I've had my fair share of ABS issues over the years with varying vehicles, this one is new to me.

 

When I bought my car, it was still within the last 6 months of manufacturer warranty and also had full Skoda service history therefore I assume any work was done under warranty.

 

Dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree on Wednesday,

Got the OBDEleven tool on the car and was immediately pointed to Left Rear ABS Wheel Speed Sensor - Open Circuit/Short Circuit C101C14 and some other angry modules.

As usual, this throws everything off with the car so I immediately went to the usual culprit, bought an ABS sensor (silly me).

 

Installed, cleared the codes and went on my way.

 

The next day it had reappeared!

I laid myself our a process of checking fuses, testing the abs sensor and checking the pins on the module side of the loom - Nothing!

 

Started digging into the wiring around the rear seat area, after some digging around I finally found a spot that triggered the chime on the dash.

Started unclipping the areas and noticed some simple tape and crimped wires from a previous repair that wasn't weather proofed (wish I had took a before unwrapping picture).

 

I noticed a slight bit of condensation around that area due to the cold metal and the copper corrosion is what caused all the issues, the black wire broke when I touched it.

 

 

Long story short;

 

This is the second thing Skoda has handled terribly so far, I done a better repair in a driveway than they originally did.

Edited 19 December, 20214 yr by steevs

That is shocking, that sort of way of joining wires just can not work for long where there is moisture around.

 

Have you ever heard of "atom tubing" or some similar name to describe a heat shrinkable sleeve, it is loaded or at least its inner surface is coated with a sealer that flows when the sleeving is shrunk using a small heat gun, and that is good for sealing the copper conductor.

 

Edit:- maybe even "adhesive lined" heat shrink tubing, like this sort of stuff:-   DWA-4.8/1.6 Adhesive Lined Heat Shrink (hilltop-products.co.uk)

 

Edited 19 December, 20214 yr by rum4mo
added extra info

17 minutes ago, rum4mo said:

That is shocking, that sort of way of joining wires just can not work for long where there is moisture around.

 

Have you ever heard of "atom tubing" or some similar name to describe a heat shrinkable sleeve, it is loaded or at least its inner surface is coated with a sealer that flows when the sleeving is shrunk using a small heat gun, and that is good for sealing the copper conductor.

 

Edit:- maybe even "adhesive lined" heat shrink tubing, like this sort of stuff:-   DWA-4.8/1.6 Adhesive Lined Heat Shrink (hilltop-products.co.uk)

 

 

It's definitely one of the worst dealership repairs I've seen so far, quite sad that this would be classed as a "warranty" level repair!

 

I used a combination of Heat shrink solder with additional weatherproof heatshrink around these for a good seal.

 

Something like these;

https://www.halfords.com/tools/garage-equipment/garage-essentials/halfords-heat-shrink-solder-sleeves-red-hef609-173534.html

 

I've used them a couple of times before and they tend to be more solid than any crimp connection and they are waterproof, yet to have any show signs of failing and that's with external wires.

 

Topped it off with some harness tape and you wouldn't notice a repair was done, properly protected this time!

I've never spotted that Halfords stuff before, I suppose that I could add that to my kits of bits for repairing car wiring!

 

That could even have been a factory repair I suppose, commoning up earths does tend to get sloppy in VW Group world - okay until you add water/moisture.

12 hours ago, rum4mo said:

I've never spotted that Halfords stuff before, I suppose that I could add that to my kits of bits for repairing car wiring!

 

That could even have been a factory repair I suppose, commoning up earths does tend to get sloppy in VW Group world - okay until you add water/moisture.

I have been using solder heat tubing for a while now, its great stuff. Can get boxes of various sizes for not too cheap from china. 

1 hour ago, JGrindel said:

I have been using solder heat tubing for a while now, its great stuff. Can get boxes of various sizes for not too cheap from china. 

 

Having worked my entire life in avionics companies, well only one but it passed through a few owners(!), I have amassed lots of bits/lengths of heat shrink of many types, but am always willing to buy and have ready to try  if and when the time comes - maybe more on my mate's classic SAABs than our VW Group cars, so far I've ever had to alter new cabling to get the lengths right.

 

Edit:- well maybe the odd brake pad wear cable needed sorting out!

Edited 20 December, 20214 yr by rum4mo

I think tape over crimped wiring may be the standard factory approach to connecting the rear ABS wiring into the main loom. It's wrongly assumed to be a dry area.

I'll see if I can find some photos of a Mk1 where this point was discovered to be the source of an ABS fault.

 

Edited 20 December, 20214 yr by Wino

See from about halfway down this page: ABS Warning light - Page 3 - Skoda Fabia Mk I - BRISKODA

 

Real shoddy workmanship. 

I had a problem with a Vauxhall that put me off them forever. My driver's window stopped working and the red dashboard light came on permanently. 

Vauxhall dealer reported that their electrician diagnosed me needing a new window motor and a new alternator. Estimate £300.

Short story: I found that the wires entering the door panel had been chaffing because the gromet had worked loose. I repaired the broken wire and refitted the gromet tightly. Cost: free plus 1 hours work. 

Alternator: I drove to the nearest Bosch dealer and explained the symptom. Instantly they diagnosed that probably it just needed a new regulator pack. It took less than 5 minutes to plug in the new regulator at the back of the alternator. Cost £22.

So was the electrician useless or was the garage just generating easy dosh! 

The wiring connections photographed whilst very hard to see after all the corrosion are not shoddy workmanship and are typical of most modern manufacturers, they are insulated but the looms nowadays are not fully insulation wrapped in favour of the lighter spiral fabric wrap which allows smaller condutors (causing brittleness problems), burning will not propogate and overheating can be easily seen.

 

The problem is a consequence of water ingress that has not been addressed.

15 hours ago, J.R. said:

The wiring connections photographed whilst very hard to see after all the corrosion are not shoddy workmanship and are typical of most modern manufacturers, they are insulated but the looms nowadays are not fully insulation wrapped in favour of the lighter spiral fabric wrap which allows smaller condutors (causing brittleness problems), burning will not propogate and overheating can be easily seen.

 

The problem is a consequence of water ingress that has not been addressed.

 

I'll need to investigate the area further from what Wino quoted with the MKI fabia.

 

Sad to see they haven't addressed the issue over 3 iterations of the car, no doubt there will be a revised seal for the door available just like the revised number plate lights which have a better seal to prevent the boot corroding from the inside out.