eCall (Notrufsystem) VAG/Skoda telematics unit dead

I wanted to share my experience with the eCall system not working on my Skoda Superb 3, in case it helps anyone else, since most of the information I found online was only in Russian.

The issue was that the eCall indicator wouldn't light up at all, it just stayed dim. This affected the MySkoda app as well. I could not turn on the auxiliary heating remotely, and the app stopped updating vehicle details, even though everything had worked fine before. Interestingly, emergency and maintenance call buttons still worked, if pressed.

I took the car to an official Skoda shop for diagnostics. They charged me 100 € and told me that the telematics unit (part numbers 5WA035282 / 5NA035284B / etc, J949 in the Superb disassembly manual) was broken, as it wasn't communicating, and would need to be replaced. The quote for the new part plus labor was around 1400 €.

While Googling the issue, I came across some Russian sites suggesting that you can powercycle the unit by removing fuse 17. So, I removed the fuse, reinserted it, and the telematics unit started working again, although it now showed a red light instead of green. So, the shop hadn't even tried rebooting the unit during their diagnostic session! It seems the unit was stuck in some kind of dead state and all it needed was a reboot.

I then read the fault codes from the unit and cleared them using ODIS. After the next power cycle, the light turned green, and everything has been working perfectly for almost a year now.

There have been some recalls related to eCalls (eg. and ) around the time my car was manufactured, but Skoda still claims that this is not a software issue although newer versions have been released for the unit.

Yeah, this is actually a pretty common issue with the Skoda Superb (and a lot of other VAG models too). The telematics control unit (J949) sometimes just freezes or goes into a "dead" state, and most dealers just tell you it needs replacing right away — which, as you saw, can easily cost over €1,000. We all know its always the easiest way to replace instead of repairing.

What you did by pulling fuse 17 basically "power cycles" the unit, like rebooting a frozen computer. That’s often all it needs to come back to life.

The red light you saw afterward just means there were stored fault codes. Once you cleared them using ODIS (or something like VCDS), and restarted, the green light came back and everything worked again — exactly like it should.

Skoda dealers usually don’t bother with this kind of reset because their procedure focuses on replacing parts instead of fixing them!

If it happens again, you can always repeat the same steps:

• Pull fuse 17 (wait 30 seconds or so).
• Put it back in.
• Clear fault codes
• Restart the car.

Also make sure your battery is in good shape — a weak battery can cause weird issues with telematics.

So yeah, before paying crazy money for a new module, always try this first. You did it exactly right.