The highs... and lows of Ibiza ownership....

[eebeetsa]

No tbeen on for a while but im now having to take my ibiza seriously as, A) its giving me problems and B) i was looking to modify the looks and spend some money.

Previously had an 01 Puma, bit of a haridressers car i know, but lovely to drive, great short gear box. However i now have an eclipse blue Ibiza, MK4 03 plate, SE SPORT.

got 60 odd thousand miles on it and iave now had it for a year. Two weeks ago i encountered severe ECU issues, All the lights came on, power steering failed, revometer failed, engine pressure light, abs light etc all came on. Seat garage said i needed a new ECU (£700) as my warranty ran out i ahd no option but to purchase a reconditioned ECU from AutoTechs for £305 then £158 for seat to run a diagnostic and fit the ECU. Got the Car back a week later, Ran it for half a day and the Engine managment light came back on. Phoned Seat and they said "oh it could be a faulty sensor or need rewiring". I thought to myslef, hang on i just paid you to fix the problem and the light is still on. So im taking it back this week, and im not a confrontaional type of guy, but im sure not paying more for a problem that ive already shelled out for to be fixed.

Firther more, i put my car in for the front wishbone bush's to be repaired and a front wheel bearing, also the engine mount bolt needed tightning (all done by my local garage). When i got the car back, the engine managment light was off.... for the rest of that day. Started the car back up in the morning and low and behold, the engine management light came back on.

When i got my car back form seat initially, i called them to let them know the light was still on and was told to run it for a few days to see if the light woudl go out..... but its not. My worry is that if i run it longer, i will have more problems....

Anyone clued up on this? or experienced ECU or Engine management light issues.....

thoughts and opinions all welcome.....

 

[CJRamze]

No tbeen on for a while but im now having to take my ibiza seriously as, A) its giving me problems and B) i was looking to modify the looks and spend some money.

Previously had an 01 Puma, bit of a haridressers car i know, but lovely to drive, great short gear box. However i now have an eclipse blue Ibiza, MK4 03 plate, SE SPORT.

got 60 odd thousand miles on it and iave now had it for a year. Two weeks ago i encountered severe ECU issues, All the lights came on, power steering failed, revometer failed, engine pressure light, abs light etc all came on. Seat garage said i needed a new ECU (£700) as my warranty ran out i ahd no option but to purchase a reconditioned ECU from AutoTechs for £305 then £158 for seat to run a diagnostic and fit the ECU. Got the Car back a week later, Ran it for half a day and the Engine managment light came back on. Phoned Seat and they said "oh it could be a faulty sensor or need rewiring". I thought to myslef, hang on i just paid you to fix the problem and the light is still on. So im taking it back this week, and im not a confrontaional type of guy, but im sure not paying more for a problem that ive already shelled out for to be fixed.

Firther more, i put my car in for the front wishbone bush's to be repaired and a front wheel bearing, also the engine mount bolt needed tightning (all done by my local garage). When i got the car back, the engine managment light was off.... for the rest of that day. Started the car back up in the morning and low and behold, the engine management light came back on.

When i got my car back form seat initially, i called them to let them know the light was still on and was told to run it for a few days to see if the light woudl go out..... but its not. My worry is that if i run it longer, i will have more problems....

Anyone clued up on this? or experienced ECU or Engine management light issues.....

thoughts and opinions all welcome.....

I've only owned Ibiza's for 4 years now but the only problems I've had I caused. For example frying the coilpack.

As far as your concerned however you took the car in for repair and they've not repaired it. I would refuse to pay any more money. Or pay now and claim later take the ECU to a garage or someone with VAGCOM and see if it is actually borked.

If it isnt you can demand that money back

 

[silver surfer]

earth wires under battery and alternator wiring both been dodgy in the past

 

[st10587]

look in the FAQ as there is a thread about common problems

 

[RUM4MO]

I would think that your Seat garage have done what you could expect them to do - ie it seems that to save some cash (no bad thing in itself), you have taken on the task of sourcing a replacement ECU, and just used the Seat garage to fit it and clear other problems. For them to do a full all singing and dancing check on the car would have probably cost more, so they may have cut right back the time as soon as the car seemed to run okay. To be honest, this later fault may have just started causing a problem. think that initially you have either to do the job yourself or trust the garage that you employed to sort the car out. I've been there and been let down, but really if you can't/will not try to fix the car yourself then there is not much else you can do - if you upset them they may well take the line that they were only working to your instructions - so tough luck. This is what can happen when you hand the car in with some explanation, in your mind, as to what needs doing to get it going again, the service reception person will just write "it" as you have said "it" - I always try to aviod doing that now, lesson learned! Its gaulling when you know you are right and they make it sound that you are a fool though - tricky situation!

BTW, the fault light will come on when a fault occurs and will stay on even for about seven engine starts after the fault disappears. What you seem to have is an intermittant fault, but that fault code will be getting logged. If you buy a £40 scan tool you can read and clear the fault(s) and eventually sort what is causing the fault.

 

[eebeetsa]

joys of ibiza ownership

i get what your saying, and i was never in any way confrontational to the seat guys, just dissapointed that after forking out all that cash and the light came back on. as it happens they are quite friendly to deal with, but sometimes when they try to explain the going's on of the ECU it does go over ny head......

At the time of writing, the Alternator failed, in Seat garage now, another £200 odd bill. it never rains it just pours......

 

[Kimmsy]

hey, i'm having some intermittant fault but no one seems to be able to pin point where the fault it. my ibiza is 1.2 award 55 plate and after 3 weeks, driving home from work 1 night the abs light was flashing and beeping at me but went off happened 3 times on a 6 mile journey. next morning same thing and the radio was cutting out when the light came on. took it to seat garage they had it for a day and replaced an earth wire. 3 weeks after my warranty was up its the same kind of problem abs light flashing and beeping and the power steering light along with the handbrake light at one point, but after taking key out and starting again all was fine and working, past 2 days I've been to 4 different garages none have said the same thing. seat garage talked down to me thinking cause I'm a woman i don't know what I'm doing so dismissed their power steering replacement at.. wait for it.. £740!! my local garage was honest n said he thought it was alternator as it was dropping in power to 12v every so often but wasn't 100%. 2 others are convinced its electrical maybe the wire between battery and power steering. just waiting for fault to happen again so they can check the computer yet again!!!!

So all in all i would go to someone you trust and who is honest, seat garages try and get as much money as they can from you in my opinion, but choice is up to you end of day

 

[RUM4MO]

To the previous two posters, I think that I've said already that these liitle cars (Fabia, Polo, Ibiza) can turn nasty and destroy your wallet - I've been there and done that - but I'm sure that there is more to come! I blame all this on Skoda being given the reponsability to bring to market a car that was easy to build and repair - and cheap to sell - but it turns out that they can be expensive to own!!

On the subject of bad diagnosing work on power steering faults, it seems that you can or can not be lucky with the dealer, in the past I've only heard about Skoda dealers changing pumps when it was a sensor that was the problem - and now it seems that on mainly TDI cars that the alternator sense wire breaks and makes it look like the pump has failed - if you are not in the know.

I just feel that this will be my next big spend on my wife's Polo 1.4 16V - but the good old AC flap motors might beat the steering pump! Oh joy!