Mine is a 53 reg Fabia 1.4 16v 100 bhp.

What does this, taken from a fault code118 description mean?

" 17588 P1180 Linear 02 Sensor / Pump Current Short to B+"

My non franchise garage reported fault P1180 but their information tome only said something like refer to Skoda, so have Skoda special in house diagnostic codes, or do they use the generic ones throughout?

From what I can pick up it's an issue with your o2 (lambda) probe giving duff info to the ECU meaning when it goes through all it's self checks it's not see what it expects.

This is what I found with a little search...

The Lambda-sensor determines oxygen concentration of exhaust gas.

Oxygen concentration of exhaust gas permits determination of fuel/air ratio in the combustion chamber. The Lambda-sensor uses two electrodes to generate a voltage, which results from the different oxygen content and ambient air. The voltage at the electrodes is kept constant. This is achieved by way of a pump cell, which supplies the electrode on the exhaust side with the amount of oxygen required to maintain the voltage between the two electrodes at a constant level of 450mV.

To re-attain Lambda-sensor voltage of 450mV between the electrodes, oxygen content on exhaust end must be reduced. This involves the pump cell conveying less oxygen into the measurement area. Pump output is reduced until Lambda-sensor voltage of 450mv is re-attained. The component converts the current consumption of the pump cell/miniature pump into a Lambda value and alters the mixture composition accordingly.

If the fuel/air mixture becomes too rich the oxygen content in the exhaust gas falls. With a constant pump output, the pump cell then conveys less oxygen into the measurement area and the Lambda-sensor voltage between the electrodes increases. In this case, more oxygen escapes through the diffusion channel than is conveyed by the pump cell.

The pump output of the pump cell must be increased so that the oxygen content in the measuring range increases. This resets the Lambda-sensor voltage to the value of 450mv, and the current consumption of the pump cell is converted into a Lambda control value by the ECU.

If I have it right it means that your probe could be causing the car to either run lean or rich (If I am wrong someone with much bigger spanners than me will come along and correct my basic knowledge).

Are there symptoms?

Lambda probe failure is a common fault on VAG vehicles - I had mine replaced on my old Bora at 58000 miles (it cost around £100 at a VW franchise). My mate has just had the lambda probe replaced on his 51 plate Octavia at around 60k miles for a similar price.

The lambda probe or EGO (exhaust gas oxygen) sensor, is a small sensor inserted into the exhaust system of a petrol engine to measure the concentration of oxygen remaining in the exhaust gas to allow an electronic control unit (ECU) to control the efficiency of the combustion process in the engine.

Normally, the lifetime of the sensor is about 30,000 to 50,000 miles. Failure is usually caused by a buildup of deposits on the probe, which prolongs its response time and may cause total loss of ability to sense oxygen. The probe then tends to report a lean fuel/air mixture, the ECU enriches the mixture, the exhaust gets rich with carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons, and the MPG of your vehicle worsens.

In answer to Decron's question. Apart from warning light ...no symptoms

It could be a simple short. Have you tried resetting the ECU?

Sounds like there is an internal fault with one of the Lambda probes. I think that the linear one is the first one between the engine and the catalyst. The P1180 is a generic code and the 17588 is the VW code, so taking it to a VW garage isn't going to tell you any more than what you know already - it will just lighten your pocket.

You could get your garage to check the wiring to the probe, but I suspect that replacing the probe will effect a cure.