now consider this episode closed.

Thanks again.