Engine Management Light Help

[Broony01]

Hello all, looking for some help/advice with my 68 plate Sportline +.

 

A few weeks ago, my Engine Management Light came on. The car drove fine, no reduction in power/torque/MPG and there felt normal. It was due a service anyway, so I got it booked in for the light to be inspected and a service/MOT. Whilst waiting for it to go into the garage, I noticed in the mornings that it would maybe take a second or two longer to start, with it sounding like it was struggling to start but eventually it kicked into life. 

 

It went into the garage for all the bits and bobs, and they ran a diagnostics which brought back the following codes -

 

P008700 - Fuel Rail System Pressure Too Low

 

P17D800 - Torque reduction caused by clutch temperature

 

P068400- Glow time control unit 1 implausible signal

 

P20EE00 - NOx Catalyst Efficiency Below Threshold Bank 1

 

U140000 - Reduction function voltage too high

 

B147918 - Remote Key 1 voltage too low

 

B147A18 - Remote Key 2 voltage too low

 

B14B18 - Remote Key 3 voltage too low

 

B122B13 - Central Locking motors, open circuit

 

I spoke with the garage who advised they thought the issue may have been the fuel filter as it was knackered and had reset all the codes, road tested the car and all was good. It then went onto pass it's MOT and the EML stayed off.

 

A few days ago it came back on, again with no change in cars performance that was noticeable to me. Whilst we had temperatures of -10 where I live, the car stayed on the drive way for 3 days and foolishly, I didn't start it or take it a short run. On the 4th day, I went to start it and it just wouldn't start, completely dead. Message came up on the dash saying the battery was low, so had to get the RAC out. 

 

When the RAC arrived, they carried out their own diagnostics which showed -

 

P068400 - Glow time control unit 1 implausible signal

 

P003000 - Lambda sensor bank 1 , lambda sensor heating open circuit

 

The RAC patrol man suggested that the battery may be needing replaced as the battery testing rating was 350EN of a 700EN rated battery,

 

Just wondered if anyone has had any of these similar issues? I live quite rural so will be the New Year before I get the car back to a garage although I think I will be wanting to go to a Skoda specialist as I am concerned at how many faults have came up. Anyone able to give a breakdown of the faults and advise what they actually mean? I am not technical at all when it comes to cars.

 

Cheers

 

 

 

 

 

[Danoid]

I’m certain folk on here say when a battery is on its way out it causes so many false positives with codes, so just get it replaced with a varta battery.

 

You’ll need to check if you have an AGM or EFB battery and replace like for like. It will need to be coded at a garage or with the correct diagnostic tools. If you replace like for like and same power then all that needs changing is the serial number which can be anything and maybe the manufacturer

 

4 years doesn’t seem a lot for a battery but all sorts can shorten life. 

[numskull]

The RAC man I had out a week ago to check the battery said the have the kit to code a new battery correctly. Interestingly, he also said he’d replace the current EFB with an AGM as they’re more reliable and should easily exceed their 5 year warranty. 

[Markbro]

I have a January 2016 190 diesel and my engine.management.light came on about a month ago. It threw up a no of codes but the car drove perfectly so I had the garage clear the codes. About a week later the light came back on with a glow plug code and emissions code. Cleared it again and it came back on within 24 hours.  There was no change in the drivability of the car so I didn't change the glow plug. Last week the light went off and is still off.

 

Maybe it's battery age related? Not sure but garage says nothing to worry about, modern cars throw up codes for the slightest issue.

[ApertureS]

2 hours ago, Markbro said:

I have a January 2016 190 diesel and my engine.management.light came on about a month ago. It threw up a no of codes but the car drove perfectly so I had the garage clear the codes. About a week later the light came back on with a glow plug code and emissions code. Cleared it again and it came back on within 24 hours.  There was no change in the drivability of the car so I didn't change the glow plug. Last week the light went off and is still off.

 

Maybe it's battery age related? Not sure but garage says nothing to worry about, modern cars throw up codes for the slightest issue.

Modern cars throw up faults for issues… yes.

you’ve got a modern car that is throwing up a code for an issue and you’re just ignoring it and clearing it?

 

kind of defeats the point, there is clearly a fault. Just cause there is no change in what you feel and drivability doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem.

 

the garage seems like a weird one, why wouldn’t they want the work of sorting the issue and making some money?

[Markbro]

Yes but as I said in the post the light went off for no reason and has stayed off. So was there ever an issue or just some threshold exceeded for a milli second or two and the car throws up a fault.

 

The garage owner is a friend and isn't interested in fixing something if it doesn't need fixing.

[J.R.]

1 hour ago, Markbro said:

Yes but as I said in the post the light went off for no reason and has stayed off. So was there ever an issue or just some threshold exceeded for a milli second or two and the car throws up a fault.

 

You do not know that, I concur with what ApertureS says.

 

Many lower priority fault codes have a frequency counter if the fault appears to "heal up", if the fault is not logged again within a certain number of engine starts it ceases to be an active fault code and any MIL will be extinguished, an example might be a blown bulb that was replaced and the fault code not erased, a wire chafing against chassis earth which was either relocated or insulated etc.

[J.R.]

People who post about things like lights going off "without any reason" are usually the same ones that say "suddenly XYZ (warning) light came on without any warning!" or "the car came out of nowhere!" 😆

[Markbro]

Wow what a sweeping statement. Happy Christmas!

[J.R.]

Thanks, I try my best!