In April, with the battery on my Octavia feeling less than well I replaced it. In my clumsiness whilst replacing the clamp bolt the socket extension bar brushed against the live terminal causing a momentary spark (note to self replace clamp bolt before replacing battery terminals!). The usual handful of error messages came up and went away, with the exception of a light error, and the headlights staying on all the while the ignition was switched on. Cutting a very long story short, having my usual mechanic running diagnositics resulted in his machine (all £6000 of it!) being of no further assistance, and he recommended that I take it to a main dealer, which I did. They diagnosed the infotainment screen was blown and maybe a control unit as well but that couldn't be ascertained until the screen was replaced at a cost of £900 plus fitting.

 

That was at the beginning of May. 3 weeks later I checked up to see if the screen (on back order) had arrived, only to be told, "No, it will arrive in due course and we will let you know when it does". I am still waiting.

 

Obviously I am annoyed with myself for causing the problem and being naive enough to think that replacing a battery on a modern car is simple. However at a cost of £900+ I feel that being left waiting for 2 months is not good customer service. Now in the time since the car was at the main dealer I have seen infotainment screens for as little as £100 on the net, and this raises the question "How easy is it to do this yourself?"

 

I have worked on cars for decades starting when I was 10 and including full ground up rebuilds so I am mechanically reasonably competant (albeit occasionally clumsy!). However on electronics I am a newbie, so any advice would be welcome especially as everything on modern cars seem to need to be coded to the car, and diagnostic tools are crazy expensive.

 

All help and advice would be welcome, it would be nice to have a fully working car again after 2 months.

The fitting of the unit is not the big issue here - its more to do with the coding of the unit.  Each car is configured slightly differently - this makes a difference because the features a car comes with (or not).

 

I can point you in the direction of @pab567 who might be able to assist with a refurbished Bolaro/Amunsden or Columbus system.  For that to happen, you need to find a friendly Briskoda member with VCDS who will scan your car and hopefully be able to get the config of the 09 unit (MIB) system for you (its called an Admap).  Sending that over to Pawel and he will configure you up a unit configured for you car.  BTW - the fitting takes less than an hour (unless you have melted the wiring loom which is a whole different problem).  Good luck.

If your car is 2013 then I cannot imagine screen cost of 900+ GBP... pls share VIN so I can check

I think that you are leading yourself down a blind alley.

 

Ask yourself how on earth the alleged failure of an infotainment screen could cause the problems that your vehicle has?

 

Then look carefully at their statement and translate it from money grabbing bull***t to real world talk.

 

 "infotainment screen blown and maybe a control unit as well but that can't be ascertained until the screen is replaced at a cost of £900 plus fitting."

 

Translates to "we want to take you for £900 before we consider fixing the real problem at further expense."

 

Once they realise you accept being taken for £900 for nothing then the door is wide open for further exploitation.

 

Ask for a print out of the diagnostic test or better still have a scan done elsewhere with something at least as in depth as VCDS, it will likely be corrupted coding of the body control module.

 

Inconcievable that an infotainment screen that is working normally could be responsable for the faults you have following a voltage transient.

 

 

Have you tried disconnecting the battery and reconnecting after a couple of minutes?

 

What infotainment system is fitted? Have you tried a Hard reset? Is there a factory reset option buried in the menus?

 

It may simply have a corrupted disk drive/coding, there is or are members here that can repair infotainment systems, try a search to find out who and pm them.

Edited 25 June, 20214 yr by xman

There is nothing other than the service receptionists bull**** of the day to suggest there is any problem with the infotainment screen.

What error code(s) does the diagnostic reader give?

So, assuming the screen is genuinely duff (doubtful), and forgetting the mega high suggested, fitting just a screen is really straight forward. Just need some vag stereo tools and the ability to plug a TV in. No coding.

However, if anything to do with the infotainment is wrong, it's more likely to be the head unit in the glovebox. Equally simple to physically change but needs more coding as per the above posts.

 

You could also try locating the headlight controller and unplugging it for a bit with the aim to reset/reboot it. 

6 hours ago, jd29 said:

 However on electronics I am a newbie, so any advice would be welcome especially as everything on modern cars seem to need to be coded to the car, and diagnostic tools are crazy expensive.

 

 

The cost of VCDS is an absolute bargain compared to what people can try to screw you out of when without it you do not have the ability to faultfind youself.

 

I would not have had to scrap my MK1 Octavia had I bought VCDS, a local independant wanted £140 minimum just to do a diagnostic scan (all doors deadlocked except drivers which could be opened by key) and could not look at it for a fortnight.

You can buy a diagnostic OBD2 reader for £15

Edited 25 June, 20214 yr by xman

7 hours ago, varaderoguy said:

The fitting of the unit is not the big issue here - its more to do with the coding of the unit.  Each car is configured slightly differently - this makes a difference because the features a car comes with (or not).

 

I can point you in the direction of @pab567 who might be able to assist with a refurbished Bolaro/Amunsden or Columbus system.  For that to happen, you need to find a friendly Briskoda member with VCDS who will scan your car and hopefully be able to get the config of the 09 unit (MIB) system for you (its called an Admap).  Sending that over to Pawel and he will configure you up a unit configured for you car.  BTW - the fitting takes less than an hour (unless you have melted the wiring loom which is a whole different problem).  Good luck.

Thanks for this, @pab567 has contacted me on this topic. I will be taking up his offer of assistance

46 minutes ago, J.R. said:

 

The cost of VCDS is an absolute bargain compared to what people can try to screw you out of when without it you do not have the ability to faultfind youself.

 

I would not have had to scrap my MK1 Octavia had I bought VCDS, a local independant wanted £140 minimum just to do a diagnostic scan (all doors deadlocked except drivers which could be opened by key) and could not look at it for a fortnight.

Thanks, I will be looking into that

42 minutes ago, xman said:

You can buy a diagnostic OBD2 reader for £15

Thanks.

7 hours ago, pab567 said:

If your car is 2013 then I cannot imagine screen cost of 900+ GBP... pls share VIN so I can check

TMBKG7NE6E0116084

5 hours ago, J.R. said:

There is nothing other than the service receptionists bull**** of the day to suggest there is any problem with the infotainment screen.

In fairness the infotainment screen is blank. I didn't notice the lack of the the analogue clock image until some time after the first problem (the short when tightening the clamp bolt). Thought that a fuse had blown, couldn't find one for the infotaiment system. Found the one for the radio, removed it and checked, it was fine. Upon replacing it I get the radio on all the time but only very faint. The on/off switch and volume control have no effect on the radio! I have now removed the radio fuse as the barely audible radio is more irritation than enough!

5 hours ago, xman said:

What error code(s) does the diagnostic reader give?

The main dealer hasn't told me, and guy who normally services my car the Snap-On Diagnostic Tool he used reported no errors.

MIB1 Amundsen 5E0035874A + display 5E0919605D. I beleive you can buy second hand set for max. 150 GBP + cost of replacement by yoir Skoda dealer another 150 GBP. But if it's broken then being in your shoes I would think about retrofitting Amundsen MIB2 - with 6.5" screen you can have such set installed for approx. 350 GBP.

 

Probably a long shot ,but have you told the car its got a new battery?

Do you have to do that in a loud voice?

 

What if it knows you are lying?

Edited 26 June, 20214 yr by J.R.

6 hours ago, J.R. said:

Do you have to do that in a loud voice?

 

What if it knows you are lying?

Why do I bother?

1 minute ago, ords said:

Why do I bother?

The main dealer has allegedly done that!

I have found suitable replacement display screen and control unit, but nobody in my area is prepared to fit second hand parts. Can anybody point me in the direction of somebody close-ish to Milton Keynes that is prepared to do this? I understand that the display is pretty much a straightforward job, but am led to believe that the control unit needs to be hard coded due to VAG's multimedia protection. Currently waiting on the delivery of a VDCS unit.

 

This could will be a steep learning curve !

Sounds like you have ordered the VCDS and are holding off the purchase of the screen until you can run a scan.

 

I really hope that the VCDS  will pay for itself during the scan by leading you to the fault and saving you from purchasing the infotainment screen.

 

Please keep us updated.

On 01/07/2021 at 17:11, J.R. said:

Sounds like you have ordered the VCDS and are holding off the purchase of the screen until you can run a scan.

 

I really hope that the VCDS  will pay for itself during the scan by leading you to the fault and saving you from purchasing the infotainment screen.

 

Please keep us updated.

Received the VCDS this morning, and ran auto-scan Following faults came up:

 

Address 3 Brakes

16401Tire Pressure Warning. I know about this one it came up after the initial problem with the lights staying on and the blank display screen. Just need the display screen to reset tyre pressures!

Address 17 Instruments 3 faults found

16777018 Function Restricted due to Interrupted Communications

16777020 Function Restricted due to Interrupted Communications

16777022 Function Restricted due to Interrupted Communications

Does this mean that VCDS had interrupted communication or instruments did?

Address 19 CAN Gateway

66052 Infotaiment CAN Bus

Address 52 Door Elect, Pass.

589843 Window Regulator Front Passenger side. Not noticed anything wrong! not too worried about this as I suspect it doesn't have anything to do with the display being blank

Address 5F Information Elecr.

Cannot be reached

Is this due to the failure of the display screen, and/or head (control?) unit?

 

My question is this. Does anyone know if any of these fault codes confirms that the display screen is dead? Should I being doing more than just an Autoscan? I have been having a Google around but haven't found anything helpful yet.

 

I have been told that fitting a second hand screen is straightforward and effectively plug and play, so should I go ahead with a second hand screen and see if I get some form of life, or is that just too simple?

 

Quote

 

Address 5F Information Elecr.

Cannot be reached

 

 

That would suggest the main headunit unit in the glovebox is sad. Nothing can be inferred about the state of the display 

 

The most basic check would be to make sure the quadlock at the back of the headunit has power and ground.

48 minutes ago, langers2k said:

 

That would suggest the main headunit unit in the glovebox is sad. Nothing can be inferred about the state of the display 

 

The most basic check would be to make sure the quadlock at the back of the headunit has power and ground.

Just after I posted the last update, I remembered that I had removed the radio fuse as the radio was playing softly enough that it could be heard around town, but not on motorways etc. which was driving me crazy!

Replaced fuse and rescanned. Everything the same except for:

Address 5F Information Electr.

6691 Data bus for Control/Display

          U10AD 00 [009] - No Communications

 

Must admit that the VCDS is a great tool, it's just that it propduces SO MUCH information that working out what it all means is a bit daunting for a newbie!