jst_at_home

Hi all, our 2015 Citigo has failed its MOT test today as the tester says that a heat shield that protects the fuel tank is missing. This is not the big shield that fits in the tunnel above the long run of the exhaust, it's one that is fitted further back. Has anyone had this with their Citigo? If so, might anyone have a part number? Many thanks John

We didn't have this with pushrod engines back in the day!

Our Citigo (60 SE ASG is approaching 5 years old and has done 75k miles. I have an email from Skoda UK saying that there is no mileage interval for changing the belt but a recommendation to have it done at 5 years. As we all know, the belt is described in the UP, Citigo and Mini as a lifetime part. I believe that one major element in cambelt wear is coolant leaking from the water pump when it shares the cambelt for drive. Clearly this us not the case on the Citigo. i don't have a great deal of confidence in the local Skoda dealer. Head says change, heart says stick with lifetime. John

Just happened on my Octavia. I'm hoping when I go back everything will be as it should be. John

Many tanks for that. I have just e-mailed Skoda Customer Services attaching scans of the invoices and the Health Check report stating that a gearbox software update was required. In fact the mechanic has recorded the following comment on the software invoice: "Plugged onto diagnostic machine. Fault logged with Gearbox. Asking for software update 1st. If this doesn't work would require Gearbox removal for Clutch inspection. Carried out software update. Car seems to drive OK". I'll update in due course! John

Many thanks Skoffski. No, no mention of the software upgrade. Full story: We bought the car from the dealer at 2 years 11 months old. The car came with a 12 month Skoda Used Car Warranty. The previous owner had not got a complete dealer service record - last service done at local independent garage. We made the decision that my son would service the car (he's a time served Heavy Vehicle Engineer and Electrician - buses). The car has actually been serviced more than the Skoda requirement. When the car went in the first time I got a call that went something like "we plugged the car into our diagnostics and it says it needs a software update". In fact they sent me a text message with a link to "Your Vehicle Health Check". The health check says "software update required for gearbox. If loss of drive continues after update, inspection of clutch will be required". I argued about the £120 software cost and they told me that if the car had been into them for a service the software would have been updated free of charge which didn't make me feel any better! The day after it happened again but worse. I went into the dealer with the recovery agent and spoke to the Service Manager. Eventually he came to the view that I had put forward that even if the car had been to them for a service, they would not have looked at anything to do with the gearbox and he sad he would contact Skoda. The total bill was more than a surprise but what can you do? My next step, having determined that the car seems OK was to contact Skoda. The dealer told me that they had asked for a goodwill contribution which had been tuned down but I wasn't confident. Forgive me if this is a daft question but what is a TPI as in "...there was a TPI then 'known issue'" John

Later that day, our Citigo lost all drive again and this time the engine management warning light came on. Result: a bill for £1,150 for a new clutch, flywheel and associated bits and pieces. So far (fingers crossed) everything seems OK. John

I'm coming to this late and wonder how Moog got on. We have a 2015 Citigo SE with the ASG (we also have an Octavia). On Wednesday my wife arrived home with our Citigo and fond that when she was going into reverse to back in tour driveway the car would not move. The she discovered it wouldn't move forward either. I had a look and found that although you appeared to be able to select a gear (according to the dash display) there was no drive. I switched the engine off hoping for a control-alt-delete moment. It wound't start and the orange gearbox light had come on. So we called for recovery. Recovery man duly arrived. He said "I'll try to and start the engine". It did and the orange gearbox light had gone out. Then he said "I'll see if it will drive". It did. Then he drove it up onto the loading ramp of his recovery truck and took it to the local Skoda dealers. At the dealers, they drove it into the garage, no problem. They told me it needed a software upgrade and if that didn't solve the problem it may be a new clutch at about £900! We had the software at £120. We got the car back yesterday afternoon. This morning this is what happened. WE had returned the hire car we'd borrowed thinking the Citigo was going to be at the dealers for a few days. On the way home, we seem to have lost engine pick up in second gear. Then everything came back to normal. Then about 3 miles further on, the orange gearbox light flashed and I realised that the gearbox was missing out 2nd gear either up or down, manual or automatic. And the orange light stayed on. We got home. After about 5 minutes, I went to the car, it started and the gearbox light was off. I drove up and down the road with all gear-changes, manual and automatic being correct. I hate intermittent faults! Anyone else had anything like this? John PS and like Moog, I'm not entirely happy with our dealer. It's the little things, like measuring the tread depth and coming up with the same depth on each tyre - they aren't. And saying that the "Pressure Canister" was OK. I asked "what's the Pressure Canister?". They said, it's the thing for inflating the tyre if you have a puncture. I said, "I don't have one, the car has a spare wheel". They had no answer!

I realise this is a long-time thread but just thought I'd post what Skoda said to me in e-mail recently on the matter of Citigo cambelts. WE have a Citigo 60 ASG just coming up to 4 years old and almost 60k miles. Not really helpful but if the cambelt is a long life item, that would tend to fit. John "Thank you for your recent contact regarding the cambelt. Please accept my apologies in the delay with our response. I have looked into your cambelt query and there is no ŠKODA recommended interval, so I would recommend the UK interval which is every five years. I hope this information proves useful and should you require any further assistance or have any further queries, please do not hesitate to come back through to us using any of the details below. For more immediate assistance, I would recommend that you use the Live Chat function here: www.skoda.co.uk/about-us/contact-us, or our Social Media channels. Thank you for contacting ŠKODA UK".

Many thanks. This is a great help. John

My Octavia SE has three clock versions for the standby screen. John

Skoda UK say change at 5 years. Skoda say it's a lifetime item. As Orville says, sometimes it's better to let sleeping dogs lie. If I do change the belt, I probably won't go to a main dealer. John

Our 2015 SE 60 bhp ASG has steel wheels. John

Two things I've noticed with mine. 1. If you don't want to sit with the brake lights on to keep the engine stopped in stop/start mode, if you go into neutral on the DSG (handbrake on of course), the engine remains stopped. 2. With the stop/start operative and engine stopped at traffic signals for e.g., if you move the steering wheel slightly, the engine will re-start meaning you can time things ready to set off when the lights change rather than waiting for the engine to start when you release the brake. John

I have had a 1.0 SE Estate with DSG since July this year. I've done almost 5,000 miles. The car is great. I have found no deficiencies in performance and the mpg over this distance has been just short of 50 mpg according to the onboard computer. We will be taking the car to Austria in January, 4 people plus roof box. On my experience so far, I have no concerns. I've done the journey a number of times in our 1.2 DSG Yeti with no problems at all and of course the Octavia has both higher power and torque figures. People have said you need to be in the right gear but of course with DSG, you are. I've always been a fan of bigger cars with smaller efficient engines and this car totally fits the bill. John

Because that's what the dealer said?

Hi everyone our almost 4 year old Citigo SE with 53,000 miles is wanting a service. I'm not up for paying the best part of £300 for an oil change with air con clean and a wash and vac and I'm thinking to do the minor services myself. Is anyone else self-servicing their Citigo? Any problems or advice? Thanks John

Hi all I continue to love my Octavia 1.0 SE DSG Estate. It's totally living up to my hopes and expectations. However one thing is bugging me! The instrument panel lights do not come on with just the side lights. They come on when the headlights are on and they come on when sides and front foglights are on. I expect Skoda would say that one should not be driving on just sidelights but there are times when I prefer to have sidelights on (so that my rear lights are lit) but don't want headlights. Is there an answer? Thanks John

Possibly. Mine only has just 4,000 miles.

Best I've had is 10 seconds dead!

My 1.0 DSG doesn't have coasting. The 1.4 Superb Sportline the dealer lent us for our holiday in June did have coasting. I quite got used to it and liked it. I felt it did make a difference. John

Given the differing information on when the Citigo needs its cambelt changing, I decided to e-mail Skoda and see what came back. This is what Skoda said: "Thank you for your recent contact regarding the cambelt. Please accept my apologies in the delay with our response. I have looked into your cambelt query and there is no ŠKODA recommended interval, so I would recommend the UK interval which is every five years. I hope this information proves useful and should you require any further assistance or have any further queries, please do not hesitate to come back through to us using any of the details below. For more immediate assistance, I would recommend that you use the Live Chat function here: www.skoda.co.uk/about-us/contact-us, or our Social Media channels. Thank you for contacting ŠKODA UK". I'm not sure if that helps or not but it does seem to fit in with what Emil said about the VW Up! John

Interestingly, my nephew has just taken his 64 reg Citigo Greentech for MOT at the supplying dealer 24,000 miles. The car passed it's test with flying colours but he was given an inspection sheet highlighting cambelt change as advisory work required at £389. John

I think you've hit a nail on the head there. A near neighbour of ours has just acquired a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV as an alternative to a VW Passat Tdi. It's about company car tax. I hope they get there but it's a long way off. John

My own experiences with a Nissan Leaf (albeit a 24KwH version) have put me off electric cars for a long time. Nissan suggested this car could do up to 100 miles on a charge. I never saw anything like that. They don't tell you what a massive effect the cold weather has and in the depths of last winter we frequently got much less than 50 miles. Yes they do a 30kwH Leaf which is supposed to do up to 150 miles except my friend's doesn't. The top spec Nissan Leaf has heated seats and a heated steering wheel. Nissan advises that in cold weather you warm the car up while it's on charge then use the heated seats and the heated steering wheel because guess what...when you use the heater it doesn't half affect the range (as do the lights and wipers)! Oh, and don't try cruising at much more than 50 mph. It affects the range badly. I can recall driving on the M6 and actually being pleased to be in a 40mph roadworks zone! 60kwH and 225+ miles next year? I'll believe it when I see it. Perhaps in theory.... And then there's the charging pantomime. At home it could be up to 8 hours, so overnight. That's just about acceptable, as long as you weren't going anywhere. A fast charge "on the road" takes almost an hour and only gets you up to about 80% capacity. Yes, it costs less than petrol/diesel but I bet most people do like we did and go and have a coffee and high-priced snack thus negating the fuel cost advantage to say nothing of the lost time. And when did anyone last go to a garage where there were only two pumps and frequently one of those wasn't working? So you had to queue for up to an hour to hook up. And when you did, other EV drivers might knock on your window and request you to stop charging your car so they could hook theirs up as their need was greater than yours. And all EV drivers seem to hate hybrid drivers who dare to put their hybrid vehicles on charge! My Octavia 1.0 low fuel warning light came on today and the car told me it only fuel for 65 miles. I smiled because I'd already done 520 miles! Trading our Leaf for a 3-year old Citigo was probably one of the best car deals I've ever done. No, we have a long way to go. Sorry to be unusually pessimistic and down beat. John PS I love my Cube Cross Pro Allroad E-Mountain Bike, my second e-bike.