Hi everyone,

 

Looking for some insight into common electrical faults with these cars, ive recently started working for a local taxi company and 20 of their 31 cars are Superb/Octavia models from 2010-2016.

 

Ive only been there 2 weeks and so far ive had one that didnt have indicators all down one side but all bulbs fuses and wiring were fine. Fixed by disconnecting the battery for 10 minutes so i can only assume it was a body control module fault?

Ive got 2 others with broken wires in the drivers door loom that needed soldered back together.

Ive got one that has locked both passenger front and rear doors and wont open with the fob, or handles, inside and out. Havent had much time with that one so ive not done further testing

Another one thats kicking my ass has no power to the rear wiper motor. Fuses are fine, 12v at the fuse box but nothing after that, checked wiring in the passenger footwell up to the rear hatch and theres nothing at all. I have the boot closed while testing as i discovered it wont work with the boot open but regardless of what i try i cant find the issue,

 

Ive worked in the motor trade a few years but im mostly used to 90s Japanese imports, ive done a fair amount of VAG stuff but ive never had to deal with many electrical faults, mostly DPF, clutch and timing belt jobs.

Obviously taxi's are subject to more wear and tear than your average car but im still shocked at how many electrical faults ive encountered in the past 10 days.

 

If anyone has dealt with these issues before or has and info on how to better diagnose them i would greatly appreciate it.

Currently dont have access to diagnostics which is also a major issue..

Welcome to Briskoda

 

The most commonly reported electrical issues with the MkII Superb are as follows:

 

- broken, stressed wires in the bellow between the drivers door and front wing, in between the hinges. Occurs as the door is opened and closed, so a taxi is likely to see early failures.

 

- broken, stressed wires in the tailgate underneath the plastic internal boot trim. Occurs when the boot is opened in saloon mode, rather than hatchback mode, so again assuming the boot on a taxi is opened many times a day it's going to appear sooner.

 

- corroded, fused connectors / modules under the front passenger footwell carpet due to water ingress.

 

All issues are covered a lot across multiple threads...

 

 

 

Only the Superb estate has a rear wiper, however weak wiper motors are widespread across all VAG brands (Skoda, SEAT, VW and Audi). It's difficult to drive anywhere these days without seeing an Octavia, Golf or A3 with it's rear wiper stuck halfway through it's sweep of the rear window.

 

There are multiple reasons for failure, but most involve water ingress due to the design that has the washer jet fed through pipes close to the motor (only relates to the hatchback, the estate rear washer is fed via a nozzle in the high level brake light).

 

The lack of indicators, fixed with a battery reset is probably BCM (Body Control Module) or CECM (Central Electrics Control Module) related. Failures aren't unheard of, but are usually related to the retrofitting on HID / xenon headlight kits.

 

Edited 2 February, 20197 yr by silver1011

Thanks very much for your reply,

 

Ive got a new OEM rear wiper motor and several used ones lying around, none of them work. Theres no power on the circuit after the fusebox, the easiest place i could find to probe the wires after the fusebox was passenger footwell and the rear hatch. The green/red and green/white wires have continuity between them and ground also has continuity so im wondering if thats a BCM fault too? Im also wondering if maybe the switch in the wiper stalk is broken? I bought a workshop manual online because i was so desperate but the wiring diagrams are quite vague. Ive tried disconnecting the battery on all of them out of interest but only worked for the one with the indicator fault.

 

Is there a manual release for the doors or is it all computer controlled? I had a poke around after managing to strip the rear door card off but couldnt find a way to release the lock, still need to get the multimeter on that and see if i have power to the door lock solenoids.

 

Im looking to buy laptop based software for more in depth stuff, programming etc, what would be the best option for VAG cars? Ive mostly used Snap On, Bosch, Hella Gutman in the past but the company doesnt want to pay out on a pricey handheld machine.

 

Thanks for your input so far

@Mr_Scotia
Welcome
For software your looking at purchasing VCDS       (Dont get a cloned copy if your doing the work your doing you get the full support of Ross Tech with original)

For manuals you can download everything you need from erWin  which is the official site.  About 7 euros for an hours connection enough to download everything for a car including detailed wiring diagrams and diagnostics.
 
I had an Octavia with n/s/r lock stuck in deadlocked mode but that was a faulty lock
A complete pain in the ass to remove 

Sorted the one with the locked passenger doors,

 

Another door loom fault.. Managed to get a power probe and manually power the door lock whilst pressing unlock on the key fob, it was the main power feed wire that had broke in between the front wing and door. Still has a side airbag fault though so i can only assume the drivers door has broken wires too.

 

Hopefully try nail the one with the rear wiper fault tommorow.

 

Thanks for your help so far guys

On ‎02‎/‎02‎/‎2019 at 21:10, silver1011 said:

the estate rear washer is fed via a nozzle in the high level brake light

my estate has the jet through the wiper arm . 2012

Sorry, I was referring to the Octavia at that point, was trying to address the common issues across both cars on his fleet.