Dear All ,

 

Thought to share experience last week while driving locally  I saw all three lights (Engine light ECU , Stability light) came up on dashboard and sacred me as though some thing seriously wrong in car, but noticed that driving was fine and car was NOT strolling, I drove very slowly back home and start googling, went to local mechanic he was kind to run free scan and found that (16955) P0571 code, but since he it was electrical fault so he was helpless since he did not had skill to resolve electrical issues.

After searching issue in this site I found the solution , thanks to gentleman in this website - who advised to look 1st brake light bulbs which was easy fix , I immidately tested and found that both the brake light bulbs were fused. So replaced them and found that 2 lights  gone. I understood that issue has been fixed since skoda has smart mechanism to removing the engine light after a while if associated errors are fixed, and thats excatly happened after 5 miles , engine light gone.  (Dash board back to silent mode - no lights)

Each bulb was around 50p in Europarts. 

 

Wondering why so much complicases for silly issues why Skoda have to raise very serious alarm on dash board as though car is going to dye sooner.

 

Though to share experience as it may help somebody, Best would be keep some spare bulbs and always check all light,indicators before even going to mechanic.

 

Thanks

Regards

raky 

Edited 21 November, 20214 yr by raky

raky,

thanks for reporting your findings, although be very careful of poor quality bulbs - not that I know if yours are - as they don't last, and you can get warning lights 😁

 

Since the scan tools have become more popular more people are looking for high tech solutions to low tech problems.

 

I think VW might have followed Merc for alarmism as my neighbour's 2005 A-class (the ones that fell over if they saw an elk) has warnings on dash (and IIRC radio) instructing a visit to Merc's Service at the slightest provocation, a raised voice or eyebrow and lights and messages everywhere.  I tried to relate a story like yours to my neighbour but I think she thought I was exaggerating.  Until that is myself and another neighbour with a scan tool sorted her CVT gearbox that was slipping and stuck in 2nd(?) gear (Merc CVT boxes have 7 gears!) without getting our hands dirty and from inside the car.

 

Others don't realise how very important the condition or state of charge is to the more modern car, some will find out soon now winter approaches.

 

Now don't you get caught out battery wise, if required recharge the battery, long low and slow is best.

 

Cheers.

 

10 hours ago, nta16 said:

(the ones that fell over if they saw an elk)

 

Best way to summarise an A-Class.

It was a great benefit to the smart car my wife bought in 2000, LHD import just months before Daimler-Benz(?) sent up just down the road from us in Milton Keynes to set up the smart dealerships, unfortunately as a sub-section within the Merc dealerships.  I rang them at this stage and got put through to the head poncho (forget his name) for smart (UK?) he was what I expected from this position within such a company, a disappointment but not a surprise.

 

The German lot ruined the smart car, the Merc Dealerships, as most all English Dealership were/are, were even useless with the Mercs.

 

Because the A-Class fell over the lowly smart got all the safety electronics of even the more expensive Mercs (the ones above the taxis and delivery vans) the box for the electronics was about the same size as the lovely 599cc turbo engine.

 

I had a half-hour of work done at Merc MK on the smart, £30/hour so £15 (+VAT) I sat upstairs having a cup of tea while I waited and watched the slowest workshop I'd ever seen do the work.  One bloke in a lab coat and a young trainee (apprentice I hope not) very slowly do the work.  I'd cleaned the car before taking it in as I always did with cars and smudged glove marks were left on the mirror glass and I later saw a/the (I forget) cross head screwhead(s) burred!  And these guys I imagine would also be also working on the the very expensive Mercs at about £80/hour(?) at the time.

 

IIRC Merc at one time wanted shot of all their English Dealerships and run them themselves.

 

Later smart had their own "boutique" small showrooms, "boutique" marketing was an idea BMW took on for their MINI brand inside their BMW Dealership showrooms.

 

As you can tell I'm not generally a fan of German cars, vastly overrated often, including VW/VAG.

 

And relax  . . . . .

 

😄

 

Edited 22 November, 20214 yr by nta16

36 minutes ago, nta16 said:

As you can tell I'm not generally a fan of German cars, vastly overrated often, including VW/VAG.

 

I never was either, and I'm not quite sure where I stand now. I fell out of interest with Japanese cars after the s***-show that was my Mum's Toyota Auris. Nice car, but plagued with issues from day one. I liked Skoda as a wee lad as the Fabia was beginning to pick up ground when I was young. I only bought mine because it was cheap and low mileage. It was either this or a Renault Clio.

Toyota did go through a bad patch IIRC chasing sales numbers and trying to be more like other car companies (gawd help us all) but I know a couple of people with 20 year old Toyotas that have been ultra reliable and not over intently looked after.

 

What could possibly go wrong with a Renault, they really helped Nissan models.  🤣

 

1 hour ago, nta16 said:

Toyota did go through a bad patch IIRC chasing sales numbers and trying to be more like other car companies (gawd help us all) but I know a couple of people with 20 year old Toyotas that have been ultra reliable and not over intently looked after.

 

Pretty much. I still see a lot of Starlets and Avensis-es. Ours was a 2010 Auris.

 

1 hour ago, nta16 said:

What could possibly go wrong with a Renault, they really helped Nissan models.

 

Many, many things.  - Can't complain too much about our Dacias (14 Sandero 0.9 TCE, 19 Duster (pre-reg) 1.0 TCE), only had them just over a year however.

Anyway, we really must remain on topic. 

Edited 22 November, 20214 yr by AnnoyingPentium

5 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

I never was either, and I'm not quite sure where I stand now. I fell out of interest with Japanese cars after the s***-show that was my Mum's Toyota Auris. Nice car, but plagued with issues from day one. I liked Skoda as a wee lad as the Fabia was beginning to pick up ground when I was young. I only bought mine because it was cheap and low mileage. It was either this or a Renault Clio.

Thanks , As per my experience of two cars, used so far - Skoda and Ford Fiesta - Skoda is winner even though always scares me with engine lights issues but at the end need to shell out few bucks for only for broken sensors i.e engine cooling sensor. (don't remember cost) / o2 señsor ( approx 80/100 GBP),abs fuse strip ( 1-2 GBP). the mileage is 120K and car engine is strong and healthy like new, having very  good pickup and power. If one knows little bit of electronics system of skoda  then it is worth buying car. The Ford Fiesta had very low pickup and engine was struggling on very low hills,   the mileage of car  was  aprox 80k.

This is good forum hope everyone shares info about fault found and their solution &  experience so that cars can be repaired cheaply to save the lovely planet. I think future is electric car higher petrol cost will encourage all to buy electric cars and it would be good for planet and humans as well. Hope govt provides big incentives to encourage electric cars. 

 

 Thanks & regards  

raky

1 minute ago, raky said:

I think future is electric car higher petrol cost will encourage all to buy electric cars and it would be good for planet and humans as well. Hope govt provides big incentives to encourage electric cars.

 

Aye I agree. There's some good threads about this in other sections of Briskoda.

 

3 minutes ago, raky said:

Thanks , As per my experience of two cars, used so far - Skoda and Ford Fiesta - Skoda is winner even though always scares me with engine lights issues but at the end need to shell out few bucks for only for broken sensors i.e engine cooling sensor. (don't remember cost) / o2 señsor ( approx 80/100 GBP),abs fuse strip ( 1-2 GBP). the mileage is 120K and car engine is strong and healthy like new, having very  good pickup and power. If one knows little bit of electronics system of skoda  then it is worth buying car. The Ford Fiesta had very low pickup and engine was struggling on very low hills,   the mileage of car  was  aprox 80k.

 

I often find the Fabia is cheaper to buy parts for than other cars I've found myself being involved with, which is pretty good as these Fabias are aging. Mine is low mileage so a lot of OEM parts are wearing out due to age. 

I like the idea of electric cars, the instant torque, but cars are fast becoming just mobile infotainment centres.  Many years ago Ford and others were think the younger generation wouldn't want car ownership but rather leasing or renting, which makes much more sense.  Most vehicles are unused for most hours of a day and have one occupant at many or most times which is a ridiculous waste of resources.

 

Electric has to be generated and distributed unless cars become mobiles batteries, energy stores, that can be use yo transfer electric when its not needed and when and where it is needed they will be relatively short term.

 

Hydrogen or perhaps ammonia may turn out to be better or something not considered yet.  For switchover it'd make sense to use the existing infrastructures, sites, tanks, pipes, etc.   There are still about 8,000+ petrol stations in the UK (around 40,000 in the mid-1960s according to Wiki) I've no idea the average number of pumps they have but their locations on travel routes would be useful to convert to whatever.

 

Having been with "classic" (over-priced and overvalued old cars) cars for 30years let me warn you, the modern made parts quality for these cars has for many years  (15-20) often been ****-poor and crap, mainly because most "classic" owners are tight-fisted old-farts but also because the companies that originally made the parts that lasted literally decades are either no longer around or in name only.  The companies that make these parts also make parts for modern cars so buy carefully.  Personally I'd always prefer Japanese made parts over those with German brand names on them which can often be made elsewhere anyway.

 

2 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

I often find the Fabia is cheaper to buy parts for than other cars I've found myself being involved with, which is pretty good as these Fabias are aging. Mine is low mileage so a lot of OEM parts are wearing out due to age. 

Very true , I got very cheap rear callipers from autodoc ( Germany ) much cheaper  than europarts or SrsPArts , changed rear callipers &  front ones are still running original which came with car. Everybody   is selling made in China parts and they do not last long. I have chnaged twice heater resistor bought from ebay and its lasted for 2 years only. Decided to buy Window motor original from skoda and going good so far.     Cheers 

3 minutes ago, raky said:

Very true , I got very cheap rear callipers from autodoc ( Germany ) much cheaper  than europarts or SrsPArts , changed rear callipers &  front ones are still running original which came with car.

 

I was getting a reasonable offer with Eurocarparts at the time when I was replacing my front brakes (45% off) and even if they were the Eicher ones which don't seem too well liked on this forum at times, they stop the car better than before and better than I expected, which is plenty for my needs. Managed to assist in preventing a couple of potentially fatal situations too.

 

It always depends what you buy from China, as you get what you pay for in most cases.

Use the Autodoc videos as a guide for the video they do a quick job (and never seen to encounter any difficulties) but doing the work yourself you can afford the time and effort to do a more thorough job.

 

Parts from China can be both good and inexpensive but it's always a gamble, I think often the only real quality control is customer returns or refunds, don't for a moment think that big brand parts aren't possibly made in China, especially American parts, some say on the box but I guess (don't know) sometimes this is legally got around.

 

Some "classic" car parts at least are made in India, Asia(?) and South America and there quality can be as poor as some from China.

 

Luckily I think Poland still makes parts but IIRC it's for the companies that have some of the old brand names.

 

NOS may still be around for this generation of VW cars(?).

   

Just now, nta16 said:

NOS may still be around for this generation of VW cars(?).

 

Rapidly disappearing depending on what you're after. Interior parts are a gamble for their existence, for example.

 

1 minute ago, nta16 said:

Use the Autodoc videos as a guide for the video they do a quick job (and never seen to encounter any difficulties) but doing the work yourself you can afford the time and effort to do a more thorough job.

 

I've found their videos to be good for their work on the Mk1 Fabias.

14 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

 

Rapidly disappearing depending on what you're after. Interior parts are a gamble for their existence, for example.

 

 

I've found their videos to be good for their work on the Mk1 Fabias.

 

Not sure if you've seen HatBoyHarvey before but he does good Fabia videos.....

 

https://www.youtube.com/c/HatBoyHarvey/videos

6 minutes ago, TMB said:

 

Not sure if you've seen HatBoyHarvey before but he does good Fabia videos.....

 

https://www.youtube.com/c/HatBoyHarvey/videos

 

I have indeed, but thanks Lee. I've been using his videos for a lot of fault diagnosis. Plus, the door card one was especially useful for swapping the speakers out.

^ Nice one  There is one of his videos where he shows how to replace the front door window glass, which helped me the other day. It's incredibly easy to get the glass into the door frame runners by inserting the front of the glass first. Only took me a few seconds to fit it.