Oimsi

Hi again Kandy Oh you dont know the half of it :-( Firstly the garage that done the work was chosen by a friend who had used my car to drop me off at the airport and then the clutch boke on hime whilest I was on holiday. The garage is a personal friend of his father (I would have personally taken it to a main dealer) but he thought that it would be doing me a facour to have it fixed and ready for me to collect and pay when I got back. I am always a little bit to soft with these type of things. But given the relationship between the garage and my friends family I am a bit more reluctant to voice my true feelings. When I collected my car the passenger seat was covered in oil/dirt, I pointed this out to the garage (an elderly fella) who said that no one had sat in the passenger seat. Also after cleaning my car I noticed loads of little scratches on the wing of the drivers side, all going in a vertical direction. I pointed this out to the garage and said that I wasnt happy at all, again they denied any responsibilty saying that the clutch/gearbox is on the other side and they never worked on the drivers side. I know what I should do, but to be honest I dont want these people near my car again and to be honest dont want the hassel of sueing them. What I really want is my car back to how it was. Ken, is it possible for a layman to check the points you raised or will it need to go to a mechanic? Thankyou both for the feedback.

HI My 2003 Oct estate sdi was recently at a garage for a clutch problem, the master cylndr was changed along with the clutch and the actuator arm. I got got my car back and the clutch is working but there is a noise that sounds like it is a blowing exhaust manifold. The noise only comes when accelerating, once at cruising speed it stops and when not in gear but reved again the noise is not there. I took the car back to the garage who done the work and they could not find any where on the exhaust that was blowing and have no idea where the noise is coming from! Anyone got any ideas on what might have been disturbed during the clutch repair that would cause this noise/vibration?

Got it back today, chuffed its working agin and will be keeping it. Gutted that it has cost me the best part of 500 quid for what turned out to be a 12 pound peice of metal. I could have had some alloys for that. Hopefully I will now have many trouble free and econimic miles. Thanks everyone for the feedback, this is a great web site and the next time something goes wrong I will consult here before going to ( a different) mechanic.

Having not owned the car for very long, my confidence in the model is a bit dented - When and if my car ever comes back repaired would you say it is worth keeping hold of. I mean is it generally a reliable model? I might just refer the mechanic to this web site for some useful advice the next time he gets a skoda in ;-)

Hi Thanks for the reply I have relayed the information to the mechanic who has told me that having replaced the clutch and the master cylinder he has noticed the lever is not operating the clutch! it seems that your diagnosis is right - Its a shame the mechanic hadnt noticed it before fitting the new parts that were not faulty!!!

Hi I recently bought a 2003 octavia 1.9sdi from a family member who has had the car from new. Only 55k on the clock. A friend borrowed the car and has described how the clutch went. The clutch pedal went straight to the floor and stayed there. He then used his foot to force the pedal back up where it stayed jammed. A local garage sais that it was the master cylinder and changed it. The garage then told me that this had not cured the probem. The pedal now moves but does not engage the clutch. He has now taken out the clutch and is going to fit a new clutch kit but he says that he cannot see what was causing the problem! With each new stage of the attempted repair the bill is going up and I am getting a bit worried. Has anyone got any ideas? Totally gutted as I was thinking the skoda octavia was bomb proof, going by the number of taxi drivers using them.

Hi I recently bought a 2003 octavia 1.9sdi from a family member who has had the car from new. Only 55k on the clock. A friend borrowed the car and has described how the clutch went. The clutch pedal went straight to the floor and stayed there. He then used his foot to force the pedal back up where it stayed jammed. A local garage sais that it was the master cylinder and changed it. The garage then told me that this had not cured the probem. The pedal now moves but does not engage the clutch. He has now taken out the clutch and is going to fit a new clutch kit but he says that he cannot see what was causing the problem! With each new stage of the attempted repair the bill is going up and I am getting a bit worried. Has anyone got any ideas?