Ok, gotta yet another problem with me Superb, I have a feeling this will be the last one cos i'm absolutely fed up with the stupid piece of **** now!!

Driving around last night the sat nav system started emmiting an occasional beep (rather a pathetic half hearted beep though) everything was still working as normal though so carried on, then noticed that every time I switched the ignition on it beeped aswell, then a couple of hours later the engine warning light came on, everything still working fine though?

Then the worse bit, while waiting for some foreign students to gather themselves together I was double parked with my hazard lights on, standing by the front door of the house I smelled something unpleasant, looked at my car and the hazard lights had stopped flashing and were just on permanetly.

I went back to the car to investigate and was slightly annoyed to find smoke billowing out of the dashboard right by the hazard lights switch, I turned the switch off and this seemed to stop the smoke, although now my indicators and hazard lights dont work at all and the engine warning light is still on, otherwise everything works and the car drives fine except for an acrid burning smell that wont go away! whats up with it now?

Sounds like a cooked relay.

On the octy the hazard switch incorperates the relay and the original parts were cr*p and got replaced with an uprated part. Mine got changed under warrenty, but tbh they usually go crazy first.

If it is that it's a cheap part and a really easy change (at least on the octy)

I have no idea what the problem is mate but I don't like the sound or smell of smoke coming from the dash.

cheezemonkhai sounds like he could be onto something though?

Hi

Yes the hazzard switch was a very very common fault.

To the point that I used to change them on the taxis that used to come in.

I would say that he is right in the sense that the rlay would have burnt out.

Relay is located in the Hazzard switch.

They are not expensive and quite easy to replace.

All the VAG cars seem to suffer with this but all parts are different as the dash is specific to the car.

So you will need to have a trip to the dealers I am afraid , but the uprated part is usually the one for towing

Sarah

Thanks for replying, it has had the hazard switch replaced before which was done under warranty probably about 2 years ago, as was the indicator stalk, when it went wrong that time you could hear the relay clicking constantly but not flashing the indicators.

Is there an uprated more reliable part available then? why wouldn't that have been fitted last time?

What puzzles me most is the engine warning light and the strange beeping from the nav system, it comes from the actual unit not out the speakers?

Now the cars out of warranty I refuse to go anywhere near my local Skoda dealer due to the absolutely disgusting service I recieved from the day I picked the car up, so i'm just gonna take it to the guy I use for servicing etc and see if he knows whats up.

Once again, thanks for the info.

I'm wondering if the thing has shorted out rather than failed open and prehaps caused problems. THe indicators staying on would cover the failing closed not open. The smoke is worrying so I could be wrong, but I have once seen a relay smoke.

Mine failed open so things all went crazy. The uprated part makes a totally different type of click to the first one i had when it was changed, otherwise i don't know i am affriad.

If you can remove the MFD unit and check that I would.

The acrid smell is the flux from the solder melting probably, and yeah it is nasty, try something like neutraldol for car or sray and seel how much that helps. Nothing will really shift that that much.

I'd go get the relay changed first as it is cheap, but i agree it doesn't sound nice whatever is happening.

Ok, went to see my mechanic today, he went straight down the VW garage and bought half the switch from a VW Passat (i'm assuming it was the relay part of the switch as it comes into 2 parts).

Has solved all the problems, so it looks like its gonna be ok now, interestingly it does have a totally different tick noise to the part fitted before, i'd assumed it was because it was a VW part as it's a much more upmarket, softer tick noise, but perhaps it is an uprated part like you say?

Thanks for the help guys anyway, it cost me about £35 in total so I cant really complain too much!!

Mine had a nice mechanical tick, but now has a soft tick.

The soft tick is the uprated part I was told, so fingers crossed, and glad it appears to have just been somethign simple

Hi

That was what I was going to say.

It is the towing part , so it should not happen again.

Has it cured the noise on the cruise?

Wonder as has been said , it shorted and caused some other probs?

Mmm strange :confused:

Sarah

Perhaps the noise you heard was the relay playing silly ***** rather than the nav, the sound just appeared to come from the unit due to the proximity of the relay/nav.

It was definately coming out of the sat nav unit, the relay/switch is at the top of the dash on the Superb, It has stopped since the relay was replaced so I can only assume the faulty relay must have been causing some interference in the cars electrics?

On a slightly different note, If I have my i-pod plugged into the nav unit, and the power lead connected to the cigar lighter socket, you get all sorts of weird beeping type noises coming through the nav unit if you turn up the volume (in addition to the engine rev interference), the most notable being when the ESP is activated, the nav must convert the electronic signals into sounds somehow!?