Unusual Fault combo on Octavia 1.6 MPI

[Damianp]

Hi, just got back from a trip to France on which my 11 plate Skoda Octavia 1.6 MPI caused me huge stress. On the way down to the ferry terminal cruising at 70mph on the motorway, firstly the traction control warning light came on, then a few seconds later, the engine management light came on and the car lost power and became juddery. We pulled over at a service station turned the engine off and restarted and the lights went out. We had time to take it to a skoda garage who very kindly stuck it on their VAG COM. It reported cylinder misfires in cylinders 1 and 4 - intermittent. They said they weren't really sure what was causing it as but suspected the transformer or injector. We had no option but to continue our trip and hope for the best.

 

The car was fine for the next week but then the fault re-occurred in France on a long drive, another few days later it happened again, and then became more and more frequent towards the end of the holiday. Driving back from the Ferry terminal from Poole to Liverpool, the fault happened frequently - each time we had to pull over, turn off the engine and let it 'rest' before starting off again.

 

Eventually we called out the Green Flag as we were getting to the motorway section of the route. He put it on his Solus Ultra and found the same faults the skoda garage had. He cleared all the faults and the we took it on a drive until the fault reoccurred. These are the exact faults reported....

 

16685 Cylinder 1 Misfire Detected P0301

16688 Cylinder 4 Misfire Detected P0304

17620 Cylinder Shut - Off Bank 1  P1212

16684 Random/Multiple Misfire Detection P0300

17756 Ignition Coil Power Output Stage 1  Open Circuit P1348

 

The Green Flag man said he'd never seen this combination of fault codes before. We ended up being towed home the rest of the way!

 

The fault seems to occur only when the car has been driven for a while - 30mins plus. Short trips are fine, and when I've let it rest again for a while it will be fine again.

 

I've got it booked in to a my local garage tomorrow- (not a skoda garage), but am trying to do as much research before I go to help them, as this seems to be an unusual fault.

 

I've found another thread with similar problems that suggests a coil pack fault.....

 

http://forums.clublupo.co.uk/index.php?/topic/84090-fault-code-17756-p1348-lupo-missinglosing-power-problems/

 

Any further info on this would be much appreciated, it's six months out of warranty, so I want to try and pinpoint the problem to help the garage as much as possible.

 

Damian

Edited 25 August, 2014 by Damianp

[Damianp]

I've found this site with exactly the same faults - it was originally in Polish...

 

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=pl&u=http://forum.octaviaclub.pl/viewtopic.php%3Fp%3D1326904&prev=/search%3Fq%3DOstatnio%2Bwyskoczy%25C5%2582y%2Bmi%2Bte%25C5%25BC%2Bb%25C5%2582%25C4%2599dy%2Bz%2Bwypadaniem%2Bzap%25C5%2582onu.%26biw%3D1548%26bih%3D752

[classic]

If its only a few months out of warranty and has full service history I would take it to a Skoda dealer. Firstly you will probably pay labour time to the local garage for time they spend guessing/working out stuff which a dealer already knows. Secondly there may be a goodwill contribution available on a failed component.

[Damianp]

Thanks classic, it's too late for that I'm afraid. I took it to my local garage today because we've used them for years and they've got an excellent reputation. When I did take it to the Skoda dealer they didn't seem to know exactly what the problem was and were guessing at either the injector or the transformer.

 

The garage I took it to today think that it's a coil-pack problem, and all the research that I've done on the fault codes on the internet seems to back this up. They've used genuine Skoda parts, I'll have to wait and see if it works.

 

I'm not sure if I've done the right thing, and I may have possibly had the work done more cheaply at the Skoda dealer but only if Skoda UK had agreed to foot some of the bill. When an unusual fault happened on my wife's Skoda a few years ago which was just out of warranty, Skoda UK agreed to pay half of the parts cost as a gesture of goodwill - it still cost us around £600 though. Maybe we've just been unlucky with Skoda!

 

I've been reading about a possible coil-pack recall on some Skoda cars - I know it's too late for mine know but would it have been eligible? It's an Octavia 1.6 MPI registered in Feb 2011?

[Damianp]

Just thought I'd update this thread in-case anyone else has the same sort of problem. The garage also thought it was probably a coil pack issue - they changed the coil pack, spark plugs, cables, (and cleaned out the fuel sump or something) for £229. The car has been absolutely fine ever since - I've scanned the ecu with an obd2 Bluetooth scanner and no faults are recorded, so whatever they did fixed the issue. Thanks for your help, Damian.

[mttemp39r]

Damianp did this resolve the fault longterm? I've got the exact same faults but on an audi a3  2010 dec car. 

[netrovia]

I seem to be having this problem too at this very moment. I have an Octavia Mark2  1.6 mpi  2011 reg. Did the coil pack, spark plugs, cables fix the problem long term? They are asking £132 Just for diagnostic. Seems a bit steep.