RichardB53

Just to round this off: the lease ended and she’s now driving round in a Kamiq. Nice looking car, comfy and quite lively. The Octavia is gone, no word on whether they ever got it fixed. On the basis of this experience, I would never buy a new Skoda.

Almost a month in the dealership. No news, still waiting on go-ahead from Skoda HQ. No sense of urgency whatsoever. They’re not waiting for parts; it’s just a matter of reverting a software update. Honestly, if this were my decision (it isn’t) I would be cancelling the order for the new car, losing the deposit if necessary, and going for a different maker.

They’ve had it seven working days now. No news. Trouble is, it’s a lease car, so to some extent it is out of our hands. She’s mobile in a Chinese MG hybrid at the moment (courtesy car) so there’s no urgency, it seems. I sold my Octavia III estate last year. Drove well, comfy, practical, bit bland. But it kept slamming the brakes on for no reason. It was never dangerous, just alarming, but there were never any fault codes to explain it. Skoda make good cars, but their software is a weak area as far as I can see.

So, the dealership has had the car 6 days (although over a weekend, admittedly). I called in today to ask about progress. Roughly, Skoda won’t authorise a reversion of the software until they have more evidence. They have recommended that the dealership puts the battery on charge and see if that cures it. Six days before they even put the battery on charge, when they already knew the battery state was the issue. This could take WEEKS.

Fine in principle … This has happened to me twice. Service manager takes the key, smiles and says “by the way, there’s an update to install …” First time was massively inconvenient, as it was early morning and I had to be 300 miles away by nightfall (in my own car, was just dropping the Octavia off for my wife). I told him this, and he said the update was safety-critical, would take a couple of hours, and Skoda would not allow the car back on the road without it. I would have had to go all Rambo and demand the keys back but I ended up walking home 3 miles after they agreed to drop the car off when they were done. This time, I argued that we were trading the car in for another one in a couple of weeks, and couldn’t it wait until then? He said, no, Skoda audit them, and if they are found to have failed to apply a required update they’d be in trouble. For a 20-minute delay, it wasn’t worth getting upset about. Except that it was, of course. I find the dealership to be uncommunicative, a little arrogant, not very truthful and not all that competent. I wouldn’t set foot in the place, but she likes her Skodas and it’s the only show in town. (We’re quite rural, and not blessed with a multitude of car dealerships round here.)

Hi WaveyDavey, thanks for posting this. My purpose in posting the OP was to warn anyone in a similar position, so if I’ve saved you some grief I’m happy! And thanks for the info about your conversation. When I think back, the dealer did mention it was transmission-related, so I’m sure we’re talking about the same thing. We’re not expecting the car back any time soon! Meanwhile she’s riding round in an MG hybrid courtesy car. She likes it. Believe me, it’s utterly horrible.

Car is now with dealer. RAC man heard the symptoms and immediately suspected low battery voltage. Sure enough, battery at 3.4V. He put a booster on it and it started first time. His guess is that the software update has left one of the computers switched on and this has rapidly drained the battery. (From driving the car home normally to the alarm incident was about 5 hours.) Anyway, the car is now being assessed and the dealer is ‘hoping’ to get a code from Skoda that will allow them to revert the update - apparently they need special permission. If there is any more relevant info I will post it here.

This may be repeating something from elsewhere, but I thought it might be worth mentioning in case anyone is in a similar position. I took my wife’s 2021 Octavia IV in for MoT yesterday and the dealer said there was a new software update they needed to do. I said OK to that. The car drove home normally and I parked it by the house. 8pm, the alarm went off. I silenced the alarm with the fob, and got in the car and the dash was flashing like a Christmas tree. Engine would not start. Error messages around ‘put car in P’ alternating with ‘P not available’ and parking brake error. Brake pedal pulsed against my foot when I pressed it, even with engine off. The car basically went mad, so I left it and went indoors. Half an hour later, I went out to check and the car was dead. No dash, no interior lights, no response to key fob. Doors remain unlocked, but rear hatch is locked and can’t be opened. I phoned the dealer this morning, and he tells me that this was the first car they had applied the update to. Immediately they had done it, they got a call from Skoda UK to tell them not to apply the update as it had been found to be faulty. Obviously too late to do anything about it. So we have a dead car, and are waiting for RAC to recover it to the dealer so they can attend to it. Just a heads-up.

In my defence, the paper manual isn’t great, and I can’t make sense of the infotainment version. Thanks, very helpful.

Thank you! Makes perfect sense now.

Wife’s car, Octavia Mk4 hatch, but I’m curious. In the overhead display, to the left of the passenger airbag warning, is a lit yellow symbol. Looks like binoculars or an open car door or something, with the word OFF. I haven’t a clue what it means. Pressing it turns off the light but it still reads ‘off’. I’ve searched this forum, I’ve googled it, (reverse image search, lens, the lot) but I can’t find anything except a reference to ‘Active Driving Display’, which may or not be attached to that symbol. If that means a HUD, then the car doesn’t have one. Anyone enlighten me? I need to know or I can’t sleep. Thanks.

Ah, OK, Mk 3 and Mk 4 must be different then. Thanks.

Mine is a 2016 Mk 3. The trip reset is between the clocks at the bottom of the dash panel, marked (I think) '0.0'. Easily missed, as it is hidden by the steering wheel centre.

Can it? I haven't tried on the Mk 4, but you can't on my Mk3. There is a 'disable front sensors' option in the software, but all it does is disable them when you are driving forward. if you engage reverse, front and rear sensors are active until you reach the cut-off speed again.

I think we'd get on well if we ever met. 2CV is my all-time favourite car.

I was unable to disable the front parking sensors using the software despite many attempts. However, I think I have found a solution, so posting it here in case anyone feels the same. I simply put some black insulating tape over the four front sensors as an experiment. I was expecting it to put up error messages everywhere, and for the first few forward/back manoeuvres it threw up a few odd noises and lines on the display, but for the last two days it has been perfect. The rear sensors still work as they should, and I don't get a peep out of the front sensors when driving down my overgrown driveway ("driveway" = rough track). This is exactly what I wanted. With neat cutting, black tape on a black bumper is amlost invisible, so I don't feel I have spoilt the appearance. If it continues to work normally for the next few days I will regard this as 'solved'. Thanksd to everyone for the inputs.

Looks like we're out of luck, then. The 'since start', 'since refuel' and 'long-term' are quite useful things to have, but I like having a dedicated trip function that is under my control. I usually reset every time I fill the tank (which I know is covered by the 'since refuel' function), but I also use it for measuring individual journeys sometimes, or the length of a day trip or a holiday. It's just a nice thing to have, and it's a shame that Skoda have decided the car looks tidier without it. I'm a bit of an analogue person, but when I got my Mk3 I made a real effort to get to grips with the infotainment & displays, and now I am quite happy with them. But the system on the Mk4 seems very unintuitive. We're both fairly intelligent people but figuring out how to have the basic driving info on the dash display, and customising it to what we want rather then what Skoda thinks we want is proving a struggle. It just seems they have made it unnecessarily difficult. No doubt we will get there in time, but I'd rather have something that just worked. I jump in my Mk3 and see the small console display, and I think what a big ugly lump the screen in the Mk4 is. Thanks for your responses.

Thanks for this, but I am already aware of that. It's the actual trip function, that I have had in every car since I learned to drive in the 70s, that I am looking for - press a button to reset, and measure distance on a tank, between home and destination, or whatever. The Mk3 had one, with a reset button below the dash and a trip display on the screen, but the Mk4 doesn't seem to have this function at all. Or at least, I haven't been able to find it. I can't think of a reason why Skoda would decide to delete a useful function. Thanks for the response, though.

My wife just picked up her new Octavia Mk4 today. We have spent the afternoon and half the evening trying to find how to reset the trip meter. On her previous car (Octy Mk3) it was a simple button below the dash. On the Mk4 we can't find it at all. The paper manual just refers you to the online version, but both are so badly written that it's easier to sit in the car and play with the buttons. I have searched online and cannot find the simple information to tell me how to reset the trip meter to zero. Everything is in the infotainment system, and I'm struggling to understand it. I'm beginning to think there might not be a trip meter function at all. For the record, she has had the Mk3 for 5 years and I have had a Mk3 estate for a year, and we both love them. I've come to the conclusion that the infotainment system on the Mk4 is MUCH worse than on the Mk3, and it seems there are several threads on here saying the same. Can anyone help? Is there a trip mileage function, such as you might use for fuel calculations or measuring individual journeys? If so, how can we access it? I know there is a 'since refuel' function in the mileage recorder, but that's not what I am asking. Many thanks.

Yes, not very happy in this weather at all. We put tons of straw down, but after a couple of days its like the Somme again. Have to say that looking after them is a job I am happy to leave to the Domestic Manager and Controller of the Purse. She loves them.

Very helpful link, thanks. No idea why that thread didn't come up in my search. Well, no sunroof, no sign of water coming in by the light clusters, the water in the well was plain (i.e. not smelling of screenwash), no sign of deterioration or displacement of boot seals. However, I dried it out thoroughly yesterday and this morning, despite a cold night, the interior of the windows was bone dry - not a trace of condensation anywhere. I think I am just going to put this down to the exceptional rain we have had here for the last two months. There have been hardly any rain-free days, and some nights it has just hammered down for eight hours straight. Lawn under water, chickens swimming around their run, etc. I'll keep an eye on it and mop out again if needed. I don't think there is much point in doing a lot of dismantling to investigate as the lease is up for renewal in a few months and she is likely to be exchanging it. Thanks for the responses. Most helpful and much appreciated.

There are no obvious water ingress points - all interior boot trim is dry and looks like it did when new. I hadn't thought of the rear washer, though - good spot. I'll check the tubing there, and the light cluster seals. No sunroof, thank heavens. All my outside water taps are drained for the winter, so the hosepipe test may have to wait! Thanks, very helpful.

This is my wife's 2016 Octavia hatchback. I've been noticing condensation on the inside of the rear window on cold mornings for a few months now, but today the inside of all the windows was wringing wet. There were actual water droplets on the inside of the windscreen after a cold, but not frosty, night. We've had relentless rain here (West Wales) for the last couple of months, so I guessed we had some excess water onboard somewhere. Sure enough, when I stripped everything out of the boot area there was about 1cm of water standing in the spare wheel well. The spare wheel was wet, although not yet rusty, but the detachable towball was pitted with rust. This would suggest there has been water around for quite a long period. I have thoroughly dried it out with towels and a fan heater, so hopefully OK for a while. However, I can't find any obvious place the water could be getting in. All the seals round the hatch seem to be in good condition and in the correct place. Just wondering, has anyone else had this problem? Is it a known issue? It's possibly just a combination of the amount of rain and bad luck, although my car (Octavia estate) has been parked close by and is dry as a bone inside. Is there anywhere else the water might be coming in? Any suggestions welcome. Thank you.

Aha! Hadn't seen that. Will try, cheers.

Hi all. Car is 3-4 years old, and the silver trim round the windows is looking a bit shabby. It's a bright metal strip and seems to be encapsulated in clear plastic. The metal underneath has started to discolour and looks speckled. The clear plastic obviously stops you from polishing the metal. Has anyone else had this and is there a solution (apart from replacing with new), or do I live with it?