So, following happened.

Got into car, no problems anywhere, everything behaving itself.

Drove wife to local supermarket, I sat in car while she shopped. Whilst she was shopping I heard a "bong" and was told that I should start the engine to preserve battery life or the Columbus would be switched on.

Started up the engine, thought I'd de-mist etc.

Warning light came on and stayed on. Light in question, from this link:

 

http://workshop-manuals.com/skoda/octavia-mk2/vehicle_electrics/electrical_system/instruments_gci/dash_panel_insert/warning_light_symbols_in_dash_panel_insert_vehicles_as_of_my_09/

 

Appears to be light 29 - Exhaust Gas control system.

 

I've just driven the car home, all appears well, but that light will not extinguish. It's a yellow light (not sure if this light as a red mode or not, I'm pretty sure some of the lights can be yellow and/or red).

I know, need fault codes, but are there any "common" things that might be at fault?

 

Scared me senseless as the icon looks like an engine, so assumed this was a "check engine" kind of warning. Any thoughts?

 

Cheers chaps and a Happy New Year

I noticed you have the TSi, what year is the car? Did you noticed ANY sort of rattle when you started it up?

Sounds like a faulty sensor

Taken from the big TSI thread:

 

 

"45.  cgwtnt - 2011 Octavia II 2.0TSI - 37,000 miles.  FDSH.  Engine warning light came on but car still felt fine when driving.  However Investigation by dealer found that pistons had met valves.  Timing chain tensioner failure suspected as being cause.  New engine needed at cost of circa £6K."

No rattle at all. Car idled as it always has. The drive back from the supermarket was fine, no jumping revs, smooth acceleration etc. Drive was about 10 miles. Got home and again engine was still idling well. It's a May 2011.

Serves you right for not giving her a hand with the shopping.  .

Serves you right for not giving her a hand with the shopping. .

If I'd not been at deaths door I would have :-)

Am I right in thinking this is going to take investigation rather than code reading?

Id code read it, either with vag com or a simple code reader 

I'll see if I can find someone in my area with VCDS or similar. Typically new year and you wouldn't believe how busy it is, but this is kinda important. Not least because I'm only 6 months inside the limit of "goodwill" if this is really bad.

The EML (Engine Management Light) can literally represent hundreds of fault codes, as mentioned the only proper diagnosis can be done by scanning the car and reading the codes.

I've had a similar scenario on my TSI. Light came on and stayed on for about a week. Drove fine and day before it went into the dealer the light went out. Ran it through Carista which suggested something emissions related.Dealer diagnosed it as a faulty Evap Solenoid and replaced (under warranty). Been fine since.

As suggested though that warning light could come on for a range of issues,a VCDS scan is needed really to indicate the issue.

Edited 3 January, 201610 yr by ahenners

Thank you all for your input.

I couldn't help feeling that if this was the "worse case situation" the car wouldn't have subsequently driven for x number of miles without missing a beat - I can only hope.

With regards code scanners, it's probably not going to be a bad idea to actually get hold of one, I can see this being very useful in case this kind of thing happens again. Anyone got any advice on cheap & cheerful code scanners?

 

Thanks again.

Right, just about to order a fault code reader.

Was recommended the following on a different forum (I've just picked a random link to one of the many people selling them).

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bluetooth-Car-Scanner-ELM327-V1-5-ODB2-Torque-Android-Auto-Scan-Tool-TYPE-C-Mini-/261864892313?hash=item3cf85d2799:g:JngAAOSw9N1VwHO8&clk_rvr_id=961353976658&afsrc=1&rmvSB=true

 

Apparently cheap & cheerful at a fiver and the Android app can be downloaded and should be able to read those fault codes. Anyone had any experience with these at all?

 

Ta

I have had no experience with code readers. However I do know that to read a car properly, you need a reader with everything built in, or a computer with a cable and appropriate software, not a Bluetooth device as then you are relying on Bluetooth data transfer which as we all know can be temperamental.

When it comes to electronic device for reading vehicle fault codes I certainly wouldn't pay less than 50, other members may have different experiences.

Cheap electric devices are a recipe for disaster IMHO.

There's no such thing as one size fits all with code readers especially when it comes to vag group/volvo vehicles unless you spend hundreds of £, even then they are not guaranteed to work on all vehicles.

As others have said I believe you will require vag com to read your car.

Edited 3 January, 201610 yr by Jojo1985g

Stop cutting corners, get it into a dealer or get a mobile specialist to come out and read the code for you!

Carista isn't cutting corners, it is in fact very, very good.

 

There are die hard VCDS fans out there that struggle to understand how a free App and a £5 ODB connector can do almost as much as their £300 VCDS cable and software but things progress.

 

VCDS still has it's uses for programming and coding but if all you need to do is read fault codes and make some basic changes to the cars functions then there isn't currently a more effective option.

 

I have the App and the ODB adapter listed earlier and they work well. I've still had the need to use VCDS in the past and thankfully there are members on here willing to help out of the goodness of their hearts, but for those who haven't got access to VCDS or aren't willing to pay a dealer their £65 minimum labour charge then Carista is perfect.

 

Stoofa, see here, this thread has all the info you need...

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/348046-carista-obd2-a-cheaper-alternative-to-some-of-vcds/

Edited 4 January, 201610 yr by silver1011

Carista isn't cutting corners, it is in fact very, very good.

 

There are die hard VCDS fans out there that struggle to understand how a free App and a £5 ODB connector can do almost as much as their £300 VCDS cable and software but things progress.

 

VCDS still has it's uses for programming and coding but if all you need to do is read fault codes and make some basic changes to the cars functions then there isn't currently a more effective option.

 

I have the App and the ODB adapter listed earlier and they work well. I've still had the need to use VCDS in the past and thankfully there are members on here willing to help out of the goodness of their hearts, but for those who haven't got access to VCDS or aren't willing to pay a dealer their £65 minimum labour charge then Carista is perfect.

 

Stoofa, see here, this thread has all the info you need...

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/348046-carista-obd2-a-cheaper-alternative-to-some-of-vcds/

Thanks for that response - you don't know how much better it makes you feel when someone has used a solution you are potentially looking at and gives it the thumbs up.

The application that was recommended to me was "Torque" which looks like it's free with a $2 "pro" version. But this Carista looks very good, so I'll probably give that a go when the adapter arrives tomorrow.

 

Cheers.

Yeah, Torque is also discussed in the thread I linked earlier, I think there are pro's and con's of each, the difference being that Carista is continually improving and having new functionality added every week, whereas Torque hasn't really progressed as much.

 

It should also be noted that the free Carista App will read fault codes, but to make function changes (coming home headlights, anti-hijack, single press unlocking, front fogs as DRL's etc. etc.) you need to pay a one off fee for the increased accessibility, I think it is about £15.

 

A final point, it should also be noted that some people have had issues with the various Bluetooth OBD readers not working very well.

 

This thread goes into more detail...

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/364847-caristaelm-327/?hl=%2Bcarista+%2Bbluetooth+%2Bobd#entry4328311

 

I have the one on your link and it works fine on my 2008 Octavia and 2011 Superb, but others have had issues.

Edited 4 January, 201610 yr by silver1011

So, although still feeling like death warmed up, I'd agreed before Christmas to take my mum to a hospital appointment.

Planned on having a play with the new bluetooth dongle and the app while I waited for her. When I went to pick her up, got her in the car and warning light now extinguished.

I've had to do a couple of start/stops today but no sign of the warning light coming back.

If I'm feeling better tomorrow - will the car have logged the error code that had put the light on in the first place? Would still like to know why for 5 days of driving this warning light was on and then suddenly today it decides to switch off.

I have had a bit of experience with this sort of thing recently, but on other vehicles. I have 2 of the blue bluetooth dongles (in my 2007 Octavia the short one went so far into the hole around the socket that I couldn't get my fingers round it to get it out), and they both work well with Torque. I paid for the pro version, and it runs fully on whatever tablet or phone I load it on.

From what I remember, the Windows software supplied by the Chinese triggers virus warnings, but a bit of searching can find the same software clean for download. However Windows has a bug in its bluetooth to serial driver that can screw the whole thing up, and it's still there in Windows 10.

 

I've used this recently on a 2002 Renault Espace and my big 2004 diesel Jeep, which has non-standard codes. I got to the stage of communicating with the ODB2 on the Jeep and it telling me what version it was by sending AT serial commands from a terminal program (ancient computer people will know what I'm talking about), but then discovered a program from a man in Estonia with the same Jeep. This was excellent with a laptop and cleared 11 of the 12 engine and gearbox fault codes.

 

I am sure vcds is excellent, worthwhile and well worth the cost, but it bugs me that any diagnostic software has to be so unique. It should be as atandard as a set of spanners. The local main Jeep agent said they hadn't got the Chrysler drb3 tester, they would have to hire one from Chrysler Uk and it would take 3 weeks to arrive. My local garage's Snap-On tester doesn't work with it. Hence I'm doing it myself.

 

Hope you get over the lurgi. Theres nothing worse that kneeling in the rain beside the car searching for a hidden socket.

Even though the light has gone out the fault code will still be logged.

 

The problem is clearly intermittent, it will be back, no doubt at the worst possible moment. Better to get it properly diagnosed and fixed sooner rather than later.

I had a similar problem back in July which eventually turned out to be an issue with the throttle flaps in the inlet manifold.  The light came on and stayed on for a few days, then went out for a few days.  No pattern to it at all.  Initial diagnosis was for a sensor in the inlet manifold, which didn't cure the problem.   The cure was a replacement manifold and a bill for close to £700.

 

I understand that it is a common problem with the TSi engine.  Mine occurred with the mileage around 62,000.

Im another with this problem, light has been off and on now for best part of a year! 

It went into dealers last august (for service), as I had already read of the problem, so wasnt that concerned.

I think the code reads as P2015 (another common fault it seems)

 

Car runs as normal, skoda dealer checked over and said all seems to be running fine, so they reset it, passed the MOT and im just putting up with it.

I was quoted best part of £700 to put it right by dealer, seems a lot to pay, just to put a light out, so I havent....

 

My only worry was it not passing the MOT, but it did

 

Steve

Have you been overfilling the car?

 

Got this a couple of times on my TFSI (code indicated a sticky valve on the charcoal canister). I stopped filling past the first click on the pump and I never saw the light again.

So, the warning light came back. Like the first time for no apparent reason, with the car running fine. Although it was damn cold this morning.

At last had the chance to do a code read, mentioned earlier in the thread I think

 

P2015

Intake manifold runner position sensor/switch circuit range. Performance Bank 1

 

I've used the app to reset the error code, so as of right now there is no warning light. So looks like this might be a semi-expensive fix I'd rather not have to pay out for.

If it's not doing any harm then I'll probably run the car and simply reset the light when it appears - making sure it's reset on the day the MOT is due

 

But not looking like the infamous cam chain issue though?