Got in the car today, started and got a ping with amber "Fault: damper", no seen that before. Car has DCC variable dampers.

 

 

 

Also headlight warning  a few seconds later and not levelling properly (pointing down into the fallback position). Last time I had the headlight problem it was the level sensor so I went in wit VCDS and found the front left sensor wasn't working. Replaced it and all was fine. This time I have 3 warnings on the chassis control, one being the P1624 which I think just tells the system to bring on the warning light. But I also have both the rear left and the front right level sensors showing faulty. Of course this does explain the headlight issue but it seems unfeasible that both sensors would fail simultaneously. It also doesn't really explain why it is giving the damper warning. I looked at the adv measuring values for the damper current (target and actual), they are fixed at 0.6A for front and 0.5A for rear regardless of which DCC mode I select. And the car is somewhat wallowy, it is at least "normal" if not "comfort". Definitely not the "sport" I usually have it in.

 

Anyone got any ideas? Of course I can just replace both sensors, they are about £60 each so not going to break the bank, but I am suspicious that something else is up that is causing the apparent simultaneous double failure.

Check your battery. Failing batteries show up particularly at this time of year as it get colder causing low voltage derived strange faults.

 

Edited 26 November, 20223 yr by bigjohn

The same levelling sensors r used by both the DCC and AFS (headlight) modules.

 

Definitely related.

23 hours ago, bigjohn said:

Check your battery. Failing batteries show up particularly at this time of year as it get colder causing low voltage derived strange faults.

 

I suppose it’s possible as the car is 6 1/2 years old now, still on original battery. But start stop still kicks in most of the the time and even if I clear the fault codes with the engine running, they pop back on again in a couple of seconds. Having just driven 85 miles, shut down for a while, and started up again, faults still present.

21 hours ago, JR RS said:

The same levelling sensors r used by both the DCC and AFS (headlight) modules.

 

Definitely related.

yes although I’m a bit confused about what does what, the headlights only use the front and rear LH sensors, the RH front sensor is only used for the dampers (along with the other 2). I suppose one possibility is that the front RH sensor failed some time ago, no effect on the headlights and maybe the dampers can cope provided there is one front and one rear without flagging any visible errors, then the rear sensor quit yesterday and that upset both systems. Here’s hoping it is that and not something more fundamental.

Couldn't find cheap sensors on the internet so I have gone with TPS and they are £350 for the pair. Ouch! Should arrive later today, I just hope that fixes it.

Whilst waiting I cut open the old front LH sensor I replaced last year, to investigate the technology. Basically it is a rotating magnetic disc sitting over a small IC that measures magnetic field in 2 axes and thus gives rotational position (Hall effect sensors for those technically minded). Signal is sent to the control module as PWM (pulse width modulation) signal.

Failure mode, unsurprisingly, is water ingress up the shaft, magnet turned to rusty dust.

So I fitted the rear sensor. What a pain, everything rusted and those spline drive screws have a ridiculously shallow spline socket, difficult to get to. In the end I took off the actual sensor bit from the new bracket and installed it on the old bracket. Which made realise that all the actual sensors are the same, it is just the bracketry that is different. So I probably could have bought 2 of the cheap front LH ones from ebay and just transferred the sensor. Would have saved me about £200!
 

Also of note, I changed only the rear sensor, all the warnings disappeared even though the front RH sensor is still showing fault on VCDS. So as I suspected, the front RH sensor will have failed some time ago with no visible warnings, only when the rear sensor subsequently failed did the display light up with warnings.

 

Hopefully the front RH sensor will be easier to change, the front LH one certainly was.

 

In worse news, I noticed that the rear left coil spring has broken. I think I have had enough of grovelling around under the back of the car and will get it done at a garage.

Yes the front sensor was easy. But the front RH coil spring also broken. This is getting expensive!

37 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

Yes the front sensor was easy. But the front RH coil spring also broken. This is getting expensive!

Shame you didnt come to us before buying the sensor! I could of supplied you with a much cheaper alternative as i literally have one sitting here!

 

Also, I may have a genuine replacement spring you can have for free if its any good to you?

20 hours ago, ApertureS said:

Shame you didnt come to us before buying the sensor! I could of supplied you with a much cheaper alternative as i literally have one sitting here!

 

Also, I may have a genuine replacement spring you can have for free if its any good to you?

 

Now he tells me!🙂 Yes I think I should have made more effort to do it cheaply, but with both the headlights and the suspension playing up, I just wanted it fixed. I'm waiting for the garage to call me back with a price, if they are going to charge a lot I may resolve to do it myself (I have some coil spring compressors somewhere) but am rather hoping to avoid the hassle and just get someone else to do it. I'll get in touch if I am going to DIY, thanks very much for the offer.

Over £400 from the Indy garage, (using genuine springs), £500 if the top mounts need replacing, vs £120 for springs from the local motor factor, one Lesjofors and one BRA. A bit like OEM brake discs, the OEM springs don’t seem up to much as they’ve only lasted 80k miles or so, so I don’t feel inclined to pay a premium for more of the same. I am 66, I’ve had old cars that I run to destruction (way over 100k miles) since I was 17 and this is the first vehicle that I’ve had to replace springs on.

 

If anyone is interested, the genuine part number for the 2016 280tsi estate with tow bar are 3Q0 511 115M rear and 5Q0 411 105GM front.

 

@ApertureS if your kind offer still stands and you have one of the above part numbers, I’d be delighted to take it off your hands! Please send me a PM re. shipping.

Edited 1 December, 20223 yr by nicknorman

I'm 59 next Birthday and in all the cars I've had since getting my first one at 17, the only springs I've changed have been on VAG cars, predominantly younger ones.  Last being Mrs Gaz's 2015 Polo within the last year or so, although she is attracted to pot holes like the proverbial moth to a flame.

 

Think it was JR, on here, who commented that the paint finish on modern springs is poor, providing access for moisture and rust.  Another Simply Clever feature to get used to 🙄

 

Gaz

3 hours ago, nicknorman said:

Over £400 from the Indy garage, (using genuine springs), £500 if the top mounts need replacing, vs £120 for springs from the local motor factor, one Lesjofors and one BRA. A bit like OEM brake discs, the OEM springs don’t seem up to much as they’ve only lasted 80k miles or so, so I don’t feel inclined to pay a premium for more of the same. I am 66, I’ve had old cars that I run to destruction (way over 100k miles) since I was 17 and this is the first vehicle that I’ve had to replace springs on.

 

If anyone is interested, the genuine part number for the 2016 280tsi estate with tow bar are 3Q0 511 115M rear and 5Q0 411 105GM front.

 

@ApertureS if your kind offer still stands and you have one of the above part numbers, I’d be delighted to take it off your hands! Please send me a PM re. shipping.

if you can look through the wheel arch at the spring and see what colour the coloured bands are on the spring i can check they match up.

 

Its genuine and obviously used but no corrosion, can throw in the top mount too 

23 minutes ago, ApertureS said:

if you can look through the wheel arch at the spring and see what colour the coloured bands are on the spring i can check they match up.

 

Its genuine and obviously used but no corrosion, can throw in the top mount too 

Thanks. Blue and grey.

10 hours ago, nicknorman said:

Thanks. Blue and grey.

Okay, I’ll take a look when home tonight for you. If you can drop me a message either by private message or on my link below to my Facebook page, whatever’s easier to you. Just to remind me 

Well front and rear springs now replaced. A right kerfuffle as usual, with rusted nuts etc. Well that was just me, on the car it was less the rusted nuts and more that Skoda (VW) like to leave unnecessarily long threaded bits sticking out beyond the nut, which get rusty and jam the nut as it comes off despite wire brushing and WD40.

 

For the rear I just dropped the bottom arm so I could get the spring in uncompressed, then jacked it back up. This being because there wasn’t room for the spring compressors. I was a good boy and bolted up the damper and hub bolts with the suspension jacked up to the “unladen weight” position like wot it says in the manual.

For the front it was at least fairly easy getting the carden shaft out (just as well as I don’t have an extractor!) but a faff getting it all back together without an assistant.

 

Still, all done now and I saved about £300. Test drive entirely satisfactory. But Hmmm, I think next time I’ll just pay the £300 to avoid spending hours grovelling around on the garage floor. I’m worth it!

Edited 7 December, 20223 yr by nicknorman

On 01/12/2022 at 19:59, nicknorman said:

Thanks. Blue and grey.

Is that the front springs or rear? Are the rear ones colour coded?

2 hours ago, Bigeater said:

Is that the front springs or rear? Are the rear ones colour coded?

 

5Q0411105GM front coil spring PR-L07

1 paint mark Blue
1 paint mark Grey

https://www.lllparts.co.uk/catalogs/skoda/CZ/SUP/851/4/411/411000

 

The Kilen spring catalogue also shows 5Q0411105GM front and 3Q0511115M rear for the Superb MK3 Estate 280HP 4x4.

https://www.kilensprings.com/springs-catalouges/onlinecatalogue.asp

 

Edited 7 December, 20223 yr by Carlston

2 hours ago, Bigeater said:

Is that the front springs or rear? Are the rear ones colour coded?

Front. The rear one aren’t colour coded as far as I’m aware. And just to be clear, the Lesjofors non-OEM new front spring isn’t colour coded either.
It’s all a bit confusing, there are about 20 different rear spring part numbers listed for DCC equipped Superbs, according to the PR number of the specific car. No idea why they need so many!

 

However one can “do it properly” and find the correct part number by looking up the “vehicle-specific information” on ERWIN to get the Pr codes, and using that to identify the correct spring on partslink24 - both of which require payment.

MOT time. I carefully checked that the original 2 springs were still intact. Seemed they were, as best I could tell without taking the wheel off (but using one of those USB endoscope cameras). But no, MOT man says the other rear spring is now broken! So that is 3 springs out of 4 and the car has only done 90,000 miles. I have never previously had a broken spring in 40 years of car ownership - with many of those cars being very high mileage. So much for VW group "quality"!

7 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

MOT time. I carefully checked that the original 2 springs were still intact. Seemed they were, as best I could tell without taking the wheel off (but using one of those USB endoscope cameras). But no, MOT man says the other rear spring is now broken! So that is 3 springs out of 4 and the car has only done 90,000 miles. I have never previously had a broken spring in 40 years of car ownership - with many of those cars being very high mileage. So much for VW group "quality"!

My '57 VX Vectra required two sets of rear springs in 10 years and 80k miles of ownership. But parts and labour were reasonably cheap so I wasn't too bothered. My Superb mk2 had no issues like this even though it helped to move two houses and endless amount of rubbish to the tip. Maybe you are just unlucky...