Hi All,

Picked up my new Octavia 2.0 Elegance DSG beginning of December and I have put nearly 3K miles on her with no problems other then the windscreen water washer bottle being too small!

My last journey home in her started uneventfully then a power steering warning lamp lit up. check the book and noticed that the steering had not got any heavier, so spoke to my local Skoda garage to book her in for a sensor check. Carried on for a few more miles and all of a sudden the entire dashboard lit up like one of those fibre optic Christmas trees with the tacho and speedo needles dancing around.

AA relayed car back to Skoda and I was informed that there have been a couple of other new "Octavia 2" exhibiting this problem. It would appear that water gets into the fuse box.

Has anyone else experienced this or indeed heard this. The main fuse box seems to be quite high up and out of the way. Is this possible or am I being lead up the garden path?

Im on my second octy 2 and must have racked up about 8000 miles in them. I havent had any problems like yours to date but I have got an airbag warning light on at the mo.

If there's water in the fusebox, i'd be interested in what they're doing to find where it's come from instead of just replacing the fusebox.

Well...

I picked up my car after having the fuse box replaced. Whilst speaking to the service manager, he informed me that there had indeed been four 05/55 Skodas with this problem at his garage alone.

Unofficially.... he said.... Skoda are aware of the problem and there have been reports of a 1000 or so cars experiencing the problem, something with the drain from the windscreen being directly vented over the top of the box, however as of yet Skoda have not issued a fix. I asked him if there would be a recall when one comes available and was met with a vague shrug. Being this my first time with a Skoda, is this the norm? Does Skoda not issue recalls, but perform fixes at time of servicing, like Volvo do as I understand it?

Each of these fuse boxes cost over

I had the same sort of problems with the dash. The battery was draining and on one occasion the car engine started but didn't stop even with the key out and the central locking locked. I had it recovered and the dealer told me it was water in the main ECU under the fuse box. Apparently this is a sealed unit and houses the main voltage regulators for the car. (Apologies if this is minorly misquoted) The seals to this box had gone letting water in. Anyway he said Škoda had updated this part number to another. They are fitting it today.

Water in the E Box isnt just limited to Skoda. MK5 Golf and Audi A3 can also suffer. VAG are on the case and are sorting it so dont panic.