Airbag / Traction Control / Steering warning lights

[Benshepherd]

Yesterday my Octavia II estate (1.6 Greenline) developed an airbag warning light.  I took it to a local garage who read the code and it was for the o/s side impact sensor.  So this evening, I checked out the likely place for a wiring problem which was the sensor in the rubber gaitor between the door and the car.  I was pleased to see an obvious break in one of the 2 wires as it would surely be an easy fix.  The other wire also looked like it was about to snap.  I disconnected battery and then spliced in 2 new short pieces of wire and soldered them at either end.  I reconnected the plug, reconnected the battery and turned everything on - now I have an airbag, traction control and steering warning lights :-(    I knew the airbag light would need resetting even if I fixed the wiring, but I wasn't expecting the other lights.  Goodness knows what I have done or what has gone wrong.  I definitely didn't touch any other wires.  Looks like it may a trip to a local VW dealer as my nearest Skoda one is miles away.  Any ideas?  Thanks. 

[Anddenton]

It's because the battery was disconnected, they should go off after driving a short distance

[J.R.]

Correct. Although  the airbag light will most certainly be "latched" from the previous faulty wiring and will just need the fault code erasing.

 

Any OBD2 reader should be able to read & erase the airbag fault code so no need to visit main dealer.

Edited 28 January, 2020 by J.R.

[Benshepherd]

2 minutes ago, J.R. said:

Correct. Although  the airbag light will most certainly be "latched" from the previous faulty wiring and will just need the fault code erasing.

 

Any OBD2 reader should be able to read & erase the airbag fault code so no need to visit main dealer.

 

22 minutes ago, Anddenton said:

It's because the battery was disconnected, they should go off after driving a short distance

 

 

That's a great relief if it will just go off when I drive it. I've not taken it for a drive yet.  Really grateful for the reassuring answers.

I did scan with my OBD2 reader but it found no codes.  I'd assumed airbag codes won't show up - I know they don't show up with an OBD2 reader on my Mitsubishis

[J.R.]

OK that makes sense, OBD2 generic codes are in the main concerned with emissions, faulty MAF sensor, EGR etc and the like, I think after a short drive you will be left with the airbag light & will have to find someone with VCDS or a small garage with something like a Snap On universal reader that can access  modules other than the main ECU.

 

I think that you can be confident that you have resolved the fault & the code should clear when you can find a suitable reader.

[Benshepherd]

Thanks again. I just went to take it for a drive and got about 10 metres and just the airbag light on now 🙂

 

My garage next to work can clear the airbag code for me so hopefully that's everything sorted.

 

In 15 years of working on my own cars this is the first one that has brought up several lights after a battery removal, hence why I was panicking! 

[J.R.]

I know how you feel!

 

Even though its happened several times while I have been repairing the Yeti I still have some anxiety each time until I have driven 10 yards.

 

Removing the codes with VCDS brings up a warning tone and the MIL light on the instrument cluster which freaks me out as it never happened on any other car and I cant see any reason for it.

 

wait till you have volt drop on starting when the battery becomes aged, you wont even feel it from the cranking & firing but the dash will light up like a Christmas tree and give you fault code city.

 

Without VCDS I would be a nervous wreck by now, even with it there are constant harbingers of doom like the ABS light coming on a few times and losing the ABS, wipers doing a repeated noisy downward shunt on auto setting, rear wiper sometimes freezing up.

[Benshepherd]

JR, what code reader do you use?  I may just invest in a cheapish one that does airbag,. ABS codes etc.  I can see a couple on eBay but any recommendations would be great.   My current OBD2 reader has been great for basic code reading and clearing, but as my Skoda ages (I've got about 160k miles on it now), I expect to need to fix more stuff on it.  Thanks.

[J.R.]

I use VCDS, I have a cheap one that is supposed to do as yours but to date it has never managed to retrieve a single code from any car saying that there are none, bought from an Ebay seller that turned out to be Eurocarparts, had I known it was them I would not have bought it.

 

I have no regrets about the investment in VCDS, only that I had not bought one years before, had I done so I would not have scrapped my MK1 Octavia, all doors were locked which defeated my efforts.

[Benshepherd]

I think I may go for the VCDS. No plans on getting rid of this car and even if I did I'd probably replace with another Skoda. About £225 seems to be the going price unless I'm missing something cheaper.