Hi Everyone,

Its been some years since I have posted. Had a good few years of fairly hassle free motoring I guess. Currently have a 2003 Fabia comfort, 1.4 16v mpi, engine is a BBZ.

Having serious issues though now.

Since I had it about five years ago it intermittently stalled and kept going which seems to be an issue with this engine model. over the past week it became pretty bad and will not idle evenly, stalls and the accelerator pedal is 'dead'.

From reading past forum answers, I have been stretching my almost non existent car knowledge to see if I can fix it, cash is an issue and obviously cant get it to a garage as it wont run. It is due a 100k service soon and has been in need of TLC of late but that old 'get round to it' demon had reared its head. I know I could do with a fault finder meter thingy but I haven't got one and cant get one quick to tell you codes. (Sorry about that folks!)

 

When I turn it over it starts fine then before it gets warm it starts surging and bouncing on engine mounts. The EPC, ESP and engine lights are on. Tried disconnecting battery for 30 min+ to re set. No change.

 

So far, I have opened the throttle body and found it absolutely chocka with black gunk, removed it and cleaned it and the the manifold housing it sits on the best I could. (There is a mm or so gap where the butterfly will not close, but when i gently persuade it to close a bit more it idles a little better) I have taken off and cleaned the EGR valve which was caked in black (not oily). I was going to check the spark plugs to see if they were dirty but found my socket too wide to get into the coil hole (have extension bar etc but cant get a special spark plug socket)

Also looked at the brake servo pipe, which seems fine but fluid seemingly coming from above the servo from wiper motor housing and dripping down (seems too thick for wiper fluid, and seems greasy!?) but I dont know if thats a red herring or not. 

Any Ideas??

(NB as you can tell am an enthusiastic but limited DIY er so be gentle)

You need to get the throttle body re-adapted and we need codes which means you need a Laptop, VCDS and a suitable cable.

 

If you tell us where you are then someone may be able to help you.

Sorry cant get those things myself at the moment. I'm in Norfolk. How do you mean re adapted??

The throttle body has an electric motor to move the butterfly valve and a pair of potentiometers for position feedback. During adaptation, the ECU drives the butterfly to both ends of its range and learns/remembers what the potentiometers read in each position. From then on, the ECU knows exactly what angle the throttle butterfly valve is at by comparing current pot readings to these 'limit' values.

I think.

Ahh ok, is there any way of tricking the ecu into re setting without the vcds stuff??

Ahh ok, is there any way of tricking the ecu into re setting without the vcds stuff??

 

No, I forgot to mention that you'll also need to get the EGR valve re-adapted, it's possible that you can get a mobile diagnostics guy to come to the car and perform these works for you.

righto, have looked on ebay for vcds and there are bluetooth to android phone versions. do they work? are they any good and will it do the job??

righto, have looked on ebay for vcds and there are bluetooth to android phone versions. do they work? are they any good and will it do the job??

 

No. They'll read some codes but frankly they're a gimmick.

 

Edit: I seem to remember wja lives in Norfolk and has VCDS but it's a big county and he hasn't been on in a while.

Edited 29 March, 201511 yr by sepulchrave

but the usb cable versions are ok are they? BTW thankyou so much for your help, it will prove invaluable I am sure!

Yep it is a big county!

Well, bought a cable plugged it in.

This is not a direct copy but is the gist of what it said as it was on a different computer.

 

scan

01 02 03 08 09 15 17 19 25 37 44 46 55 56 76

ADDRESS 01

CANT SYNC BAUD RATE

ABS BRAKES LABELS 6Q0-907-37X-ABS.LBL

CONTROLLER 6Q0-907-379H

COMPONENT ABS/ASR 5.7 FRONT V20

CODING 00124

SHOP # WSC 13765

VCID 42F7C90B5D97

1 FAULT FOUND

01314 ENGINE CONTROL MODULE

79-10 PLEASE CHECK FAULT CODES – INTERMITTENT.

 

However, when i turned it over it hunted very little and the engine reved. Just plugging it cant have re set anything can it???

Thanks again for any help !!!

Looks to me like you've managed to scan the ABS controller, rather than the Engine ECU? (And the ABS ECU is telling you that it is aware of a fault code in the engine ECU, but not telling you what it is).

I tried different connection speeds etc but this is the only info I can get on the vcds lite software. Weird

 

Make your settings the same as this grab (use your COM port number if not COM3).

ok great,will give that a try. had com 3 and 9600 baud. might not be today though as have broken a toe. not car related incident i might add 

So took to garage. £60 for them to clear codes and to tell me it was an intermitttant fault. went to collect it , very lumpy running. back to the office "we'll get someone to look", stood with me when turning over, "its mis firing". "we'll replace two coils and your plugs" (£150). ran several times, but still a bit lumpy. Today battery flat.

original codes were:

p0701

p1553

p1504

p1544

p1172

p1443

p1440

p1426

 

I guess some will be related to the mis fire, but what is causing it to run rough????

TA!

Alternator isn't charging the battery which suggests a snapped load sense wire and a bad battery.

 

Most of the other codes relate to the throttle body and EGR valve.

 

My guess is that your bad battery and charging circuit have forced the ECU to reset to a base coding, lost all your adaptations and the ECU no longer knows what engine it's wired to since one of those codes is for an N75.

 

First principles, charge the battery off the car until it is fully and properly charged, repair the faulty load sense wire/plug to the alternator so that you have 14.4V across the battery when the engine is running.

 

Next, get VCDS to connect to the PCM (Module 01) while the engine is running and check the soft coding, my AUB is 00071, check what your BBY should be. Stop the engine and recode if incorrect.

 

Once you've recoded run the throttle body and EGR valve adaptation routines before clearing all codes and taking the car for a drive then rechecking what codes remain. Post here with any questions.

Edited 14 May, 201511 yr by sepulchrave

Blimey, thanks for this! Its a new battery, but will check the wires etc etc. Might take me some time though, but will get back to you. Thankyou!

so, thanks for waiting (broken toe) have been charging battery on car for a little while so it could be used. sometimes it wouldn't start so would get charger out and charge to run. didn't start today so as toe a bit better thought i would have a look. visual inspection of load sensor wires seemed ok. turned it over and it ran, engine light is on. finally got hold of my multimeter from a 'friend' and tested the battery. 12v+/- non running, 14v +/- running. surmised that alternator must be working at least. doesn't that suggest something else is the culprit??

You still haven't shown us a VCDS readout of module 01, we really need to see that.