Hey folks - Ive been a lurker for many years having previously been an owner of a slightly temperamental MK1 Fabia VRS. I’ve had my 2020 DSG Scala 12 months and I’m seriously stumped by this issue and hoping for some help.

I went to start it today and it wouldn’t start at all. I had a flickering dash at first and now the dashboard messages I’m getting are:

- ‘Only leave vehicle in position P. Please visit workshop.’ (But it is in fact in position P)

- ‘Please move the steering wheel’ (moving the steering wheel doesn’t do anything)

I thought it was a case of a dead battery and tried a battery pack to jump start - no luck. Then a neighbour used jump cables to jump start from their car - also no luck.

I have ‘at home’ breakdown cover - and luckily a mechanic attended very quickly, but after doing some checks they admitted defeat and said they have no clue what is going on.

The car opens remotely but will not lock remotely and I’ve had to pop the cap off the handle and use the key to lock it - the mechanic couldn’t get the start button to even activate even partially to do an ODB scan. They said it’s not the battery and that it has plenty of charge.

I was told I need to contact a garage to come and collect it and they will diagnose it there and at this point it could be anything. Unfortunately at this time on a Saturday there’s no garages near me still open.

Has anyone had a similar issue and knows of a way I can possibly resolve this myself before waiting to get a garage to tow it on Monday? Is it totally fried?

Separately - I have managed to get the infotainment unit to power up but it says ‘start ignition for vehicle status’ and then displays a message to say ‘12v battery almost empty the infotainment system will be switched off’. The car is registering on the Skoda app and the health report is coming back as ‘all good’. Mixed messages here!

Any help would very much appreciated! Genuinely gutted I’m having problems with it as it’s a lovely car.

Will the selector move out of P?

I assume the mobile mechanic checked ALL of the fuses?

Are you sure it's not doing a software update?

Thanks for replying!

It won’t move out of P at all.

The mechanic looked at the fuses but said they didn’t know what they all were and didn’t want to mess with them.

It last did a software update about ten days ago. When the infotainment system boots up it doesn’t mention that there’s an update available or that one is in progress.

Reattempts to start the engine drained the battery to 11.3v so I used a ring smart charger overnight and did a 15min battery disconnect reset this morning but I’m still getting the same error messages.

The fact the selector won't move is probably the root of the problem.

Did you see the mechanic try anything like this?

How to manually release and unlock DSG selector on VW, Skoda, Audi, Seat in 3 steps

If you try this you might find that simply moving it out of Park and into N lets you clear the fault.

That's not to say it won't need to go to the garage as it might be a problem with the interlock.

Odd that the mechanic did not check fuses, it might also be that simple. OK it's a long and laborious process but a single blown fuse could be a clue. There is a workshop manual on this site that might be helpful. If you check fuses then make a note if you find a blown one. A picture on your phone will help a mechanic no end when the car goes to the garage.

Thanks Aldfort - I had a go at popping open the gear unit after watching that video, but my surround is plastic rather than metal and it felt more likely to break rather than pop open whichever way I tried to pry it.

The breakdown company sent another mechanic who has said he thinks (both keys) aren't communicating with the immobiliser. The current plan is to find a garage who have space to look at it first thing tomorrow morning and once that's confirmed the breakdown company are going to arrange for a hiab to collect it - apparently this was probably going to be only way of shifting it due to my tight street.

Thanks again for your help - I will update once I have an answer in case anyone else has this issue at some point too.

In other news - out of curiosity this afternoon I checked the MOT status of my old Fabia which the Scala replaced. Coincidentally it sailed through its MOT yesterday having done triple the milage I'd typically do in a year, all of a sudden I'm very jealous and missing my old car even more.

Be careful not to let mobile mechanics blow smoke up your a**e.

If the keys will unlock the car remotely they are communicating with it. If the keys don't unlock the car then the key batteries need changing as step one.

If you have to unlock the car manually then you need to hold the key on top of the start stop button while starting the car.

Get it to a proper Skoda garage where there is a mechanic who knows the car.

I have an update! The issue was a steering lock module failure which has now been replaced and my Scala is back up and running - apparently this is a common issue on MK3 superbs.