Hi all,

 

My octavia had a meltdown a few months back (loads of warning lights, no speedo, no power steering), took it to an auto electric garage who told me that ABS ECU wasn't communicating so this was likely at fault. Looking through the forum I gather this is a known issue.

 

Sent my ABS unit off to ECU Testing who have now told me that they can't find a fault, but that an intermittent fault is common with these units and they could rebuild it for £258 (including shipping). Having just spent £3k fixing my 13 plate scout I bought as a replacement  (clutch went and damaged the transmission housing in the process, another known fault seemingly...) i'm not really in a position to take a punt on this on the off chance it might work so was hoping to get some advice from the knowledgeable folks on this forum. Just need to get it running so I can sell it.

 

Is this 'intermittent fault' a real thing or will I just be wasting money getting it fixed?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Nick

 

 

 

And I am willing to bet that you either had a flat battery at that time or the car was reluctant to start, cranked over a little slower, perhaps it had been left undriven for more days than usual.

 

Am I correct? If so then I probably have good news for you having recently experienced exactly what you describe.

1 hour ago, J.R. said:

And I am willing to bet that you either had a flat battery at that time or the car was reluctant to start, cranked over a little slower, perhaps it had been left undriven for more days than usual.

 

Am I correct? If so then I probably have good news for you having recently experienced exactly what you describe.

It was a few months back but as far as I remember it started and ran fine until the errors started. I was about 30 miles into a motorway journey when it happened.

 

What turned out to be the issue with yours?

 

Cheers

Sorry for the delay, back to the hospital again.

 

Doesnt sound like your problem but I had a couple of cold starts with a partially discharged battery that brought up most of the warning lamps, the ABS one remained until the fault erased with VCDS and worryingly the ABS was inoperational till then.

 

The voltage drop on start up cause Canbus comm errors with various modules (they all do that sir!!) like the power steering, ABS, TCS etc, the latter 2 right themselves after driving 50m but the ABS even though it is now communicating correctly with the alternator bringing up the battery voltage the fault code remains, the MIL light remains and the ABS, ESC and TCS are inoperative until the fault code read and erased.

 

Your problem sounds identical but not likely to happen while driving, its probably a dirty connector making an intermittent bad contact or a partially fractured wire.

 

Assuming your returned module can now communicate you will likely require the fault code(s) erasing before it can do so and function again.

 

Mine did it twice but has since behaved.