Hello Guy's 

 

My car is 2014 Octavia 132 1.8 TSI Elegance with Tech pack few months ago - The drain hose the acid battery fell off and started leaking. It was bad and it had some how gone over the ECU.

However - I got the ECU light ON intermittently. Later it became permanent in two months time.  We diagnosed it  with couple of error codes

1. P256300 : Turbocharger Boost Control Position Circuit Range, performance

2. P00AF00 :  Turbocharger, Super Charger Boost control A module Performance.  

My Euro Mechanic told The turbo actuator was not moving due to acid leakage - so needs replacement. We replaced with New - didn't work as he was unable to set the required voltage. 

Later upon deeper circuitry level check. He found the ECU was not delivering the current output and he was convinced the ECU  .  Was advised repair ECU ( takes 2-3 weeks No Car ) OR to get a replacement ECU with same part number as simos version.

Since my car was running ok in the city - chose to get the replacement ECU.

ECU make & Number : Continental  06K 907 425A  Simos 12.1  - 003 H09  5WA1200901.

 

It was hard to get one, However i found a Seat Leon ECU 1.8T  exact matching part number in eBay.  Firstly can we ECU from Seat Leon and clone it work on a Skoda?

Now He is having some difficultly to be able to clone and configure to Skoda. He is yet to come back.

 

Has any one gone thorough a same problem  or similar ?

If you are able to share your experience it will be great.

 

 

There is no drain hose on a modern lead acid battery, they have a gallery system for venting gases, it is implausible for acid to leak other than through massive overcharging when the casing would swell up like a melon before any electrolyte were to escape.

 

The turbo actuators frequently seize just from the ambient moisture, the battery acid is a red herring.

 

Your ECU casing has minor oxidisation of the electro-plating from ambient moisture, once again not gravity defying battery acid.

 

The above claims are enough to tell me your mechanic is beyond his competence, falling back on "it must be the ECU" is further evidence of that.

 

You are quite some way down a path of considerable expense for no positive outcome.

A photograph taken end on of the ECU connector would be useful.

1 hour ago, J.R. said:

There is no drain hose on a modern lead acid battery, they have a gallery system for venting gases, it is implausible for acid to leak other than through massive overcharging when the casing would swell up like a melon before any electrolyte were to escape.

 

The turbo actuators frequently seize just from the ambient moisture, the battery acid is a red herring.

 

Your ECU casing has minor oxidisation of the electro-plating from ambient moisture, once again not gravity defying battery acid.

 

The above claims are enough to tell me your mechanic is beyond his competence, falling back on "it must be the ECU" is further evidence of that.

 

You are quite some way down a path of considerable expense for no positive outcome.  
 

Thanks J.R  for your reply.
Yeah sorry its  not a drain hole - its an electrolyte overflow - On top surface of the battery. There was significant  leak of coolant and as well as overflowing battery acid.

 

Please see the ecu connector pic attached. I dont see any issue with the connector pins. They looks ok. 

 

 My mechanic is not an expert with ecu. He uses another expert who clones and set ups ecu’s .  Im kind of stuck here.  If nothing works i will go to skoda dealer and get it checked. Im out of warranty long ago. They are bloody expensive. Let see.

 

5 hours ago, Bluedolphin18 said:

There was significant  leak of coolant and as well as overflowing battery acid.

 

That could only result from failure of the alternator voltage regulator and would normally be witnessed by a bulging battery case.

5 hours ago, Bluedolphin18 said:

Please see the ecu connector pic attached. I dont see any issue with the connector pins. They looks ok. 

 

Me neither and there is nothing abnormal about the corrosion on the case, there is absolutely no reason to suspect ECU failure other than a lack of competence, there is no way that any battery electrolyte leakage, of which I doubt strongly, could have reached the ECU casing, what you should see in that case is severe corrosion of other plated steel or aluminium parts lower down if the battery has leaked especially the battery tray and clamp.

I am very much with J.R. here, a battery doesnt leak acid unless its cracked, boiling over due to over voltage. Even then, it wont spray out and cover things to the side and almost a foot away from it. 

 

Very weird that your mechanic is blaming 2 components on battery acid corrosion... Id be looking elsewhere for a mechanic who isnt just guessing.

 

Basic checks need confirming;

does the actuator move by hand?

what is the resistance across the actuator controller whether electric or vacuum electric?

any voltage to the actuator?

is the boost sensor reading okay?

is the turbo spinning freely?

are there any boost leaks?

I think it's quite possible.

Acidic vapour can come out of vents, and with bonnet down could go anywhere.

 

 

 

Wiring damage may have occurred if any wires nearby had cracked insulation.

Only if the electrolyte has boiled and then it would be mostly hydrogen, the labyrinth gallery system is intended to condense and drain back any acidic vapour, some also have Gore membranes.

 

If it has vented then damage to the wiring and connectors as you suggest is much more plausible which is why I asked for the photo of the ECU connector.

 

The next logical step would be the turbo actuator connector or is it one on a vacuum solenoid valve?

I changed my ECU at the start of the year, absolute nightmare to get right... Went through 3 2nd hand ECU's and couldn't get them coded correctly via ODIS, best chance for 2nd hand one needs to be an exact match for your car with same engine code and gearbox code, they're locked once they're set... In the end I bit the bullet and got a brand new blank ECU for £1300 to start fresh 😞

5 hours ago, J.R. said:

hat could only result from failure of the alternator voltage regulator and would normally be witnessed by a bulging battery case.

Thank you  i understand your point.  I haven't had any alternator issues  & I haven't  seen any battery bulge. Infact, I went to replace the battery and they checked and said its health is good and can last another year or so. Only thing they found was the vent hose was missing - they fixed it with a new one. They said may be since vent hose was blocked it as burst out and fallen off eventually, causing acid to spray inside battery case. then from there its has gone over the ECU.  Since then i have had no issue with battery it seems ok no more leaks seen.

Is it an EFB or AGM battery?

5 hours ago, ApertureS said:

I am very much with J.R. here, a battery doesnt leak acid unless its cracked, boiling over due to over voltage. Even then, it wont spray out and cover things to the side and almost a foot away from it. 

 

Very weird that your mechanic is blaming 2 components on battery acid corrosion... Id be looking elsewhere for a mechanic who isnt just guessing.

 

Basic checks need confirming;

does the actuator move by hand?

what is the resistance across the actuator controller whether electric or vacuum electric?

any voltage to the actuator?

is the boost sensor reading okay?

is the turbo spinning freely?   

are there any boost leaks?

Hey Aperture - Thanks for your comments.    I'm not an expert in checking all this  - As far as I understand all this My mechanic  did the basic checks like your points. 

We started from the error codes - it was pointing to the wastegate actuator issue. We removed and found water/coolant - corrosion damage on it. Physically when its removed it doesn't move.

 

We replaced with a new one. That's when we had issues to adjust the exact voltage so setup the actuator.  Everything else you mentioned seems to be OK ( I haven't checked it myself  as i dont know much about these things -  but i trust him on this ) 

That pointed us to check the ECU -  then he found connector leads which correspond to the turbo actuator from the ECU was not giving any voltage output. Which means its not communicating. That's where we deemed ECU may be damaged.

I had two choices : 

1. To repair - which is about 2-3 weeks or more - I understand it must be shipped to Melbourne some where and its not a guarantee fix.

2. Get Similar matching ECU from second hand market. While i can run my car.

I chose to 2.  that made sense at the moment.   I got a 100% matching one - one exception it was used on a Seat Leon 1.8TSI  - which is being looked at currently by another expert who deals with ECU's  fingers crossed!

24 minutes ago, ords said:

Is it an EFB or AGM battery?

 

 

yuasa 111202 DIN 65LH  is an EFB 

 

2 hours ago, Cactusjack said:

I changed my ECU at the start of the year, absolute nightmare to get right... Went through 3 2nd hand ECU's and c

2 hours ago, Cactusjack said:

I changed my ECU at the start of the year, absolute nightmare to get right... Went through 3 2nd hand ECU's and couldn't get them coded correctly via ODIS, best chance for 2nd hand one needs to be an exact match for your car with same engine code and gearbox code, they're locked once they're set... In the end I bit the bullet and got a brand new blank ECU for £1300 to start fresh 😞

hand one needs to be an exact match for your car with same engine code and gearbox code, they're locked once they're set... In the end I bit the bullet and got a brand new blank ECU for £1300 to start fresh 😞

Thanks for your comments - Yeah I understand looks like  im in between a  similar journey .   

 

See the pic below old and new part numbers are matching - I'm not sure about engine code / gear box code - is it something coming out of these number or something specific to be asked while buying it?  im not aware of that

Btw can you brief me how you went about ordering a new ecu -  can you share any link that i can look up

 

this new one was from Seat Leon 1.8T.

 

5 hours ago, Bluedolphin18 said:

Thank you  i understand your point.  I haven't had any alternator issues  & I haven't  seen any battery bulge. Infact, I went to replace the battery and they checked and said its health is good and can last another year or so. Only thing they found was the vent hose was missing - they fixed it with a new one. They said may be since vent hose was blocked it as burst out and fallen off eventually, causing acid to spray inside battery case. then from there its has gone over the ECU.  Since then i have had no issue with battery it seems ok no more leaks seen.

You’re being taken for a ride sorry!

 

There is no way they can give a timescale of the life of the battery and also, the battery hose is only fitted on batteries mounted inside the cabin to prevent enclosed space gas build up, anything outside the cabin does not require a vent hose and is just an open hole.

3 hours ago, ApertureS said:

You’re being taken for a ride sorry!

 

There is no way they can give a timescale of the life of the battery and also, the battery hose is only fitted on batteries mounted inside the cabin to prevent enclosed space gas build up, anything outside the cabin does not require a vent hose and is just an open hole.

Another point, if the existing battery had been subjected to an event that caused claimed ejection of electrolyte, I very much doubt that the battery would pass a test as claimed. It would probably have bulged / shorted plates, and the loss of electrolyte alone would significantly reduce the available capacity.

10 hours ago, Bluedolphin18 said:

That pointed us to check the ECU -  then he found connector leads which correspond to the turbo actuator from the ECU was not giving any voltage output. Which means its not communicating. That's where we deemed ECU may be damaged.

If it is not giving the voltage output, and frankly I am starting from a base that everything your mechanic claims is questionable, then you dont condemn the ECU and make up some fairy tale about a missing battery vent hose that never existed in the first place nor gravity defying expelled acid you look at what relevant inputs to the ECU are missing or implausible like the boost pressure sensor, MAF sensor, MAP sensor and many others.

 

On 07/11/2023 at 02:41, Bluedolphin18 said:

The turbo actuator was not moving due to acid leakage - so needs replacement. We replaced with New - didn't work as he was unable to set the required voltage.

 

Does anyone know what this means? Is there an adaption procedure requiring a certain voltage or is it mechanics waffle?

 

Coolant leakage which you have already spoken of I could see causing corrosion but they are quite capable of seizing on their own.

Assuming the turbo actuator was actually faulty, you now have a new one. Good.

Mechanic is struggling to code/adapt it.  An ECU doesn't just stop outputting like that.  If you are having trouble getting signal to the actuator, it is more likely external to the ECU with cable damage from corrosion or animals.

I would be tracing the wiring rather than messing with a new ECU.  More often than not, faults like this are based on a simple issue like a hose or wire.

On 08/11/2023 at 01:44, Bluedolphin18 said:

Thanks for your comments - Yeah I understand looks like  im in between a  similar journey .   

 

See the pic below old and new part numbers are matching - I'm not sure about engine code / gear box code - is it something coming out of these number or something specific to be asked while buying it?  im not aware of that

Btw can you brief me how you went about ordering a new ecu -  can you share any link that i can look up

 

this new one was from Seat Leon 1.8T.

 

There's no way of knowing what the new ECU has been coded with without the info from the seller, and without plugging it in and checking via ODIS unfortunately.

 

I had my car taken a VAG specialist who got a new ECU from Germany via TPS and freshly coded it scratch to my car, no problems since... I shorted mine by fumbling the rachet when changing the battery and arcing it of the ECU case, ended up with a fully dead car! Dealers and other specialists said I was stuck as changing an ECU couldn't be done... BS!

On 08/11/2023 at 10:43, J.R. said:

 

Does anyone know what this means? Is there an adaption procedure requiring a certain voltage or is it mechanics waffle?

 

Coolant leakage which you have already spoken of I could see causing corrosion but they are quite capable of seizing on their own.

Yes. There is a voltage range on the electric wastegate actuators that you need to set to first, before the adaption will be allowed to complete allowing upper and lower ranges to be learnt. The voltage is a representation of the position of extension the actuator rod. 

Thanks for the clear explanation.

Exact Yuasa Power Series 30 DIN65LH was fitted to my Volvo and failed after 5 years on a cold morning - we get down to -6DegC here.

Posted my story as it appears relevant to the discussion.

Replaced it with a significantly cheaper ACDelco MF - which was not supplied with a vent tube or a vent plug.

Blackwoods have some ACDelco in their catalogue.

But you can see the vent plugs on both of them in the same place.

The Yuasa was supplied with a vent tube and in the other side can be see a Red plastic filler plug.

Thanks to Bluedolphin18 I realised that my new battery has no vent plug for the spare side.- so I can pinch the one from the old battery.

Pics here - just delete the green banner.

https://app.box.com/s/13z1tgztkc6831hamzk1bj2d2n6yrc7d

 

New Batteries do have vents.  I have not seen a AGM version of this battery - but other AGM do not have obvious vents.

At this stage have not found anything to say that the Yuasa is a EFB version.   I fitted 2 of these to the volvo over the 10 years and understood them to be traditional flooded batteries.

Incidentally I am now concerned with the MF because the alternator output stays stable on about 14.2 all the time and that is too much when driving in 44DegC ambient.  (even with everything on).

My first ACDelco failed after a year when the green light failed and went to White = Replace.

Blackwoods replaced it under warranty after 1 year.

So I am concerned the Volvo 120amp alternator is slowly cooking the battery.  Now that was alright when I could unscrew the yellow tops.  (it is 2001 so may not have ECU control of the alternator like the Cruze)

When I get home with the Volvo the float charger quickly gets the battery to float - a few minutes - contrast that with the Cruze below.

 

Take the example of the 2010 Holden Cruze, when it starts it quickly puts the battery to about 14.4 but after driving for a while it drops battery to about 13V.

Battery is a DIN75LH MF version as its a 2l diesel.

When I get home from driving for about 140km the battery is not fully charged because it takes a few hours for my 1amp float charger to put it up to 14.4 and drop it back to float.

I only do sporadic driving - hence the use of a float charger.  Cheaper to have a spare car in the countryside so I don't have to pay in a panic for a mechanic.

 

By the way - these cars came cheap and convenient at the time.  That was the main procurement criteria.  So if I see a suitable Skoda I would buy it - assuming you people do not dissuade me about its repairability!

Seems like the Yuasa with the yellow tops has been discontinued.  ID number 111202.

https://www.yuasabatteries.com.au/trade-zone