Wondering if I could have a bit of guidance please.

ABS light came on 3 days ago. Took car to KwikFit (no grumbling, they've been reasonably good), ran through diagnostics, no fault code and no light on for them. As soon as I took it out of centre no more than 100m light on and difficult to press breaks. Turned round put it back through diagnostic to show rear nearside sensor showed intermittent sensor code. Sensor replaced, ABS light still on with unusual intermittent error. Asked if it could be the sensor cable, told unlikely and also told to take to specialist as perhaps needs electrician at it. Taken it this morning to IVC in Leeds, similar feedback. Told electrician not around till next Thursday. I've read a fair few threads on here about possibility of strip fuse possibly being faulty. IVC mechanic had a look but said visually, nothing apparent. I have bought some myself and going to attempt to replace

 

Could someone please confirm if it's 3rd or 4th from the left in the picture and also the box to the right, is that where I'll find other blade fuses?  Have tried fuse 25 internal fuse box, all seemed fine.

 

Also wondering if break fluid would need topping up? Have had the car for 6 years (previous owner was my mum) been serviced but noticed from service history it says that break fluid under engine so mechanic couldn't check

 

Thanks in advance

Position 4 on your car (fourth from left as you look from the front bumper, or fourth one down in your photo).

You could just swap it with the unused one in position 6 as a test, although that looks like a 50A one, so shouldn't be left in permanently.

 

Yes, the black cover houses 5 blade fuses (counting the wires going in) No.s 7-11 inclusive.

 

Brake fluid is in a reservoir at the back left of the engine bay (high up) as you look from the front bumper. Won't be related to this fault, but worth checking level anyway.

 

The problem with the nearside rear sensor could easily be the cable. There's a junction where it splices into the interior loom under the plastic trim not far from the seatbelt 'spool' of the front seatbelts. 

If the rear doors leak (most do) this splice can get wet, corrode, and give intermittent or permanent faults.

Thank you ever so much. I've read many of your comments before and they've been really helpful.

 

I managed to by some fuse strips earlier so will try it with the 40 I bought. I really struggled to take the black cover lid of. Pinched at both sides but to no avail. Presuming I might have to get something in there for some gentle leverage.

 

Thanks again Wino

No problem Leah.

The cover/lid has probably never been removed since it was fitted a dozen or so years ago, so may take a bit of persuasion to pop off. For what it's worth I doubt there's anything wrong with any of those blade fuses. The strip fuses can crack, possibly due to vibration or differing thermal expansion between the plastic fuseholder and the thin metal strip fuses, but I don't think the blade fuses would suffer in the same way.

 

If I can find it later, I'll pop a link up to the thread where the corroded cable splice was discovered.  It was on the other side of the car, I remember, but as far as I know the rear ABS cabling is symmetrical.

Hi again

 

I replaced the strip fuse but no change. I also managed to get into blade fuse housing but as you predicted, everything was fine.

 

I'm taking the car to garage 3 tomorrow. I gave them a heads up about the similar reading outcome from today (mechanic also mentioned something about the reading not being able to pick up information about mileage etc). 

 

Will see what they say. 

 

Thanks

About halfway down this page https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/432913-abs-warning-light/?page=3, a couple of years ago, member @garibaldy discovered the fault on his car to be the splice(s) where the rear sensor cables join into the cabin loom.

Ask your garage to inspect the connector/cable near the rear sensor first, but then get them to lift up the rear seat base and follow the cable in from there, 'til they find these same joins that garibaldy discovered.

 

 

 

 

Hi

 

All sorted! Apparently the sensor hadn't been fixed on properly and there was some corrosion somewhere which was filed/cleaned down. The only downside, the garage did the work before telling me all this. Charged £66 for half an hours labor, scan  and clean but all working now.

 

Anyhow, thanks again for all your insights. Hope you get to enjoy the long weekend. 

Best wishes

"Too Kwik" Fit then, as it turns out.

 

Thanks for letting us know the outcome.

Now that you have mentioned KwikFit, I finally got round to finishing off some jobs that I was doing on my daughter's late 2009 Ibiza, including replacing the steering rods, TREs, front disks and pads and rear dampers, so it needed the toeing checked properly as I only set it up roughly and could not be bothered with taking my Gunsons Trakrite to a flat deserted carpark and spending lots of time checking, lifting up and adjusting and rechecking - my driveway is too steep and not smooth.

So off to my local KwikFit I went, never asked what it would cost as it "must" be cheapish, and requested that they adjust the toeing only, what they seem to do, if they have a Hunter rig on site is, give the car a full 4 wheels geometry check, then correct the front toeing and recheck every thing - £59.99 please.  So that might sound a bit much for a simple toeing adjust, but that is the first time that that car has ever been given a full 4 wheel geometry check, so I'm off the opinion that it was money well spent as my daughter seems to find/think that that car has a slight high speed steering anomaly - what exactly she can't be clear about, and I never ever noticed any thing wrong with it, okay the steering rod knuckles were weak and so when stationary you could feel/hear lost motion - and maybe these weakened springs in these knuckles were causing something to happen to the steering at higher speeds (exactly what speed range I can't say), but one thing that came out of the full geometry check was that the castor angle is slightly low and so below the manufacturer's spec and castor does play a part in stability at higher speeds it has been said, wheels had already been rebalanced - improvement claimed but still an issue, wheels were swopped front to rear again with the same result it seems, one alloy that had been originally on the front has a 0.5mm run out, hum!

 

Sorry for going off topic but I wanted to let people know what to expect and for how much at KwikFit for a toeing check, some people might like it, my only previous experience of 4 wheel alignment was at a VW dealership and it cost a lot more than that but it included getting all settings back within spec after removing the front lower subframe.

I've had similar from some places. I'd say a spell check on the name might come back as Quack  and Fat. I had rear shoes done at a similar place. Brakes were poor. It needed an MOT- so I advised Mot place of this. Brake system was classed as dangerous, with air, and took the garage an hour to get rid of.  I'd have taken it back to QF, but once done, I walk away. These days ,if SIL can't do it,, with my help, it's into our local little man and it's done for a fixed price.

One of my jobs before retiring was to take our fleet of vans in for a tyre etc check. I had one van my mate ( just passed test) had problems with. Rear tyres had been changed and pressures were at least 10- 15 PSI HIGH. We were on a job together, and in the end I drove it back, as he had had a fright with rear end getting a bit lively. Manager just shrugged his shoulders, when I took it back in for a check and pressure was found to be too high.