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2012 Yeti Manual Diesel Engine Cuts Out / Battery Dies Frequently - Scary

4K views 32 replies 11 participants last post by  SnowGood 
#1 ·
I just got a 2012 Yeti Ambition 2.0tdi 110 manual transmission from a used car dealership. My first diesel. I saw people on this forum talking about how diesel Yetis are very particular with their revs and gears so I didn't think much about it at first, but now I'm a bit worried.

I've had the car for about a week and a half. Right when leaving the dealership and merging onto a roundabout / then onto the highway, engine cut out. It's not really a stall per se, there's no CLUNK and a hard stop. But rather the engine just shuts off, and what I see on the dashboard is the BATTERY light illuminated. Then later that day, stopped at a stoplight, put car in neutral, and then lifted foot off the clutch. And same thing. Engine off. Battery light on. Like battery dies (but radio, etc stay on)

Then nothing happened for about a week, until yesterday going about 55mph on the highway, the same thing happened. I was changing gears but I was between 3 or 4 it seems. super scary. Cars going fast all around me and I had to restart the engine while the car was cruising.

Could this be user error/adjusting my driving style, or does this sound like a mechanical problem? It's just weird to me that the battery light would come on, does anyone else experience this when the engine cuts out?
 
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#2 ·
Have you checked the resting voltage of the battery?
I very much doubt if it's caused by your driving style.
Does the car always stop or just reduce power and revs?
Is the battery light red or amber?
Why did you not return to the garage when it first did it?
 
#3 ·
Thanks for your response!

I'm going to answer as best as possible, but I'm quite a newbie in terms of car terminology so please bear with me.

  • Have not checked resting voltage, how does one do that?
  • The car never lurches to a stop, the revs just lower and the car kind of coasts/cruises until I depress clutch and restart the ignition
  • The battery light is red
  • I didn't return it because I thought it was just a standard stall/clutch issue on my end. I've been driving for 10 years but only have driven manual transmission for 2-3 years (I'm from the USA and moved to Spain) so I'm not an expert manual driver. When it first happened I was approaching a roundabout and I thought it was just because I was releasing the clutch too fast or not properly revving. Plus reading online about people having similar issues with their Yetis at roundabouts & junctions, how the engine cuts out at a certain low rev speed to "protect itself.." I thought I just had to adjust my driving style. But then what happened on the highway really scared me (I was also downshifting though, it always happens with downshifting it seems...) I do have a 1-year warranty though and plan on taking it back if this continues.
 
#4 ·
You need to take the car straight back to the dealer as it is unsafe. If you stall the car it will be noticeable with a thud or clunk, if you take the revs too low the engine will clatter. If the engine dies of it's own accord the dealer needs to fix it or refund your money that is certainly not normal.
In this country you would be covered by consumer law, the vehicle is not of merchantable quality or fit for purpose, I would have thought the E.U. would have similar laws.
 
#5 ·
Thanks for your response. Yeah it definitely seemed a bit surprising. I've stalled on several cars so I know what a stall feels like. I was just convinced that it was the engine "protecting itself" by shutting off as I've seen on many yeti posts in different forums. But then realizing the battery light was coming on seemed abnormal.... Aghhh. Back to the dealer next week then
 
#9 ·
My understanding is that the only role of the battery light is to indicate when the battery is being discharged, and that is absolutely normal that the battery light would illuminate whenever the engine is not running.

I think that is what The Hood is getting at with his question above ... if it illumimates when the engine is running, then there is likely a problem with the charging system at the very least.

If I was in the OP's position, I would take the car straight back to the dealer.
Not knowing how to check the resting battery voltage makes me doubt that you could diagnose and fix this in a reasonable timeframe, even with help from forum members.
I am certainly not saying that in a condescending way, just being pragmatic.

The biggest problem you may face in trying to get this fixed is that it appears to be an intermittent problem, which are usually a pain to diagnose. It's as if cars can tell when a mechanic is in the car, and they behave impeccably!


Regarding the battery voltage...
The easiest way for the OP to personally check the battery voltage would be to buy a voltmeter that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket.
Purchasing a cheap multimeter would be better (by cheap, I mean €10 or €15), as that is a much more flexible device that can be used in the future for many other things.

"Resting battery voltage" means the voltage across the battery terminals a good few hours after the engine last ran. For example, waiting overnight before measuring it.
 
#10 ·
As in #4 take it back to the dealer he will carry out a scan of the ECU to see if there are any stored fault codes. If he does find some that should help things, if he does not expect him to say there is nothing wrong with the car and you may have a bit of a fight on your hands to get him to do what he should.
 
#15 ·
Forums I have read where something (supposedly) similar has been discussed. A lot of answers here talk about the engine "protecting itself", like in this answer from diesel stalls at low speeds: "But it isn't stalling. The engine is deliberately being stopped to prevent damage as the revs are too low, so this is a good thing and protecting the engine."

Thought this was maybe my issue but I guess not:




Actually Flinstone & The Hood, have seen some of your responses in some of these forums! You are the pros. I'm totally dumb when it comes to car stuff so I'm doin' my very best
 
#16 ·
Hi again all. Took the car back to the dealership early this week and explained everything that happened, the fact that this issue didn't appear again for 3 weeks and then suddenly came back 4 days in a row. They did the same thing, ran the machine for error codes and once again "didn't find any error codes"... I basically begged them to take the car to Škoda and have them check it, so the car is with Škoda now. The dealership is honestly being really annoying about this and are giving me pushback, acting like this is a problem caused by me rather than the car being unsafe.

I'm just wondering, if Škoda comes back and also says "nothing is wrong" I will probably just screw it and go see another mechanic, at least to get an opinion.

What would you ask a mechanic to look for? Could it be emissions fix? IAC? Dirty fuel tank? Air getting into fuel? Just wondering what I could maybe ask a mechanic to look for.
 
#17 ·
I have personally never experienced symptoms like those described. Not with a diesel engine anyway. Only with old, carburettor fed petrol engines that had the idle speed set too low.

Does the engine idle normally when stationary? At a very steady 750-800 rpm.

Possible causes like intermittently low fuel pressure or partially blocked injector(s), should be expected to generate fault codes.

So I have no further advice to offer.
 
#18 ·
I have personally never experienced symptoms like those described. Not with a diesel engine anyway. Only with old, carburettor fed petrol engines that had the idle speed set too low.

Does the engine idle normally when stationary? At a very steady 750-800 rpm.

Possible causes like intermittently low fuel pressure or partially blocked injector(s), should be expected to generate fault codes.

So I have no further advice to offer.
No worries! I appreciate you thinking of what you can. This has been of great help.

In general the engine idles normally around 800. The day I took it to the dealer, the RPM needle jiggled a little bit between 800-1000, which seemed weird to me and has also happened a few times right before the engine cuts out.

I'm hoping perhaps Škoda has seen an issue like this before on a different model and can more easily pin it down. I was also thinking it might be an electrical issue. But I do agree, most of these issues would generate codes, so I don't know what else to tell them to look for.

Will update again soon
Thank you!!
 
#21 ·
A lil update. Still no solutions. Kinda at a loss.

They took it to the škoda shop, it was there for 2 weeks. They changed the injectors and "reprogrammed" the whole car. I took it for a drive the day they gave it back to me and it felt amazing, honestly drove super well. through the mountains and all.

Then it started again. 3 days in a row with at least 15 engine cut outs. I've kinda pinpointed it. It only happens when clutch is depressed and the car is moving (if I'm in first gear going really slowly for example, or in bumper to bumper traffic, or approaching a stop light), or when the car is put into neutral - either when moving slowly (also approaching stoplight for example) or when fully stopped. And now when I restart the car, sometimes it doesn't even fully restart. The RPM needle just jiggles around and goes crazy, and then drops back to zero, battery light turns on, and the same thing happens.

The dealer SWEARS this is my issue, but it's clear it's not. my driving style doesn't change from day to day. I can drive my partner's car and this doesn't happen. They gave me a loaner car and This doesn't happen either. It's just my yeti.

I was told by the very nice man who worked at the rental place that loaned me the car, that maybe it could be the CKP or the CMP. Not even sure what those are. But it's clear it's something with either idle, RPM, etc...

Any ideas what I could tell dealer to look for? I'm so exhausted of this. Love the yeti but might have to figure out a way to give this car back to them and get my money back
 
#22 ·
If it happens regularly, would you be able to get it examined by an independent engineer who would produce a report?

Then depending on his findings, it might help the dealer fix it, or prove what is needed to return the car to the seller or take them to court. There is always the chance of this being the reason the previous owner got rid of it.
 
#25 ·
At any point during this saga, has the electrical earth cable been checked or preferably replaced? The cable between the car's body frame to the engine/gearbox assembly. (NOT the battery terminal to body frame earth cable - those are usually fine).
 
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#26 ·
I'm not sure. Since I'm in Spain a lot of these terms go over my head in Spanish as well which makes things even more difficult. I am near fluent but not in car talk 😂 Even in English I'm like, "huh?" when it comes to the names of all these parts.

Tomorrow i'll get a second opinion at least by phone. My mother in law's cousin is a mechanic. I'll do my best to explain to him what's happening and see if he can point me in the right direction
 
#29 ·
Ask them if they know a proper mechanic ... one who doesn't have to rely on a computer to tell him how to do his job.

In your position, I would be getting near to the point of returning the car and asking for my money back.
They've had plenty of opportunities to fix it, but have been unable to do so.
 
#30 ·
I'm intrigued why the Skoda garage would change the injectors. Was this just a random 'lets see if this works' activity, or was there a definite reason for doing this? Just about any condition that would cause an injector to fail or not be working properly will generate either an error code or an out-of-spec parameter that should show up. The same with any other failure of any kind. If there's no stored code I would expect them to log certain parameters while the car was run and then review the data to give a clue to what's going on. Apart from the manufacturer 's diagnostics, there are data logging scopes such as PicoScope that show an additional level of diagnostic information.
 
#31 ·
Hi everyone it's been a WHILE, I just wanted to update in case anyone finds this thread later on. After months of back and forth, I finally told them I wouldn't take the car back till they found the issue, and to stop using the excuse of no error codes as a reason to not actually open up the car and take a look.

Turns out the injector pump was totally malfunctioning and needed a full replacement. They replaced it and the car runs perfectly. Haven't had any issues.

Definitely can tell the Yeti likes high revs, I am often in 4th gear even when going relatively fast, cause I can tell it gets bogged down in 5th easily. Other than this, I LOVE MY YETI.

This has been a learning experience. Customer service in Spain is pretty disastrous. Literally had to fight them and stand my ground just to get them to inspect the mechanics of the car and actually find the issue.
 
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