Even more software errors

[Pete]

So my car has recently started to ding away while driving along, not on every trip, but certainly on most trips, flagging errors for a few seconds. 

 

I get an error with emergency assist on the virtual cockpit, and a ding.  Lasts a few seconds, and disappears, then reappears, dings, and disappears.  Will cycle with annoying dinging and then flag an error with travel assist on the virtual cockpit, ding, and then disappear.  If travel assist is activated, the error will knock it out, and I can then re-engage once the error disappears. 

 

The process may start all over again, flagging an error for a few seconds, dinging away, and then eventually stop, until the next trip or start again a few moments later. 

 

I do not think this is the problem with the popping noise and associated knocking out of the emergency assist system.  Had that a while ago and was fixed.    Saw on some VW forums that others have had this, and a suggestion it may be a fault with the capacitive steering wheel.  

 

I am on 1896.  

 

 

[inspectorman]

Yes, this fault will get worse and drive you mad. The solution is a new steering wheel. One unfortunate in Germany has had seven replacement steering wheels....... I had to wait a month for a steering wheel to become available.

[Pete]

Oh dear.   It has already started to drive me mad!  So many dings! 

[inspectorman]

If you have access to VCDS you can see the fault count increasing. This will pop up under Address 19: CAN Gateway

These two readings are taken about a month and 300 miles apart - that's how little I was driving it because of the annoyance.

 

8786912 - Control Module for Steering Wheel Touch Detection
          B17B8 F2 [044] - Sensor Malfunction
          [Control_module_for_steering_wheel_touch_regulation_malfunction_sensor_1]
          Intermittent - Confirmed - Tested Since Memory Clear
             Freeze Frame:
                    Fault Status: 00000001
                    Fault Priority: 4
                    Fault Frequency: 71

                    
8786912 - Control Module for Steering Wheel Touch Detection
          B17B8 F2 [047] - Sensor Malfunction
          [Control_module_for_steering_wheel_touch_regulation_malfunction_sensor_1]
          Confirmed - Tested Since Memory Clear
             Freeze Frame:
                    Fault Status: 00000001
                    Fault Priority: 4
                    Fault Frequency: 236
                    
                    
After being fixed I could see two relevant modules changed; from:

 

  Multifunction steering wheel control module:
   Subsystem 3 - Part No SW: 5E3 919 719 D    HW: 5E3 919 719 D
   Component: E221__MFL-PR6  H02 0100
   Serial number: PR6-0440061177202521

   Steering Wheel Touch Recognition Control Module:
   Subsystem 4 - Part No SW: 5E3 959 542 D    HW: 5E3 959 542 D
   Component: KLR            074 0019
   
   to
   
     Multifunction steering wheel control module:
   Subsystem 3 - Part No SW: 5E3 919 719 M    HW: 5E3 919 719 M
   Component: E221__MFL-PR6  H02 0110
   Serial number: PR6-0440061067221393

   Steering Wheel Touch Recognition Control Module:
   Subsystem 4 - Part No SW: 5E3 959 542 H    HW: 5E3 959 542 H
   Component: KLR            082 0020
   Serial number: 3133273AB22075068003

 

[SteveTheElder]

5 hours ago, Pete said:

Oh dear.   It has already started to drive me mad!  So many dings! 

 

At least the dings aren't in any body panels... 😜

 

Sorry, not helpful I know - but I can imagine how annoying the errors must be. Hope you can get it sorted.

[Pete]

Update from the dealer - a known issue and Skoda are working on a fix.  They have no estimate as to when such a fix will become available. 

 

How many times have I been here before?  Too many. 

[inspectorman]

This is complete BS from your dealer. Skoda Germany have been replacing steering wheels for a year for Octavias with this issue. Mine got done in Carlisle with no particular need to put pressure get on the dealer in April. When I get to a proper computer I'll try to dig out the conversation we had back then. 

[Jorgeminator]

14 hours ago, inspectorman said:

This is complete BS from your dealer. Skoda Germany have been replacing steering wheels for a year for Octavias with this issue. Mine got done in Carlisle with no particular need to put pressure get on the dealer in April. When I get to a proper computer I'll try to dig out the conversation we had back then. 

One would think that when replacing the steering wheel for the seventh time, someone would begin realizing that the problem is not necessarily in the wheel itself, but somewhere else? It's like fixing a misfire by changing your plugs ten times over when in fact the problem is in the injectors...

[inspectorman]

It's not obvious from my post but a control unit / SOS module was also replaced with the steering wheel. It was unclear to me whether that was to do with the front travel assist unavailable fault or the ACC fault or the pop pop SOS fault. Amusingly the pop pop SOS fault has returned.

[Iako]

Hey Pete, same thing just started happening on my car (picked up from dealer in September) and it’s annoying as hell. 
I managed to be able to simulate it happening when adjusting the steering wheel position. Basically when I unlocked the wheel, it almost immediately gave me “emergency assist is currently a available” and disappeared after a second. 
I’ve reached out to my dealership but they’re notoriously slow. Have you had any more word from the dealer or they just said “sucks to be you” and left you at that? 

[Pete]

1 hour ago, Iako said:

Hey Pete, same thing just started happening on my car (picked up from dealer in September) and it’s annoying as hell. 
I managed to be able to simulate it happening when adjusting the steering wheel position. Basically when I unlocked the wheel, it almost immediately gave me “emergency assist is currently a available” and disappeared after a second. 
I’ve reached out to my dealership but they’re notoriously slow. Have you had any more word from the dealer or they just said “sucks to be you” and left you at that? 

Nothing other than it is a known fault and I have to await a fix from the factory with no expected date.  Annoying!

[Jorgeminator]

Now that the weather has gotten colder I've been starting to use the heated steering wheel function more and more. On a few occasions, after having the heating on for a while and then disabling it, I have almost immediately got a warning that the Emergency Assist System and SOS functions are unavailable. The first time I sighed deeply, thinking it was a faulty steering wheel as some other people have mentioned. But, the second time it happened I noticed that cycling the steering wheel heating on and off again removes the error, pointing towards a software bug more than a physical problem. I will monitor the problem and mention it at the first service which is coming up soon.

[Pete]

23 hours ago, Jorgeminator said:

Now that the weather has gotten colder I've been starting to use the heated steering wheel function more and more. On a few occasions, after having the heating on for a while and then disabling it, I have almost immediately got a warning that the Emergency Assist System and SOS functions are unavailable. The first time I sighed deeply, thinking it was a faulty steering wheel as some other people have mentioned. But, the second time it happened I noticed that cycling the steering wheel heating on and off again removes the error, pointing towards a software bug more than a physical problem. I will monitor the problem and mention it at the first service which is coming up soon.

That’s interesting.  I have the icy cold type rather than the too hot to handle type.  
 

I’ve noticed that when they happen it can be frequent, and then other times, nothing.  I just drove 150 miles without a single ding! 

[Iako]

On 24/10/2022 at 23:34, Jorgeminator said:

Now that the weather has gotten colder I've been starting to use the heated steering wheel function more and more. On a few occasions, after having the heating on for a while and then disabling it, I have almost immediately got a warning that the Emergency Assist System and SOS functions are unavailable. The first time I sighed deeply, thinking it was a faulty steering wheel as some other people have mentioned. But, the second time it happened I noticed that cycling the steering wheel heating on and off again removes the error, pointing towards a software bug more than a physical problem. I will monitor the problem and mention it at the first service which is coming up soon.

What software are you running? I’ve not had a similar issue with the heated wheel triggering/clearing it but more on the random super intermittent side of things. 
 

I’m on hardware H58 and software 1889.

[Jorgeminator]

6 hours ago, Iako said:

What software are you running? I’ve not had a similar issue with the heated wheel triggering/clearing it but more on the random super intermittent side of things. 
 

I’m on hardware H58 and software 1889.

Identical to yours. H58 and 1889.

[Kodatheskoda]

I had my steering wheel replaced today and for the first time in a year I managed to drive without any annoying dings and warnings. It was bliss. I hope it lasts. I'm in Australia 

[nickcoll]

The really positive thing about this issue is that you get a brand new steering wheel! Lovely - all matt and leathery again.

[Priidik]

Sadly yes, happens quite often. Very often errors are front assist fault, SOS fault etc. I have noticed that when using webasto and driving on gravel road these errors appear 90% of time. I complained about this concern to my dealer/service, they did "a radio update" what sadly didn't help much - maybe a little bit.

[Iako]

Thought I’d give a little update, took my car to the dealership service centre and they checked the stored codes.

They definitely saw the momentary errors that the car threw and upon contacting Skoda they basically said it’s a known issue that is caused by the sensor that’s used to detect that the driver is holding the steering wheel (would be interesting to know if you guys have travel assist, since that’s mostly what I’ve experienced that sensor to be used for?). 

Standard procedure is to check the steering wheel and wiring to the wheel and report back to Skoda.

So at the moment I’m waiting to see what they say with regards to what the next course of action will be.

 

 

Not had any errors occur since 24/10 thought and only went to the service centre today. 

[Edela]

On 03/11/2022 at 18:41, Iako said:

would be interesting to know if you guys have travel assist, since that’s mostly what I’ve experienced that sensor to be used for?

I have 2020 Octavia PHEV, same issues with Travel Assist and SOS failures. Errors are inconsistent, sometimes I don't have them for weeks and sometimes they pop up every other second. My dealer was trying to do something with no success. The other service a week ago told me straightforward that there is no fix for that and they are waiting for Skoda to come up with a software update to fix that.

What I noticed, though, is that steering wheel heating indeed helps to get rid of these errors, as was mentioned on this forum previously. On today's drive I started having this errors again, and switching on and going through heating levels accompanied with error sounds (though nothing appeared on dashboard), but as soon as I switched off the heating, TA and SOS errors stopped popping up and I continued driving using TA with no issues.

[SkOmk4]

This afternoon on my way home I received the first error messages on my dashboard: "Lane Assist temporary unavailable" followed immediately by "Front Assist temporary unavailable". I turned on the Lane Assist (turned off after I started the car) and it seemed to be working correctly - it detected the lane lines and showed the green symbol on the dash... Don't know what to say about this event.

The car is about 6 weeks old and driven about 2.200 km, software version is 1896.

[SSA]

I had 30000km service two months ago when I got some major update. After the update, parking sensors and camera fail in 50% cases when I switch to reverse. So annoying. Before the update there was 5% probability of failure. I am wondering what is the experience of the people with fully equipped car? I have no front parking sensors, no blind spot detector...

[Jorgeminator]

1 hour ago, SkOmk4 said:

This afternoon on my way home I received the first error messages on my dashboard: "Lane Assist temporary unavailable" followed immediately by "Front Assist temporary unavailable". I turned on the Lane Assist (turned off after I started the car) and it seemed to be working correctly - it detected the lane lines and showed the green symbol on the dash... Don't know what to say about this event.

The car is about 6 weeks old and driven about 2.200 km, software version is 1896.

What was the weather like? Was there any fog or high moisture/steep temperature gradients? The front radar can get confused if there's even the slightest of dew on the front grille, the water interferes with the radio beam. Same thing with the windscreen camera, any moisture buildup could obscure its view, disabling lane assist until the windscreen is clear again.

[TheWanderer]

My current car went into emergency the other day, luckily no one was around, went and had a look at the front of the car plastered with leaves and twigs, removed them and some on the top of the windscreen and all was fine again. 

 

First time that's happened with me though in 3 years. 

[SkOmk4]

10 hours ago, Jorgeminator said:

What was the weather like? Was there any fog or high moisture/steep temperature gradients?

There was some light rain before noon, but by the time I left from work it was quite sunny and the road was dry. The car however was wet (being parked in the shadow and ~12 C), but really clean - no mud or traces of wed dust on it. The errors occurred about 10 km after the start, and by that time I think most of the car was dry - the water drops on the bonnet and the windows were all gone.
I think I'll just have to wait and accumulate more statistics, maybe it was an isolated case caused by changing weather conditions and high humidity.
I got a similar error before only for a couple of times on my Megane GT, but it was in the winter and it had some ice build-up in front of the radar in the grille - so that was quite normal.