My Octavia TDi 110 just started to overheat the other day and the heater went cold. I suspected the water pump, and as it turned out I was right. The impeller was spinning freely on the shaft. So I replaced the water pump and the cambelt at the same time. Rather than to use the correct method of timing the engine which is to measure valve lift on No1 with the piston at TDC I referred to the painted marks on the pulleys and casing which had been there since the last time the belt was replaced. After I finished the job I started the engine and it ran perfectly fine, but the traction control light was on. At first I thought it might be because I had the car on my two post ramp at work and had run the engine with the wheels off the ground. Some drive is often transmitted through the gearbox even though it's in neutral, and this often brings on the ABS lamp. I thought the lamp would go out when I drove up the road, but it did not. When I got home I plugged in VCDS and noticed following fault codes.


Address 03: ABS Brakes Labels: 1C0-907-37x-ASR.lbl
Control Module Part Number: 1C0 907 379 K
Component and/or Version: ASR FRONT MK60 0103
Software Coding: 0021505
Work Shop Code: WSC 31480 000 00000
VCID: 3260EA81D4A9
1 Fault Found:

01314 - Engine Control Module
013 - Check DTC Memory - Intermittent

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Address 01: Engine Labels: Redir Fail!
Control Module Part Number: 038 906 012 CL
Component and/or Version: 1,9l R4 EDC 0000SG 3359
Software Coding: 00002
Work Shop Code: WSC 31480
Additional Info: TMBGP21U732691866 SKZ7Z0A1206237
VCID: 5CBC6439E6AD
1 Fault Found:

17656 - Start of Injection Timing Regulation: Control Deviation
P1248 - 35-10 - - - Intermittent

Readiness: N/A

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I cleared the codes but they came straight back, so I checked the base injection pump timing using the TDi Timing graph. I had done this several times in the past and mine was slightly advanced of the correct position. This time it was so far advanced it was off the scale. So a few adjustments later it's now back to where it was before.

Where is this going? Well it just goes to show what a difference changing the cambelt can make to the base pump timing, and that's why the fault codes were generated. The traction control cannot work properly if the fuel injection pump is mistimed, and the ECU cannot accurately control the timing if the base setting is outside the limit. I found out today that a regular check of the base timing can be very worthwhile, and worth checking if any other fault codes are present.

Hope this might help someone out there. Happy New Year to you all......