Paul52

I've just found the details of my renewal at the beginning of October. For my 2013 registered Yet Elegance Skoda Financial Services charged me £188.18 with £100 excess and 10,000 miles/year - as my car is now more than 8 years old with 66,000 miles on the clock 10,000 miles per year is more than adequate for my needs. It works out at 50p a day, equivalent to about one third of a litre of petrol or 3-4 miles. For me that's pretty reasonable for the reassurance if any major bills come along they should be covered. (Actually thanks for raising the thread because I realised I couldn't remember paying for a renewal so it sent me scuttling off looking through old statements and e-mails and I was able to track it down. Well, what else is there to do between Xmas and the New Year?)

I've just switched one of my wheels for the Skoda supplied spare so took the opportunity to take a couple of pictures of the road wheel in the boot. As you can se in terms of diameter it's a tight fit, the floor won't go completely down and finally because of the boss(?) in the centre of the wheel you can't lock it down into the well with the large plastic nut. Mine are 16" wheels (rather than 17") with 215/60 R16 tyres so slightly larger than the tyre used on the same wheel for the Greenline.

"I just don't really trust it" and "They fitted a new experimental wiring harness and it's fine again. But unfortunately it has had so many issues that I have lost confidence in it, but I don't know if with its abysmal reliability history it would qualify for an extended warranty!" In your situation I would certainly be going down the route of an extended warranty (and a better chance of sleeping nights) and although you might get a better price elsewhere I would get the Skoda one. If they baulk at selling you one then I imagine there are a good few motoring journalists who's love a story about the motor manufacturer who wouldn't sell the motorist an extended warranty because they knew his car was a bad 'un and was likely to cost them money. If they do sell you one again you have the high ground if you have to claim and they question whether the defect is covered - "What guv, you sell me an iffy car then you sell me a warranty for it and when it goes wrong you say it's just one of those things? I'm off to the press" (or these days I guess the Twitter-sphere. If the warranty is outside the Skoda family there's more chance of everyone trying to slope shoulders and give you the run around. I had a car like yours, although in my case a V50 Volvo, and when it ran well it was a dream but every so often something would go wrong - limp mode would kick in and I'd have to crawl to the garage which fortunately was close to home, it also developed a vibration through the steering numerous checks and adjustments to wheel alignment and balance failed to fix and was eventually diagnosed by a master technician from Volvo HQ as a fault with the dual mass flywheel. This was replaced (apparently at considerable expense), I picked the car up and drove down the road to feel the same vibrations...... There were other problems and the car was in the garage, a main agent, so often most of the mechanics knew my name! Without the extended warranty I dread to think what the bills would have been. Just my thoughts but then I'm a renown pessimist and cynic so you've now been warned ☺️

I agree with CJJE and have renewed the extended warranty each time it is due - I think the last one was about £250. I've never had to call on it but have always taken the view that I can budget for a foreseeable £200-£300 each year and although I'm lucky that I could afford a repair bill running into two or three thousands it would make a nasty and unexpected dent in the savings. It all comes down to your attitude to risk but the fact you are even asking suggests you have real concerns you could face a major bill before you sell the car......

Kodiaqsportline gave some very comprehensive advice which seems to be in line with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 but you are clearly talking about a lot of money here and if it was me I'd consider getting some formal advice from a solicitor who should be able to advise you on your rights in respect of the repair being offered but also possibly on compensation for inconvenience and any out of pocket expenses, which might include his/her fees to provide you with the advice and letters to the appropriate parties. (I mention this because I had to employ a solicitor a few years back to resolve a commercial debt owed to me which required me to sign a wordy release. I had to pay the solicitor initially but it got added on to the debt). What you don't want is to try and be reasonable and then find that later down the line you unknowingly gave up your rights.

Yes, 80kph. Old age is beginning to show ☺️

Just a thought but did the problem occur just after the battery was replaced and if so could it be related - I know it's very unusual these days but a defective battery slipped through the checks? (Many years ago my mechanic told me of an owner who did his own servicing and had been going slowly crazy trying to trace a fault, replacing part after part at considerable expense. In desperation he finally took it to the garage. They eventually traced it to a new but defective spark plug put in by the owner as part of his routine servicing. Different plug, problem solved).

I've been on this forum for about 9 years now and it was invaluable in helping me to firstly decide the Yeti was a car I'd rather not live without and then to decide on spec. (and indeed what some of the options actually were) and it was through the advice of some of the earliest members I took the trouble to get my Elegance supplied on 16" rather than 17" wheels, which I've never regretted. Throughout most of that time there has been light-hearted banter, excellent advice and on many occasions clear disagreement about the "right" way to do things. But posters seemed to be able to agree to disagree and leave the OP to decide what advice to follow and what to ignore. You quickly learnt who "knew their stuff", for example The Plumber was held in high regard for his technical knowledge, Llanigram was the go-to guy for off-roading and had an impressive knowledge of legislation and there were others of their standing or close to it. I learnt a lot along the way, most of which I will never put into practice but at least put me a little less in the role of sheep-to-the-slaughter when the car goes into the garage for work. But what I don't remember was any unnecessary and sometime sustained unpleasantness - usually about something totally inconsequential. Unfortunately owners have moved on and, at least in my opinion, some of the newer members seem to think they have a monopoly on being right and aren't slow in expressing that anyone holding a different view is either incompetent or a fool. A couple of recent examples are the tirades being delivered about where to put the locking bolt (if at all) when the OP simply asked about replacing a rounded-of bolt and the "discussion" about the possible insurance consequences of changing the ride height and, by inference, handling characteristics. It's perfectly reasonable for a forum member to point out modifications can affect insurance and totally out of order to say that this isn't appropriate for a car forum. If you don't like any advice, don't take it but it might be helpful to others now or in the future. I will continue visiting the forum because there is always something to be learnt and also hopefully occasionally I may be able to help someone with their issue but I have to say that these days there's an increasing urge to use the "ignore" button for some members and their content. If this posting offends anyone sorry about that but I'll happily add you to my Ignore list as I'd simply rather correspond with posters who can respect the views of others even if they can't agree with them. Best wishes for the New Year to the many, many forum members able to participate in a sensible and civilised manner.

The supplied spare wheel is narrower than the usual road wheels and subject to the 50mph/80mph limit for safety. From memory if you put a standard wheel in the well the floor is a couple of inches proud of the cill and even if you fully deflated the tyre I'm reasonably sure the hub width would still hold the floor proud, just not by as much.

I had to replace mine when one fell off and was lost (be aware that there are at least two versions with different profiles although they are interchangeable) and I had to re-fix the other when it was in danger of going the same way. The one I had to buy was just under £21. They are held with double sided tape and the seal I removed, cleaned and refixed with new tape seems to be holding as well as the replaced on on the other side so as long as you are careful about removing the seals (Sticky Stuff remover might help along with the warming etc.) I can't see any reason not to re-use them and save yourself £40. The bodyshop may say they're not reusable because commercially the cost of removal and replacement make fitting new a better choice but if you are doing the work yourself it's a different calculation. This thread might be useful to you.

I'm sorry but I can't answer you specific question but I'm wondering why with the symptoms you list you arrive at a diagnosis of a possibly faulty brake pedal switch. What inter-connectivity would you expect between cruise control and the air conditioning/climate control that they should both be affected? It's been said many times on this forum that weird problems without a logical explanation often come back to a problem with the battery, which makes sense as pretty much everything relies on electrical power for proper operation. Could your battery - which if original is now 6 years old - be at the critical stage where in dry weather everything works OK but in wet weather the extra load of, for example, the wipers, tips it over the edge? Is it something as simple as one of the battery connections not being quite secure and giving imperfect contact made worse in damp weather? Does a spray of WD-40 or similar improve things? Have you checked the earth strap connections? Other can probably point you to where you'll find them but if you have loose or dirty connections that would tie in the problem being only after a spell of wet weather. These are only my thoughts and I hope you find an answer to your problem.

Does anyone else still on the forum miss the good old days when we had now't to argue about other than whether 16" or 17" wheels were better on a Yeti? (Of course really it was never in doubt that 16" wheels was the superior choice). Light touch paper and retire to a safe distance.......

Thanks for all your comments. I was leaning towards getting the garage that does the regular servicing take a look at it and your views made the decision easy. It's now booked in for next week so fingers crossed it's no more than a tweak to the alignment.

Since hitting a kerb hidden by mound of leaves a couple of weeks ago (which genius at the council decided to put a small island for a mini-roundabout in the middle of a narrow road without anything on it to warn of its presence?) my Yeti seems to be driving a bit "funny". Now this could be my usual paranoia and it's always been like this but as a precautionary measure I was going to book the car into my usual garage for a wheel alignment and wheel balance check. But it seems Kwik-Fit (and possibly others) offer a free wheel alignment/tracking check, which is tempting as there is a branch almost at the end of my road. Has anyone used this service and if so what was your experience. Am I being unfairly cynical thinking it might simply be the "special offer" to get you through the door to be sold other services ?

I changed to Cross Climates in September 2015 at 20,300 miles and a cost of £428. These were replaced with the same (probably "2") at 54,260 miles in October 2019 at a cost of £475. So the first set did about 24,000 miles and they still had a bit of mileage left in them. But an unrepairable puncture meant changing the front two and the discount on a set of four made it sensible to change all four together otherwise I think 30,000 miles would have been achievable, still with a safe (i.e. a margin over legal) tread. I've been very happy with them.

This may not be your problem but worth checking. When I had fumes in my Yeti it turned out to be an easy fix. On top of the engine three pipes each about 1cm diameter come together joined by a plastic "Tee" piece. I believe they are oil breather pipes. Although everything looked OK when I pulled the pipes to test their security I could feel some "give".There was a crack in the plastic tee piece letting fumes into the engine compartment and from there into the car. Having identified the problem a new part cost only a few pounds and took about 10 minutes to fit - I'm not much of a mechanic but the most important thing was not to let any of the broken plastic fall so slow and steady. I've not had a problem since. As I said, this may not be your problem but it is easy to check and you could then rule it out as a possible cause. Good luck.

I'm on my second set of Michelin Cross Climate tyres and find them quiet with good road holding in the dry and wet although I've not had a chance to try them in snow (we've not seen any down here for a few years). The last set seemed to last pretty well. I'd happily have them again. As one of the last of the 16" wheels club I'm pleased to say they are also significantly cheaper in that size than 17" 😊

Having the same problem with the strips round the rear wheel arches - one already lost and had to be replaced and found the other hanging on by a thread a couple of days ago. Thanks Truckbus for the info.

At the risk of drifting back to the OP several times my wife and I have taken the in-laws on holiday with us and this has included a Golden Retriever and two small dogs (small enough to sit on laps). This was in the UK travelling from the Portsmouth area down to Dartmoor/Exmoor. With some careful organisation we were able to stack and restrain some stuff taking up part of the boot leaving enough space for the GR to lay down when she wanted to. (With the height of the Yeti your shelf idea could work without squeezing your dog too much). A surprising amount was accommodated on the tunnel between the rear seats and on the middle seat (I didn't think to take it out!). I also had one of the smaller Halfords roof boxes. I fixed this at one side of the rails and fixed a stiff board with an end stop on the other side. The roof box took stuff in soft bags and a couple of suitcases were securely strapped on the board. If the weather had looked unsettled I'd have wrapped them in thick plastic but the weather gods smiled on me and this wasn't necessary. This all proved sufficient for four adults and three dogs and, surprisingly, the Yeti still managed to keep up a good pace on the drive down and back albeit with a few more gear changes than might otherwise have been necessary. Obviously if you went down a similar line you'd need to think about security for anything outside the car and not locked in the top box. Depending on how big your top box is have you looked into hiring a bigger one and whether the extra space makes the cost worthwhile? Might be a cheaper option than hiring a bigger car. Finally do you have a spare wheel. Consider leaving it at home, remove the various boxes and it's another good sized space you could fill; you could always take a tin of the sealant "just in case" and make sure you have roadside rescue if that didn't work. Perhaps if you can get it all sorted you can publish a "how to" guide for the benefit of others - with photos of course.😊

Just a thought but how old is the battery? Over the years there have been many reports of strange behaviours from the various displays that have turned out to be the early signs of a failing battery - in my case it was an air bag warning and and another one I didn't even understand! My battery was eight years old and since replacing it I've had no more warnings. (The tech at the garage did tell me there were " loads of" false error codes recorded on the system).

I'd second that having had to replace a couple of bits recently. And the other thing is with a Skoda dealer the onus is on them to order the right part(s) for your particular car which should eliminate the risk of mistakenly ordering the wrong bit with all the hassles of returns and re-ordering.

Welcome to the Forum. I had this problem and having found out that if it fails you can't get to the mechanism from inside the car - brute force on the flap is the only way in - I decided to replace mine whilst it was still working. It wasn't expensive and with the flap open it took only a few minutes. And I'm not the most competent of mechanics...... You might find this thread helpful.

My 2013 Elegance only has the then standard FM/AM radio. Could the problem be related to a faulty heated rear window? I only ask because some while back I had to have my rear window replaced and the "wrong" one went in. I only realised there was a problem because the radio reception was dreadful and intermittent. The screen was replaced with the right one, which apparently had a third contact, and all was well. This time of year with no reason to use the heated rear window you wouldn't be aware if it had developed a fault which might then affect radio reception.

I've just had to replace the tailgate badge on my Yeti (recent thread in that section has links to a couple of You Tube videos). It's recessed and I haven't got any specialist tools for lifting trims etc. but found I could force a plastic plant label under the edge of the badge and slide a screwdriver over this to lever off the badge - the plant label prevented any damage to the paintwork. The double sided tape left behind then just peeled off in one piece with gentle, sustained pulling. It turned out to be a much easier job than I feared!

Thanks gents, watching the video it looks like it's just care and patience required. For the benefit of anyone else with the same issue I also found this video, same process different tools. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJKEl6aaXVU