JamesK

I got the car back yesterday evening. I drove the car back from the dealer for around an hour with the Matrix Lights activated and so far I've not had any oncoming cars flashing me. So the re-alignment at VW seems to have worked so far. At the moment I'm still using them and half expecting to get flashed.. but I'll see what happens over the coming weeks, but hopefully after 2 years of ownership the last of the initial faults is now rectified.

A quick update on this. My car is going into the VW dealer to have Matrix Lights aligned. Apparently they are able to do it, so long as the Skoda dealer "sends their laptop" with the car... So I'm letting them have the car early January for a few days to do that and service it at the same time. I'll report back on how successful this is....

Does anyone know of a Skoda dealer, preferably one in the South East that can definitely carry out the Matrix light calibration? Marshall Skoda in Letchworth are saying that is what needs to happen, but they don't have the equipment. They *think* their VW dealership has the equipment but are not sure whether it will accept a Skoda being attached to it. I've contacted Citygate, but their Watford, Slough and West London centres do not have the equipment either. They've suggested I contact Skoda UK - which I have done, but not heard anything back from them yet.

That would make sense. I was half asleep, freezing cold, and happened to notice it. Initially I thought it was a fault, but then thought it looked like it was deliberate, and probably a sensible explanation. Thanks for this. 😀

Hi All, While standing in the freezing cold this morning de-icing the car I happened to notice that not all of the elements on the heated rear screen were working. All the elements up to the brake light were working, and the elements within the brake light. However the elements either side of it were not. Within the car you can't see it, because for me, the highest parts of the rear screen aren't visible in the rear view mirror, so never noticed it before. I was wondering if this is intentional that these elements either side of the brake light aren't working, or I've just got a faulty heated rear screen.

I've had really mixed experiences with Marshall Skoda Letchworth. There seems to be a huge turnover on the customer facing side of the service and after sales department. In the end I had to get the Skoda Executive Office involved which did improve matters, and dealing directly with the general manager, Nicholas Hutton direct. It took over 10 visits to finally get the car sorted, but in the end they have sorted everything out. Their head technician, Mick was the one doing the work. Mick asked to have the car back in January for a month so he could work with Skoda Technical direct as apparently they wanted to use my car as a test platform to try and understand why so many cars were having software issues. The only outstanding issue I have is the Matrix Lights causing oncoming drivers to flash me. Again, going thro the service department team it's impossible to get the car booked in. They don't call back when they say they will, don't respond to e-mails, etc. It used to be a great dealer, and I've used them for all my servicing over the past 12 years. It is a shame what's happened to them. I am really surprised they're trying fob you off with the amount of times my car has been in. If I were you I'd complain to the general manager, and ask that they assign Mick to your car. With the experience he's had with my car, he will know exactly how to fix yours - and if yours has the climate sync issue - he knows how to fix that too. PM me if you want the general manager's e-mail address.

The frustration here is that I think it's safe to assume that most early Octavias are all suffering from this issue. Some people won't have noticed, some won't care, and others are using the left side control to use climate sync. So, if they know it's a problem why not just push it OTA rather than waiting for customers to book a service visit for it? When you book a visit the car then has to be investigated, details sent off to Skoda Technical, and the dealer wait for a resolution to come back. All this is just wasting the customer and dealers time... when they could push the update OTA and save everyone time.

Yes, I completely understand. I've sent an e-mail to another dealer to ask them about the issue, and see if they can offer some guidance about how the calibration should be done.

I would say the incoming car is in the middle of the dimmed area. However your comment about calibration does give me cause for concern, as the dealer commented last year when the applied the software fix to the lights, they took it to the local MOT testing station to double check the lights. I'm not sure an MOT testing would be equipped to calibrate these lights.

I did wonder that as I know LED lights are much brighter, so it could be assumed I’m driving around with a standard full beam on. The concern for me was the number of oncoming drivers in quick succession flashing me.

That’s a good video, many thanks. My lights work exactly like the video shows. You can see it activating when I come out of a 30mph lit town area onto the unlit country roads around where I live. I can also see it actively dimming sections of road for oncoming traffic, and any cars that I’m following. It is really clever to watch how the dimming tracks the cars as they approach. The problem I have is that when I last used them there was just too many oncoming drivers flashing me. When I deactivated them there was no issue with oncoming traffic. I’ll try them again later this week and download the video footage from my dashcam. But I’m also not entirely comfortable using them again if the car really is dazzling other drivers.

Hi All, Has anyone on here got issues with the matrix lights dazzling oncoming drivers? My car had this issue and went into the dealer about it. They identified the system as being setup for a left hand drive car, and told me they had rectified the issue. I really had to take their word for it, as I’d rarely used the car at night during the summer months. Now the clocks have gone back, and it getting dark earlier I had the chance to try them in full auto mode. On the first country lane I got to where the matrix lights activated I had about 4 oncoming drivers flashing me within a few minutes. My wife also asked why other cars were constantly flashing me. At that point I turned them off. I know there were posts on the forum a while ago about the issue, so wasn’t sure if the issues had been resolved, or people had given up and stopped using them. I’m not sure I can cope with another round of visits to my local Skoda dealer…

There is a software update available for the climate sync issue. I've had it applied to my car. I did ask the dealer to provide details of the fix so I could let people know on this forum. However, they told they were not allowed to disclose details of the update applied. But if you goto your dealer they should be able to find the relevant update.

So after the car having the grey globe / red X all day I post on the forum... and then go out in the car again, and find the problem has resolved itself and the globe is white again.

Hi All, For the past day the infotainment has been showing a dark grey globe with a red X next to it (see attached image), instead of the usual white globe. The Infotainment Online and Care Connect Remote Access features are all licensed into mid 2024, so I know that's not the issue. Is this the same issue as previously mentioned here? Forum Link

@toot I’m going to try and see both cars this weekend, and ask to see the service record. If the 80k car has a full main dealer service history should I be able to get details from my local Skoda dealer as to the work carried out if invoices are not available?

The car with 80k miles was previously owned by British Gas and that does have the full Skoda service history, so I would be more happy that everything that should have been done has been. The car with partial non-Skoda service history I will need to find out more information, as all she could tell me last night was no recorded services in 2021, and two in 2022 - but she didn't have the details to hand of what work was carried out.

There’s also another one at a smaller dealer which has does have full Skoda service history, but has more miles (81,000]

Hi All, I’m going to look at a 2018 Octavia 1.0 SE Technology DSG for sale at a Carshop branch at the weekend. It’s currently on 60,000 miles and they have told me the previous owner was Leaseplan. This isn’t a huge surprise as I got the impression this model was aimed at fleet buyers. They went on to say that the service history is only partial. They don’t have a record of service on 2021, but two services were carried out in 2022, by Halfords (given the reputation of my local Halfords I’m not sure what to think of that). Is there anything in particular I need to be looking out for on the car, or anything specific with the 1.0 engine and DSG gearbox? Any thoughts and advice would be much appreciated…

Apologies, but I don't have any tools to check the version on my car. It took a lot of complaining to get a fix applied to my car, to the point of me saying "can you please look at the 23 plate loan Octavia you have given me where climate sync holds, and my car where it doesn't". To be fair they did just that, and sent the comparison off to Skoda Technical. I asked for more information from the dealer a few weeks ago as another forum member asked me for details. However, they said they were not allowed to provide details of the update applied, but that another Skoda dealer could look at the details of my car to see what work had been done. The only other comment about the update was that "it came direct from the factory".

Hi all... I'm looking at getting a 2018/2019 Octavia with either 1.0 or 1.5 TSi engine. Can anyone clarify the cambelt change interval, as I'm getting mixed messages from the dealers selling the cars, and not all are franchised dealers. Looking on-line there doesn't seem to be a clear answer either, with some comments that Skoda have changed the intervals from 5 years to 10 years. As the 2018 cars are 5 years old quite a few are noted as having the belt changed, however, another car for sale is at 90k miles and the non-franchised dealer is saying it doesn't need to be done until 140,000 miles. Would appreciate some guidance, and a rough cost to change the belt... Many Thanks..

I've had all of the issues you mentioned above, except the last one about randomly switching to a guest profile. When my car was with the dealer in June they told me they applied a large update to several modules in the car, plus another update from the factory to specifically address the climate sync issue. Apart from the infotainment reboots it did resolve everything. The jury is still out on the matrix lights as I've not really had a chance to use them during the summer, so we'll see. When they're activated you'll soon find out from other drivers if they're being dazzled. The issue with them was that they were configured for a left hand drive car (similar to the climate sync issue)

This was one of the issues I experienced with the Sat Nav. After a few of the Pop, Pop, SOS alerts the module would eventually give up, and take the satnav with it. Virtual Cockpit wouldn't display the live map data anymore, and the GPS would put me a few hundred metres to the side of the road causing constant route re-calculations. In my time with the car I think I've had most of the issues that others on this forum have experienced... Pop, Pop, SOS... infotainment crashing.... climate SYNC not holding... Matrix lights dazzling oncoming cars. I'm pleased to say that all of my issues have now been rectified through software updates to various modules within the car. Ultimately you will probably need to push the dealer on this, but there are software fixes out there for all of the issues you have. I think my car ended up going back to the dealer around 10 times, and on several occasions I've been without the car for several weeks. I found it did help a little to raise the issue with Skoda UK Executive Office. It seems once a ticket is assigned by them, the dealer can use it to get more of a 'priority' service from Skoda Technical. So if you don't get the issues resolved on this next visit, it may be a route worth looking at.

the TPI number is: 2069590. The dealer told me today this TPI didn't apply to my VIN, and they found another TPI which did apply to my VIN, and that also recommended applying the 1941 update. Here's a link to the forum post which contains the TPI to download: Link to forum post Anyway, I think if you tell me the infotainment system is restarting multiple times, and reference the TPI in the forum post above as a friendly nudge I suspect they'll put you on 1941.

I'm not sure you can insist that the infotainment is upgraded as I believe they have to carry out their own investigation. I told them my infotainment was constantly restarting and also supplied a copy of the TPI document suggesting others owners had found it had fixed the issue. When I got the car back today they said that TPI did not apply to my car, but another did, and that also directed them to install 1941. They commented it was a huge update at 16GB in size.