Airbag Control Unit wiring faulty after Turbo boost Sensor replaced

[pmbarclay]

Very grateful for your experience and expertise as I am not sure whether the Skoda dealer is at fault or whether it is just one of the problems to be expected with an older Skoda Superb.

 

I purchased my Skoda Superb 2.0 CRDi Elegance from new in November 2011.  It has covered 95,000 miles and has always been serviced by a Skoda Dealer in accordance with the variable service intervals.  It has proved to be reliable but did have an EGR valve failure a couple of years ago.

 

My car has the EA189 engine and had a software upgrade applied last year.  In July, I received a letter from Skoda informing me that Skoda UK would apply a goodwill warranty in the case of engine breakdown in the next 2 years.

 

On September 23^rd, whilst I was returning from an emergency call as a Consultant Anaesthetist, the car developed an Engine Fault, displayed a flashing glow plug light on the dashboard and went into limp home mode, with revs limited to 3,000 rpm.  I took the car to Skoda Ruislip the next day, who diagnosed and fixed the Turbo Boost Sensor.  They confirmed that this would be covered by the extended warranty.  It took until October 2^nd for the Turbo Boost Sensor to arrive and the car was returned to me on October 3rd, with all faults apparently fixed.

 

I drove the car the 3 miles to home and all was fine, with no warning lights displayed.  The following morning, I drove the car to work on October 4th but the engine fault recurred after about 5 miles when the engine reached full operating temperature with flashing glow plug and Engine Fault Workshop displayed in the matrix display.  I returned to car to Skoda Ruislip and persuaded Skoda UK to provide with a loan car whilst mine was being repaired. 

 

On October 11^th, Skoda Ruislip telephoned me to let me know that they had found a wiring problem with the Turbo Boost sensor and had repaired this.  However, once this was repaired, they had found an additional problem with the wiring to the Airbag Control Unit, which would need to be replaced at a cost of £600 for the part and 4.5 hours labour, totally over £1000.  They said that the wiring for both Turbo Boost Sensor and Airbag Control Unit ran close together in the same wiring loom.

 

I asked whether the wiring for the Airbag Control Unit could have been damaged by repairing the wiring to the Turbo Boost Sensor as this seemed to me the most logical explanation, as the car didn’t have a problem with its Airbag Control Unit until after they had repaired the wiring.

 

However, the garage remained adamant that the primary problem was faulty wiring to both the Turbo Boost Sensor and Airbag Control Unit.  They also felt that the failed Turbo Boost Sensor was not covered by goodwill in the extended engine warranty.

 

I desperately needed to have my car back as I have a run of on call duties at the Hospital and need to have a car to drive back and forth.  The airbag warning light comes on when I start the ignition but otherwise the car seems to run o.k.

 

I then escalated this to Skoda UK customer care.  They took until 16^th October to get back to me but stated that they can only go by what the garage has told them, who denied all liability for damaging the airbag control unit.  To quote Christine Keeler, “they would say that, wouldn’t they”.

 

I would therefore be extremely grateful for your advice.  Have you heard of similar situations in VAG cars.  Is the main problem likely to be due to wiring failure in the loom or damage to the wiring by the garage?

 

Clearly, I need to get the airbags repaired ASAP, particularly as the MOT is due at the end of November. I hope that an independent Airbag specialist or perhaps an auto electrician can repair the wiring to the Airbag Control Unit without having to replace a unit that was apparently working fine just a few weeks ago.  At the very least, even if the Airbag Control Unit does require replacement, their hourly rate should be less than a main dealer.

 

Any recommendations about independent Skoda specialists and airbag specialists welcome.  I live in Pinner and work in Twickenham so anyone in North West London would be ideal.

[Ennine]

I am new to Skoda and it's this sort of thing that gives me cause for concern and makes me so angry. Being at the mercy of a service department. What does strike me here is that old familiar story of taking the customer for a fool. They diagnosed turbo sensor, replaced it then it turns out to be wiring to the sensor. Are they saying it was wiring AND sensor, surely not. They also "felt" the sensor was not covered. Hm, could this be because the sensor was fine and need someone else to pay for their mistake. Maybe you should tell them you "feel" they should just sort it. I'm sorry I can't be of any help to you but I do have experience of people being taken to the cleaners for garage mistakes and it makes my blood boil.

 

Nige

[chimaera]

Damaged wiring can cause a short and result in damage to electronic control modules, so it's plausible that the damage to the wiring in the airbag system could have caused a failure in the airbag control module. I would expect them to show you the diagnostic readout confirming this though.

 

It's possible that their repair work to the wiring caused the damage: the manipulation of the various damaged wires during the repair could have caused a short; if the battery was connected this could damage the module. However, the Skoda repair procedures (and pretty much any repair procedures) for electric and electronic systems state that the battery should be disconnected before work starts. If they failed to do this, then they are at fault.

 

If they haven't yet replaced the module, I would find someone with VCDS (either an independent or a member here) and get the module scanned. Most modules store information on when the fault occurred now, so if it happened during or after their repair to the wiring you can have a chat with them about it.

 

As for the boost sensor, IMO they should be eating the cost of that since they failed to diagnose the problem correctly the first time. It's not your fault they threw parts at it instead of doing proper fault finding. Warranty doesn't even come into the equation here.

 

If this were me, I'd be giving them one more chance to resolve the issue before talking to my solicitor. I would also get everything I can in writing before I inform them of this.

[pmbarclay]

Thanks for the replies.

 

In terms of vehicle diagnostics, the local garage admitted that there was no fault from the Airbag Control Unit when the car was originally brought to them and it left them with no faults on diagnostics on October 3rd.  Their explanation is that repairing the wiring to the Turbo Boost Sensor has revealed an underlying fault to similarly damaged wiring to the Airbag control unit.

 

I put all of this to Honest John by email.   He has never heard of a similar problem despite providing motoring advice for 30+ years.  He recommended that I contact an independent airbag specialist, http://airbagman.co.uk and hope they can repair it at a lower cost than the Skoda Dealers.

 

I'll keep the forum informed about the car's progress.

 

It is a pity as, apart needing from a new EGR valve a couple of years ago, the car has proved to be pretty reliable and is spacious, quick and economical.

[Ennine]

It would be interesting to know exactly what this "damage" is and how it has been caused. Mechanical abrasion, water ingress, heat damage?  Very easy to throw that comment out, they really should be defining how it has happened and what action is required to stop it happening again.

 

Nige

[pmbarclay]

Exactly.  If this was a common problem, perhaps due to heat damage if the wiring loom is placed a little too close to the turbocharger, it should have been apparent long before now, given that VW have sold around 11 million EA 189 engines since 2008!

 

I guess some problems are inevitable when dealing with such complex technology.  To misquote Winston Churchill," Volkswagen is the worst manufacturer of turbo diesel engines, except for all the others".

[chimaera]

There are any number of reasons why it might have happened. Manufacturing tolerance, a cable tie not replaced after a service, bad batch of materials, etc. Regardless, the dealer doing the repair on the boost sensor wiring is responsible for any faults that occurred as a result of their work. If there were a bunch of damaged wires at a particular location (which is what the seem to be claiming based on what you've said here) they should have repaired all of them with the battery disconnected to avoid damage to the electronics.

[pmbarclay]

Thanks for additional technical information.  I got nowhere when I approached Skoda UK.  I did get an instant response when I used my Twitter account to post my complaint but doubt that this will get much further.

 

I suppose another option would be to get another Skoda garage to look at the problem, to provide an independent opinion that Skoda UK might trust and act upon.  There is a new garage near where I work in Isleworth that might be worth approaching.