Regular readers may have read my last post, about me not really bonding with my Mk. 3 VRS, despite loving my old Mk. 1.

 

It's a lovely car, this Mk. 3, and I am TRYING to love it, it but there have been a few too many annoying things about it so far.....and now, I have started to suffer a couple of things that appear to be a wee bit more serious. Comments and help appreciated please, about the following:

 

The infotainment screen has now frozen up on me, on three separate occasions. It usually seems to do it first thing in the morning - I start up, get driving down the road, go to change the radio station and the screen will not accept any inputs from my fingers, no matter how hard and fast I tap it, anywhere. I can only change things from the steering wheel buttons. I have tried stopping and re-starting the car, to no avial. Once I have come back to the car after work at the end of the day, the screen is back to normal. I have no idea if it is linked to it being cold or what - although on one of the mornings, it wasn't particularly cold outside.

 

Anyone else had this issue? Is it a concern or just one of those things? Should I contact Skoda warranty about it?

 

Second thing I had yesterday - I always press the button to de-activate the stop/start system every time I get in the car. I am 'old-school' about looking after engines and I do not believe that stop / start is beneficial to the engine and especially the turbo, despite the fact that there's a coolant pump for it. I want my engine to be running at all times, thanks very much, and I want to let it idle at the end of a journey for a few minutes to protect the turbo bearings.

 

However, yesterday I was in the middle of my journey, and a yellow warning lamp came on, along with an error message about a 'stop / start system fault - workshop!' in the maxidot. Once I got home, I shut the car down, and I haven't seen the message since. Again....anything to worry about? Should I also go back to Skoda with this?

 

I would be grateful to hear other people's ideas please! Thanks

 

 

I havent had these issues, but I suggest next time they happen, drive straight to the dealer so you can show them while they are still visible.

Photograph or video the faults as they occur if you can't get straight to the dealer. Definitely keep a record of when they occur too, may help identify a pattern?

Fault codes may be stored for the S/S problem, if you have VCDS or know someone who does, maybe scan it and post the results here/Google them for help?

The frozen infotainment screen is a common thing, seems to be related to cold weather. Try the following, press and hold down the power on button of the screen, until it reboots.

Sometimes the head unit will start changing radio stations/menus on it's own, that usually needs a new screen and/or a new controller unit that sits in the glove box.

 

Start/stop message. Switch on head unit, select CAR/vehicle status. Any permanent logged faults will show up there. If there are none, you will need a VCDS or dealer scan to check for transient fault codes,

In the 33 months I had my VRS, the infotainment screen twice simply didn't display anything.  You could switch the radio on with no problem, it just didn't display anything.

 

On both occasions, the next morning when I got up and started the car, the display was back to normal.

 

I put it down to a loose connection?

The screen on my MK3 leon woukd do the same. At one point it was around once a week. Would mainly show a black screen with sound still on, or it would refuse to get a radio signal. My favourite was the SatNav that would throw a hissy fit and go back to germany, wolfsburg to be exact, at the worst times.

These things were sent to test us Im sure!

Ray, If its still under warranty they can update the software or replace it worst case.

Ray, If its still under warranty they can update the software or replace it worst case.

 

Updating the software fixes a possible loose connection?

 

Every day's a school day here it seems.

I've had the Columbus do it previously in my Mk2 and my Mk3 but only in cold weather.

 

Mine is going in for the start stop warning on Tuesday and my traction control that now has a fit eavery now and again on a slight bend with hardly any throttle.

 

Not sure if the tyre fitters have broken something when they changed the tyres :(

I didnt mention, after an update black screen thing went away. The trips to wolfsburg continues until the day I got shut of it.

The infotainment screen has now frozen up on me, on three separate occasions. It usually seems to do it first thing in the morning - I start up, get driving down the road, go to change the radio station and the screen will not accept any inputs from my fingers, no matter how hard and fast I tap it, anywhere. I can only change things from the steering wheel buttons. I have tried stopping and re-starting the car, to no avial. Once I have come back to the car after work at the end of the day, the screen is back to normal. I have no idea if it is linked to it being cold or what - although on one of the mornings, it wasn't particularly cold outside.

 

Anyone else had this issue? Is it a concern or just one of those things? Should I contact Skoda warranty about it?

I get this on particularly cold mornings too and like you said, I have to use the steering wheel controls until the car and unit warms up a bit then it becomes responsive again. You can see the green square going between the different buttons but still remains unresponsive to an actual touch of a finger.

 

I have even had it twice where the screen remained blank but the radio still played so I went to restart the car and the radio continued once I turned the engine off, got out the car and locked it!

Out of curiosity, it seems cold weather is playing a part here, where is the vehicle kept overnight?  Think a bit about my own vehicle, so far I haven't encountered any of the above which is, yes, only 8 months old but you always like to be aware of issues others have encountered.

Out of curiosity, it seems cold weather is playing a part here, where is the vehicle kept overnight?  Think a bit about my own vehicle, so far I haven't encountered any of the above which is, yes, only 8 months old but you always like to be aware of issues others have encountered.

Well my car is garaged every night and I've only ever seen a slight delay of the screen appearing when the head unit was switched on. 20 seconds at most, usually only 5 seconds. This delay can also be due to phone pairing/verification when you first get in the car. Just about any device that uses touch sensitive controls, will slow down in cold temperatures. General rule of thumb is this.

 

If it stays locked up and a hard reset using the power button fixes the problem, the unit just got confused. If a hard reset does nothing, or the unit is acting as though there's a ghost in the car it's faulty.

My car is parked up overnight on the driveway but I do not usually pair my phone (I leave Bluetooth off unless I know I need it or during work time).

 

I just leave it alone as I leave the radio as it is so it become responsive again during my usual 50 minute commute to work.

Had my Bolero in my old Superb II pack up in that fashion. Thought it had died and was in the process of finding a Columbus when the car failed to start on a short trip to the shops. I bought a new battery in the end having read posts on the forum. On fitting it, hey presto, the head unit was alive and kicking. Never did it again either. Maybe not related, but we know how under powered Skoda batteries can be.

I've had my new skoda for about 4 weeks now and my screen just froze , locked it up and when I came back a while later it was OK, so will have to keep an eye on it, also , don't know if there is a battery link but I was surprised when I went to pick the car up at the dealership, as the salesman was briefing us on the various extras that this car had over the last SE model , a low battery light came on ? (on a new car FFS) anyway, will keep tabs on it