Paul52

Zenga, in case it will help anyone else in the future, did you find out what the problem was with the central locking?

Right, the good news. I've just been out to my Yeti and using the physical key the first unlock only unlocks that door, in my case the driver's door. The other doors and tailgate remained locked. If you then try and open any other door the alarm goes off! I then tried unlocking, re-locking and unlocking straight away, All the doors unlocked - I could hear the "bolts" click back and I physically checked they would open. This seems to reproduce what you have been experiencing and hopefully this says that all the expensive stuff inside the car is working as it should. Your post says 2009 Yeti. Do you have more than one key and if so do you have the same problem with both? For the sake of a few pounds I would replace the battery in both key fobs and see what happens before I started looking for anything more serious. If they still have the original batteries I'm not surprised they have stopped working, even the one that you might think of as the "spare". (I'm remembering problems I had with one of my laptops which wouldn't hold the correct date and time. Someone more technically minded told me to change the CMOS battery, a button battery costing about £2, which took five minutes and the problem was solved). Even if the key fob is flashing the battery may be so exhausted you don't get a clear signal from it. (This may sound like I know what I'm talking about; don't be fooled, I don't). Hopefully it's going to be a quick and cheap fix for you - a good way to start the New Year. Let us know how you get on.

My reading of your post is that both you and your wife will be sad to see the Yeti go - and having owned mine since 2013 I can well understand why. I'm now familiar with the sill height issue - my wife, who also has a problem with her back, can only just clear the sill and a friend who frequently travels with us once seated has to lift her leg for her foot to clear the sill. Whilst I'm not yet at the point of considering parting with the Yeti I have been interested in the problems you have been having in finding a suitable replacement. And this lead me to wonder whether it is solely the accessing issue or whether there are other reasons that for you mean it may be the time to make the change; after all with a 15 year old car that day will come. For me when considering a change the sill height will I'm sure be a consideration but also the driving position - the high seats makes getting in and out easy - and the comfort of the seats; I've had cars where after an hour or so a break has been essential to relieve back pain. All of this leads me to wonder whether, if it suited you, there would be a way to practically address you wife's problem so you could delay making a decision and see if anything else comes on the market that meets your needs. At the risk of seeming to have finally lost the plot (and some would say that ship sailed some time ago) would a low step help your wife in (and out?) of the car, something that could be easily stowed in the boot or behind the seat? The other possibility that occurred to me, watching my friend lifting her leg to swing her foot into the car (she doesn't seem to have a problem getting out) would be some sort of strop that would help your wife lift her foot without putting unnecessary strain on her back. Again, at the risk of being considered "different", these are made as dog tugs but the larger sizes could be wide enough to easily get a foot in and out and long enough without having to bend and hurt her back whilst helping to lift the foot. Realistically a new car may be the only option but perhaps something to think about even to help over the next couple of months or so whilst waiting for the replacement car - they are around £5-£10 in the usual places. If you do move on from the Yeti I'll be sorry to see you go but then on the positive side I'll be one step closer to being the longest serving member on this forum still with his original Yeti.

Hi Sally. Unfortunately the VAG sunroofs have something of a reputation for letting in water - I have one on my 2013 Yeti and so far I've been lucky but it always feels like "so far". Water getting in is always going to be a worry so I thought it might be useful if I shared with you some of the things that have come up on the forum over the years. It's not a magic bullet solution unfortunately but might help you to start thinking your options through. I'm not an expert on this (far from it) but sometimes it is the drain pipes from the channel that the sunroof sits in become blocked and this can lead to water into the car. From reading this forum it seems to be quite easy to clean these with careful use of compressed air or a thin, flexible rod to expel the blockage. If the cassette that holds the workings for the sunroof has cracked some people have been successful at sealing the leak with a sealant called Captain Tolleys but you need to know what you are doing and it's quite a long and painstaking process. Worst case scenario if it is the sunroof leaking (and you can get leaks elsewhere obviously) you have to ask yourself how much you are prepared to spend on a 10 year old car. A new sunroof fitted by a main agent is an eye-watering cost. Some independents claim they can do a permanent repair for a lot less (but still around £1000, talking to the one near me) but how effective that would be I don't know. If it is getting more light in the car is more important than being able to open the sunroof than there has been discussion on the forum about sealing around the sunroof (and removing the fuse to prevent accidentally trying to open it) or possibly having a vinyl panel over the whole of part of the roof. Finally, if you haven't already emptied the boot out it's worth carefully looking around to see if there are any signs of water ingress - staining around any bungs or down panels. Possibly over 10 years something has become dislodged or warn and water id getting in from underneath. Good luck.

Each year I click the link to renew this but I was wondering if anyone had used Skoda Ensurance after an accident and how did it go? Specifically are there any advantages to going through them rather than straight to your insurer but also are there any disadvantages, such a finding yourself liable for unexpected costs if the other party's insurer excludes parts of the claim? I did a quick search on the wider Briskoda forum but nothing helpful came up.

Welcome to the forum. The first thing to do is ..... enjoy it! Mine is twelve years old with close to 100,000 on the clock. I bought it new, never regretted it and my experience, and it seems to be the experience of most of the forum members present and past, that they are well built and reliable motors.

Following on from Austin 7 anyone that's been on the forum for a decent length of time will see posts where all sorts of strange electrical gremlins came down to a dodgy battery, usually one that's fairly elderly. (I experienced this myself). Before spending a lot of money I'd check the age of the battery - if it's getting long in the tooth think about replacing it now rather than when it fails (it's probably not that far into the future and in the big picture it's not a lot of money). Even if it turns out that replacing the battery doesn't cure the problem it's one critical thing eliminated and you can proceed with other tests knowing its a good battery.

I can't help with sourcing a replacement but I've just checked and mine is on the inside of the fuel flap, so you looked in the right place.

For what it's worth I bought my 2013 Excellence right at the end of the Classic run as I wanted the quirkiness of the earlier styling. It's the 1.2 petrol, has 90,000 miles on the clock and other than tyres, a battery and replacing the front shock absorbers (picked up as "misting" at an MOT rather than they failed) have had pretty much 12+ years of trouble free motoring. As you may have picked up elsewhere there are a few 1.4 petrol models around if you can track one down but the consensus seems to be the 1.8 petrol is for those with deep pockets. My understanding is there wasn't a step change from the pre to the post facelift Yeti, it was more building on what was a solid car from launch. One thing I have picked up from this forum, and I stand to be corrected, is the Amundsen unit in the FL seems to have more problems than the earlier Bolero so it's one of the things to look for when you are looking around but there's a lot of information on this forum and You Tube about fixing/replacing the unit. Although the car inarguably is getting a bit long in the tooth now (well, they stopped selling them in 2017) it's still a fun and versatile car to drive. Keep your expectations sensible and I don't think you will be disappointed.

As DogBook and I think it would be worth trying to take some better pictures to give a clearer idea of what is going on - I can't make out if the shroud isn't properly activating, has the jet become misaligned, is the jet partially blocked? Have you recently changed screenwash and if so are you getting more foam on the windscreen and rear screen? Is it only happening on one side? Also it can help to give the model and age of the car - is it pre or post facelift? This sort of information will help the more mechanically minded on the forum guide you towards possible causes and, hopefully, a remedy. What do you mean "it only happened after my full service cancelled"? Do you mean this has started with no-one else having access to the car rather than it being something that's happened after a service?

If that doesn't work don't rule out the problem possibly being related to the battery, particularly if it is still the original. There are lots of posts scattered across the forum where weird electronics related problems came down to a problem with an apparently healthy battery actually being not quite up to the job. I experienced this myself with odd lights appearing and going off at random even though the car started without a problem. For what it is worth, if the battery is either the original or possibly a replacement getting on a bit at least replacing it isn't a huge expense even if it turns out this isn't the cause of your problem and does mean you are going into winter with a new and hopefully reliable battery. Hope you get your problem sorted.

I bought one soon after buying my car - having spent a lifetime replacing a wheel by hanging it on studs it seemed a recipe for madness to try and support the weight of a wheel and tyre whilst lining it up EXACTLY with a small hole before holding everything in place to insert the first wheel stud. These should be included in the spare wheel kit (£1 each to Skoda buying in bulk?). Does exactly what you want when replacing a wheel. The first time you use it you'll think "Money well spent" particularly if it's dark and raining 🙂

There were definitely two different greens and it sounds like the one you saw was the colour that predated mine. I remember this because just after ordering mine I saw one one the road and really didn't like the colour so had to go back to the dealer and check that wasn't what I was going to get! 🙂 Fortunately I still like the Malacite Green, also used on Fabias although I've not seen on.

Mine is a 2013 Elegance 1.2 Tsi in Malachite Green. It seems there were only 2.2% green ones that year. There is (or perhaps was) one more car with this spec on the road from that time due to my unintentional meddling. I ordered my car from a local dealer but wanted the 16" wheels, which they couldn't spec. So, following advice from the wise men then on this forum, I wrote to Skoda UK's MD and asked for the smaller wheels. He confirmed this would not be a problem - job done. A few days later I got a confused telephone call from the dealer asking if that was right - I has two near identical cars coming? (And I'd only paid for one). It all got sorted and I hope the person that got "my" car on the standard 17" wheels has been as happy as I have been. Looking in more detail at the link provided about is indicates around 8% of all Yetis were green. Whether it was a more popular colour choice in non-UK markets I don't know but in 12 years of ownership I've seen very few green Yetis - I would say no more than three on the road plus I know the Goodwood estate had a small number (because the estate staff where very helpful with their advice when I was trying to make my decision).

Simple when you know how!! With a bit of effort the ring to which the tether is attached will pull over the fuel cap. The easy option is to buy a replacement ring and tether and just push the new ring back over the cap and attach the other end of the tether over the small stud by the hinge. When I did this I found the replacement ring was just slightly larger than the original - only 1mm or so but enough that it annoyed me. I removed it from the cap and pushed out the two small black plastic pins from the old ring, the same with two silver pins from the new ring (just visible alongside the tether in the photo) and put the new tether in the old ring, replaced the pins and put everything back together. Good as new and once you know what to do it's a couple of minutes work. Couple of minor points - the pins are obviously very small so would be easy to lose as you push them out. I punched them out using a suitably sized rivet into a hole bored into a block of wood so they couldn't get lost. The other thing is to work out which way up the end of the tether goes into the ring - one way everything falls nicely into place when you put it in the car, the other way it's awkward and twisted.

The rubber strap that stops the petrol cap getting lost recently broke. It was easy enough to find a supplier for a new petrol cap with this tether but as I only need to replace the strap (and the cheapest "sets" were all out of stock) I found this on eBay for just over £3 delivered. I think the part and petrol cap are common across a range of VAG models. My problem now is I can't see how to get the old ring off and the new one on as everything is rigid plastic and there are no obvious screws or tabs holding things together.. Before I use brute force and break something I'm wondering if anyone has had to replace this part in the past and what the secret is?

I agree with Scott 4x4, the first thing I'd check is the battery. I had a similar problem of a lot of warning lights coming on for no obvious reason ad because my battery was several years old I had new one put in. Problems gone. Over the years on this forum there have been a lot of reports of strange electrical behaviour being down to a failing battery. And if the battery is a few years old putting in a new one isn't really wasted money even if it isn't the cause of the problem - replacement was probably going to be necessary in the the not-to-distant future anyway. (Your English is fine by the way - I like that you've picked up "gunk" 🙂 )

Mine's a 2013 1.2l Elegance bought from new (with the 16" wheel "option" - if you argued hard enough) and it's nice to know there are still a few of us holding onto our now rather old cars - and still pleased with them. Like you I've not had to spend a lot of money keeping it together and, because I'm nerdy like that I can say at 90,000 miles with an initial cost of £21,350 and total expenditure since purchase of £27,820 (fuel, servicing, tax, insurance, MOT, repairs etc) that's £49,170 or 54.5p per mile. (Factor in it's present value of about £5,000 and it comes out at 50p/mile). I'd say that's pretty good value motoring. It's the longest I've ever held onto a car and the only reason I bought one was because I stumbled on this web-site at the end of 2012 where I read a lot of posts from people who seemed to really knew what they were talking about and this pricked my interest. But budget considerations, and a long history of estate cars meant I went to the local dealer with the intention of buying one of the last of the Ocatavia Mk II, which were selling at 15k with the Mk III on its way. But the Octavia demonstrator was already out, the Yeti was on the forecourt so with time to kill..... I really liked the Yeti but it was £5 over budget so I went out in the Octavia and after the shortest test drive area blew the budget. And never regretted it. Now, if I could just pick up that T 1 BET plate reaaaally cheap....

Thank you, useful to know although I hope never to need his services.

Hi Mellowmike. If it makes you feel any better you aren't the first one caught out. It happened to me a few years back - frightened me to death the noise it made. But a hint I picked up on this forum sorted it for me - to drive backwards quickly which, if the gods are smiling on you, will dislodge the little blighter and all will be well. Glad it was nothing more serious.

Resurrecting an older topic. I'm having to replace the locking mechanism on mine for the second time - in the last few days the noise coming from the fuel flap when I lock and unlock the car on the remote has changed and I'm not going to wait for it to fail; releasing the stuck flap with brute force and a screwdriver last time wasn't good for the nerves. Interestingly the first one failed in 2019, this one in 2025. As mine is a 2013 car this means for me at least they last about 6 years. It might be interesting if others have found something similar although I appreciate not many people keep the same car as long as I have. List price seems to be about £65 but I found one on eBay that looks identical and although it's not listed for a Yeti it is listed for a lot of VW and SEAT models so worth a try at £20 (new, not used). I've disconnected the wiring whilst I wait for the part to arrive and it's reminded me just how much force you need to pull out the flap and liner. Update. The part arrived and though not listed for the Yeti was the correct part. Now been fitted and all is well. For anyone with the same problem and tempted to have a go themselves (it really is easy an easy fix) to protect the paintwork whilst levering out the filler flap and liner I used a little plastic spatula used for spreading glue to get between the edge of the liner and the body paintwork and then slid a screwdriver down that to carefully lever out the liner from the lock side. Also a couple of layers of masking tape on the hinge side protected the bodywork against any scuffing from the filler flap as you remove the liner. Simple things but make the job a bit less stressful for the technically challenged.

"The wastgate flap allows controlled leakage to limit the boost pressure from the turbo. I wouldn't mind betting that this is repairable without needing a new turbo, though probably not by a main dealer". At the moment it is "showing wear" and the garage don't seem too concerned at this stage so with a 12 year old car and the way the car market is changing (and the fact I wouldn't know what to go to next) I'm going to adopt my usual head-in-the-sand-and-wait-and-see approach.

That's interesting, thank you, and could explain why it went flat whilst in for a service - just enough left to start it at the garage but too short a trip home to replace the charge so failed in the morning. Sometimes you wonder who makes the decision on where to save weight - the pre-F/L Elegance came with a 6CD changer as standard and I've lugged it around as unnecessary weight for 12 years because sat alongside it is an SD card reader that can accommodate dozens of albums on a single card. Simply Clever - well, sometimes maybe. I think a battery booster might have to go on the shopping list.

As I had the spare tyre out.......There are two plain blanking grommets in the boot floor and third one that looks like it might have a purpose but might also be a point of entry for water. I removed the loose storage boxes but two of them are bolted in so possibly there could be further blanked holes under one or other of those. As I have a spare wheel covered by the false floor the foam cutout for the compressor and puncture gunk is redundant. Removing this it sits in a stiff plastic tray set into the floor. If the bottom of this tray is open to the road possibly the seal between the tray and the boot floor could be defective? Sorry, these are only thoughts but might help - I know how frustrating it can be trying to find a water leak having had to do the same thing in the house recently. Good luck.

At the end of this month I will have had my Yeti 12 years and been following and contributing to this forum all that time learning a lot on the way. For the first couple of years every so often I'd learn something new about the car and its various setting and potential problems. On Wednesday without warning I had a severe shuddering, loss of power and several warning lights came on. Trying the usual thing of stopping and restarting unfortunately didn't resolve the problem (well, what is life without hope?) so 48 hours and nearly £600 later I got the car back from the garage with a new set of leads and plugs; the diagnostics, which threw up a whole load of seemingly unrelated faults associated with the flat battery of two weeks ago, cost more than the actual repair. But everything seems to be working properly again so as it's the first major unforeseen repair in 12 years I'm happy. Noticing the clock was showing the wrong time I went into the MFD to adjust it and took the opportunity to flick through the other setting to see if anything else needed adjustment. And I saw PDC with its sub-menus for front and rear volume adjustment. Now being a bit slow on the uptake these days I assumed "volume" as "space" - as in boot volume - and so wondered what front and rear volume could be and why it would need adjustment? And, after 12 years of ownership I now know that I can adjust the volume of the front and rear parking sensors! So can anyone beat 11 years and 50 weeks before finding something new about their car? (The garage also found slight excess play on the turbo wastegate (whatever that is) so I could be looking at a new turbo in a "two or three years" although hopefully it will last long enough that it will be an easy decision to say at that stage it's not an economic repair).