Hello everyone,

 

I'm having an issue with my Skoda Octavia Mk III 1.4 TSI.

When I'm driving in the rain on the highway, the car will randomly brake every few minutes.

When I release the throttle and reengage it, the car will speed up again. (Losing me ~5-10km/h in speed)

The moment this happens, there are no warning lights on the dashboard and the motor RPM stays the same, so the motor doesn't cur out.

 

I've been to an official Skoda garage, but there they replaced my clutch... Which turned out to not be the problem at all...

I've read a lot online, but I don't seem to find a specific answer as to what could cause this problem, so here I am. 😉

Do any of you know what could be the problem and how I could try to fix it?

I was wondering if it could be the wheel speed sensors giving a false reading, but I'm not sure.

 

Thanks in advance

Laurens

Do you have ACC or Front Assist?

 

The symptoms sound to me like it could be the front radar believing something is too close in front and applying the brakes?

I don't have any of those systems. The car has no options except for AC.

(I even added remote locking myself )

Has anyone else any idea what this problem could be?

It sounds like ABS system if you have no ACC or anything.

 

You say the RPM doesn't drop? Can you be more specific, as if the car brakes, it should lower the rpm slightly, if it's in gear.

Is it doing this?

 

And the car isn't just slowing, it's actually braking? What force of braking, gentle, hard?

 

Is this only in the rain?

 

 

As far as I notice, the RPM is not going down, at least not significantly .

It's quite a hard brake, as I feel the steering wheel pull, and you can feel the car braking more than just releasing the gas.

I've determined that this issue only occurs when it is raining.

Just now, L_W said:

As far as I notice, the RPM is not going down, at least not significantly .

It's quite a hard brake, as I feel the steering wheel pull, and you can feel the car braking more than just releasing the gas.

I've determined that this issue only occurs when it is raining.

Do you have a fault code scanner, such as VCDS or OBD11? It would be useful to see if there are any fault codes related to braking  etc.

@L_W Are you certain your vehicle is not fitted with front assist - I thought this feature was a standard fitting - Is there a small square sensor mounted in the centre of your front grill?

The behaviour you describe sounds exactly like the front radar is sensing something and momentarily applying full ABS braking.  

Do all models have the feature that’s meant to gently apply brakes when wipers are on to keep them dry? Might be something to do with that not functioning correctly?

I've been to the garage yesterday and they couldn't see any fault codes.

And they checked and the car doesn't have front assist or anything like that.

 

But we also had the same idea as @T07, that the brake drying could be the problem.

As we saw that the last time it activated, was around the same time I had the braking issue and it only activates when driving over 70km/h with the windshield wipers on.

We could see that the rain brake drying was set to medium, but for some reason they couldn't change the option to low (or off) with their computer. (Not an official Skoda/VW dealer)

 

The question now becomes, does anyone know why the disk drying is so pronounced?

As the Skoda documentation states that it shouldn't be noticeable.

 

Would this be an electronics issue or is it more likely to be a problem with the brake pads, disks, ...?

I've never noticed the brake drying have any noticeable effect on vehicle speed.

Would my 2013 have this feature? I don't have any menu for settings. If I do have it, I've never noticed or felt it working.

Edited 29 March, 20233 yr by ords

I own a 19 plate 1.5tsi dsg, does not have brake assist, fortunately that was one of the reasons I choose a lower spec car. 

Could it be a sticky brake caliper? I once had this on another car, but the effected wheel would squeal as well. I released the caliper myself, then eventually replaced it, was on the back, too.