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Altea fan runs on
- Thread starter Tony Davis
- Start date
Reckon he'll say take it to a dealer. The board covers lay people and those technically inclined. Will go and find Granny and those eggs. You'd check for coolant but other than that it's the thermostat not cutting the fan out, my two pennies worth. 
I'd imagine that any business that's experienced and invested heavily on equipment wouldn't be happy to attempt a diagnosis based on a basic fault code scan presented by a customer.
The factory equipment often populates test plans and associated known technical bulletins linked to faults codes, that can lead to a more efficient fault diagnosis.
A fault code read is not a definitive diagnosis, it's a symptom of a fault. It's very rare for a fault codes to lead to a completely accurate diagnosis of a fault, with the exception of codes that state "control module defective", where a part is definitely in need of replacement. The "finders fee" is the initial diagnostic assessment you're paying for then any further testing required.
If people want to believe the garbage these companies that spout the likes of "diagnose your own car" "don't let the mechanics rip you off", who sell a £5 OBD dongle with basic functions with a huge premium involved, but they basically promise it'll save you £1000s and find every issue on your car, then they're sadly mistaken and any decent business will always want to carry out their own investigation.
The factory equipment often populates test plans and associated known technical bulletins linked to faults codes, that can lead to a more efficient fault diagnosis.
A fault code read is not a definitive diagnosis, it's a symptom of a fault. It's very rare for a fault codes to lead to a completely accurate diagnosis of a fault, with the exception of codes that state "control module defective", where a part is definitely in need of replacement. The "finders fee" is the initial diagnostic assessment you're paying for then any further testing required.
If people want to believe the garbage these companies that spout the likes of "diagnose your own car" "don't let the mechanics rip you off", who sell a £5 OBD dongle with basic functions with a huge premium involved, but they basically promise it'll save you £1000s and find every issue on your car, then they're sadly mistaken and any decent business will always want to carry out their own investigation.
Feels a bit like AI written. No Obdeleven found the fault in my particle sensor but I didnt fancy getting my hands dirty so got charged £65 for something I knew and YouTube video to fix for those who do car mechanics. Dad being a flying boat flight engineer operating between Sri Lanka and Singapore in the war fully trained in big engines, I saw enough of them on the kitchen table, block and tackle in the garage, house lights flashing with his welding.... so I let others have the enjoyment of getting their hands mucky. Those days you didn't have engine diagnostics. One of my other brothers smashed up cars at the Milbrook Proving ground. The days of seats belts, crumple zones, sensors on the dummies. Went onto bigger things... um things that go bang. Alot of instrumentation in those to get the bang in the right place... so yes I got no interest in car mechanics as such (what an admission) but the electronics and control systems. Obviously for those that do car mechanics, obd diagnostics they need the same as a garage to fathom out faults. Quite a few on the board that do their own car mechanics.
Obdeleven has also been useful on holiday diagnostics and clearing a fault. No need to find a dealer, just do a scan, see what it says. Clear it and monitor the reoccurrence till you get back from your hols. I am scientist so use the scientific method.
Obdeleven has also been useful on holiday diagnostics and clearing a fault. No need to find a dealer, just do a scan, see what it says. Clear it and monitor the reoccurrence till you get back from your hols. I am scientist so use the scientific method.
Or just call recovery since it's clearly not useable if it flattens the battery everytime you start it. I seem to recall in the dim and distant past the original Honest John had a similar letter of constant running cooling fans. I dont reckon much got recorded in diagnostics in Alteas that was the cusp of when all this came to fruition.
Or
Although my Altea was reliable 99.99 percent of the time it did have a couple of mystery faults. One was it failed to start for 24 hours although it had power to it. Dealer never got down to the bottom of that. He put it down to an electrical relay box, "relays" he said. Fixed itself. I put it down to dampness. The other one was the headlights came on, on ignition without turning the switch, switch turned to off. That one also fixed itself in 24 hours. Dampness one suspects. Had it for 12 years and these were the only two issues. Mysterious ones. Both these were not permanent faults so the dealer found nothing. Evident a diagnostic history wasnt in the car or they didnt look. I bought the Obdeleven when I got the Ateca so I could see what dealers would see if they did a scan. Think in the days of the Altea scanners had a couple leds on them and that was that. Not a diagnostic trace back as now where every malfunction gets recorded since you are driving a car controlled by a distributed control system with a log. The trace back facility was packaged up for the lay person to read as it is now.
Or
Although my Altea was reliable 99.99 percent of the time it did have a couple of mystery faults. One was it failed to start for 24 hours although it had power to it. Dealer never got down to the bottom of that. He put it down to an electrical relay box, "relays" he said. Fixed itself. I put it down to dampness. The other one was the headlights came on, on ignition without turning the switch, switch turned to off. That one also fixed itself in 24 hours. Dampness one suspects. Had it for 12 years and these were the only two issues. Mysterious ones. Both these were not permanent faults so the dealer found nothing. Evident a diagnostic history wasnt in the car or they didnt look. I bought the Obdeleven when I got the Ateca so I could see what dealers would see if they did a scan. Think in the days of the Altea scanners had a couple leds on them and that was that. Not a diagnostic trace back as now where every malfunction gets recorded since you are driving a car controlled by a distributed control system with a log. The trace back facility was packaged up for the lay person to read as it is now.
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VWG haven't used flash codes since the likes of the MK2 VW Golf, I don't think any Seat built under VWG control has ever used them.
I worked for Seat when the Altea was launched. The introduction of more frequent CAN systems being used led to the introduction of the second generation of VWG computer based diagnostic machine - the VAS 5051B, with it's predecessor being the VAS 5051. A windows based computer running VWGs software "VAS-PC". It produced fault codes, descriptions then test plans based on what codes were read. That was over 20 years ago, not much has changed in terms of fault code reading, only the complexity of the systems involved and the skills required to find faults when they occur.
I worked for Seat when the Altea was launched. The introduction of more frequent CAN systems being used led to the introduction of the second generation of VWG computer based diagnostic machine - the VAS 5051B, with it's predecessor being the VAS 5051. A windows based computer running VWGs software "VAS-PC". It produced fault codes, descriptions then test plans based on what codes were read. That was over 20 years ago, not much has changed in terms of fault code reading, only the complexity of the systems involved and the skills required to find faults when they occur.
Probably my dealers training at the time. Finger in the air. That Altea's electrical control box that costs a fortune to replace... they never replaced it. The issue went away.
The other issue where a different dealer super glued the turbo boost pipe on when the clip broke and it blew off gives me a dim view of dealers. The radio advert motto was "people you like to do business with". Nope. That dealership went out of business. I know what they did since they offered me that fix after the smoke test, after it blew off on starting car up and they said they had no clips in.
Two electrical faults that fixed themselves and the turbo boost pipe blowing off were the only issues I had with the Altea. Not a bad car for it's time.
Edit. Not forgetting the AC that use to pack up under heavy load on hot days. Solution was to turn ignition off, pull the AC fuse, push back in and restart. All was good again. That saved circa £600 on getting the unit changed.
& ofcourse the paper speakers it came with:
Altea Speaker Project
OK I said I would report in detail on my "Altea Speaker Project" once I got it connected up. I should thank Paul on Alt54 for his advice and replies to question when I asked him stuff about what he did. Paul said that you could replace them with 17cm ones but since I wanted Infinity speakers...
www.seatcupra.net
Good thing about Vag infotainment if they were called that in the day, 20 years ago, the amplifiers were very good but let down by useless speakers. Has it been 20 years... must be getting old
. 20 years later Cupra models can be got with proper branded speakers not unbranded paper ones....The Altea Sport had good bucket seats.
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