silver1011

I get the initial diagnosis charge, this is pretty standard these days and is designed to cover the dealers costs if the fault is not covered under warranty and they're therefore unable to claim off Skoda UK. The £400 excess is a new one for me though, you're not making an insurance claim. Do you have an existing warranty on the vehicle? Did they explain what this upfront payment is for? The courtesy car charge varies by dealer, it seems Skoda UK don't have a blanket policy, meaning their franchised dealer network is free to charge whatever they wish. My local dealer simply asks me to replace the fuel I use, there is no daily charge, presumably the costs are baked into the prices they charge elswhere. Sometimes it pays to travel a little further, to a better dealer...

There was a similar report of intermittent headlight operation, affecting the pre-facelift LED headlights recently. Not sure of the outcome, unless it was you, but as they're sealed I'd imagine a Skoda main dealer would simply recommend replacing the complete light cluster. Expensive if not under warranty.

All that oil and they weren't able to determine where it was coming from? Have they put you in a replacement vehicle? Will they be offering to cover the cost of steam cleaning your driveway?

They usually introduce bugs, glitches and all other manner of untested changes 😂

I see this post dates back a few years, with there being some confusion over why Lane Assist defaulted to 'on' each time the engine was turned off and back on, rather than remembering the prior setting. I had a 2022 Skoda Fabia courtesy car recently and noticed that the Lane Assist came back on for each journey. On my 2018 Kodiaq it can be turned off and it stays off until the driver turns it back on. Anyway, the reason for the differences across models may be due to this new piece of legislation. I haven't read it in detail, what I have read suggests it only needs to be fitted rather than 'defaulting to on', but it wouldn't surprise me if this was baked into the guidance somewhere... "Under new EU vehicle safety rules, all new car and van models must be equipped with emergency lane keeping systems (ELKS) from July 2022, and existing models from July 2024. The system helps drivers stay safely within their lane or the road boundary, to avoid accidents." https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12503-Vehicle-safety-type-approval-of-cars-and-vans-with-emergency-lane-keeping-systems-ELKS-_en

We moved from a 2016 Octavia Scout to a 2018 Kodiaq Scout (1.4 TSI, manual). We didn't tow with the Octavia, but the Kodiaq makes for a very good tow car.

Looking on the Skoda Romania website the Ambition gets the regular chrome grill. Your Style model gets the UK L&K grill. With the black grill reserved for the SportLine and vRS, the same as the UK. I'd have added some images, but my FREEDOM subscription has expired.

In the UK its the SportLine and vRS that get the all-black grill. All other models get the chrome surround instead, with the L&K also getting chrome slats too. I'm guessing the Romanian trim levels are likely to be different...

Why did you choose the standard Osram Xenarc's? If reverting back to xenon (HID), I'd have least gone for Osram Night Breakers...

It's in the manual, cruise control is disabled if the car believes any of the lights (bulbs) to be inoperative. Your occasional blown bulb warning is the clue here, there's a fault somewhere in the wiring.

Different dealer 😉 My local dealer is DM Keith in York, but I travel further afield to Des Winks in Scarborough. Merry Christmas to you and the rest of the forum too 🎄

Really, where?

Everytime someone posts with wet headlining and no sunroof then the first question is 'have you had a rear dash cam fitted?'. I'm not sure if it's ham fisted fitters, a dodgy design or both, but the rubber conduit / bellows already highlighted are a common cause of water ingress.

I also have a 2018 1.4 TSI, with 30,000 miles. My Haldex gauze filter was roughly 80% clogged when I had it cleaned last year. I paid the main dealer a little extra labour to remove and clean it. I had the spark plugs replaced this year, all under a good value service plan purchased during a Black Friday special offer. If you're going to go to the effort of removing and examining 4 year old spark plugs then for less than £100 just put new ones in - is my thought. Even factoring in next years cambelt change I spend roughly £300 a year on main dealer servicing. On a £30,000 car I deem that reasonable and not worth the hassle of missing service items or trying to save a few quid by taking it elsewhere. I'm lucky in that the main dealer I use are as good at aftersales service as they are when trying to sell new customers new cars.

And what did the dealer suggest? Or did they simply fob you off with the usual 'come back if it gets worse' excuse? Just because there isn't a fault code logged doesn't mean there isn't an issue present, and definately doesn't preclude it from being diagnosed and fixed. Get a passenger to take a video of the fault, show it to the dealer, drop the car off, jump into a courtesy car and ask them to call you when it's fixed... ...is what I'd be tempted to do, but then I'm becoming immune to my local dealers ineptness (DM Keith in York).

Low charge and/or a failing battery can cause spurious electrical gremlins, even if the engine can still be started without obvious issue.

I've read before of a strange Skoda quirk whereby the cruise control won't work until the car is up to operating temperature...

Most things in life involve a compromise of some sort. Nicer looking alloy wheels are more vulnerable to damage via kerbing and potholes. The 19" Crater alloys on my Scout allow for a profile of tyre where the sidewall extends out past the rim of the alloy offering more protection against kerbing. The solution here is to accept the appearance of the kerbed alloys or downsize. Here's my old Superb running on 17" alloys, the wheels were almost impossible to kerb...

Unfortunately (or worryingly depending on how you look at it) the Haldex service is definitely not optional. Dealers are quick to point out gaps in the vehicles service history when it suits them i.e. signing up to their 'All-in' warranty etc. Even then Skoda UK's official workshop procedure for the Haldex service misses out on an important procedure, to clean the gauze filter. It doesn't matter how fresh the oil they replace is, if it can't pass through the filter the pump will be starved of lubrication. A classic sign of a failed pump is non-functioning 4WD i.e. any front wheel spin. Usually by this point the pump is already dead. My dealer offered to clean the gauze filter for a small extra charge when requested. Mine was already pretty sludged up at three years old.

I did of course mean to type 2017, not 2007. I'll correct my post.

Servicing your own vehicle is perfectly fine, if you have the tools and knowledge to do it then that is quite normal. A basic or fixed interval service is often just the oil and oil filter, plus an occasional air and pollen (cabin) filter and so is relatively straightforward. It is likely that a 2017 Kodiaq is well out of the standard three year manufacturers warranty, but the advice to check your extended or aftermarket warranty terms and conditions is wise, most warranty companies will want to ensure the vehicle is serviced in a VAT registered garage using genuine Skoda parts and the correct specification fluids as a bare minimum. It also limits the liklihood of any out-of-warranty goodwill gestures by your local dealer and/or Skoda UK should the need arise i.e. waterpump and DSG mechatronic failures as an example, although even these are becoming less forthcoming. You also potentially miss out on any non-enforceable TPI's and software updates that the Kodiaq seems to increasingly rely on, but after a few experiences of mine if it's working OK now then leave well alone. And also a lack of main dealer servicing curtails the 12 year bodywork anti-perforation warranty without the £60 'extra scope' element of their service regime. However all this aside you can ignore the 'inspection' service prompt, no parts are replaced, it is a relatively new invention by VAG / Skoda that some people might suggest is simply another effort to 'encourage' owners to use their franchised dealer network. It is as it sounds, a further inspection of the vehicle for items normally reserved for a major service, however in my experience all of these items i.e. suspension, brakes, tyres etc. are checked during any service regardless of if it is a fixed, variable, inspection or extra scope service as the garage is looking for any opportunity to up-sell. There is good margin to be made on brakes and tyres compared to fluids and filters. Quite why Skoda allow the driver to manually reset the oil service reminder but not the inspection reminder is anyones guess. Me being the cynic might suggest it was a half baked initiative to glean support from their dealer network by offering a system to force more people through their doors, arguably as with you (and me too), they've been successful.

£300 is more than just an oil service, you need to ask exactly what they're replacing before being able to compare. But yes, dealers are free to charge what they like.

Thanks Langers!

You may well be correct, we have the factory fitted towbar, the birdseye view option is brilliant for lining the towball up with the trailer hitch. When the steering is turned the lines on the screen move in conjunction with the steering inputs, so presumably their is some (limited) integration to other systems, even if just the steering angle sensor? I'm happy to pay the £85 for the "recalibration", whatever exactly it involves! Let's see how successful it is...

The dealer isn't great, I've had issue with them before, but they're local and therefore convenient. The fault code needs fixing before they can approve the eligibility check for the All-In warranty. They also claimed that it needs an air conditioning service too, but they're wrong and that debate will come afterwards. The vehicle is actually already under warranty, an official Skoda warranty, but this isn't covered I'm told. I am in the process of contacting Skoda Finance to enquire why it isn't covered, the terms and conditions detailed in my warranty booklet are pretty vague in relation to this issue, the only exclusion I can see that might affect the claim is a note that the warranty excludes any component that may "need adjustment from time to time". I guess calibration is a type of adjustment, but then I'd imagine anything that might need adjustment occasionally would be listed as a service item? Normally I'd dig in and kick up a bit of a fuss but the reverse camera itself isn't factory fitted, it was retrofitted by the same dealer (albeit at a different location) a few years ago. This would likely mean that it is therefore excluded from the warranty as well as being outside of any warranty offered by the supplying dealer. As a goodwill gesture the dealer is waiving the first £75 diagnostic fee and charging only for the calibration (£85). I am just curious if the recalibration of the reverse camera is something anyone else had suffered with. I don't believe it has been knocked, it's a genuine camera using genuine parts fitted by a Skoda technician at a Skoda main dealer and coded using their equipment. The camera operates as expected. I've read of issues with the front grill-mounted radar requiring recalibration, seemingly without reason, but not the rear reversing camera. Perhaps it was not coded correctly when fitted, but then I'd expect my favoured dealer to have mentioned the fault code during it's time with them for the vehicles routine servicing.