Hello all,

I have a 65 plate Skoda Fabia (45k miles) that's unfortunately running into a bit of trouble and I'd appreciate any help or guidance on offer.

A couple of weeks ago after starting my car up I had the EPC and Engine lights appear in yellow, also resulted in it going into limp mode unable to go over 2k revs. 

I took this to my local garage who does my MOT and Service and the error code returned was P001100 (Camshaft position Bank 1, Timing over-advanced or System Performance), this appears to be an Autel report from a Maxisys Elite?

The codes were cleared and those at least haven't returned, I had my cambelt replaced at a DMKeith a few years ago so it isn't the belt itself, the mechanic (who ive been with a few years and is well regarded and has been fair to me) gave some suggestions to what it could be but unfortunately couldn't nail it down, he suggested something more at large regarding the cambelt might be the issue, anyway long story short he said the work he'd want to do would cost about £1k but that he also couldnt guarantee it'd definitely fix it. Needless to say I took it away to ponder a bit more.

Fast forward to today and on my way to work I had 3 lights all ping up mid drive (below), electronic stability programme, ABS and Tyre Pressure monitor.

 

 

These stayed on until I got to my destination, and then part of my journey home where at some point they all went away and thus far haven't returned.

 

I guess my question is where would any of you start with this. The car has generally been reliable, hasn't needed any major work doing to it except the expected maintenance jobs due to age (cambelt, breaks, etc). People close to me are suggesting I look to move on rather than going down the road of looking to repair it because it will be expensive and speculative and suggest it's the "beginning of the end" and will just need more and more doing to it. I understand it's a 9 going on 10 year old car but I don't know if I should be subscribing to that train of thought, it's treated well and it's always had its annual service and MOT.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated, thank you in advance.

Hi, welcome.

 

Check you 12v is in a good state of charge and health, personally any electrical issues, which this may be, I fully recharge the battery with an appropriate battery charger maintainer after reading the Owner's Manual and charger booklet for instructions oh how this is done for that particular car.

 

This type of thing often turns out to be a wheel speed sensor at faulty or the wiring or connection(s) to it, live data off a scan tool and testing with a multimeter and perhaps light bulb can diagnosis and check if this is the cause, being intermittent is a PITA but wiggling the wires and connector(s) or in cold/damp might cause the issue to show.

 

If the 12v battery is low even though the headlights look bright enough and the engine starts the battery could still be too low for the computers and  put up all sorts of unexpected warning lights and often just driving the car and relying on the alternator isn't enough to recharge the battery sufficiently but it might be enough to extinguish the warning lights for a while hence the need to use an appropriate battery charger maintainer to fully recharge the battery as detailed before.

 

I dislike VWs (Škoda has been VW for decades now of course) but even I would never suggest you get rid of such a lower mileage car for such a minor issue (which might, or might not) be solved by doing something many drivers and owners used to do many years back, and the need is returning and much more the new the car, and that is a simple clean-hands, very easy owner maintenance task of recharging the battery using an appropriate battery charger maintainer to fully recharge the battery as detailed before.  Unfortunately to doit properly may require two things many no longer posses and that's time and patience, connect it up and recharge it slowly for as long as it takes, if it's not possible to fully recharge the battery in one go then take two goes, better than rushing with a higher charge rate.

 

Start with the simple easy work connect up an appropriate charger maintainer to fully charge the battery when your not even at the car and could be asleep overnight before moving on to you or someone else get down and dirty farting about with cars.

 

After fully recharging the battery take it for a good drive and see if any lights remain on or return and go from there.  Let us know how you get on.

 

HTH.

 

2 hours ago, nta16 said:

Hi, welcome.

 

Check you 12v is in a good state of charge and health, personally any electrical issues, which this may be, I fully recharge the battery with an appropriate battery charger maintainer after reading the Owner's Manual and charger booklet for instructions oh how this is done for that particular car.

 

This type of thing often turns out to be a wheel speed sensor at faulty or the wiring or connection(s) to it, live data off a scan tool and testing with a multimeter and perhaps light bulb can diagnosis and check if this is the cause, being intermittent is a PITA but wiggling the wires and connector(s) or in cold/damp might cause the issue to show.

 

If the 12v battery is low even though the headlights look bright enough and the engine starts the battery could still be too low for the computers and  put up all sorts of unexpected warning lights and often just driving the car and relying on the alternator isn't enough to recharge the battery sufficiently but it might be enough to extinguish the warning lights for a while hence the need to use an appropriate battery charger maintainer to fully recharge the battery as detailed before.

 

I dislike VWs (Škoda has been VW for decades now of course) but even I would never suggest you get rid of such a lower mileage car for such a minor issue (which might, or might not) be solved by doing something many drivers and owners used to do many years back, and the need is returning and much more the new the car, and that is a simple clean-hands, very easy owner maintenance task of recharging the battery using an appropriate battery charger maintainer to fully recharge the battery as detailed before.  Unfortunately to doit properly may require two things many no longer posses and that's time and patience, connect it up and recharge it slowly for as long as it takes, if it's not possible to fully recharge the battery in one go then take two goes, better than rushing with a higher charge rate.

 

Start with the simple easy work connect up an appropriate charger maintainer to fully charge the battery when your not even at the car and could be asleep overnight before moving on to you or someone else get down and dirty farting about with cars.

 

After fully recharging the battery take it for a good drive and see if any lights remain on or return and go from there.  Let us know how you get on.

 

HTH.

 

Thanks for the write up Nigel.

Certainly sounds a sensible first point of call, it's going for another look at the garage on Monday so I might enquire with them about this but if they can't do it/don't have the time will look into it myself.

I guess low battery wouldn't cause an engine light and EPC light though right, especially returning a camshaft error or could a bad battery cause all sorts of weird and wonderful things?

 

The  ASC and ABS lights I have had come on for an ABS wheel sensor failure.

1 hour ago, Lewz said:

could a bad battery cause all sorts of weird and wonderful things?

Yes.  Have a look at numerous threads on this forum and other forums on this site about such things.  Obviously it's not always the cause but might be a contributing cause.  The German marques, including VAG/VWŠkoda have for many decades had (over) complex computer programs that are intertwined (and over-invasive) so what seems unrelated isn't and a issues or computer brain-fart in one area can cause confusion in another area(s).

 

A decent appropriate battery charger is £30 ((£15 Lidl/Aldi about this time of year), a new decent battery (EFB) (with P&P for 2105 Fabia would be about £100 (plus 'coding' required) and anything up to about £240+ including fixing and coding depending where you go.

 

Get the garage to do a battery and alternator test, matter of minutes very easy work and give you the report just to be sure.

 

 

4 hours ago, nta16 said:

This type of thing often turns out to be a wheel speed sensor at faulty or the wiring or connection(s) to it, live data off a scan tool and testing with a multimeter and perhaps light bulb can diagnosis and check if this is the cause, being intermittent is a PITA but wiggling the wires and connector(s) or in cold/damp might cause the issue to show.

As agreed this is often a failure of some sort with or to the wheel sensor.  Have a look at the following for an ABS issues and an unrelated steering issues that disappears without being looked after sorting first issue.  I like this chap as he checks and cross references his diagnosis and also checks and cross references his repair and he does just plug in a scan tool and follow it blindly. - 

 

Final bit of advice if you want it, those viewing on PCs at least can see your name badge-thigy and if you want to you can fill in more details which can cut down a bit on misunderstanding and looking for your car's details or asking for them.  Here's mine only as an example. -

 

Let us know how you get on.

 

Just to clarify or repeat what has been said already, these 3 symbols are all connected to the ABS system, so a fault within that would force a fault/warning on the others.

Update: Battery was tested and found to be "borderline" on its health check, I elected to replace it as the car is 9 years old and has never had a battery change.

Despite this the warning lights have remained, had that tested too and they confirmed a faulty sensor so booked it in for a suitable date for myself (2nd December)

Unfortunately today I had a very worrying event that's leaving me wondering if I should cut my losses.

Turned the car on and got an array of warning lights soon after settings off including:
 

- Warning that the bonnet was open

- Windscreen Wiper light

- Engine coolant light

 

On top of this: 

Windscreen wipers stopped working properly, indicators stopped working entirely (at least on my dash, no idea if they were actually going outside), wasnt sure I even had brake lights but was very close to home so drove extremely carefully.

Once I got home i turned the car off, popped the bonnet, closed it properly. Restarted the car and all the above warning lights went away and it seemed "normal" again.

After what's just happened I've entirely lost confidence in the car, if that were to occur again on a busy road it would be dangerous, but with it coming and going I'm not sure how to proceed. 

 

 

Edited 23 November, 20241 yr by Lewz

Is it possible that the battery hasn't been coded to the car, that can produce some odd errors.

@Lewz if the battery was only found to be "borderline" then it was probably not that bad and could be recovered but it might have still been in a low state of charge (as could a very recent new battery in use) but as you've replaced it, assuming the new battery was in a reasonable state of charge things should be OK with a bit of driving if the warnings were previously caused by low state of battery charge.

 

As put if the new battery hasn't been 'coded' correctly that could cause issues - there as an auto-electrician reported on here as putting in the new battery as 7ah instead of 70ah, why the VW computer program allows this is another matter, anyone can make mistakes so always worth checking if required.

 

First check to make, before checking 'coding' - has the battery been replaced properly, normally the battery terminal clamps are overtighten but I've had them loose from owners and a Dealership - so check the battery  terminal clamps are both fully secure - a no-cost, quick and easy check anyone can do without any special tools or equipment.

 

A loose live or earth can cause what you had, parked up fine driving on the road with vibrations and/or more electric power use highlights a loose connection.

 

Report back from that for other thoughts, possible checks.

 

Update: ABS wheel speed sensor was replaced and as of now no more errors yet, but still remain a bit concerned after that episode. Battery was checked again on its visit and coding was apparently rechecked and confirmed as ok.

Thanks for the help/guidance from people Will have to play it by ear and see if any problems reoccur or develop.

On 23/11/2024 at 16:48, Lewz said:

Windscreen wipers stopped working properly

Because the bonnet was open?

On VAG cars this a common feature. 🤔

 

Thanks. AG Falco