Hi all

 

I'm writing this post on behalf of my Dad who has a 61-plate Skoda Fabia Greenline Estate.

 

We were driving up to my house in Bedfordshire this morning (I'm moving house!), with my Dad in his Fabia Estate towing a small Erde trailer, and me in my brother's 08-plate Skoda Fabia Estate. Everything on my Dad's car was working perfectly when we set off (all lights on the car and trailer were working fine).

 

I pulled onto the hard shoulder early on in our trip to ask him what a warning light on the dash meant (particulate filter was full). However, when we pulled onto the motorway again, my Dad noticed the 'clicking' sound of the indicator had almost doubled in speed. We continued our journey regardless, but on arriving and testing all the lights again, the following had stopped working:

• Side lights
• Dipped headlights
• Red tail-lights
• Both indicators and brake lights on the trailer
• All interior dash lighting
• Also the little sidelight-symbol with an ( ! ) in the middle had now become illuminated on the dashboard

We were both completely flummoxed by this, as it all broke at the same time! The only slightly abnormal thing that my Dad believed coincided with the indicator 'clicker' speeding up, is that he pulled away with the hazards flashing, then pushed the indicator stalk up (to indicate to the right) and then turned the hazards off ... I cannot imagine this would have caused all the problems above, but nothing else had really changed! I've looked through some posts on here regarding the bulb-failure warning light, and noticed that it has often coincided with the car getting wet ... but it was dry this morning ... :(

 

The current bulbs are still working on the car:

• All indicators. When activating the hazards, the 'clicker' clicks and the indicator symbols on the dash flash at normal speed. However when using the indicators alone, the 'clicker' clicks and the indicator symbols flash much more quickly. But *strangely* when doing this the indicator lamps themselves still blink at the normal rate!
• Temporary full-beam works by pulling the indicator stalk back
• All brake lights
• Daytime running lights

 

My current thoughts are:

• Using all the hazards (on the car and the trailer) when we pulled onto the hard shoulder popped a fuse which also controls other lighting in the car. He has not had a chance to check the fuses yet, but we will do this tomorrow morning.
• The car's computer control unit has somehow got wet (even though it was dry on the roads when the problem manifested itself)
• An earth fault has developed somewhere in the car's lamp wiring (!) ...

 

Any thoughts or advice as to what might have caused this quite major fault would be greatly appreciated.

 

Many thanks

 

David

Edited 14 September, 201312 yr by hogsteruk

How many times has the towbar been used, is this the first time,

 

Is it a genuine kit or aftermarket???

Hi Volvomeg,

 

Many thanks for your reply. My Dad has used the trailer with the car around 5 times previously, with no issues at all.

 

The tow-ball and 13-pin connection socket were fitted by Skoda. The only after-market addition is this adaptor:

 

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_761195_langId_-1_categoryId_165734

 

because the trailer has a 7-pin plug.

 

Thanks again for your help,

 

 

David

Edited 15 September, 201312 yr by hogsteruk

Just to update this thread, we checked a lot of the fuses which would may have caused problems, such as headlight, sidelight, central computer, trailer detection ... and they were all fine.

 

Not quite sure what to look at next, and I think my Dad will be contacting the garage tomorrow ...

 

Many thanks for any input,

 

David

I had had that fast clicking sound in my previous 2002 Octavia. Then sidelights went off. But when locking / unlocking the car sidelights were working. It turned to be the hazard switch on the dash. Dealer unmounted (pulled it out or... those bad English of mine) from the dash and slightly opened - bent the  contact pins of the switch and gave them a good blast of air to clean them. Then he mounted the switch back and everything was fine till the day I sold the car.

I recently attempted to change the interior bulbs in my Fabia to LEDs and in the process knocked out the sidelights, indicators, tailights etc

In my case I had just popped a fuse, as they are all covered by the same one