I now have a Octavia 2006 model 2.0L PD TDI

Apart from having a motor boat suspension, I have had little problems with it since I bought it over a year ago.

3 months after buying it I took it back to the dealer, as the radiator cooling fan used to come on randomly, and flatten the battery.

He told me it was water that had found its way into the large fuse / circuit board box under the bonnet, passengers side.

I recently took my car through a local car wash, 30 seconds after leaving the air bag light came on.

The next day after driving for about 30 min the abs, esp, tyre low, and a few others joined it.

It's been that way since, the lights come on after about 40 sec

I have no doubt its the car wash that caused it, but the large fuse / circuit board box lid was on properly, with no signs of water ingress.

?

Any ideas apart from jet / hand washing from now on ?

If you can't see any signs of water ingress this time then I can't help wondering if the car wash was simply a coincidence. After all as far as water ingress goes most car washes are no worse than driving the car in torrential rain, for example. You can arguably do more harm with a jet wash if careless with where the jet is pointing!

 

How old is the battery, as a failing battery can cause a lot of these symptoms?

Hmm yes I take your point Nick 74 and the recent bad weather hasn't affected it

Cars are more like `mobile computers' these days, low voltage, erratic voltage possible?!

But CAN a old battery cause those sorts of problems ?

On the Octavia lots of strange things have been recorded to happen.

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I had loads of problems caused by rain/water in my old Golf, they would appear whenever there was torrential rain (which seems to be every other week over the last two years) and it was a massive pain.

 

Sorry I can't give any more advice as I sold it and waved goodbye to the problems, but I can certainly vouch for water ingress causing problems. The Golf ECU (and probably Octavia?) is also handily situated right in the drain tray under the windscreen, so if your drain holes are blocked it will fill up with water - fun! Worth checking your drain holes are clear, there's one at each side on the Golf. I took off the cover under the windscreen (you take off the wipers first) and cleared it all out.

Once you have an airbag fault, it can only be cleared by a dealer or someone with VCDS. Airbag faults will not remove themselves even once cleared.

 

it does sound like a water ingress into the interior problem, it should really be investigated urgently because water inside ECU's is a very bad thing if left unfixed. The carpet may appear dry, but if you lift it up you may well find the sound insulation or chassis full of water.

Kerans & mannyo

Thanks for your replies

ECU under the wipers how stupid! will have to check that