Hello guys,

 

I have a Skoda Fabia 1.4 TDI Sport 2010 and over a week ago I’ve got 2 orange lights on my dashboard: ABS & ESP.

I know this is a common VAG issue so I have contacted my local garage (not the dealer) and they said that I should replace the brake discs and pads first (as they were old anyway) and we will see what happens after. I have ordered all brake discs and pads and went to the garage to replace them on Saturday.

 

The mechanic connected the diagnostic computer (he says it cost £5000) to the car and got the following message:

 

00290 - ABS Wheel Speed Sensor Rear Left (G46): Electrical Fault in Circuit

 

He replaced the discs and pads and the lights were still on. He reset the errors and the lights came back immediately after starting the car (without even moving the car).

Then he said that the sensor is the problem so he order a £40 sensor and replaced it, without fixing the problem - lights were still on.

 

Basically that sensor was replaced for nothing and now the mechanic is telling me that it might be the bearing (the sensor might not read the magnetic strip from the bearing… or something like that) and that the only way to find out for sure is to replace the bearing and see what happens after.

To replace both bearings on the rear axle (they only come in pairs) will cost me over £100 (parts and labour).

I have looked online and seen that this error might come from: the bearing, the cable (between the sensor and the ABS unit), a plug or the lights switch.

Since I am not sure what happened, what is wrong, where the problem is coming from, I do not want to spend any more money changing parts based on assumptions.

 

I have noticed the lights on a Monday morning and I only used the car once during that weekend for a short time. I am not sure when exactly they turned on or what caused this but I remembered yesterday that 2 days before noticing the lights (on a Friday) it was pouring outside (torrential rain) and as I was driving behind a lorry (the water coming out of the lorry wheels was covering the street) at some point I hit something (a stone/rock) with my left front wheel. I am not sure what it was but it was big and hard as the sound was loud and scared me.

I have just realised last evening that whatever I hit that day with my front left wheel might have bounced and hit something underneath the car that messed up the cable…  

 

I do not have a ramp or elevator but I have had a look underneath the car and I cannot see anything strange. I do not think the mechanic that replaced the sensor checked the cable at all.

 

I live in Canterbury but I work in Ashford during the week, therefore I need the car for commuting.

 

A colleague informed me about a good VAG garage in Maidstone (GSM Garage) and I contacted them. I told them the error code I got (00290 - ABS Wheel Speed Sensor Rear Left (G46): Electrical Fault in Circuit) and they said that it is not the bearing as I would have got a different error message if the sensor was not reading/seeing the bearing at all. Unfortunately this garage is 30 miles away from home, they only work during the week (when I am at work) so I cannot go there.

 

I have contacted Canterbury MotorLine Skoda dealer in and they charge £60 for a diagnostic but the problem is that they only do diagnostics during the week and I need to leave the car there which means I need to rent a car meanwhile to get to work.

 

What would you advise me to do now?

 

Did anyone experienced this issue before, how did you solve it?

 

Do you know a good VAG specialised Garage near Canterbury, a garage that will tell me for sure what the problem is and only charge for fixing that problem?

 

 

Sorry to hear about your problems, unfortunately i can't help on the technical side of things but i can give you some advice. Firstly it is absolute rubbish that the rear wheel bearings only come in pairs, I work at a motor factors and we most certainly sell them individually. Also don't get fixated on going to a VAG specialist, what you would consider to be small fry mechanic shops see VAG cars every day and really know their stuff and have all of the latest diagnostic equipment.

As above, find a recommended independent if possible. If the light came on immediately on starting the car seems more likely to be a wiring fault, but I'm no expert. Sure someone will be along shortly who can give advice.

Hello MrRadu, my advice would be to go to a Skoda dealer on this. They will have a fixed price menu for fixing virtually any properly diagnosed fault. It will often cost less at the main Skoda dealer than at an independent, but not always of course. Some independents are very good, but it's a mixed picture I've found, with many of them quoting much higher prices for servicing and repairs. Often they will do work that isn't actually required because they sometimes don't know your car as well as the Skoda dealer. We found many don't even use the proper VW spec oil, putting in just any old synthetic instead. I could give you some terrible examples of independents who I was asked to investigate and in many cases, they were good at what they did, but just didn't know the cars properly enough to only do the work that was needed to solve a problem. Thus it ended up with owners paying much more than they should. Use an independent if you have many good reviews for them by all means, but be careful. You've already paid out money to an independent who didn't know what he was talking about. A Skoda dealership would go straight to the problem and is often cheaper because of it.

 

PS. I'm an ex-tech and did once work for an independent garage. I know the independents backwards and the main dealerships too. I worked for Honda and Nissan main dealerships most of my life. 

ABS + traction control (ASR or ESP) lights together suggest a sensor failure or low volts to me.

 

So I'd start by checking the voltage across the battery, looking for 12v engine off, and 14.0 to 14.4 with it running. If you don't have one you can buy a cheap multimeter for about £5 these days.

Next, we have a computer report of LHR speed sensor failure, but the computer can't tell a broken sensor from a broken feed wire, so continuity test the wire.

 

If you're still stuck, find someone with VCDS and ask them to look at the fault codes.

Thank you all very much for your messages!

 

I have contacted 2 VAG Specialised garages East Kent Automotive (Wootton) and S-Line Automotive (Ashford) and:

- the guy from EKA knew nothing about this and they have higher prices than Motorline Skoda Canterbury for both Diagnostics and car hiring

- the guy form S-Line Automotive said that he had this type of errors many times in the past on VAG cars and it was always the bearing, never the cable

 

So far I have 2 garages saying it is probably the cable/plugs and 2 garages saying it is the bearing.

 

The car is 5 years old and has almost 70.000 mi, should I go ahead and replace the bearings or not? 

 

I can not hear any noise from that bearing but the mechanic that replaced the sensor said that the bearing does not look very well.

I'd trust someone who wants to do a 5 minute diagnostic check over someone who wants to spend out £100 on parts and labour on "it's probably this".

Yesterday I have checked the ABS fuses (underneath the Steering Wheel) and after checking those, I have got a 3rd light (Control System for Exhaust) showing on the dashboard. I am not sure if the 3rd light has anything to do with me unplugging and plugging back those fuses, or it just happened to appear at that moment.

 

For this 3rd light - Control System for Exhaust, every time I turn the engine on I get the following message: Workshop Exhaust.

 

I have disconnected the car battery Minus cable today for over an hour and all 3 errors are still there.

. 

I will have to take the car to Skoda Dealer next week, I hope they will not charge a small fortune for fixing it.

I have the same problem, but with my Octavia.

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/345778-abs-problems-help-octavia-mk2/

 

If it's the bearing, chances are it would report mechanical failure, and not electrical fault in circuit.

There is no electric link between the bearing and the sensor, it's magnetic.

On Saturday the car was connected to VCDS and all the errors have been erased.

 

When the car was turned on the first two lights (ABS & ESP) came back but the 3rd (Control System for Exhaust) did not.

 

Now I am back to ABS & ESP lights. I

 

will go to the Skoda Dealer this week for a diagnosis and I will keep you up to date.

Hello everyone,

 

I have took the car to Skoda dealer in Ashford (Caffyns) and they found out that the problem was coming from the cable/plugs and not the bearing, sensor, switch or ABS unit.

 

The lights are off now, everything seems to be fine at the moment, ABS kicks in fast when needed....

 

The dealer charged me £150 in total to fix this issue.

 

The Invoice states the following:

 

Code                                    Description                                                    

 

51 Wiring                             Inv fault ESP & engine light on

                                            Replaced n/s/r ABS Sensor wiring harness

000979941                          CONNECTOR

6Q0927904H                       HARNESS

                                            LABOUR

 

 

Obviously I have asked them how can a cable (on a 5 years old car) can get damaged out of a sudden, without being forced or hit.

 

Long story short their answer was that when certain parts get old strange things can happen . Basically you should buy new cars and replace them when they are out of warranty.

Same fault as I've got then. Same cable too.

I've got same thing on fabia mk1. No voltage to sensor connector. If anyone knows best way to check continuity I'm all ears. No fuses blown.

:-)