Paul52

As the above. Your Yeti seems to be from the lower end of the range (in 2013 it was E, S, SE, SE+,Elegance) so didn't come with all the toys of the higher end models (or the price tag). If everything's working just be be grateful.

Mine is a 2013 Elegance so pre facelift and wipers and wash/wipe work when stationary and engine off.

I'm surprised you are having problems because I replaced my struts with SGS ones a couple of years ago and whilst I've had no rust problems one of them did keep popping off its pin (with the risk of the tailgate coming down). I e-mailed them, explained the problem and they sent me a set of alternative fittings which solved the problem and there was no hassle at all. Small Claims Court (I think it's Money Claim On Line you use) is an option and it's not complicated - I used it when a client decided having had the service he didn't like the bill. You do need to be absolutely precise on who you are issuing the summons against (I missed off one "Ltd" and had to start again with an additional fee) and if it is contested you may have to attend court which is time consuming but not as grand as it sounds as in my case it was a meeting in an office which could have been anywhere - very informal. If you get a judgement (which may include your fees) then you are relying on the defendant actually paying you. Mine didn't (it was for around £5000 and he was a property developer) preferring to just sit on the CCJ. Your option then is to get a High Court writ to enforce the CCJ but be very careful here. I was cold called by a very convincing firm of bailiffs, was persuaded to engage them and not only didn't I get the judgement owed me but once they had my fee became increasingly difficult to contact. In the end I took them to court, secured a CCJ and then received a string of threats about what they would do if I didn't ask to Court to dismiss. It turned out this particular company had a history of this sort of behaviour and in fact even made it to the Daily Mirror. The company was closed down but the director immediately started up another company I assume doing exactly the same thing. Apparently this is legal. The point I'm leading to is if you do have to go down that route make sure any debt recovery company or bailiffs are members of a recognised association - I believe there are two but don't have the details. And if you've read this far, there was a finally a good outcome because a couple of years later out of the blue I got an offer to settle the debt from someone I'd never heard of; I assume finally the CCJ had become an embarrassment or issue that had to be addressed. I think a (polite) registered letter is a good idea, good luck with making any progress with Trading Standards but for £40 I really wouldn't bother with MCOL. Even if you eventually succeed how much do you value your time?

I originally posted this in the Yeti forum (where there is a lot of content about leaking sunroofs) but the information might be useful to owners of other models. Talking to the garage where I have my car serving and MOTs done the topic of leaking sunroofs came up. and I said how expensive it seemed to be to get a repair let alone a new roof fitted. I was told they had fixed a few of these, most recently on another Yeti. They took it to pieces, identified and repaired the problem and put it all back together for a total bill of around £500. I don't know if that included stripping out carpets etc. and I was told this was the bill for this specific job and if a different repair then then the cost might be different. Of course I've no way of knowing if the fix was successful or whether it has lasted but if the repair hadn't been successful I don't think I would have been told about it. It's an independent garage specialising in German cars in Rowlands Castle (about 15 miles north-east of Portsmouth) and helpfully is only about two minutes walk from the station on the Portsmouth-Waterloo line. They've been doing my servicing and MOTs for a couple of years and last year did about £800 of work on brakes and front suspension. I've found them reasonably priced and reliable. Here's a link to their web-site - https://www.hallsgarageservices.co.uk/ in case they may be able to help others with this problem.

Just brought my Yeti back from it's MOT (2 advisories, a tiny oil leak picked up each year and some stone chips in the windscreen so not bad for an 8 year old car. I had planned to drop it in Sunday night so it was there for first thing in the morning but the weather yesterday was appalling and I decided with the regular reports of sunroofs leaking (and had a small ingress once a couple of years ago - just stained a small area on the headlining so I was lucky) it was better left under my car port than in the open in their yard area. I explained the change of plans and why to the Ashley the receptionist (who seems to know rather more about cars than I do) and how expensive it seems to be to remedy the problem and she replied that they had fixed one on a Yeti a little while back. Apparently they charged a few hours labour to take it to pieces, identified and repaired the problem and put it all back together for a total bill of around £500. I don't know if that included stripping out carpets etc. and she was clear that this was a specific job and if a car came in with a leak from a different problem then the cost might be different. If I understood her correctly they've fixed leaks from sunroof on a few other cars. It's an independent garage specialising in German cars in Rowlands Castle (about 15 miles north-east of Portsmouth) and helpfully is about two minutes walk from the station on the Portsmouth-Waterloo line. They've been doing my servicing and MOTs for a couple of years and last year did about £800 of work on brakes and front suspension. I've found them reasonably priced and reliable. Here's a link to their web-site - https://www.hallsgarageservices.co.uk/ in case they may be able to help some of those with this problem.

So Pixu gave you 9 years of faithful and reliable service and you are just going to let anyone who walks off the street buy her? How can you sleep at night? (Probably very well cuddled up to the keys of your new Mercedes).

Old Yeti topics never die they just fade away only to come back with a vengeance months or years later. My understanding was that CD quality was inferior to vinyl so really for the best listening pleasure surely a record deck and amp fitted into the Yeti is a must. Now there's a project. But not for me I'm fine with MP3 on an SD card. But then I'm of a generation where when we were young having more than just MW on the car radio was pretty neat and later on if you could play a cassette all the way through without being it chewed up you said a prayer to the gods of in car entertainment. As regards buying from Ama### my experience has been that when playing an Autorip CD or a downloaded album the time to the end of each track isn't shown on the display, just VBR, whereas if I rip the same CD as an MP3 it does show time elapsed and left. I find this strangely disturbing which may suggest I don't have enough to worry about in my life.

I'll start by saying car electrics (or increasingly electronics) is a compete dark art to me. But having been on this forum for several years one thing is clear - a drop in battery voltage can cause all sorts of strange and apparently unrelated problems and often one of the cheapest "diagnostics" is to have the battery checked by a competent technician or, where the age of the battery makes it appropriate, replace the battery. With car keys now so complex in their functions it could be that when you press the button it is doing things in the background that aren't immediately obvious. (It a bit like when you have a computer problem the best advice has always been switch it off and back on again - 90% of the time whatever was causing the problem has reset itself). So if it's only happening with your wife's key fob I think the first thing I'd do is have the battery in the suspect key fob changed - unless it's been done in the past its now eight years old. If it solves the problem a nice, cheap fix and at least if it doesn't solve the problem it is one thing you can eliminate. I would suggest just swapping keys with your wife and see what happens but if it is a key problem and you use the car much more than your wife you don't want to risk a complete loss of function and being stranded. If this is something that is happening pretty regularly you could of course both share the your key for a while and see if you still have the problem. If not you will know it is specific to her key, try a new battery and if that isn't successful buy a new key. If your wife uses your key and this still occurs even with that key I think you are left with garage bill to trace a mysterious fault change car change wife Unfortunately all three options could be expensive .

Can I join the club please? In May my Yeti will be 8 years new (how time flies, when I picked it up my hair was brown. Now, let's say a distinguished silver). It's been reliable, economical (for a car shaped like a brick) and very flexible for the uses it's been put to. I'd definitely have another for the same reason as others but with even the last off the production line now coming up for four years old I probably will just keep this one until it's uneconomic to repair or the parts aren't available. (Perhaps that's why Skoda stopped making them - once we'd bought one we didn't want to part with it?)

Hi. I'm not able to help with your immediate problem but seeing it is a 2011 car and we are now in 2021 it must be close to its 10 year anniversary, an age where warranties on lots of things, not just cars, can get "interesting". Clearly the warranty company isn't keen to spend out £3,000 on a car that's probably not worth a lot more than that. If you haven't already done so I would get a letter off to the warranty company documenting the problem and what you are expecting of them, whether that is a repair of the existing box (pointing out your mechanic says it is not possible) or fitting a refurbished or even second hand unit. I would also include a specific timeframe that you want this resolved in pointing out the problems not having the car on the road is causing you. Send it by registered letter requiring a signature and keep a copy of the letter and print off the delivery receipt to keep with it. (my practice is never to rely on being able to get it later "if I need it"). This way if the car passes its 10 year anniversary or the warranty expires you have it clearly documented when the problem was identified and you won't be relying on any emails or notes from phone calls and that should help you if you have to start a formal dispute. Sorry about your problem, it's probably taken the shine off what have been for many people a very good and reliable car.

I've got a 1.2TSI Elegance which came with 16" wheels (at my request - let's not go there) rather than the standard 17". The wheels are the 16" Moon alloys as fitted to the Greenline in 2013. The car came on ContiPremium Contact 2 tyres and when the time came I replaced them with the then newly introduced but well reviewed Michelin Cross Climate. I'd not been unhappy with the Contact 2s (I had nothing to compare them with) but the Cross Climates were a subtle but appreciable upgrade - I felt they gave a better grip, there was less tyre noise and the "ride" just felt better. I couldn't quantify any of these but when the time came to replace the Michelins it was an easy decision to replace them with a new set and these haven't disappointed. I only mention this in my usual long-winded way to say it might not be the wheels but the tyres that are the root of your problem. For completeness because my wheels were fitted at the original build the tyre size is 216/60R16. Whilst these might fit your wheels they might affect the accuracy of your speedometer; others will be more knowledgeable about this and whether it's likely to be significant. Hope you get it sorted.

You can only ask but like others I'd be surprised if Skoda came through. When I bought mine I bought the extended warranty, taking it from three to five years. The sunroof is explicitly excluded as it is from the subsequent renewals I've paid for so clearly Skoda themselves do have an inkling that all is not well becasue otherwise why exclude something that you don't expect to cause any problems? I been really pleased with my Yeti but the fairly widespread problem of leaking sunroofs has always been at the back of my mind and with hindsight I probably would have saved the (considerable) cost and not specced it. Rather worried at that figure of £3500 for a replacement. My car is coming up for 8 years old with 60,000 miles on the clock so if it develops a leak and "the fix" doesn't work my options seem to be transparent tape across the roof (or perhaps generous amounts of that nice silver stuff printed with "Skoda - Simply Clever. Unfortunately not Waterproof) or to scrap it. Let's just hope it doesn't come to that.

I also have the heated windscreen. Being on the South Coast and gratefully retired I don't actually use mine very much and now wish I hadn't specced it - along with the park assist which I've barely used once the novelty wore off. I don't like being able to see the heating element under certain lighting conditions and - and this could be me being paranoid - I seem to have a lot more chips in the windscreen than I've ever had with other cars (and that's after a replacement screen about four years ago, so not even the original screen and nearly eight years driving). This could of course simply be the shape of the Yeti and the angle of the screen - perhaps a more raked screen is less susceptible to anything thrown up from the road. I'd be interested to hear what others have experienced, particularly those members who have has Yetis both with and without the heated windscreen. Sorry, I seem to be hijacking the OP's thread!

I may be wrong but I think the need to accept or modify cookies is a legal requirement that came in a couple of years ago. Until then companies just downloaded them to your computer etc. and you were never the wiser. Now we are told about them and worry. Such is progress. But on a related subject the one that gets me hot under the collar is where simply to find out the price of something a company expects you to register, fill in name, address, email etc., stopping short only of sacrificing your first born (all presumably to enable them to send you lots of unwanted advertising in the future) before telling you either the item is out of stock or is wildly over-priced. My attitude is if you make it this difficult for a potential customer at the enquiry stage what will you be like if, having bought it, it goes wrong and I have to deal with you. I then look elsewhere. And back to the thread........

Depending on how long you have had you PIR lights this might be a good option. I've just this week put up a new PIR security light to cover a dark area in the garden behind my garage. (It's only taken me 35 years to get round to it). Deliberated for ages on which solar power one to buy before - doh, I've got power in the garage the other side of a 4" brick wall right where I wanted the light! I bought a NightSearcher Fast Star from the local hardware shop for about £20. It's 10W LED, gives 800 lumens, guaranteed three years and is ideal for what I wanted easily covering the whole area (around 4m*4m) with a clear but soft light more than sufficient to see anything going on and to stop me walking into things on the way to the compost bins but without it looking like a prison. The range includes lights in higher wattages if needed. I mention this modest DIY accomplishment only because I was amazed at how these small LED lights have come on in just a few years. (Tip: If you decide to buy the one I bought the sensitivity, time and dusk/dawn adjustments are in a panel on the back behind four screws, presumably to keep everything watertight. It will be easier to make any adjustments before you mount the light; I adjusted the dusk to dawn to minimum and the time to it's maximum of 5 minutes as with the default settings the light came on pretty much throughout the day and night but only stayed on a few seconds each time.

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I'd hoped that with the advice you received from others your problem would now be sorted. Have you definitely eliminated a dodgy plug lead? You say you have changed the spark plugs. Many years ago my now retired mechanic told me about a customer who was going grey (and into bankruptcy) trying to chase down a fault and had worked his way through the obvious and obscure options replacing parts as he went. In desperation he took it to Ron who started by checking the spark plugs the owner had fitted as part of a routine service. One was faulty. Apparently it was known in the trade that there would be small number of new but below-quality plugs in circulation all the time so garages routinely would test them as soon as they came out of the packaging. Problem solved. This probably isn't the root of your problems but if you have a friendly garage might be worth asking if they could test them for you.

"Well, what a considerate driver you are - as long as you are okay then sod the rest of motorists". It's not just other motorists, as you will agree if you've ever tried to cross a busy road, concentrating on the traffic, and cracked your shin into a towing hook. "You should be looking where you're going" isn't really an answer when we've got an increasingly ageing population and more people with less than perfect eyesight.

I've got a Yeti of a similar age and the 1.2 petrol engine. I know from that part of the forum the early models suffered from problems with the ignition leads - one of them ran too close to the engine and wasn't sufficiently insulated. This was a regular problem and was solved with modified leads and, I think, with cars from about the time mine was built by re-routing the affected lead. There may not be the same problem with Fabias but at 50,000 miles and accepting you don't want to go throwing money at it would it be worth changing the leads, even if you had to get a second hand set from a scrapyard just to see if it confirmed this as your problem? I will admit I'm not very technical so hopefully someone will be along that can give you better and more specific advice but I thought I'd mention it. Good luck.

Ah, the reference to the 100E and vacuum wipers brought back fond memories. A mate had one and in pouring rain we had to negotiate in an upwards direction a long and steep hill. The higher we got the slower the car got and with it the wiper speed (I think there were two - barely moving and not moving at all) and towards the top there was a real risk we would be reduced to a man walking in front with a red flag - a concern for me as the passenger as I'd be that man!! My own car was an elderly 105E in its 997cc guise but with electric wipers although the benefits of these were somewhat offset bay a whole in the passenger side wheel arch which a previous owner had professionally patched with a copy of the Sum and a tea towel; I discovered this at 2am in a near monsoon. The next car was another 105E in rather better shape before taking the plunge with a Ford Escort Mark 1 estate, less exciting than the Ford Anglia Alladette which I'd been tempted by from a "friend of a friend" which I subsequently found out was "rotten as a pair" and with an insurance rating for an 18 year old student which would mean I'd still be paying the instalments now. Totally off topic but what else to do on a Sunday?

Just taken a look at the puck for jacking (There is a specific polyurethane "puck" made by Powerflex: VAG JACK PAD PF3-1661 https://www.powerflex.co.uk/product-details/VAG+Jack+Pad+Adpator/13324.html which is exactly the right profile if you want to try and protect the seamsealer) and the Yeti isn't listed (or I'm going more senile than I thought). Regarding the jacking points, I would agree those little raised triangles can be a devil to see even on a dry day in daylight. For something so important you would expect them to be very obvious. From memory on my Volvo there were similar marking but on the edges facing outwards so you could see them when you crouched down to fit the jack, which seems to make sense. In this case "Skoda - Simply (Not) Clever.

Thanks e-Roottoot for reposting the video of the 4x4 vs winter tyres video. It reminded me of why I run on Cross-Climates as a sensible all-year compromise - I don't have a problem with it taking a bit longer to get up to speed every time I have to accelerate (I'm old - where do I need to get to in a hurry; except a bathroom maybe?) but braking in the shortest possible distance if it becomes necessary is rather comforting. Being able to go faster in circles - well, I get dizzy standing up....... (When I first started visiting this forum reading about the advantages of having a set of winter tyres on a set of steel wheels I must admit to having been tempted; my previous Volvo V50 was a nightmare in snow. But I'm glad I resisted as living on the South Coast I don't think we've seen a snowflake in the seven years I've now owned this car so that would have a been a lot of wheel changes for little benefit. I suppose it would have kept me fit).

"As I'm oldish....." Unless I'm much mistaken that's actually an essential requirement to be a Yeti owner - that and devilish good looks and wearing socks with sandals. You have to score two out of three. And back to the OP's thread.

I also opted for 16" wheels when I bought my Yeti back in 2013, based on the advice of members on this forum, and never regretted it - I find the ride comfortable and the road holding/steering excellent. (It always surprises me how, for a car so tall, you can throw a Yeti round corners). One "hidden" advantage of the 16" rather than 17" wheels is I found the tyres were a lot cheaper to replace when the time came - I think for my Michelin Cross Climates (which I recommend) it was around £40 a tyre although that was a while back so things might have changed. Lots about the relative merits on 16" vs 17" wheels on this forum if you go back a bit........ Don't forget your decision on suitable tyres might affect the accuracy of the speedometer.

Can I suggest perhaps it is time to issue an deadline for this to be resolved after which you will start legal action - if you are prepared to go down that route as there is no point making the threat if you can't/won't follow through? Presumably everything is well documented so you can show they were made aware of the fault within warranty and no-one has told you that it is a series of different faults which have been rectified but all unfortunately around the gearbox. Martin Lewis's Money Saving Expert site is very good with its layman's guide to the law but my understanding is that if a defect is brought to the attention of the dealer (as that is who you have your contract with) within the warranty period they can't later dismiss your claim because time has run on and the car is now out of warranty. It's important to remember that although Skoda UK can be helpful in getting things resolved to protect the Skoda reputation you don't have a direct claim against them. There's also some interesting stuff about only being entitled to make one repair. Might be worth sitting down with your paperwork and making a list of the key dates, what was agreed/diagnosed, by whom, what action was taken and the outcome. This could go with a letter (I'd send it recorded delivery) to the dealer setting out what you want done, by when and in the absence of resolution what you will do next. A summary of the issues may also may be helpful if you do have to involve a solicitor and help keep any costs down. One final thought, whilst a letter from a solicitor might focus the dealer's attention if you feel capable the Small Claims Court could offer you a way forward. I've used it a couple of times now for disputes and the paperwork is easy to complete (you can download it to have a look), you don't need to be represented by a solicitor either in court or to prepare the application - and in fact the guidance suggests this should be avoided if possible - and it's cheap; making an application to the court costs around £80 from memory. The hearings I've attended were in small conference rooms with just the judge, myself and a couple of defendants. Even if you lose provided the case was "reasonable" (as this would seem to be, it's not premature, frivolous or vindictive) it's extremely unlikely either side would be awarded costs against the other so all you'd be risking would be your time and court fees. If you got a judgement in your favour then you will have a CCJ against the dealer and then if necessary this can then be enforced by High Court Sheriffs - there is a small fee to have the case transferred to the High Court and Sheriff fees but you should get that back. Sheriffs (I think they are now called High Court Enforcement Officers) have additional powers over bailiffs including being able to enter commercial premises to seize goods. I suspect you wouldn't need to go that far - a solicitor's letter and possibly filing an application to the court should get their attention; no reputable business wants to find itself in court with an unhappy customer with the attendant bad publicity. If you do decide to file an application I would get two or three estimates to have the work done elsewhere and ask for a judgement for either the work to be completed by a specific date or the cost of having the work done elsewhere including any incidentals, such as rental car - if you don't ask it won't be in the Court Order. Good luck. (I should make clear I'm not a legal professional just a stroppy b*****d whose had to learn the hard way).