mrski1

Seems slightly off the whole power to weight ratio thing, I have a Fiesta ST currently (looking to change to a Fab vrs) and the ST is not type approved to tow either, despite not having any mid range torque from the n/a 2.0 engine and the identically bodied Zetec S sharing the same bumpers and shell yet that can tow, if thats the case then why do bigger more toquey cars from BMW, Audi and Merc etc have no problem getting type approved? I had heard on another forum it was something to do with the ST being slightly lower, and the angle at which whatever is being towed was at when hitched up to the car. As far as insurance goes the best thing to do is call them, my insurers were quite happy for me to fit a towbar to the ST when I explained it was only for a bike rack, finding a towbar company to fit one on the other hand was a different story!

Very impressed with Victoria Garages knowledge and customer service, the car was dropped off with them after another garage had told me I needed a new turbo which I didn't believe, in an hour Victoria Garage had found the fault which was due the previous garage fitting a part incorrectly and the car was back running perfect. I would recommend going to this garage rather than the main dealer in Aberdeen.

I dont think I will be returning to Specialist Cars any time in the future after my most recent visit. The car was booked in due to a fuel contamination issue and had the fuel system flushed through and a new fuel filter fitted, I got the car back and had problems with it being very reluctant to start, eventually I had to resort to bump starting the car, I then put the car back into the garage for them to check it again. The car was returned to myself with no other issues with the fuel system, according to Specialist Cars, however they tried to tell me that my problems were due to a sticking actuator on the turbo and I needed a new one, at £1700 for the part and fitting, I did not beleive what they were trying to tell me so put the car to an Independant garage in Maud. After an hour at the garage in Maud they had traced the problem to the fuel lines which had been fitted the wrong way round when the car was at Specialist Cars having a new fuel filter fitted, the supply for the tandem pump was acting as the return and the return as the tandem pump supply, as soon as these were swapped over the car was running perfect again. I called SC and spoke to the service manager who to his credit was apologetic and offered to cover the cost of the work carried out by Victoria Garages.

BP just ask you to get it repaired yourself and invoice them, a few weeks later they changed their mind and asked me to send the receipts to their insurers, I did however contact my insurers and apparently I am covered for such issues as fuel contamination, I think there may be a possibility that some policies do not cover this.

I picked the car up from the independent garage, Victoria Garage in Maud, who took the car in to see what was going on, they started off at the fuel tank checking the fuel pump, this was all ok, then moved to the front of the car to check the fuel filter, what they told me made me laugh! Basically when Specialist Cars fitted the fuel filter, they had fitted the fuel lines the wrong way round, so the engine feed was working as the return and the return as the engine feed, the mechanics at Victoria Garage simply switched the lines over, found it started first time and took it for a test drive and found no issues, they even kept it over night to perform a cold start to check all was well. I then called Specialist Cars to complain and spoke to the service manager, and explained what had happened with the car and how they had made a mistake when re-fitting the fuel lines, he replied with 'there would be a lack of power and eventually the car would stall if the lines were around the wrong way' I informed him that the lack of power and the car running rough was the symptoms that their mechanics had tried to say was due to the turbo, he then offered to reimburse me the costs for putting the car to Victoria Garage. The work Specialist Cars performed had cleared the fuel contamination issue, but the mechanics had simply made a mistake when fitting the new part, because of this I'm very reluctant to use Specialist Cars in the future for and service or repair work, to their credit they did reimburse me and were apologetic, but I will instead use Victoria Garage who were extremely helpful and efficient. The other costs incurred due to the fuel contamination, should be paid back this week by BP, so I wont be out of pocket. I found the whole experience quite frustrating, it was bad enough that I broke down and had to change all of my plans, BP to their credit were quick in admitting liability, but I find the way they solve this a bit odd. They expect you to pay for the repairs out of your own pocket and then claim it back, something that everyone cannot do especially when the bill is approaching £1k or worse if more of the fuel system needs replacing, also the lack of help with regards to getting a hire car was disappointing, again I had to arrange and pay for the hire car to then claim it back, and for all of the inconvenience it caused with having to change my plans visiting my daughter, calling garages to get the car booked in, dropping the car off in the morning then having to figure out how to get to the office from there and arriving late for work, getting back to the garage, arranging a hire car, dropping off the hire car, taking buses etc, BP gave me a mere £25 in compensation.

Update! I have more information on this but will wait until Tuesday before posting whats been going on, but basically the car is now back working.

Another Update. I called another local independant Skoda garage, they dont sell new Skoda's anymore but are still an official repairer, to ask for advice with regards to my starting problem and if it could be the turbo, I also informed them of the fuel contamination. With regards to the turbo problem I got a straight no, it shouldn't affect how the car should start, he then began to ask about compression tests because of the contamination and if the previous main dealer had done one, which they haven't. I then made a call to my insurers who were happy for me to get a second opinion and out the car to Victoria Garage, it is now booked in for the 14th for further investigation. See the differences in opinions of both garages. http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/34814-victoria-garage-maud/ http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/34817-specialist-cars-skoda-aberdeen/

I feel my car pulls fine, even my friend who drives around in a 300bhp Leon Cupra was impressed with how torquey it felt when I was driving to the garage to drop it off. I need to contact the insurers to see what will happen if I have the actuator or turbo replaced and the car still has starting problems, would they then cover the cost of the work to the turbo?

Bad news about the car, I received a call from JM Accident repair saying that the insurance assessor had passed the car to Specialist Cars (the garage the car has previously been at), who then said they had already had my car in and that they had diagnosed a faulty actuator on the turbo, and that they could not find any other problems related to the fuel system. I told the insurance assessor that I wasn't convinced it was this, and informed him that the Skoda dealer had not replied to any of my recent calls to explain, he then called the Skoda garage who told him the car had an intermittent lack of power, something which I have never noticed, there was excessive vibration, again something which I have never noticed, and that there was excessive noise from the turbo, indicating that the turbo is on the way out. The insurance assessor was satisfied that my starting problem is due to the turbo and will not proceed with the claim.

I contacted my insurers (Tesco) who are now on the case, I got fed up with the hassle and inconvienience of chasing it up myself, an hour after the call a Tesco approved repairers called to book the car in for the next day, I dropped it off at lunch and received a call 30 minutes later asking for some more information, i think they are currently stripping the engine to see whats what.

I've just been out to the car to try and start it again, this time the low oil pressure light came on as the engine was turning over, it still failed to start.

Thanks, Is it likely that that amount of water in the fuel could have cracked or warped the cylinder head?

Well it cant be the glow plugs then, and I doubt that the garage removed the injectors or even went near the cylinder head, I will call the garage in the morning to confirm what they tested and how.

I will do, I'm starting to think there is maybe a lack of compression or somehow the glowplugs have been damaged? This has been 3 weeks now since it happened, I'm getting fed up with it now and think i will pass it onto my insurers to chase up. This was the ratio of diesel to water, around 1 part diesel to 5 parts water

Just thought I would make an update on how I got on with my fuel contamination case. I contacted BP's Careline and provided all the information as to where I purchased the fuel, when the fuel was bought, the amount etc, I also gave details of the AA report from when I broke down as well as the details of the visit to the first garage to have the fuel system flushed through, like I said in my first post the car was still not running right after this, so I also informed BP I would be booking the car into the main Skoda dealer for them to have a look. The response I received was pretty scarce on details, they mentioned that they would call back me in 2-3 working days once they had contacted the fuel station in question, in the mean time I called my local trading standards office to report the case to them. True to their word BP called back within a few days and informed me that the garage had confirmed they had contaminated fuel and that BP were going to cover the cost of repairs, they asked if I could provide them with all of my receipts and I would be reimbursed, at this point I also asked BP to provide a hire car not wanting to drive the Octavia whilst it is not running properly, the response was quite disappointing basically saying they didn't usually do that but they would look into it and get back to me. Again a few days later I received a call from BP, although this was not about getting a hire car, they wanted me to go through their insurers HSBC rather than just sending copies of any receipts to BP themselves, which wasn't too much of a problem as long as I get my money back, I then asked again about a hire car to which I couldn't get an answer, this had been nearly a week since I had originally purchased the fuel and was proving to be a big inconvenience. The car was booked into the Skoda garage for the 22nd and was dropped off first thing in the morning, unfortunately they didn't have any courtesy cars available so I had to get from the garage which is in the middle of an industrial estate back home, this involved a long walk and then a 40 minute bus journey followed by another walk home, luckily I wasn't feeling great and had decided to work from home that day rather than go into the office. The next day I received a call from Skoda telling me the car was ready to pick up, they had flushed the fuel system again as well as fitting a new fuel filter and had checked the injectors which they believed to be ok. When I picked the car up the repairs seemed to have worked, the car was running much better but I was soon to find all was not well, the next day when I tried to start the car to drive for work the car just kept turning over without wanting to fire, eventually after about a minute or so the engine slowly fired into life, once running though it was fine, I thought I would give it another day and see if it would clear up but this never happened, any time I tried to start the car it would just turn over without attempting to fire, this car has never had any starting problems prior to this. So again I called Skoda to have the car booked in for them to check everything, in the meantime I called BP's insurers to inform them of everything which has happened so far and to enquire about a hire car as I was due to drive a round trip of around 500 miles to see my daughter at the weekend, the response was again disappointing, they couldn't arrange one themselves as they have no links with hire car companies, but as there was no dispute with liability I could arrange and pay for one myself and them send the receipt to HSBC with the other receipts for the work on the car, so on the 26th Friday before I was due to go away I picked up a Mondeo hire car which was to last a week as the Octavia was going back into Skoda on the following Wednesday the 31st. The bills were starting to mount up! On Wednesday night the Skoda garage called to inform me that they had checked several things and they appeared to be ok, and that the car had started fine with them, they also ran diagnostics on the car and found no problems however they would keep the car over night and try again on Thursday, again I received a call saying that the car was starting with them, however they had found a separate problem that the turbo actuator was sticking and tried to tell me I needed a new turbo, I told them to hold off and went to pick up the car. That night I drove home in the Octavia, turned the car off, then an hour later jumped in the car to drive to Tesco, once again the car was extremely reluctant to start with the car just turning over and not firing, eventually it did catch and I drove the short distance to the shop, turned the car off and when I returned the car would not start straight away, I was beginning to think that the Skoda garage hadn't actually tried to start the car to see if the problem happened with them. In the meantime I started looking into the claim of a faulty turbo actuator, this appears to be a common problem on the 2.0tdi and the symptoms tend to be the car going into limp mode when accelerating due to overboost, or a lack of boost and power, neither of which my car has suffered or I feel would affect how the car starts, again this made me think the Skoda garage were either trying to pull a fast one with such an expensive repair, or they couldn't figure out why the car wasn't starting and decided to feed me a load of rubbish. On Friday I had problems starting the car once more, and yesterday was even worse, I couldn't even get the car to fire, it just turns over and over until the battery begins to run low. The engine is definitely getting a supply of fuel, as when I bump start the car there is a massive smell of diesel, but it just will not fire, could the glow plugs have been damaged with using contaminated fuel? I am going to call a local german car specialist to have it booked into there for a second opinion, hopefully they can figure out what is going on.