ESP And engine light on after driving 20- 30 min always same behaviour , vanishes later

[raky]

Hi Experts,

 

Any advice please for my skoda fabia or time to  change the car and do more harm to planet even though plenty of life is still left.

 

The core issue is after driving say 20-40 minutes on motorway at 50+ speed, I get  ESP + Engine light both together with below two behaviours at different times. I have to switch off engine for 4-5 minutes before esp light to go (possibly something to do with cooling), but engine light stays good few days and disappears. Car goes back to normal and drivable. 

Behaviours:

1. Car looses power/stalled with no accelerating while driving ,  goes normal after 4-5 min of staying calm in off position.

2. Car does not looses power everything is smooth and normal but ESP + Engine light comes during driving 

3. Tested the car after disconnecting the O2 sensor connection and car never stalled but ECU and engine light do came after driving 20 to 40 min similar to above behaviour. 

 

After all these episodes got checked from mechanic and it was always error code mostly related to bad Lambada sensor, please note that in last couple of years 3-4 Lambada/O2 sensors were changed & current o2 sensor is very high-quality so I presume some voltage surge is causing this issue. Also last year I have changed temperature sensor, radiator sensor, map sensor, fuel filter , air filter and checked thermostat which was very health and fitted same again.

 

Apart from above I have noticed few things which are below 

1. Some time I get “traction control light” during U turns

2. Some time I see engine rpm stays 1200 -1300 even though the car is neutral during downhill and speed is around 20-30 miles which is very unusual I need to put in gear and then sometimes it come to idle speed i.e 600-700rpm 

3. I have also noticed small jerk (if car is at low speed) when the radiator fan starts which is very unusual , generally fan never starts as car never gets heated because of locals drive and even cat cleaner/ injector cleaner additives were added last years which had removed lot of carbon from car. I drive locally not many miles around 15 to 25 miles a day .

 

I have read the culprits could be accelerator pedal , fuel injector, fuel pump  or throttle body.

 

I think if it is throttle body then why it doesn't happen at slow speed , not sure I may be wrong.

I also think culprit could be accelerator pedal sensor which may be possible but if it is that I believe in 5^th gear the engine rev may be around 3k and but at city condition rev rev may be 2.5k.

I am not sure for fuel injectors as I would expect more issues during starting or city drive condition where engine may expect more fuel .

I am not sure if ECU itself is faulty please. 

Lastly I had got checked fuel pump just visually for any gunk but it seemed was very clean was not rusty or bad . 

 

I have shown car to auto electricals but experts have no time to spend they are dam busy. We have 1-2 expert only in our city. I strongly think something to do with temperature or some voltage fluctuation. 

 

 

Any thought would be highly appreciated.

 

Regards 

 

Edited 14 February, 2023 by raky

[raky]

Hi Experts Thought to update you on above ,

I have disconnected o2 sensor fuse and observed that there was still same behaviour of  EPC+Engine light coming intermittently like before when I drove on motorway for 3-4 miles ,  rpm was moving up and down automatically  without giving any accelerator.

Similar behaviour still continuing when applying brake makes  rpm goes haywire  i.e up or down never comes to normal for a while later after 3-4 minutes all come back normal when car is switched off and switched on ( EPC light vanishes)

Also  when car is in motion even in neutral gear the some time  rpm stay more than 900 rather than 600 which is normal.

I have got checked fuel pump and it was very clean no gunk at all on it is  filter..

 

Hence this confirms that o2 sensor is not a faulty or causing this issue for sure, checked the servo pipe and it seems looks healthy so that is also ruled out, all valves in  the servo  pipe seems fine checked by blowing air into it.

 

I have also performed some  brake booster checked by switching on and off car pressing multiple times brake peddle and it seems it is also no issue.  

Unfortunately computer system throws  only  errors  complaining about  o2 sensor missing it does not log any other extra breath/epc  errors. 

 

Suspect either of them may be issue - i.e  throttle body , gas paddle sensor ,  fuel injectors ,   PCV or EGR valve... Hoping to get all these cleaned  to see if there is any issue. 

 

I am also thinking to just change the PCV valve and see if issue is resolved possible  cheapest option. My mechanic is very kind and had agreed to do whatever I say him So no issue will pay him hourly.

 

Please advice  if anybody have any suggestion also may be thinking to temporary ask mechanic to swap with some other  parts one by one to pin point the root cause.   Please advice part number struggled to identify right part number from link  as advised by Pete. 

https://skoda.7zap.com/en/cz/fabia/fab/2007-453/6/612-612010/#1

My car Fabia Mk1,  07 plate , BBZ engine 16v 1.4,100HP. (1390 cc)

1. PCV valve 

2. Throttle Body 

3. Gas paddle Sensor 

4. Brake booster KIT

5.  EGR valve

 

Otherwise car is very healthy with its age engine is very strong ... does not make sense to just bin it even if plan to change I may make it fit so that it uses its full life rather than polluting planet. 

 

Thanks for reading please.

 

Kind Regards

raky

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 8 June, 2023 by raky

[sepulchrave]

Try unplugging the EGR valve, I hate to say it but it's almost always the EGR valve on AUB/BBZ engines.

I replaced mine with a brand new Pierburg part and had no further problems.

Try not to worry about the environment, it's a collective endeavour where the law of large numbers holds sway and your little petrol engine isn't really doing any harm.

[raky]

On 08/06/2023 at 20:50, sepulchrave said:

Try unplugging the EGR valve, I hate to say it but it's almost always the EGR valve on AUB/BBZ engines.

I replaced mine with a brand new Pierburg part and had no further problems.

Try not to worry about the environment, it's a collective endeavour where the law of large numbers holds sway and your little petrol engine isn't really doing any harm.

Much appreciated  @sepulchrave thanks  for your response, it is great idea , isolated one by one to pin point the root cause of issue ,  so u mean just disconnect connector from EGR valve  it and drive the car  as normal, I understand   running EGR valve disconnected  would not have any impact on driving except engine light which is anyway already ON because of o2 sensor temp fuse removal. 

 

Please advice.

cheers 

raky

[grumpy1]

Had a problem with 2006 TDi 'stumbling' on acceleration, high idle speed occasional loss of power. I found that the retaining clip on the multi-plug to the MAF sensor was broken and the plug was loose. I made up a retaining clip for it and all problems solved.

[sepulchrave]

26 minutes ago, grumpy1 said:

Had a problem with 2006 TDi 'stumbling' on acceleration, high idle speed occasional loss of power. I found that the retaining clip on the multi-plug to the MAF sensor was broken and the plug was loose. I made up a retaining clip for it and all problems solved.

 

No MAF on the 1.4 16v petrol engines I'm afraid.

[raky]

Thanks All experts I think  I found issue , I think culprit so far seems airbox thermostat as mentioned be @Breezy_Pete as per below link , since I have tested airbox thermostat and it was not fully closing after heating with hair dryer which may have correlation as when car used to get warm on motorway EPC+Engine light used to come with power loss  and it was consistent even  after disconnecting lambada sensor.

 

 I had put extra small steel thin strip to push spring so that it closes flap which still does not close but it much better than before , planning to seal with heat resistant tape as part is not available in UK and removing part from spring is difficult as per experience shared by experts.

 

Request all skoda owners having high milage cars to test and airbox thermostat it is very easy to open and test it, especially when cars computer logs error which is no way directly relevant .  Will keep you posted . So far driven 70 miles on. motorway  at the 70   speed and all was smooth  car had no issue. 

 

To be extra cautious on my request my mechanic cut the exhaust pipe and shown me that catalytic converter was in very good condition he pumped lot of high pressure air some carbon came out from exhaust which was not as much as thought considering the age of car. 

 

He cleaned EGR valve  as well again it was not bad , put new spark plugs they were very good as well .  I generally use Cat cleaner liquid/ other carbon cleaner products  at least 1-2 time in year which may be helping keeping engine clean.

 

Thanks all for support. Hope it helps others.

 

Cheers 

raky

 

[raky]

On 10/06/2023 at 11:18, grumpy1 said:

Had a problem with 2006 TDi 'stumbling' on acceleration, high idle speed occasional loss of power. I found that the retaining clip on the multi-plug to the MAF sensor was broken and the plug was loose. I made up a retaining clip for it and all problems solved.

Thanks , I think that could be another point ,  i have noticed MAP sensor connector can move a bit freely even after it is connected , not sure at high speed when car is shaking may be some loose connection for fraction of sec and all mess happens , I could see connector does not looks healthy as mechanic had hard time removing last time when I have changed it. The MAP Sensor looked very clean. I will address this issue before long drive.

cheers

raky 

 

 

[sepulchrave]

3 hours ago, raky said:

Thanks , I think that could be another point ,  i have noticed MAP sensor connector can move a bit freely even after it is connected , not sure at high speed when car is shaking may be some loose connection for fraction of sec and all mess happens , I could see connector does not looks healthy as mechanic had hard time removing last time when I have changed it. The MAP Sensor looked very clean. I will address this issue before long drive.

cheers

raky 

 

 

 

The catch has probably been snapped, you'll need need to use a zip tie or a small self tapper to hold the plug on firmly.

[raky]

Hi Experts here is update on above very old issue which made to bin the car few times but never gave up, credit goes  to very kind hearted Rock star of this group @Breezy_Pete   By chance I was travelling to meet friends and  Pete was not far where I was visiting , Pete kindly agreed to offer  me time and agreed to look my car  on sunny weekend , in 3 minutes he found 3 issues in car and to my surprise he found the root cause of all engine loss / EPC light etc which no body was able to identify or they never had expertise.  The Pete went logically had data sheet of my car and looked that my fuel-filter  which was bought  from euro parts ( 2-3 filter changed since 2-3 years) had wrong fuel pressure, since same model had possibly few variants but the fuel filter has  same number of inlets/outlets but different pressure regulator  values, 3bar or 4 Bar , Pete had list in hand looked everything and when saw the fuel filter he said this could be major issue with my car  since it needed 3 BAR as per specification but current fuel filter was 4BAR .. so  Pete explained that car computer is  getting out of abnormal values because of  high pressure fuel and trying to add more oxygen and probably messing  up oxygen fuel ratio when it goes high speed  ..

 

Thanks @Breezy_Petefor saving planet and stopping my good car going to landfill and pollute the planet , today I have changed the fuel filter and drove the car at speed of 70miles/hour first time without any issue I drove good 20-30 miles. I checked Short Term /long term Fuel trims using dignositics and  then were very much under 10% approx 7% I think these values were very dice and changing from -20 to +20 earlier with different rpms .

 

Once again fuel filter pressure is very important for car computer please do check the car manual and never trust any OEM suppliers.

 

Thanks for reading , hope it helps Skodians.

 

 

Regards

raky 

 

[J.R.]

Thats a heart warming story, thanks once again to the selfless Pete for helping others 👍

 

ECP have to be the worst offenders, I dont think they have even once tried to sell me the right parts, thankfully after the first painfull experience, also a wrong fuel filter that caused me no end of problems, I would always take the old part with me and even then had to argue against ignorance.

 

There is a lot I miss no longer being able to visit England and source stuff TPS being at the top of the list, ECP are not missed at all.