guineapig

Managed to get a printed list of the Service and warranty work from the dealers today - a lot easier that I thought it would be. And it had the correct dates and mileage on there as well - no idea what Skoda Customer Services have got stored about the car. Skoda Finance weren’t too helpful though - didn’t understand the concept of the car not having a service book initially ( well, for the first 15 minutes of the call) and then told me not to worry about the letter stating that a lack of service book would,be charged at £400 Was promised an email stating that I won’t need a Service Book or printout of the Service History, but 11 hours later and I still haven’t received one - mind, the customer service advisor was very reluctant to commit what he was saying in writing......didn’t inspire any confidence me. Shame it’s come to this - having to return the car as it’s regenerating the DPF every 120-150 Miles ( it does 55 Miles a day on average) and it becomes a pig to drive when it’s regenerating ( they all do that sir - even the surging), the water pump issue ( wasn’t aware of the issue until I read it on here) that they’d ‘never seen’ before, the rattling passenger door and the non working lock ( took me a while to find that one), failed door seals (still waiting for a call to get them replaced), creaking dashboard and the clunking suspension that no one can find the fault with. I'm guessing that it was a Friday afternoon car - all of my other Skodas have been fine. :-( Anyone had any experience of the BCA inspection? What should I expect?

Cheers! Not sure how far I’ll get with the dealer and details of the services as they’ve gone seriously downhill in the past year or so, but I’m hoping that they’ll be able to read the miles left until service on the car and work backwards from there. I had a look at the Skoda finance website and the copy of the BVLRA fair wear and tear booklet states to include ‘....service book if provided’ which I’m taking to mean just that. The booklet also states at the bottom that VW have a licence to use the booklet etc until December 2017, so I’m going to presume that ‘ no service book provided, means no need to provide one to BCA’. Could they argue that point? After all, it didn’t come with the car, so I shouldn’t need to provide one.

Hi all, I’m about to return my MKIII Fabia 1.4 TDi by way of a Voluntary Termination of the PCP agreement, but the letter I received states that I need to produce a Service Book - something that Skodas haven’t come with for a few years now. Has anyone had any experience of this and how was the lack of service book dealt with? I’ve been in touch with Customer Services who weren’t much help, but did manage to tell me the service dates of the car ( which I knew anyway). This is where the whole electronic service record starts to fall to bits as Skoda have got me down as having a Service in March 2016 for the 10,000 mile service and also another service in April 2016 with exactly the same mileage as opposed to 1in 2017 at 19,800 Miles. (And I’m being asked why I’m not buying another new Skoda!) I questioned this with Customer service and they said that was what was recorded..... The incorrect service record worries me quite a bit, but I can’t seem to get any answers as to whether I need to produce a Service History ( surely Skoda should be aware their own cars don’t have a physical history book) and how I’m going to explain to BCA when they do the inspection that the dealership recorded the service details incorrectly. Thanks in advance!

Good point! :-D Service wise, the car as had all Services bar the last one at a dealer. The last one was done at the independent Garage along with its last MOT. Im going for another look and Saturday, so all the information given here should be invaluable in checking it out. I’ll probably pop into the dealers to see if they have any details of warranty work on the car if they’ll give it to me.

Thanks Xman - would a change of timing chain / goodwill apply to the car even though it’s 6 years old and bought privately? I was originally going to take the car to an independent mechanic (deals a lot with Skodas) to get this done / looked at, but would it be worth dropping it into the local Skoda dealership? might have to go further afield as this will be the first car I haven’t bought off them for a good 10 years or so.

Beat me to it! Dropped the VIN number into the website today and nothing came up. Had another thought today about the car - the budget that I have can possibly stretch to one of those warranties that you can buy for second hand cars and this got me thinking- would it cover me if anything did go wrong? Has anyone has any experience of these warranties? Spent a bit of time studying the small print and one of them, with the exception of the cam chain tensioner, will cover the cam chain and associated gear mechanism as well as loads of other stuff. i could probably stretch to get one, which would still make the car a good deal, even with the extra for a warranty. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated!

Thanks Xman! Some great information there on the HT leads- can’t for the life of me remember if they were sleeved or not, but will remember to check when I go see the car this weekend. When I start the car, should I be able to hear the noise whilst sat in the car or get someone else to start it and listen from the outside?

Thanks! Ive got the history from Skoda Customer Services today - full service history with Skoda until the last year / 10k miles when it was done at an independent Garage, although I trust the place as I’ve dealt with him before (knows Skodas very well!) along with the most recent MOT. Hopefully going to look at the paperwork this weekend, so should hopefully get as much information as possible. May also tap up the Skoda dealership where it came from originally and was serviced for details of any warranty work if they’ll give me the information.

I managed to get the build date today - mid September 2011, so it should have a post June 2011 (slightly) updated engine in it. i need to go and have a look at it and have a good listen to the engine - it seemed very quiet even at start up when I last took it out and it had been standing for a few days at least as the front disks had a light rust on them. Is is there any way to check if it’s had a new chain kit fitted at some point? Also, if it’s quiet at start up and at 6 years old with 41k on the clock, could it still be a problem or is there a chance it’s a good one?

Thanks everyone! im currently doing research to see when the engine was made as I’ve found that post June 2011 engines were built with the fix included and I’ll also need to check to see if the turbo shim fix has been done. whats the best way to check these things? I spoke to Skoda yesterday but they just gave me the service history and not any repairs / fixes that have been done. Are there any easy identifiers? the car itself is a private sale, but when I started it last week, it didn’t make a rattle, but I wasn’t listening out for it. I’ll probably need to go see it and start it up again from cold (was cold last time) to check. cheers

Hi all, Been a lurking member for years now, but could really do with some advice. I currently have a 2015 1.4TDi Fabia (new model shape) on PCP and it’s coming up soon towards the end of the lease April/May next year. To be perfectly honest, it’s not been the most pleasurable car to own, it’s had a few bits replaced / fixed under warranty amongst other things and the DPF has a nasty habit of regenerating every 150 miles or so. I’ve been offered a very good price on a 2011/2012 registered Fabia 1.2 TSI, which is in quite good condition and I’m suspecting that in the current climate, any trade in value over and above the guaranteed final value / final payment of the 1.4TDi isn’t going to be that great and I’m not going to get much return from it. So, I’m thinking of cutting my losses (if any) and trading down to the cheaper petrol option as the car is only really used to do a round trip of around 50or so miles to work 3 or 4 days a week and if this summer is anything to go by, it’ll only get used once a week as I’ll bike to work the rest of the week. i did have a 2009 Fabia before getting the new one and kind of regret getting rid as I felt the old style MK2 Fabia was built hell of a lot better than the latest one and didn’t feel like the bonnet or roof was flexing when I washed it! So, after a lot of back story, my question is: Is there anything I need to look out for on the older Fabia? As far as I know, it’s the standard 1.2 TSI 84 Bhp (Elegance model), so not aware of any problems with them, but any advice or knowledge would be gratefully received. The fuel and road tax costs are going to be higher, but cost wise it’s going to be cheaper and I presume it will be maintenance wise as well (have a good independent Garage / mechanic that knows Skoda inside out). Cheers!

Hi all, Been a lurking member for years now, but could really do with some advice. I currently have a 2015 1.4TDi Fabia (new model shape) on PCP and it’s coming up soon towards the end of the lease April/May next year. To be perfectly honest, it’s not been the most pleasurable car to own, it’s had a few bits replaced / fixed under warranty amongst other things and the DPF has a nasty habit of regenerating every 150 miles or so. I’ve been offered a very good price on a 2011/2012 registered Fabia 1.2 TSI, which is in quite good condition and I’m suspecting that in the current climate, any trade in value over and above the guaranteed final value / final payment of the 1.4TDi isn’t going to be that great and I’m not going to get much return from it. So, I’m thinking of cutting my losses (if any) and trading down to the cheaper petrol option as the car is only really used to do a round trip of around 50or so miles to work 3 or 4 days a week and if this summer is anything to go by, it’ll only get used once a week as I’ll bike to work the rest of the week. i did have a 2009 Fabia before getting the new one and kind of regret getting rid as I felt the old style MK2 Fabia was built hell of a lot better than the latest one and didn’t feel like the bonnet or roof was flexing when I washed it! So, after a lot of back story, my question is: Is there anything I need to look out for on the older Fabia? As far as I know, it’s the standard 1.2 TSI 84 Bhp (Elegance model), so not aware of any problems with them, but any advice or knowledge would be gratefully received. The fuel and road tax costs are going to be higher, but cost wise it’s going to be cheaper and I presume it will be maintenance wise as well (have a good independent Garage / mechanic that knows Skoda inside out). Cheers!

I had the DMF replaced and the car was absolutely perfect, smooth running engine, plently of power and smooth delivery. The car actually felt like it was driveable for a change. The change was done at something like 22, 000 miles, but it's only now that the problems are coming back : Harsh engine, feeling of driving over corrugated sufaces, vibrating and thumping clutch pedal, jerky power delivery and the general feeling that you're driving a 1960s eastern bloc tractor powered by Rudolph Diesels prototype engine. The DMF by the way is the Dual Mass Flywheel which is supposed to stop engine vibration being transmitted to the Drivetrain (Gearbox, Clutch and driveshafts). Personally, I think it's a lazy engineering solution to get around the fact that most (older) diesel engine blocks have more and more sophisticated injection systems bolted onto them to gain more power from an old design of engine block which produces more and more vibration. Instead of spending time and money engineering and designing the vibration out of the engine itself. My car is now only a month or 2 away from the end of it's 2 year warranty (I'll get no third year as I'm on 60k miles already, so I'm going to have to take it in again. I really think that my dealer hates me - spending so long in the car as I do, I tend to notice when the thing is running correctly or badly. At the minute, I know that the EGR valve needs cleaning (poor starting, sounding like a tractor, VERY poor fuel consumption for a diesel - 39mpg on motorways! and the engine sounds better at 3.5k revs), but going in and mentioning this problem to them always gets themasking questions about fuel brand, tyre pressures, need new tyres, traking etc. If I could just get them to do that, then I could probably ignore the DMF problem. I just want an engine that doesn;t sound like it's going to explode or fall out every time I start off from a junction or raise my speed when joining a motorway.

Hi, About 1 month ago, I took my car in to the dealer as I had a strange thumping feeling through the clutch pedal. After a week of the car being in there it turned out that it was the Dual Mass flywheel that needed replacing. Just been out in the car today and it's started doing the same, a low rumbling /rattling from the front of the car, thumping feeling through the clutch pedal and whilst trying to keep a constant speed up hill it felt like the car was miss firing (as if firing on 3 cylinders now and then). Now surely it can't be the flywheel again can it? I've only covered about 2000 miles since it was replaced. Any ideas anyone? It's annoying me now that all these symptoms are back. Cheers, guineapig

Yeah, the car is only 1 year old and has 35k on the clock. It's had a rumbling / rubbing noise from the front since I got it. Front bearings were replaced along with new tyres which didn't cure it, so I guessed it was a 'feature' of the car. It's only in the past couple of weeks that the vibration and rubbing noise has got worse along with a nice moaning noise from somewhere at the front. Cheers, guineapig

Good point. Cheers for that Lummox - I was getting worried that they couldn't find anything and were just keeping the car for a while to put my mind at rest sort of thing. Last time it was in, they only took a day - the car felt like it was travelling over rumble strips quickly all the time - and they couldn't find anything wrong with it. Cheers, Guineapig

D'Oh! Never thought about the authorisation from Skoda bit! Thanks for that. Would the dealer have to get authorisation from Skoda just to get the gear box off etc? I just found it a bit strange - they've given me a car (Roomster) knowing how many miles I do and they've always been a good place to deal with, even though the car came from a different Skoda dealer. Cheers, Guineapig

A couple of weeks ago, I had my car in for a service and was told that there may be a problem with the Dual Mass Flywheel, but I'd have to let the problem develop further. Due to the mileage I do, it only took a week or so to develop a bit more, so I took it in and the service manager wanted me to to book it in. The car went in last Tuesday and has been there ever since - I spoke to the dealer yesterday and was told that they were still working on it and still had to perform some 'tests' and that I'd get a call when the car was ready. The person I spoke to said that they were still trying to find the cause of the problem. Is this normal, or am I being fed some kind of line? They've given me a courtesy car and was told that I caould have it until my car was ready. Could it be that there is a problem and they're waiting for parts or (and this seems very unlikely) am I being fobbed off? Cheers, guineapig:confused:

Thanks for the reply. I've been back to the dealer and it's now booked in for next week to see if it is the DMF. The dealer was great as I explained that the car had been driving like a dog until just before I got down to the garage - they said that they'd come across this before. I'm really hoping that they can sort it out as when its bad, it's making the car unbearable to drive - my wifes old K reg polo was quieter and smoother than this! I'm worried about the clutch as well - in 5th when you bury the pedal, the rev counter kind of jumps up by 1 or 2 hundred revolutions per min and then drops back as the speed picks up. I'll keep this thread up to date as and when. Cheers, guineapig

Hi all, I had my 2007 Octy 1.9TDI in for a service last week and mentioned that the engine had a slight habit of running rougly and at idle gave the sensation that the car was being buffeted by the wind. It turned out that there may be a problem with the Dual Mass Flywheel, but they want it to develop further before they investigate. Anyway, yesterday I drove the car to Manchester and back (300 mile round trip) and it felt fine - no real problems, just the thumping through the clutch when changing gears. But today on a similar journey the car felt as rough as anything - noisey, rough running and lumpy at idle. I could even feel vibrations through the accelerator. I would even say the car was painful to drive compared to yesterday. It's not too bad at 70-80mph as it seems to smooth out and get slightly quieter, but I still get the vibrations through the pedals. Is this a symptom of the DMF on it's way out? When it got really bad today, it felt (and sounded) like the front wheels were scraping along the road (they can't be as I had a 4 wheel alignment done at service). The sound isn't noticeable outside the car (listening out of the window), but it sounds like it's coming from the front of the car when inside it and moving (if all that makes sense). Am I barking up the wrong tree thinking it's the DMF, or is it just me being paranoid? Got another journey of similar distance tomorrow and I'm hoping that it's gone back to nice and quiet! any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

Thanks for the info, might drag myself into a dealer tomorrow as I've just spent an evening driving with the car juddering away everytime I apply throttle on an incline. guineapig

Just as a suggestion, it could be the baffles in the exhaust pipe - had this once on a diesel Renault and sounded like the engine was falling out. guineapig

Hi, What was the hesistation like regarding the faulty Vacuum Valve Body? I only ask as I am ahving terrible problems with the har hesitating on slight acceleration at around 1,900 rpm and upwards. How did you approach the garage with it, as all i got was an ECU upgrade that hasn't made a bit of difference. guineapig

Hopefully, the 'phone is going to be a Motorola V3 when the company I work for changes contracts. Is there anything with Bluetooth that will give me the features? cheers, guineapig

Hi, Can anyone recommend a mobile 'phone kit for my 1.9TDI Ambient Octavia (2006)? I'm not after anything too flashy, just something that will show incoming caller IDs and be within easy reach. I wouldn't mind something with Bluetooth to avoid any hard wiring etc. cheers, guineapig