Hi

RE: Semi-automatic Octavia ELEGANCE TSI DSG

I was driving along earlier today and the display on the dashboard advised there was a stop/start error. Shortly after that, the accelerator ceased to respond.

The car then essentially coasted at idle, then trundled along at turnover speed when still in gear (about 3 miles an hour… bit faster downhill).

Warning lights that appeared on the dash were: EPC, engine fault indicator and cruise control unavailable.

Turned everything off and on again - all the warning lights came back. Same thing happened.

Left it awhile, tried it again. No warning lights came on, car seemed fine. Drove on. About 20 minutes later it all happened again… and again...

My partner had a similar problem: start/stop error indicator, but not the same reaction - their car cut out completely and it was a Jeep, not a Skoda. They got their breakdown service out and the mechanic said, '9 times out of 10 with this problem it's the battery and it needs replacing'.

My battery is 5 years old and (I'm guessing) has a more than average gruelling life… I'm a dogwalker, so it's all short drives stopping and starting in South London traffic all week every week, with only the relief of a long run every few months.

Note: The car had a basic £250 service at an independent garage a couple of weeks ago. Nothing noted re this or a battery charging problem, but then maybe there wouldn't be?

Am v interested to know if anyone on here has an opinion on all this?

As I'm away, miles from home (and a known & trusted garage) and it's Easter. So garages are shut, etc. If i can short circuit the solution (i.e. it's the battery that needs replacing) it'd help alot… and mean i won't be losing work by having no car on tuesday! :)

Thanks in advance if you can help and have a Happy Easter!

Have you plugged your car into a diagnostic machine that can monitor battery live data , this will show current voltage and if it's dropping which could indicate battery or even alternator issues

Hello, welcome to the forum.

Best advice is to get the battery tested, don't forget that any replacement battery will require adaptation (coding) to the vehicles BCM.

Also, get the DTCs (error codes) read from the OBD data port.

Edited 19 April, 20251 yr by Warrior193
added information

Hi Thanks for your comments. Breakdown service en-route. Though i have managed to borrow a meter and the battery is showing healthy readings when the engine is turned off or on.

A reasonable test for a fully-charged battery is to test what the voltage minimum is while the engine is being cranked - a load is really needed to check actual battery health.

On 19/04/2025 at 23:01, Warrior193 said:

Best advice is to get the battery tested

+1 on that advice

Thanks for all the feedback. Turns out it was the accelerator pedal needing replacement. The pin that operates the butterfly valve was wearing out.

All sorted now

Cheers all

Great that the fix was a simple one - was this a faulty throttle pedal sender unit?

The throttle operation on these vehicles is 'Fly by Wire' - there being no actual mechanical connection between the pedal and engine.

Pin that opens and closes the butterfly valve worn. Butterfly valve not responding properly. Was haphazard… hence would go then not go. Someone suggested the the ‘throttle body’ and suggested the wire could be failing failing (over my head) but not so.

To be honest it’s all new to me. But interesting non the less.

Edited 23 April, 20251 yr by pauldogg

Addendum: turned out not to be as simple (or cheap) as expected. Despite the accelerator pedal being replaced the fault reoccurred. Turned out the Throttle body was also fault and had to be replaced too. That's all resolved now though thankfully. However, a new problem has appeared… a coolant leak… which i'm about to start a new post about!