The wife had nursed the car back home having suddenly lost most of the power from the engine.  It was the third such occurrence in the less than 2.1/2 years we’ve had the car.  It was bought new from a Johnson’s Skoda dealership late 2023.

Having called for help from the car by pressing the button with the spanner icon located above the rear-view mirror, I requested that a silver service van rather than a standard AA van be sent. I was promised attendance the next morning and the silver van turned up on time.  This call-out resulted in a breakthrough.

Since mid-2024 Skoda have made available a software update for the Fabia Mk4.  The purpose is to remedy a fault with the PO638 throttle actuator control – range/performance. It updates the engine control module. 

Without this, the car could lose nearly all power leaving the driver and passenger exposed to risk of a serious collision at roundabouts or junctions.  That’s my assessment of the risk level not Skoda’s.  It’s very scary.  I’m baffled that this hasn’t merited a safety recall and that a main dealer service manager wasn’t aware of this issue. The Wolverhampton dealership has had three since we bought the Fabia.

The technician did say that when a fault has been cleared, as was the case with our car, the service department won’t do any work on the car because they won’t get paid. However, the car had a full service a few months ago and one at the end of 2024.  I asked the attending technician about why the software update hadn’t been applied and the answer was that it would count as chargeable work. It was never mentioned.  If it had been we’d have willingly paid.

The software update took about half an hour and was done by the technician on our drive.  Such updates are not OTA (over the air). Volkswagen Group Roadside Assistance working in partnership with the AA provide an enhanced service with these silver vans specialising in VAG cars.  It’s well worth knowing about this service.

If you have a Fabia Mk4, and it may be relevant to other models, I recommend that you ensure that this software update is applied and that, if necessary, you pay for it to be done.

 

I'm lost, you have a 2.5 year old UK VWŠkoda, don't you get 3 years warranty and don't software updates come as part of a vehicle service?

12 hours ago, nta16 said:

...don't software updates come as part of a vehicle service?

The answer may be Yes and No.

The documentation relating to my 2024 Fabia's last service (carried out by a Skoda dealership on 12 March 2025) has two relevant entries. One says that the service procedure includes "Check for outstanding workshop campaigns" and (in the MAINTENANCE LIST) there's a reference to checking for "OTA Software update - if a field campaign is listed on the VIN (with the customer's consent)"

This 2014 BRISKODA topic discussed Skoda service campaigns and the differences between the various types of 'recall'

https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/337617-skoda-service-campaigns-no-recalls-being-done-briskoda-forum/

and there's a Skoda website for checking for recall campaigns using the vehicle's VIN code

https://www.skoda.co.uk/owners/recall-campaigns

I'm wary of the idea that - since mid-2024 - there has been a universal non-OTA 'workshop-only' ECU update that can (or should) be applied to ALL Fabia Mk4 cars. This is simply because the Mk4 range has several possible motors and (logically) the ECU will match the motor's specification. However I can believe that (since mid-2024) there has been an ECU update that can (and should) be installed on certain Mk4 models that have a major problem and the P0638 error code is detected.

I'll ask about this when my Fabia is serviced in 3 weeks' time.

Release notes for OTA software updates can be found here and I installed Campaign (03A9) yesterday.

https://www.skoda-auto.com/services/software-update-ice

I did not enjoy the experience and (for my Fabia SE L at least) I found the procedure a lot less user-friendly and informative than I would have liked.

To digress...

In 2015 I bought a new motorhome built on a Fiat Ducato chassis. Widespread problems with this Ducato's instrument-cluster (spurious warning lights) soon began to be reported and Fiat would replace under warranty the complete cluster ( £900 to purchase new) of any Ducato that displayed the fault.

It was also admitted (eventually) by Fiat that, for RHD Ducatos, it was difficult to read the speedometer during the day in low-light conditions. As a result, when the vehicle was being Fiat dealer-serviced, a software update was installed to turn on the dashboard lighting each time the vehicle's ignition was switched on.

My Ducato was LHD and not affected by the speedometer visibility issue, but, when it was next serviced, I immediately noticed that the dashboard-lighting update had been applied. I asked the technician about this and he said "Three software updates were installed on your vehicle, one of which was the dashboard lighting change". "What were the other two updates for?" I asked. He replied "I don't recall - the system tells us there are updates to install and we just let the the system install them".