clarky2

Thanks for your reply. I will check them out.

Looks like a similar issue to my thread. Looking through here there are other posts with reference to someone in the Midlands (with contact details) who can repair these units. Worth a quick search.

Hi The head unit on my Yeti has started playing up over the last few days after 5 years of faultless service. The touch screen will freeze or go unresponsive (as will the function buttons). The sat nav display will continue to work if I am on the standard navigation and apple car play, but you are unable to change any of the settings. If I reboot the system by holding down the buttons it will reset itself and work again as normal before freezing again later for no obvious reason. Any ideas or others with a similar experience?

Thanks for the reply. I don't personally have VCDS (I presume this is needed for the auto scan) so my next question would have been whether any members with the right equipment were in the area! My car is a manual 2017 1.2 petrol SE Drive.

Hi Am I right in thinking the hill hold function can be activated in VCDS? My Yeti is a manual 1.2 2017 run out model. Cheers

Hi All Looking for a little advice as will need to leave my Yeti parked up outside for a few months. Will do usual basics like pumping up tyres and leaving handbrake off to avoid brake binding and potential flat spots, but I'm concerned about about potential consequences of a flat battery on return. As I won't Have access to an electricity supply I am considering a solar battery trickle charger, but reviews of their effectiveness are a little mixed to say the least. I would appreciate anyone sharing their experience or advice on this subject and whether recharging a flat battery on return is likely to cause me problems with things like keys, radio, etc. Cheers

Despite being out of warranty this is a common issue and Skoda are well aware (and have been for years) that early tensioners on 1.8 and 2.0 TSi engines will fail and can lunch the engine. They should have issued a recall to fit the later tensioner revision, but instead elected to deal with failures on a case by case basis. Cynically they are now relying on the six year SOGA limit to try to avoid any contribution. The same thing happened on my 2.0 TSi at six years old. Eventually after months of hassle, threats of court action and finally intervention from the Guardian newspaper, who ran a story on my plight (they had previously run a similar one with a Yeti owner) we reached a compromise and an acceptable contribution. The dealership was also less than impressed with my threat to sign write my Octavia and leave it on the road outside, but a well maintained six year old car should not be written off with major engine failure due to a fault Skoda had been aware about and avoiding for years. Unfortunately, your only option is probably persistence and getting some kind of negative media coverage to shame Skoda. I spoke to Miles Brignall, who works on the Consumer Champions column for the Guardian. He was similarly very negative about Skoda's response to this issue. It still makes my blood boil to think about the upset and hassle I went through and the months I wasted getting my case resolved. All the best.

Hi Everyone My Yeti is a few months and a few thousand miles old now and seems to be loosening up nicely. One thing I have noticed recently though is a loud clunk when I brake after reversing. I have been told that this is due to the gapping one of the brake pads, which is moving in the calliper when the wheel operates in a different direction. Has anyone else experienced this? I was also told this was within Skoda's allowed tolerances and it was unlikely that they would consider that it needed a fix. Thanks Jon

Hi All I've had my new Yeti for a few weeks now and one of the things that has been bothering me is how hard it rides, especially over some of the poor surfaces locally. So about 1000 miles in I thought I would check the tyre pressures tonight and discovered that all four were set at around 3.6 BAR or more than 50 PSI. Checking the the filler cap revealed recommended normal load pressures of 2.1BAR all round. I've got the PDI sheet from the delivery showing tyre pressures were checked before the vehicle was released. Is it normal for them to be run that hard? What pressures do others recommend for decent ride comfort and handling? Thanks

I've honestly got no axe to grind with the dealer here. They served me well for six years and were very helpful at the outset of this issue and in sourcing a replacement vehicle. However, they did sell the car and a business stands or falls by the quality of the product sold and cannot expect to avoid repercussions when things go wrong. Had I not received this email from the MD immediately after investing a significant amount of money in a new Skoda this thread would not exist. A bit of research shows that a significant number of engine failures have been reported with early TSI engines and the manufacturer revised parts and issued TPI's to dealers to help them in their diagnosis of the fault. In an ideal world they would have recalled those vehicles and fitted new parts, but presumably it was seen as more cost effective to deal with any failures on a case by case basis. To illustrate how common these failures are I discovered that a friend of mine had suffered the same issue with his Golf GTI (same engine), which was a little older. In that instance VW paid for the new engine and he agreed to meet the labour cost. If Skoda UK had just put their hand up at the outset we could have settled this matter quickly and saved everyone a lot of time and money.

Apologies Wino. I went for a 1.2 petrol drive model in the end given the recent bad publicity around diesels and as the L&K 1.4 version was a little rich for me. Cheers.

Thanks for all the comments on this. It's good to get the perspective of others as it has often felt a long and lonely battle to get this sorted. I'm sure that if a friendly journo had not got involved Skoda UK would not have increased their offer. He told me that he'd had several run-ins with them before and that they were very difficult to deal with. They certainly seemed willing to go to court and use the limitations act to try and avoid any liability. I eventually felt I had no option but to threaten to shame them publicly on this matter and as you rightly state would not have shared anything libellous or untrue, but simply shared my experience extremely widely. I was loathe to implicate the dealership who were initially helpful in this matter. Indeed you will note that the article subsequently published by the Guardian is in no way critical of them. However it became clear by the time we reached the impasse at the end of last year that they were not prepared to support me any further and had aligned themselves with the position taken by Skoda. I was also denied a copy of the vehicle damage (DISS) report. As local representatives of the marque and having originally sold and serviced the vehicle, it is difficult to see how they could expect to avoid any fallout if an amicable settlement was not be agreed. You would also expect that purchasing hundreds if not thousands of VAG vehicles a year through the Vindis dealer network would give them some leverage with Skoda UK when things go wrong for their customers. I was a huge Skoda fanboy and had always had a good relationship with Cambridge Skoda prior to this incident, however I now feel badly let down. I would not have invested a significant proportion of my recent redundancy money in a new Skoda had there been a cash settlement available and I am now unable to maintain the car within a 30 mile radius of my home. I was advised when I initially raised the prospect of sharing my experiences via social media that these channels were monitored and that I could expect a robust response. I was also told that I could not believe everything I read on these forums (had it not been for the information here and on other similar forums I would not have discovered how common these engine failures were). Finally, I find it a bit bemusing that within a couple of hours of posting this thread, which is about a new Skoda Yeti and being unable to service it locally, was removed from the Yeti forum and placed in the 'off topic' chat.

Hi Everyone Exactly one week after collecting my brand new Skoda Yeti from my local dealership, Vindis Cambridge, I received the email below from the managing director. Effectively I have been told that I am no longer welcome there for future servicing, warranty or maintenance work. In October, my previous vehicle an Octavia VRS, which I had also purchased new and was annually serviced by them was diagnosed with a catastrophic engine failure. Information from this forum and other sources confirmed that engine failures with early versions of the 2.0 TSI engine are common and linked to faulty timing chain tensioner and cam bridge issues, both of which seemed to have been involved in the damage to my vehicle. Skoda and the wider VAG group have been aware of these issues, but have never issued a recall instead dealing with each failure on a case by case basis. A new engine was required and the dealership quoted £8250, which effectively wrote off the car. What followed was a four month nightmare, which by January this year looked as if it would only be settled through court action. I had made it clear that if I was forced to go down that route I would share details of my story as widely and publicly as possible. Thankfully at that point the Guardian newspaper became interested in my case and this article was published: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/feb/04/skoda-engine-fault-warranty-claim Their intervention persuaded Skoda UK to increase their contribution offer by £2000 and I was advised that I could use that contribution either towards the cost of a new engine or a replacement vehicle through Vindis Skoda. I elected to purchase a new Skoda Yeti and paid nearly £13,000 after deduction of the contribution and the process and service from Vindis went smoothly enough. I had assumed this matter was finally closed until I received this email. Dear *** As you may be aware, over the course of the entire situation with your previous vehicle, I had been liaising with *** at Cambridge Skoda, as well as with Skoda UK to ensure that all developments were logged and responded to; not least as this is part of our internal investigatory and companies procedure. Now that the situation regarding your complaint with your vehicle has been closed, I felt it appropriate to write to you as part of the final conclusion. Firstly, I would note that I am extremely pleased to learn that the situation has been resolved and that you collected your new vehicle on 1st March, and may I wish you many years of happy motoring. Secondly, the closure of the complaint has allowed me to complete a full review of the case and to analyse its evolution and the required involvement of my Senior Management Team, along with an objective analysis of the company’s position, and meeting any necessary legal requirements. Having reviewed everything in relation to your situation and taking the whole situation into consideration, I am now of the opinion that the Vindis Group are unfortunately not going to be able to satisfactorily fulfil your service and maintenance requirements moving forward, and as such I would direct you to your nearest Skoda Approved Repairers that do not form part of the Vindis Group - I have listed their contact details below: I would like to take this opportunity to wish you the best for the future and hope that you enjoy your new Skoda. Yours sincerely, *** ——————————— Dear *** Thank you for your email. This is a bit of a surprise, as I thought that we had reached an amicable settlement of this matter with my recent purchase of a new Skoda from Vindis. I saw *** briefly at the collection last week and he gave no indication of this. This unfortunate matter was clearly a manufacturing issue and my disappointment throughout has been with Skoda UK and their attempts to avoid liability for what was a common problem with the engine in question. I had assumed that purchasing a new vehicle from yourselves would also help you to recover some of the contribution you had made. The last five months have certainly been a very tough time for me and this seems like further punishment especially as I thought the matter had been resolved. Are you now advising me that if there are any issues with the new vehicle that you have supplied that I will need to travel to another dealership? I discussed service plan options with *** last week and was looking forward to putting this matter behind me and continuing as a regular customer with Vindis locally as I have been for the past seven years. Your effectively barring me from local servicing and maintenance has obviously come as a shock. Can you please confirm the reasons why this decision was made? Kind regards ————————— Dear ***, With reference to my email sent on 8th March 2017, I simply stated that I do not believe the Vindis Group will be able to fulfil your maintenance and service requirements moving forward. There are several reasons that have led me to this conclusion and I refer to some statements made by yourself to the Vindis Group over the course of the last few months: - On the 14th November 2016 you wrote in an email to me… “Failing satisfactory response, and having taken advice, I will have no option but to issue a small claims court summons for the full cost of repair and any out of pocket expenses. In addition I will seek to share my experience with press consumer champions and via social media networks”. - On 13th December 2016 you wrote in an email to me… “I have some background in social media campaigns and having been media trained intend to publicise my experiences in this matter via a wide range of media channels.” - On 27th January 2017 you wrote in an email to ***… “As we spoke about in our previous meeting, I have planned a comprehensive social media campaign in the event that we cannot reach a settlement acceptable to me and I am forced to issue court proceedings. That would consist of a number blogs and you tube video logs to be shared widely across various media platforms and websites. I also obtained quotes for sign writing the vehicle, which would be parked prominently on Cowley Road in Cambridge and would be likely to attract wider media coverage.” You explain in your email below that your disappointment throughout this situation has always been with Skoda UK, however, the above statements are clearly aimed directly at a specific campaign looking to negatively impact the reputation and standing of the Vindis Group. As mentioned before, I am extremely happy to learn that the situation is now resolved, however, I have to take a position to look to protect our organisation, and I do not take kindly to statements of the above, nor indeed you attempt to drag Vindis Skoda into the printed media debate - especially as our intention throughout this whole saga has been to meet a fair and reasonable resolution that you were happy with. With the above said, I stand by my initial observations of my email of last week and I wish you the best in the future. Yours sincerely, ————————————- Dear *** To clarify the situation. You are now saying that the Vindis Group will not honour the warranty or future servicing and maintenance requirements of the vehicle I have just purchased from you? My previous vehicle which was purchased and fully serviced by you suffered a serious engine failure caused by well documented issues. The support of your front line staff and the initial response was a credit to Vindis, however it soon became clear that Skoda were not prepared to accept any liability for the damage. Clearly this matter would have escalated to court proceedings and I would have been forced to go public with details of my situation had it not been for the intervention of the Guardian newspaper. Their involvement secured a further contribution that I thought had enabled us to finally settle the matter. The article that subsequently appeared in the Guardian was in no way critical of the dealership and to date I have not publicly criticised Vindis on any public forum. That the threat had to be made at all was very much down to the unfair manner in which I had been treated by Skoda and your subsequent alignment with their position. Frankly I was left with no option and anything that would have been published simply a statement of facts for people to make their own minds up. I have suffered for four months trying to resolve this matter, which could and should have been settled quickly and without wasting so much of everyone's time. Indeed as the customer involved I would have been very happy to feed into your review of this incident. Having thought the matter settled, everyone I have spoken to is frankly amazed that you have now adopted this position. Kind regards —————————- Dear ***, In regard to warranty and service/maintenance work, this can be completed at any Skoda dealership within the network, it does not necessarily need to be within a Vindis Centre. As mentioned to you below, I have to take a position that protects our organisation and based on the events that have occurred during the last 4 months, I believe the conclusion I have reached is the right one. Yours sincerely,

Here are a few pictures of my new Yeti 1.2 drive. Only done one a hundred or so miles in it so far, but pretty pleased with it all in all and taking it down to Devon this weekend for a proper run. I have noticed that the gear change is a bit notchy and it has jumped out of gear a couple of times when it's not gone in properly. I'm hoping this is just down to the gearbox bedding in and will get better after a few miles. The clutch also seems to bite quite high for a new car and combined with the accelerator, which seems to be less sensitive than my previous Octavia, makes it more difficult to pull away smoothly. This is quite different than the 5k demonstrator I drove before purchase. Surely it can't have been ragged enough to wear the clutch in 17 delivery miles! Anybody else experienced this? Is it adjustable? Should I get the dealer to check out these niggles or am I being too picky! Liking the new quilted seats and the Amundsen stereo, although as I said elsewhere it doesn't quite have the same quality feel as the Octavia interior. The drive spec seems like a good option, but no external drive badges as seen in the original publicity. One other question. On opening the bonnet I noticed two rectangular (ish) holes on the top of each wing (see photo below). Any thoughts on what these are for (ie confirming nothing missing)? As with the Octavia, there is no sound deadening under the bonnet, but the little engine is nice and quiet. Cheers Jon

OK. Looks like I basically need to try again. The artwork appeared on the Windows Media Player just not on the Amundsen. Is the general consensus that if I download a Hoagy Carmichael album everything will be alright?