benmahoney

Hello all Sorry to hear about your Yeti Matt. I'll do what I can to help. Though my poor experience was compounded by very poor service for Motorline Dartford. I did have success with the head office. And recently (and with the fuel injectors) Skoda Croydon have been great. To begin with I simply spoke with customer services to and didn't take no for an answer. I also emailed. After a bit of polite but firm complaining they offered me a discount on the costs of replacement piston rings. I used the following arguments; 1. I believe that due to that fact that the faulty piston rings are being replaced with a newly designed version (as they are), that the originals were not fit for purpose, leading to their ultimate failure and the start of the fault. 2. I used the references of the Radio 4 program BBC Radio 4 Your & Yours programme which feature VW Audi engines with the same fault, and the class action lawsuit in the US that was settled out of court (can'd find the links just now, sorry). 3. The oil use recommendation for the Skoda Yeti, set by Skoda, is 0.5 litre per 1,000 kilometres. My Yeti was losing was almost double that, I got the dealer to check (though harder for you as its not running, but it's pretty clear the rings are leaking oil) therefore I said "I consider it a breach of contract, and an engineering fault, not wear and tear". I think it helped us (so they said) that our Yeti had always been serviced by a Skoda dealer... And was being fixed by a dealer. It was then though, ironically, that things went awry with the dealer. It took three months to get it fixed. It was just before this point that I emailed the Director of Skoda UK, and the senior bods with a very detailed letter of my experience, including the incovenience we had suffered. You can find email addresses easily enough online. To his credit he did read my email – so they do listen – and customer care got in touch. In the end they covered 70% of the costs of a new base engine. I received two free full services at a dealer. And by way of apology, Skoda roof bars w/ fitting. I decided to fix and keep our Yeti because we'd spent ages finding it in the first place. And it was right for us. And i couldn't face searching for another one – we'd just had a kid. Maybe it was the wrong decision maybe it was right. I'll never know. But it's now got an all new engine I'm confident in, and for us it has been, and still is, a great car for our needs. Despite the VAG engineering and refusal to acknowledge a design/engineering fault that is... We would have also lost money trying to sell it on with a defunct engine. So being between a rock and a hard place, I decided to keep it and get the most out of it. Yours is a bit higher mileage than ours at the time of breaking, so you might not think it's worth investing in now. But either way, it sucks. Though (ahem) despite the fact the fuel injector also failed after the piston rings went, ours has been running great since, in fact especially well in the snow of Yorkshire / M1 / North London with the Michelin Cross Climates... And having decided I'd spent enough cash on it to not enjoy it's full capabilities... I've taken it for a bit of green laning. I was laughing all the way home. It's a lot of fun that car. I think the way you have to play it with Skoda, is they won't admit liability for fear of opening the food gates, because they know it's a problem. But if you keep pushing, firmly and politely, they will (hopefully) give a 'good will' gesture. If you decide to go for it, good luck! ps. Our VW polo was un-killable.

EDIT: they got the cost wrong. It's £1,500 for the lot. But still....

Well the saga continues. They're telling me an injector has failed, and as it's not part of the base engine it's not covered under the warranty. They've quoted 6 hours labour at £770, and they've quoted upwards of £1,500 for four new injectors on top of that.... I can't believe it. Two major failures in less than 12 months. At a cost of over £4k. I'd laugh but it's no joke.

Yes, oil regularly checked especially after the problems last year when it WAS losing (or rather burning) oil with the cracked piston rings. No diesel in the tank either. The reason the dealer decided to replace the whole unit was exactly that - the chains were "too complicated a job and risky to mess around with". The mechanic, sorry, Master Tech, is looking into it today hopefully... Hoping to get a Fabia courtesy car for the missus and little'un too, think they're angrier than me - as much as it's VAG group poor design and mechanics, there's still the unspoken undercurrent of 'you're the one who bought a lemon!'.

I did suspect the turbo. Either way it's gone, once it's fixed...

That's right, it was a new base engine. Had a green flag chap look at it, he tested fuel, sparks and coil packs, said it was the timing gone awry....

Hi again Thought I'd add a follow up to my original post from last year. Mainly because the new engine Skoda ended up fitting to my Yeti in August, just blew up on the M1 at the weekend! Last Summer after almost 3 months waiting to get my Yeti fixed (never ever use the fools at Skoda Motorline Dartford) they agreed to fit a new engine. After hounding Skoda customer services and writing to ALL the senior management, they offered 70% of the costs. So the original £6k was down to costing me £1,750. Anyway, all was well until last Friday, just 7 months later, when I accelerated out of the services on the M1 after a pit stop, and the car began juddering, wouldn't accept revs and the EPC and engine warning lights came on. It went into full limp mode. Managed to pull off the M'way and tried a restart - billows of smoke and nasty noises ensued. I fear it's the timing belt and yes, another new engine! Got the Yeti towed back to Skoda Croydon. It's being looked at today. The old/new engine is under the two year warranty, and the labour has a one year guarantee. Or it better had be. But this is now beyond a joke. I'll update with what they find. But these TSi engine seems like they're ticking time bombs. I loved my Yeti, but I think it's time for something else.

Thanks, SuperbTWM. I steered clear of the Diesels for obvious reasons, but didn't expect this from a petrol engine. In fact the more I research, the more astounded I am about the scale of the problem with these engines. GoneOffSki, yes, hindsight is a wonderful thing. I suppose having bought a few cars before and never had such a serious problem (including my now 16 year old MX5) I took the chance. Seriously wishing I had got the extended warranty now though. Or rather, not bought a VAG. I'll be on the phone to the head office in the morning. I'll update this when I hear more. Thanks all.

Hello all New here. But I've had my 2010 Skoda Yeti TSi 1.8 4x4 for about 9 months. It's done 50k miles. The problem is it now needs an entirely new engine. I bought it privately back in October 2015. It was well looked after and... It has always been serviced at a Skoda dealer, with 1 previous owner, but being 5.5 years old it was out of warranty. Everything was great, I loved it. Really loved it. Until I noticed it burning a lot of oil last winter, getting so bad in spring it was eating roughly 1.5 litres over 500 miles. I took it into my local dealer, at first they couldn't find anything obvious though I don't think they tried that hard. So they said take it away, drive 300 miles and we'll take another look. So I did, and their response upon looking deeper was "The piston rings are cracked and they need replacing". Cost? £3k.... Gulp. As a good will gesture they said they would pay £850 towards the £3k cost. So I called Skoda customer relations, who immediately told me in no uncertain terms I didn't have a hope of getting anything more. Until I put the pressure on that is, and they agreed to paying £1,250. Leaving me with a bill of £1,750. A lot of money but I just wanted it fixed. So I booked it in for the work. I had to wait 6 weeks for a slot. Took it in on the Monday expecting 3 – 4 days of work. Thursday is wasn't done. Friday it wasn't done. Today, Monday it wasn't done.... I called them up and after chasing for 3 hours they've said "it's a horrendously complicated job, with four chains... etc etc. and we think it needs a replacement engine". Right. So why didn't they know this before? I could tell you it's a complex job. To be honest, that's better really, as I would prefer a new engine. So I'm waiting to hear back. But I've been without a car for 10 days. I'm expecting this to cost more £££s. And the customer service is somewhat lacking. My main problem is that for a relatively young car with only 50k miles, it just shouldn't be suffering from such a major failure. Not happy, Skoda. Not happy at all.