MartinMc1973

This is exactly what has just happened to me. I've got a similar thread in this forum called 'Breakdown in France'. My water pump was was diagnosed, claimed and repaired in 2 days. I had the timing belt replaced at the same time at an additional cost of £332, due to reduced labour, instead of the standard price of £600. Hope you get it sorted soon.

My tale of woe hasn't been concluded yet. 😞 Although I'm hoping that this latest development is nothing too serious. I drove the car home from the dealership yesterday and ran a couple errands probably doing about 8 miles in town traffic. Everything was hunky dory. Skip forward 24 hours (tonight) and I set off to the local shop, I'd not even gone 100 meters when my 'Check coolant level' flashes up on my dashboard joined by that scary long beep sound. So I immediately returned home, parked up and checked the coolant expansion reservoir which did seem to have a little coolant in the bottom but it certainly wasn't at the minimum level that it should be. I've had a good look under the car and around the engine bay and cannot see any signs of a leak, in fact it looks pretty dry. It was too late to ring the dealership so I'll give them a buzz in the morning. I'm hoping that it just developed an air pocket in the cooling system when it was filled up, which has worked it's way into the expansion reservoir and triggered the coolant level sensor.

So I got a call from my local dealership yesterday asking if I'd still be dropping off my Superb today at 10am for the diagnostic. I confirmed and asked how much it would cost to replace the timing belt. £600 was the reply so I told them that I'd leave it for now. I than rang around a couple of garages for alternative quotes and the best I got was from a local specialist who quoted me £525 to replace both the water pump and belt. My thoughts were that if the pump couldn't be fixed under warranty then I'd take my business elsewhere. But then I recalled the that the technician that I'd spoken to previously had told me that the labour cost to replace the belt would be less, as they've already stripped the parts down to check the pump. So I rang the girl back to inquire if this was the case and was told that they'd only be able to confirm the costs after the technician had stripped it down. Great! So I dropped my Superb off with them this morning, hoping that they'd diagnose the water pump as faulty. To be honest, I was expecting them to say that it's perfectly fine, they can't find any issues and I owe them £109. Then surprise surprise, at 2pm I got a call from them telling me that the pump was indeed faulty and would be repaired under warranty. Fab news, what about the timing belt though? Well with the reduced labour cost and belt kit that'll come to £332.44. Would you like us to go ahead with that? DAMN RIGHT I WOULD! So I've left it with them and it will be ready to collect sometime tomorrow. So all in all I think that's a pretty good result. Now I just need to sort my claim out for unplanned hotel costs with the European AA. 🙂 Mart

In a bid to not come across as a male chauvinist I may have omitted that the original person I spoke with was indeed a gal. The reason I rang a second time was because I got the impression she just booked the vehicles in and didn't have any technical knowledge of the test, so I wanted to speak to someone who did. As for the European cover, it may do what it says on the tin, but If the service is anything like what we received, pray that you'll never need it.

I spoke to the warranty people today who told me that they'd be happy to process a claim, however I need to get the problem diagnosed be a Skoda main dealer. Great! So I rang up Rochdale and asked to speak to one of their technicians, instead of the service manager. I spoke to a really helpful lad, told him my plight along with my concerns about paying for another diagnostic that potentially wouldn't find any faults. He reassured me that this is a very common issue, so much so that there's a bulletin from Skoda, they keep the parts in stock and so hey don't even do a road test, they just do a basic strip down and can easily identify a faulty water pump. Then they'd initiate a claim against the warranty. The only issue that could arise would be if they found any signs of previous tampering with the pump. So feeling a bit more reassured I've booked it in with them on Tuesday. The garage in France recommended that I replace the timing belt as the car is now over 5 years old, so I mentioned this to the technician who agreed that it was due and that it would reduce future labour costs if I had it done at the same time. so I think I'll get them to do that too. I'll let you know how I get on. Mart

Just had a chat with my local main dealer in Rochdale. They don't seem to be as benevolent as your dealer Bap33. They are willing to do a diagnostic on it however, if nothing is found then I'll have to pay for it again at a cost of £109. This would be the only way they could initiate a claim with Skoda warranty. When I told them that I'd already had an inconclusive diagnostic in France, they suggested that I could take the car back to France and get them to do the repair. (Don't spill your coffee). I'm going to give the warranty a ring tomorrow to see if I can get any joy with them, but I won't hold my breath. I know it maybe a long shot but I've got dashcam footage of the moment it happened. I'm in slow moving traffic and you can clearly hear a warning sound coming from the car and my wife reading the dashboard warning 'Engine overheating?' As if breaking down wasn't bad enough, we've had an absolute nightmare with Skoda's (AA) European breakdown. So much so that we've had to put a complaint in with them. Sorry about this miserable post folks. 🙂

Thanks for all the great replies folks. I'd say that you've nailed the issue down for me there. The next thing is to figure out how to get it sorted as quickly and cheaply as possible, either with our without Skoda's assistance. Thanks again. Mart

Hi MarkyG82, The car has done 42,000 miles, I've done about 10,000 of those. As far as I'm aware It's not had the belt replaced yet. The warranty guy that I spoke to said that the water pump was covered, but I think that it would have to fail completely for them to authorize and conduct any repair. I've not actually spoken to Skoda about this yet as I wanted to gather as much knowledge as possible on how best the deal with the issue. Mart

Hi KenONeill, Do you know how would be able to find my engine code? The car is a 2 liter diesel, 190 BHP with an auto DSG gearbox. It was registered in Feb 2017. That occurrence in France was the one and only time that I have witnessed any engine issues with the car and it seems to be fine now. However, as you can imagine i'm nervous about driving it now. Mart

Thanks fellas. I've created a topic called Breakdown in France in the Superb III forum. I have a browse of this site from time to time but haven't been in a position where I need specific advice. Mart

Hi folks, Apologies in advance as this is a long tale of woe that I writing to hopefully get a good resolution to my current situation with my car. Firstly though, I've owned my first Skoda, a 66 plate Superb 2.0D 190 BHP, hatchback Sportline in lovely red, for about 15 months now and I'm still pretty happy with it. We planned a trip to southern Brittany in France (3 adults, 1 child), and although the boot space and legroom are cavernous, I bought some roof bars and a massive roof-box so we could take loads of luggage without compromising interior comfort. The trip was from Manchester to Portsmouth (260 miles), then Caen to Ploemeur (220 miles). I have an extended warranty with AA European breakdown cover, so no worries there. We planned in plenty of travel time so there was no need to break any speed limits at any point of the journey. The English leg of the trip went without hitch, however our nightmare started literally 15 minutes after we left the ferry. We arrived in France at 7am to a gloomy 20°C and speed limits of 110 kmh (68 mph). On the Caen ring road my engine overheating warning flashed up and the temperature needle was pointing to 130°C, it's usually 90°C. Fortunately there are plenty of exits so I immediately pulled off the ring road and the temperature stabilized at low speed. The radiator fan seemed to be doing it's job. I chanced another stint on the ring road and the temperature began to climb again so I pulled over, rang the AA and was recovered on a flatbed truck to a back street garage in Caen. The mechanic plugged his diagnostic tool into my car and told me, through google Translate, that my head gasket had failed and the car was undriveable. 😞 I'll spare you from the logistical nightmare that we endured from the rest of the holiday (Fiat Tipo hire car) and concentrate on the Skoda. Please bear in mind that most of the next bit occurred over the course of the next 2 weeks when we were 200 miles away in Brittany. The car was recovered to a Skoda main dealer in Saint-Lo, 40 miles away from Caen where they performed a diagnostic and told me that the car was OK and I could collect it. They hadn't checked it for overheating at high speed. So I got them to perform a high speed test and again they told me that the car was fine. However, based on the fact that I'd told them that the car had overheated they recommended that they should replace the water pump which included replacing the timing belt at a cost of 1130 Euros. This however would not be covered under the warranty as they and their diagnostic power test hadn't actually identified any problem. I declined their kind offer and after confirming that the car was driveable at low speed, decided to drive it slowly back to the ferry, get it back to Blighty and get it recovered back home. It drove faultlessly back to the ferry reaching 110 kmh with the temperature gauge staying solidly at 90°C. So we are now back home after our worst ever holiday experience and I'm none the wiser as to what happened to cause my car to overheat that first morning in France. I'm pretty convinced that the original backstreet mechanic was either incompetent or dodgy and trying to make a few hundred Euros out of some stranded tourists. I've had to incur the 97.60 Euro cost of the Skoda diagnostic because they couldn't find any faults. We contacted the Skoda warranty who told me that both the head gasket and water pump would both be covered, however it would need diagnosed by Skoda. I need to get this sorted, however I'm loathed to hand over another £100 for them to tell me that my car is OK. Has anyone on here had any similar experiences, dealings or advice that they could impart to me regards to this sorry saga. Thanks in advance. Mart

Hi fellow Skoda owners, I've owned my first Skoda, a Superb Sportline (66 plate), for about 15 months now. It's a lovely, big comfy car that I'm pretty chuffed with. I've previously been a member of other non Skoda forums, however I have a specific issue / reason for joining this forum, which I intend to create a specific post for. In a nutshell, I've just been on a trip to France and my car broke down. I have an extended warranty and breakdown cover on the car, so this shouldn't be too much of an issue, however the situation has been a complete nightmare and hasn't been completely resolved yet. So I suppose I'm after tapping into your experiences, advice and knowledge to be able to put my sorry saga to bed. Ta Martin