Upsidedown

Thanks for the update and pleased to hear that you have finally received some recompense. Interestingly the 50% (parts and labour) payment for the water pump issue is pretty much in line with the US court case settlement. Hopefully with both you and I persevering by setting precedents outside the US it will make it easier for those who will undoubtedly follow us with failed water pumps to claim some compensation. (As an aside looks like Skoda NZ is better than Skoda Aus - Another win for the Kiwis!)

Good luck

Smellysocks: The recent thread about water pump changes made me wonder how your problem is progressing (or not) with Skoda Aus?

Good luck. Obviously I'm sure we'd all be interested in the outcome. (No news on the failure mode of the water pump yet I presume?)

Update: SkodaNZ and I have settled my claim for the water pump issue prior to the scheduled Disputes Tribunal hearing next week. SNZ have agreed to pay 50% of my costs, which are the water pump repair itself and the inter-related out-of-pocket expenses. This is in advance of the compensation agreed between the US class action case litigants and VW I mentioned in an earlier post. Quite what prompted this offer I am not sure but a a colleague of mine once said "A complaint is an opportunity". It is something I have always remembered. I therefore commend SNZ for turning my complaint into a complement (from me) for the way they eventually handled the matter. I can now re-bury some of the gold bars I initially dug up to pay for the incident. (Note to self - When drawing up a map this time remember to add 'X marks the spot'!) Smellysocks: Any news on your problem / situation?

I haven't come across this before but my Yeti is the first vehicle I haven't effectively worked on. (i.e. I haven't previously used professional mechanics) Its an interesting approach. Will of course be interesting to hear what SAus have to say (Good luck)

Thanks for the update. Forgive my hignorance but why is the dealer filming the underside of your vehicle - and then sending the video to SAus? On the face of it it seems an odd thing to do. (Are they perhaps going for a 'bum covering exercise' before they pull anything apart?)

Urrell: Presumably its a separate belt then. In my thread on the other forum I referenced an article about modern water pump bearings in some cases not being up to the job because the design doesn't allow for the additional load presented by a cam belt (my situation). Which seems logical - but poor design. In Smellysocks case this theory wouldn't therefore hold. If the bearings in his case failed this would point to general poor design and / or manufacture for VW group water pumps in general (?) Smellysocks: Do you know what failed (i.e. broken / detached impeller, failed bearing, failed seal, some combination of same)?

Disputes Tribunal hearing set down for end of this month. SNZ are yet to file any pre-hearing documentation in response but to be fair they will probably only recently have been served the court papers.

I have a 2015 2.0 Tdi which had covered approx 75,000 km when the water pump failed (about two months ago). There is now quite a thread on the Yeti Owners Club forum. See: "Significant Coolant Loss - There's a hole in my bucket?" ( https://www.yetiownersclub.co.uk/threads/significant-coolant-loss-theres-a-hole-in-my-bucket.12096/ ) Suggest you start at about post # 8. Hopefully you'll find some useful info on that thread.

Robjon: The water pump on my Yeti failed last month at roughly 45,000 miles / 5 yearsish. From subsequent reading it appears that premature failure of VW pumps is not uncommon - or in my opinion acceptable. (Also see my recent thread on Coolants)

I've done a bit of research but without finding anything conclusive. A 100,000 mile / 10 year "life" for the Pink coolant seems to be a common theme as does the (almost coincidental) changing of the water pump and hence the coolant at the time of the cambelt change. There were some generalised references to checking the state of the coolant at each service which makes me wonder if Skoda dealer "inspections" include this? I suspect not. Has anybody ever had a note on Skoda maintenance invoice noting that the coolant quality had been checked? (The coolant level should have been checked of course.) There is certainly nothing listed under Skoda's set price "Maintenance" table that would otherwise suggest that coolant needs changing on a regular basis, unlike engine and DSG oil, etc which do appear on the table.

Actually I think it might depend on the age and model of your Yeti. Mine is an F/L model manufactured in 2015 and came with built in slots / lugs in the roof lining above the rear windows, immediately behind each front seat. The ends of the metal arms at the top of the net when folded out fit into these slots. There should also be two steel clips down on the floor, again immediately behind each front seat into which the net strap ends clip. So, at least in my case, there wasn't any need for additional fittings. The nets are great. With the rear seats out and the net in place its amazing how much gear you can stack in !

I have a 2015 Yeti and had not dissimilar problems about three years ago. Despite switching off the rain sensor and re-setting the windows on two separate occasions (once by the dealer), the windows continued to open spasmodically and at random. As others have pointed out this is somewhat disconcerting when the car is parked in a public area. In the end the dealer found that Skoda had issued a software fix - and indeed it did fix the problem. Never had a repeat performance (and I have the rain sensor switched back on.)

Thanks for the clarification. As no doubt you have surmised, my guess is that there must be water / dampness somewhere in the interior to cause this problem. Having looked at the carpets, have you looked in the boot well? I have read of leaks from the rear screen washer (do you have one?) ponding in the boot well.

The reason I ask is that, and I stand to be corrected (!), that the photo showed a layout I thought was pre at least 2015 yet you say your vehicle is 2017. Did you buy in from a Skoda dealer? Nevertheless the condensation problem you are having is very weird. In response to some comments on this topic on the other forum, I have found Skoda NZ very good to deal with unlike some of the problems people have had in the UK.

May seem like a daft question but is the photo you posted of your car?

enor: Looks like a very helpful mod but a couple of queries if I may (1) Does the CC symbol & Speed only display when the CC is activated (i,e. does the mileage normally show unless the CC is switched on?) (2) When the CC is switched on is the vehicle speed still displayed on the centre of the dash as per normal? Thanks

Ah the dreaded dancing windows. I had the problems Anlygi is reporting and initially thought that it was to do with the rain sensing / automatic window closing system. I switched the latter off in the Maxidot but was not convinced that it solved the problem, so did the window re-set as well. This seemed to work but I wasn't confident of leaving the car unattended for long periods. I reported the problem to the Skoda dealer when I took the car in for its first service. They hadn't heard of the problem before but did some research and found that there was a Skoda software patch. They applied said patch, no charge, and two years so far no return of the problem.

Just to chime in again I've done lots of driving in snow in the past with chains fitted to the front on front wheel drive and to the rears for rear wheel drive. Both systems proved equally effective, with the former perhaps losing out a bit to the latter when the uphill gets steep. That's when the front wheels start to scrabble a bit as the weight distribution heads rearwards. Fitting chains to the front tyres though is much easier than the rears. 4x4's wlth chains didn't get any further than I could except for when lack of ground clearance becomes an issue. As for steering again, somewhat surprisingly I've noticed very little difference except for one occasion when the track was so slippery I could hardly stand up. Going back downhill at one stage looked as though it might be a suicide mission as I tried to get round one particularly nasty, tight steep downhill bend! In the end friends just quietly pushed the nose round until I was pointing in the correct direction to resume my travels. Over the years (and many alcoholic beverages) there has been much debate at my ski club about which are the best wheels to fit chains to on 4x4's. No consensus has ever been arrived at. You just make your own choice. Going back to the Yeti, the points being made re the Haldex in this context are interesting. However in my case I have no choice other than to fit chains to the rears as there physically isn't space for chains on the front.

Re chains. There is no need to change the wider / taller front tyres / wheels in order to fit snow chains - just put them on the rear ! (if you have 4x4 that is of course) See the following video At about 35 seconds you'll see that they've fitted chains to the rear. This by the way is in line with Skoda recommendations (in NZ at least) And before anybody asks, no sorry I don't know what tyres were being used.

Getting back on topic: As some may know there are quite a few dusty gravel country roads in New Zealand. Despite the Yeti’s acknowledged brick like aerodynamics I’ve found it to be the best vehicle I have owned for not holding dust on the rear window. I suspect this is because the verticality of the rear window allows dust to slough off. If all else fails then fuel stations here have complimentary window squeegees and water readily at hand anyway. And going back off topic, it doesn’t matter here if the rear view mirrors are flat or curved or if the rear window is dirty because nobody ever looks to see what’s behind them !

As Brijo intimated I had a similar problem about a year ago. I was also intermittently loosing the single switch function on the windows - fixed each time, but only temporarily, using the ' standard' technique. My (then) local dealer found that there was an official Skoda software patch which once applied cured the dancing windows problem. The patch also seems to have resolved the window switch issue as I have not had to re-set them since.

Great link Awaoffski which answers my original queries. The answers are: (a) Yes there is a torque limiter on the DSG gearbox (b) The max torque is factory set at between 350 and 380Nm depending on model (c) If you try passing more torque through the gearbox than the limit the clutch will slip to bleed off the "excess" (d) This will lead to premature clutch wear within 6 - 24 months depending on various factors (e)The limit can be raised to 410Nm fairly readily but above that more mods are required to increase oil pressure and above 500Nm new race oriented clutch packs are required. (f) There are ways of bypassing the DSG torque limit programming but that introduces a whole raft of potential problems. I wonder if Shark do the latter when reprogramming the ECU to increase power (and torque) on the 170 bhp models and hence the reason they chose not to answer my email. It would be interesting to hear their thoughts / comments.