AA's Vehicle Recovery System - very cool bit of kit!

 

Mrs called me this afternoon...

"The coil light was flashing! I stopped and read the manual and it said the glow plugs were warming up!? After I started the car again it had gone..."

"No dear, the DPF is probably clogged, drive it at over 2500rpm for the next 20-30 mins"

"I can't - I don't have that far to go"

"OK, well do it when you come home then"

 

A couple of hours later (on her way home)...

 

"The light is flashing again, and now the light that looks like an engine is on and I can't go over 50mph"

"Stop and call Skoda Assist"

 

If I was driving I would have just got it home in limp mode, but she was in a panic about it so better safe than sorry. So 3 hours later...

 

The car is parked up at the in-laws, VERY nice AA man (they all seem to be great guys and gals!), engine management light is still on, no coil light though as I pulled it onto the drive. Car is being transported to our local dealership tomorrow morning. AA guy reckoned the fault was related to air flow, and looking on here the symptoms primarily point to DPF clogged or boost sensor, so I'm guessing boost sensor marries up best with his diag tool.

Mrs is taking my car to work tomorrow (I walk to work anyway), but we should have a courtesy car or the vRS fixed and back at the in-laws by the time we are home (took it there as they are in all day to deal with pick-up/drop-offs etc).

Very impressed with Skoda Assist/AA and their dealings with us. They had a guy to her in 10 mins as he was passing en route home at the end of his shift, sadly he wasn't able to even attempt a fix due to warranty constraints but I guess they figured if it was a loose cable it was worth him dropping by, so had to wait an hour after that for the guy to tow it on his VRS.

 

Will let you know how we get on tomorrow! Wonder if the local dealer mention about having missed out on selling us the car over a few quid (we bought from the 3rd nearest dealer as they met my suggestion of a deal with no quibbles)...

 

 

Looks familiar!

It'll be a faulty boost pressure sensor. Same fault as mine

What sort of mileage is this happening ,as your cars are approx. 12 month plus apart in build date.

Edited 6 March, 201511 yr by vrskeith

6k on mine

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About 19k on mine

So is there a Skoda UK CS(Europe) warranty history building up on vRS TDI  said problem??

 

What is the fix, direct replacement  or a new improved component or an assembly issue?

Edited 6 March, 201511 yr by vrskeith

So the latest is after following Skoda Advisories...

It's either the ABS control unit or 'another' control unit, but we don't know which one it is yet.

 

 

Quite enjoying the courtesy A5 Sportback and have a 500 mile round trip this weekend so I'm going to let them do a few more circles and let them know it's the boost sensor on Monday

 

Related: I've also told them about this issue, but not heard back on any investigation of that yet...      Another replacement Columbus    

It is about time they trained the MasterTechs on the MQB platform, all they seem to do nowadays is plug it in then phone a friend at Skoda technical, who phones a friend in Mladá Boleslav

It is about time they trained the MasterTechs on the MQB platform, all they seem to do nowadays is plug it in then phone a friend at Skoda technical, who phones a friend in Mladá Boleslav ... EVENTUALLY!

Just corrected my own post

Mine came back yesterday. 01 March 2014 registered with 18.5k miles on it.

 

I got a A3 S-line to play with for a few days

Mine came back yesterday. 01 March 2014 registered with 18.5k miles on it.

 

I got a A3 S-line to play with for a few days

Interesting, so Skoda use Audis as loaners - times have changed at VAG! 

Edited 11 March, 201511 yr by vrskeith

Interesting, so Skoda use Audis as loaners - times have changed at VAG!

i got a 1.2 golf when mine went in. Better than a Nissan micra I suppose

They go to a hire company and ask for a vehicle in the same category as yours - so Thrifty provided an A5 to me as it's as practical as an estate octy! They did give the Wife options, but she was happy with this.

I had the same issue - vRS TDi Estate (63 plate).

 

Luckily is was just the engine light for me and I was near the dealership so in it went once I realised it wasnt a silly error. The fault actually lies with the cabling, not the sensor itself (It's breaking at the entry point to the sensor connector.

I had the same issue - vRS TDi Estate (63 plate).

Luckily is was just the engine light for me and I was near the dealership so in it went once I realised it wasnt a silly error. The fault actually lies with the cabling, not the sensor itself (It's breaking at the entry point to the sensor connector.

could that be from snagging the cable after the engine cover has been off? Mine failed a few days after being in for a service

Is the car back yet?

Nope! And no word since Thurs from the dealer!

I'll be chasing tomorrow if no word still.

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So the Mrs is en route to get the apparently fixed car. Not sure what the solution was yet.

 

They claim to have also fixed this http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/333398-another-replacement-columbus/ too with a software update but we shall see! Mrs isn't going to accept the car back unless this is fixed too.

So...

 

2 things were found;

 

1. Fault on Steering Angle sensor - further investigation showed the sensor was fine. Skoda HQ recommended a software update and the fault cleared. It seemed to be munged in with an ABS/Tire Pressure sensor related issue which may hold true as a few weeks ago I had the TPMS alarm go off with no sign of any deflation, so maybe that was a symptom of this underlying issue.

 

2. As suspected, boost/intake pressure sensor

 

 

The fault I linked to relating to parking sensors/Columbus icons is not solved (despite the dealer saying it was and the Mrs seeing it supposedly was - you know what they say, if you want a job done right...).

 

Main thing is it is back on the road.

 

As an aside, the car is much more lively off the mark, and whereas previously pulling away was an all or nothing affair (meaning you ended up coming out slowly regardless as the ESP arrested the wheel spin in the case of 'all'), it is now much easier to pull away quickly especially out of a T-Junction with steering angle applied. This has been commonly reported on here as the '1 fault' of the vRS (particularly with the TDI DSG variant due to the low end torque/lack of driver clutch control) so I'm really hoping it is something others may be able to remedy with a software update!

Previously it was as if it kept the revs low and dumped the clutch (which on a TDI with all that low end torque is never going to work), but now it lets the revs rise and and graduates the clutch much more usefully depending on your throttle input.

I don't know if this is because of 1 or a combination of the below;

1. The ECU software update applied has a better throttle/gearbox map

2. The ECU being reset to 0 and it will gradually 'learn' to be crap at pulling away again

3. The steering angle sensor fault making the ESP/ECU not work properly on pulling away with steering angle applied being solved with the ECU software update

 

I hope it's either 1 or 3!!

 

That's it for now

So...

2 things were found;

1. Fault on Steering Angle sensor - further investigation showed the sensor was fine. Skoda HQ recommended a software update and the fault cleared. It seemed to be munged in with an ABS/Tire Pressure sensor related issue which may hold true as a few weeks ago I had the TPMS alarm go off with no sign of any deflation, so maybe that was a symptom of this underlying issue.

2. As suspected, boost/intake pressure sensor

The fault I linked to relating to parking sensors/Columbus icons is not solved (despite the dealer saying it was and the Mrs seeing it supposedly was - you know what they say, if you want a job done right...).

Main thing is it is back on the road.

As an aside, the car is much more lively off the mark, and whereas previously pulling away was an all or nothing affair (meaning you ended up coming out slowly regardless as the ESP arrested the wheel spin in the case of 'all'), it is now much easier to pull away quickly especially out of a T-Junction with steering angle applied. This has been commonly reported on here as the '1 fault' of the vRS (particularly with the TDI DSG variant due to the low end torque/lack of driver clutch control) so I'm really hoping it is something others may be able to remedy with a software update!

Previously it was as if it kept the revs low and dumped the clutch (which on a TDI with all that low end torque is never going to work), but now it lets the revs rise and and graduates the clutch much more usefully depending on your throttle input.

I don't know if this is because of 1 or a combination of the below;

1. The ECU software update applied has a better throttle/gearbox map

2. The ECU being reset to 0 and it will gradually 'learn' to be crap at pulling away again

3. The steering angle sensor fault making the ESP/ECU not work properly on pulling away with steering angle applied being solved with the ECU software update

I hope it's either 1 or 3!!

That's it for now

I really disliked my Mk2 vRS TDI DSG for its low rev lethargacy/inability to get off the mark quickly and was one of the contributing factors to why it got sold...just never really got on with it. I do otherwise rather miss the car though...had it been a manual I may well still have it. I really only got the DSG as my wife wanted an auto, also I couldnt bare to have a car without a MFSW.

Does rather sound as though the Mk3 TDI with DSG really isnt all that different to the Mk2 in that regard. Im quite glad I bought a manual Mk3.

Yea, same situation, got the DSG per the Mrs inability to use 5th/6th in a manual! But as of now, my previous 90% satisfaction with the gearbox has risen to 95% (with the remaining 5% being the very occasional jerky shift from 1st to 2nd if you catch it wrong - it happened to do this yesterday so I know it is not resolved with any software update they applied!).

 

Having experienced BMWs 7DCT, ZFs 8slush (in various cars - SQ5, X6, Jag XF, Discovery), VAG's 6 and 7 STronic/DSG, and various manuals - by far the best was BMW's 7DCT, way better than any manual even! Not once was I unhappy with a gear shift, and it always did what I wanted in terms of down/upshift based solely on throttle/brake input, plus the manual paddles on track were excellent, and it had an awesome LC function. Such a shame they dropped it for the ZF 8slush :(

I really disliked my Mk2 vRS TDI DSG for its low rev lethargacy/inability to get off the mark quickly and was one of the contributing factors to why it got sold...just never really got on with it. I do otherwise rather miss the car though...had it been a manual I may well still have it. I really only got the DSG as my wife wanted an auto, also I couldnt bare to have a car without a MFSW.

Does rather sound as though the Mk3 TDI with DSG really isnt all that different to the Mk2 in that regard. Im quite glad I bought a manual Mk3.

I've found the DSG in the mk3 TDI vRS to be a lot better than it was in my Blackline. It's not perfect, but far more responsive and not the constant source of annoyance that it was.