nbramwel

Does anyone know the tightening torque and gap for replacement spark plugs please? Service coming up on the 1 litre which I intend to do myself. Many thanks.

I had a repair to my Fabia a few years ago. I took it to a well known Skoda dealer in the North West but they subbed the work out to a bodyshop repair company. like matthall94, I had to take it back a couple of times as I was not satisfied with the quality of the work. So don't assume a Skoda dealer will do a quality job or any of the actual work themselves.

I had a similar issue with my 2015 Fabia 1.2TSI. The dealer initially said it wasn't a fault but I persevered. They replaced the clutch pack under warranty and the car was fine afterwards.

Anyone? Also forgot to ask what is the spark plug gap please?

The 4 year service is coming up on my son's MK3 1.0 litre Octavia registered in December 2017. We intend to do this ourselves using genuine Skoda parts. What are the torque settings (in NM if possible) for the spark plugs and oil drain plug please? Thank you.

You can buy a car initially on finance and take advantage of the extended warranty and service plan then after a few days, get in touch with Skoda finance to say you wish to withdraw from the agreement. They will give you the cost of the outstanding finance (what you borrowed plus a few pounds interest), pay it off and keep the warranty and service plan. You have a legal right to do this as I have with my current and previous Skoda. You have to play the dealers at their own game - their arrangements not yours.

I've always felt that these arrangements are for the benefit of the dealer, not the customer. My view is that you pay for things when you get them and not in advance. It's unfortunate but over the years, I have grown to be very cautious of car dealers. This is from my personal bitter experience and not the views of others (of which there are many on this forum alone). Find yourself a good mechanic locally who you can trust. Word of mouth is by far the best recommendation.

Glad you (almost) managed to get your clutch problem and refund of your engineer's report costs sorted. But isn't it a disgrace that you had to suffer so much hassle and indifference from your Skoda dealer. They deserve to go out of business. Unfortunately we are seeing more and more of this attitude across many segments of business. You should name and shame them on the dealer reviews section of this forum once your dealings with them are over, then take your servicing business elsewhere. And well done to the member who provided you with the technical information issued by Skoda in support of your case. Just appalling that your dealer didn't come forward with the information in the first place.

I have an Octavia with the 1.0 litre engine and 16" standard tyres. I do round town type mileage and get low 40mpg. The Scala being that bit smaller, you should achieve mid 40mpg with similar type journeys. The engine is nippy enough for me so will be fine in the Scala.

Simply don't let Skoda or the dealer get away with this. They have behaved shamefully and simply want to avoid their responsibilities. Be firm with them but not over argumentative. You should not be out of pocket at all and ideally deserve some sort of recompense for your inconvenience. Take this as far as you can including a loan car at no cost to you, refund of your specialist engineer's costs, repair or replacement of the car to full specification, again at no cost to you and something for your trouble. Good luck with all of this. Don't be reluctant to involve your solicitor friend early. If nothing else, it will show Skoda you are serious.

Unfortunately the response from the Skoda dealer is what to expect these days but that certainly doesn't make it right. They simply want to avoid taking responsibility as it will cost either them or Skoda to fix the problem. And to charge over £1,000 to replace a clutch is just ludicrous. Shameful behaviour. You are wise to get an independent inspection as it will prove invaluable if you have to go down the legal route with this. Please let us know how you get on.

I bought a Fabia DSG in February 2016 on HP finance simply to get 2 free services and paid the loan off in a couple of days. I bought my current Octavia on HP in August 2019 again so I could get 2 services for something like £159 (this was the deal going at the time). Again I paid the loan off within a few days. No problems paying either of the loans off and besides, you can withdraw from any financial agreement within 14 days by law anyway. I would just check beforehand with Skoda Financial Services that they haven't changed their rules and will still allow you to keep whatever incentives they offer with their various financial packages.

I have had a 1.0 litre Octavia for coming up to 2 years now. Plenty quick enough for me and will cruise at 70mpg all day long. Round town MPG is around 42mpg real world.

Same in my 2018 SE. The clock seems to have a mind of its own then sorts itself out when the car is next started. Also I had an occasion when the trip meter reset itself to zero and the clock to 12 o'clock. Dealer had a look and messed with the software but the clock thing still happens now and again. I just ignore it now.

Water ingress certainly isn't normal. I would get the car booked in with your Skoda dealer as soon as you can and get it repaired under warranty. If as you say the water is clear, then it cannot be coming from the rear washer system which usually has coloured water in it. You'll need to keep a close eye on it after the repair as you cannot guarantee that the dealer will fix it first time round.

I had green algae around the edges of the fog lights of my 2015 Fabia a couple of years ago. I sent pictures to my dealer who ordered replacement lights from Skoda. They were replaced under warranty at my next service. The lights looked like they were sealed units so the algae couldn't be cleaned off.

Bridgestone Turanzas are very noisy tyres in my opinion. A few years ago I had a diesel Fiesta fitted with Continental Premium Contact tyres. I swapped it for another diesel Fiesta which came with Turanzas. Thought they wore well but by heck were they noisy. Very disappointed in them.

I had the same problem again on 8 March 2021. Car ticking over at 1500 rpm and the display telling me to change down from second to first gear whilst driving onto our estate - second gear is the right one by the way. I reported the problem to the dealer who advised that I was not driving the car enough on long runs and to take it on the motorway, keeping it between 3000 and 5000 rpm and accelerating and decelerating regularly. I went up the M6 to Preston and back home down the M61. The car seems OK now but what a waste of my fuel and time. Whilst diesel cars can be fraught with DPF problems, I thought petrol cars weren't supposed to suffer in the same way. Not impressed with this technology at all and waiting for the problem to come back soon.

A brake fluid change is at extra cost to the standard service but I agree the dealer should have at least asked you if you wanted it doing at the same time. £139 for an air con service is just a joke. If it's working OK, just leave it alone. Just another opportunity to sell you something you don't need.

This is exactly why I would not buy a car without first inspecting it thoroughly. I appreciate things are difficult at the moment but it is simply foolish in my opinion to simply trust a car dealership to do anything other than get your money from you in any way they can. Get some advice from your local Citizens Advice Bureau over your rights and how to proceed.

I have had 3 cars (2 Fabias and my present Octavia) directly from Skoda stock. They were already registered and nearly new. One of the Fabias was a 2015 DSG SEL with only 19 miles on the clock and 6 months old. To me it was brand new but at least £4k less than list price. I went into a North West dealer one day and asked them to search the Skoda database for what I wanted. They said there was nothing. I went into a different dealer the following day and they found exactly what I wanted. In fact, they gave me a choice of 2 cars. Could be worth asking your dealer to check what is available direct from Skoda but don't be put off if they say they can't find anything. Try another dealer.

Have had this problem a few times. The jets in the rear wiper get blocked quite easily. I just poked a pin into both of them and wiggled it about a bit. Solved my problem.

I have a 2018 Octavia with the 1.0 engine. It has a GPF unfortunately and I believe it was fitted from around September 2018 (maybe a little earlier). I would imagine that the Fabia had the GPF fitted from around the same time. I don't think performance has been affected.

My previous car was a 1.2 Fabia with the DSG gearbox. The engine was fine although the DSG clutch pack was replaced under warranty when the car was 15 months old. I now have an Octavia with the 1.0 litre engine although it is a manual. The engine is fine even though the car is much bigger. Nippy enough and runs very quietly. If I had to choose, I would go for the 1.0 litre engine although road tax in the UK is more expensive as the car is newer. Either way, both the 1.2 and 1.0 are good engines in my experience.

I have had problems with the petrol particulate filter on my 1.0 TSI Octavia twice now. Details are in this thread. A long journey seems to sort things out but what a waste. Just waiting for it to happen for a third time.