Hi everyone, new to Skoda my first one a Superb 1.5tsi and like most new owners I like to have a good nosey around the car.

Having a look in the engine bay I wondered what the component is between the battery and the fuse box, pretty sure it's some electrical device!

Whatever it is it felt quite warm, bordering on hot, without a workshop manual I've no idea what it's purpose is and whether it's suppose to get hot.

Anyone any know what it is?

Photo?

Sounds  like the engine ecu your describing.

Okay here's a photo,

Mainly should it get hot ?

Judging from the big mutiway connector I've always assumed its the main ecu. Mine gets hot too. 1.4tsi but looks identical layout.

Yes xman, there is quite a bit on the web for may ecu's getting hot, some even getting fried and going in to limp mode.

Where it is positioned it can't get much air around it, you'd think they would put a heatsink on it.

I have a multimeter with a temperature probe on it and then ask the dealer what kind of temp is considered normal.

At first I thought it was some kind of heat exchanger 

 

Cheers Terry

It's the ECU and never heard of one in these cars getting fried due to getting too hot, sounds as you're worrying for no real reason?  

Hi newbie69, I wasn't worrying  in as much I was surprised how hot it got, and if you look on the web there are instances of ecu's getting very hot and reducing their life span, not necessarily a skoda one, but does happen.

If the temperature is suppose to be that high then so be it, newer cars ecu's have a lot more work to do than my old Honda Accord ecu which used to get slightly warm.

Thanks for your input on this, but not knowing my new car and how things should be, I thought it prudent to ask the question even if my worries are unfounded. better safe than sorry eh!

Cheers Terry

I get that you want to get to know your new car etc. and maybe it has happened to some other cars, at some point, under some specific conditions? but it's not something that anyone has reported on these cars or their VW, Audi, SEAT equivalents really as in something to take care of as an owner by providing extra cooling for example, not the case.

Mine is mounted under a large heavy steel black bracket, larger than in your picture. That acts as a heatsink I think. Like this 

 

 

Maybe they are using cheaper thermionic valves 😜

Hi again xman, actually the original photo I posted came from the electronic pdf so is not the up to date photo of the engine bay from the 2020 owners manual, I used it just to show the position of the ecu, here's an actual photo of the ecu, it is the same as yours, with the steel cover.

At least it's steel not plastic, aluminium with a few fins would be better, there are ecus out there which have aluminium bodies with cooling fins and after market heatsinks.

Excessive heat is the enemy of electronic components, CPU's, IC chips etc.

As Newbie69 has said, there are noreports of VW ecu's damaged by excessive heat build up. thank god,

I've got to say your engine bay looks spotless, mines a bit grubby as it was first registered March 2020 and was sat until April 19th 2021 until I bought it with 73 miles on the clock.

The trader didn't do a very good prep job, the exterior and interior was okay but they by passed the engine bay, obviously not a Skoda dealer, I'll give it good clean this week.

 

Cheers Terry

 

1 hour ago, DeeDah said:

 

I've got to say your engine bay looks spotless, mines a bit grubby as it was first registered March 2020 and was sat until April 19th 2021 until I bought it with 73 miles on the clock.

The trader didn't do a very good prep job, the exterior and interior was okay but they by passed the engine bay, obviously not a Skoda dealer, I'll give it good clean this week.

 

Cheers Terry

 

 

 

That photo is not my car, it belongs/belonged to another Briskoda member, I just grabbed it off the Briskoda gallery.

 

My engine bay is almost as clean, only done 8000 miles in 3 and a bit years and getting OCD in my retirement years (caught it off the missus). No top battery cover on mine though just like yours and I've noticed the battery gets pretty hot too. Possibly due to the micro hybrid battery management with constant discharge/recuperation charge,

Edited 22 April, 20215 yr by xman

It should be designed to work normally up to something like 105 °C ambient there.

Hi xman, Just given everything a good clean, then a liberal dose of cockpit shine, I've no doubt my attention to cleanliness will diminsh over the years, just as it did with my previous cars.

Didn't notice the battery getting warm but then most batteries do generate heat when charging,

 

Hi D402, wow 105 °C thats mighty hot (above boiling water temp)

 

Cheers Terry

35 minutes ago, D402 said:

It should be designed to work normally up to something like 105 °C ambient there.

 

Things may have changed since I was an Electronics engineer designing hardware (and firmware) 15+yr ago. ICs could be ordered in 3 temp grades. Consumer grade 0 to +70C, Industrial/Automotive -40 to +85 C, Military -55 to +125 C. Anything above that required exotic tech such as silicon carbide which I think is the realm of power semiconductors.

 

Even with good heatsinks, chip temperatures can be tens of degrees higher than heatsink temps.

 

I've never felt the ecu heatsink on the Superb too hot to touch (60deg C), I would say it probably runs up to 45 deg, battery up to maybe 40 deg C, I only check when I put the battery on charge straight after a run, if the battery is hot I'll leave it a few hours before connecting.

Thermal performance is quite a challenge especially as higher power vehicle systems like power steering move to electric actuation and from in-cabin to underbonnet locations. Glad I'm the systems engineer specifying the requirements rather than the designer having to implement them!

Mine gets pretty hot under the bonnet anyway. I put it down to having an engine 

3 hours ago, xman said:

 

Things may have changed since I was an Electronics engineer designing hardware (and firmware) 15+yr ago. ICs could be ordered in 3 temp grades. Consumer grade 0 to +70C, Industrial/Automotive -40 to +85 C, Military -55 to +125 C. Anything above that required exotic tech such as silicon carbide which I think is the realm of power semiconductors.

 

Even with good heatsinks, chip temperatures can be tens of degrees higher than heatsink temps.

 

I've never felt the ecu heatsink on the Superb too hot to touch (60deg C), I would say it probably runs up to 45 deg, battery up to maybe 40 deg C, I only check when I put the battery on charge straight after a run, if the battery is hot I'll leave it a few hours before connecting.

I would think the temp was around the 40-50 °C range when I originally posted my concerns, although probably unfounded, it's always possible that a manufacturer in any industry can get their sums wrong and upgrade a device and find they have to issue a recall, or at least a software update.

Tthe automotive industry is renowned for it, some of them very severe safety items and with more and more  of a cars sytems being controlled by vehicles ecu, including safety systems i.e. cruise controls, lane assists, and emrgency braking etc, it is essential that the ecu is as infallable as possible.

 

I'm not saying that the temp of up to 60 °C is wrong but surely any  electronic component has it's limits re temperatures and if the ecu ICs are made of lower temp grades

then if they fail due to constant excessive temps at a critical moment, injury or even death is the result.

I'm not entirely unfamiliar with electronics  having worked for a software comapny for eleven years on software and hardware installations, and with the advent of  processors running at ever increasing speeds, even with the lower voltages they run at, the heat generated requires lager and larger heatsinks and fans or even water cooling.

 

At the end of the day I was just remarking how hot the ecu felt, I didn't realise it would cause such discussion, but that's the idea of forums is it not?