I had a spot of bother last week with my 52 plate Octavia petrol 4x4 69k not starting.

When I did get it to start the engine management remained on

It has been in for service and cambelt and water pump change for the last two days

They informed me of two faults from the engine management system

1. Engine coolant temp sensor Circ (i take that as circuit) High input

2. Connection charger-throttle valve pressure drop, this was reported as a sporadic fault

Now they have not sorted these as they were not sure that by replacing the suspected parts would necessarily cure the problem and they did not want me to incur any more costs in fault finding.

The advised me that the engine was running smoothly, and I must admit on the journey home the engine seemed to be running fine, quite responsive

Have any of you fine skoda owners out there come across these problems in your travels?

I was advised the the coolent sensor would cost 22 pounds plus vat and would cost around 90 pounds to fit

Is this easily accesible and a job for a DIY mechanic?

And just for everyone's info

The 70K 5 yr old water pump taken out of the car appeared to be in pretty good nick before they wisked it away again, an exchange pump apparently. But as they say 28 quid for a bit of peace of mind is better than another 300+ bill in the next year or so

The coolant temp sensor is a very easy swap and would take a few minutes to do, its a simple case of unplug connector, unscrew sensor and replace and reclip connector, 90 quid to do that!! Sheesh. Its located on the right hand edge of the engine facing the passenger wing.

Blimey £90.00 to fit , rip off

Try it yourself

Part numer is 059 919 501a 4 pin green available from all VAG dealers or GSF

Do it when the engine is cold

Pull off electic connector

Unclip horse shoe clip

Pull out old sensor

Put on new (preferably with a new seal costing £1 )

Replace clip , replace electic connector

Job done

If you do the job with engine cold , just unscrew the expansion tank cap and remember to tighten it back up

You may loose a tad of water but not much

I think somewhere there is a how to , may be worth a search

As for the intermittent fault , this can be cancelled and may never return , just keep an eye on it

Oh and yes , thumbs up for the water pump too

Sarah

And don't forget (as I did) to remove the old rubber O-ring. I tried to clip the new sensor in place with new+old O-rings and broke the circlip. Only 43p for a new one, but a pain.

thanks for the tips

I think the £90 might have been the total price for the part and fitting, sorry if I did not make myself clear

I will let you know how I get on with this, and whether it cures the engine management light problem

The logical time to replace it would have been when the cambelt and water pump were changed, ie when there was no coolant in the engine.

See the pic below for the location of the dual temperature sensor on the 1.8T. The retaining clip is 'arrowed'.

When I changed mine, it wasn't necessary to drain the cooling system and I didn't lose any coolant: When I removed the sender, the coolant just sat at the same level, just below the lip.

thanks for the tips

I think the £90 might have been the total price for the part and fitting, sorry if I did not make myself clear

I will let you know how I get on with this, and whether it cures the engine management light problem

If i were you i would have bought a genuine one off ebay for about £15 and fitted myself,its a very simple job and as will says you loose very little if any coolant.