Gyp

Nice to know that my build thread might still be of use to people. It's still doing its job and looks just as good now as the day I finished it.

The only way to be sure is to look at the receipt. If it's a main dealer, the hourly change may well have made it this, as Warrior193 pointed out, dealers can charge £200 (plus VAT) for work. A quick look suggests that the clutch is about £200 and it takes 4-5 hours to fit. Let's say worst case 5 hours and £200 an hour. That gives us £1,200 + VAT = £1440 I'd expect an independent to be far less than this as their hourly rates are likely much lower; a lot will depend on where the work was done. It's also worth looking at the receipt to see what else might have been done, as I've known people complain that their service cost £1500 or so but a glance at the receipt shows that in addition to an oil change they had tyres, disks and pads all round but they didn't think to mention this little detail...

I have the car back. Working. And it appears that it wasn't a mechatronic fault - or at least the fault did not originate in the mechatronic. After a bit of a wait for a mechatronic, and then another mechatronic as the first one didn't solve the problem, and then a check of the clutch pack as the 2nd replacement mechatronic didn't solve the problem, and a full work through of the control wiring as the clutch pack was ok... the problem was tracked down to a failed synchromesh on 1st gear. Because 1st would engage, the mechatronic was signalling a fault. It's still unclear to me if the issue caused the mechatronic to fail, or just fail to operate, but rebuilding 1st gear in the box and putting back the 2nd replacement mechatronic has resulted in a working car. OK, it has taken rather longer than I would have liked, but it's fixed, and I have to say that in the end both the local dealership and Skoda have been very forward leaning in ensuring that it didn't hurt my wallet as much as it could have done.

Don't fret, it'll likely get traded in for a Rav 4 when it's fixed

True. My local independent VAG specialist uses one but still urged me to try Skoda first as, even with an auto gearbox specialist, it would be pricey. Thing is, once it has been fixed with parts from Skoda central, it'll have a 2 year warranty which it probably wouldn't have elsewhere.

I think the answer has to be yes, I'd still have gone down this route. However that's made a lot easier because I have other cars to get me about and (taking the old shed to the tip aside) there's been nothing in the last 6 months that's genuinely needed a car with the carrying capacity of the Superb Combi. I did initially take the car to my local independent, and it was them that recommended that, based on the cost of repair, I see if Skoda would do something. The nominal cost of the repair by Skoda is about £2500, so that made sense. Skoda and the local dealership have come up with an arrangement that means that it should cost me about £750 all in, so a "saving" of £1750. My understanding is that, especially as £500 already spent was for the detailed diagnosis, the cost won't rise above that agreed. If, however, I'd used the independent and there had been similar problems, they wouldn't have had access to Skoda technical and would likely have been charging me by the hour. So it's a frustration and an inconvenience, but it's not a £1750+ inconvenience. But it would be nice to have it back soon.

As a bit of a follow up... After the approach by the after sales manager, Skoda did relent and agreed to a partial good will contribution. Because of the delay and initial failure to get a positive response from Skoda, the dealership also agreed to trim their costs. All good! Well, not quite. As it is pre-coded at the factory and done on a separate line, the mechatronic unit took 7 weeks to be be delivered to the dealership. It took a little longer for them to get round to fitting it and... didn't work. Skoda suggested taking it all apart again and checking the clutch pack. which made no difference. And there have now been several weeks of delay as Skoda technical ask the dealership to try different codings and test voltages and resistances at varying places on the loom. It seems that every time the dealership reports back to Skoda Technical it takes the best part of a week to get a response, but this may be because technical UK are having to talk to technical Germany or wherever. We are now at the point where Skoda are suggesting trying another mechatronic unit (I suspect in case the initial one supplied was faulty - no idea if they are new or refurb). The dealership optimistically is suggesting 4 weeks to get it, but based on the first one, maybe a bit longer. The car has now been out of action for more than 6 months and, whilst it's been fun using my GR Yaris as a daily, it would really be quite nice to get the Superb back. If nothing else I've got an old shed in the garden that needs to go to the tip and the missus is getting annoyed that it's still there! I do acknowledge though that this isn't a priority for the dealership as they are kind of stuck in the middle and working on it gets in the way of paying customers. So, not sure at this point if I'll have it back before Christmas. Might be a treat for the New Year. Or maybe Valentine's Day... Just wish now I'd SORNed it at the end of April

At less than 4 Euro I doubt it.

It's the parking ticket holder. or for a photo of a loved one. or for your gas bill. Can be replaced for under a tenner.

You're absolutely right. I sit corrected.

Just be aware that tow ropes are no longer legal, so you need to use a fixed towing bar instead

Didn't check them I'm afraid - the message on the dash was the big giveaway!

Well, despite the original "no", the after sales manager has had another go, and the result has been a lot more favourable this time. Hopefully I'll have the car back before too long

Car is 2018 but lightly used so only 46,000 miles. I reckon that broadly speaking, the VAG DSG gearboxes are fine. The reason I say this is that they have made many millions of them, but you only hear about the ones that go wrong. From my perspective, having 2 mechatronic units go wrong in under 50,000 miles is unfortunate but I suspect is the luck of the draw. What's not great is the cost of repairing the things that have gone wrong. First mechatronic failure - £1,600 but thankfully covered under warranty Infotainment system failure - £3,500, failed and reported during the warranty period but not diagnosed and fixed until afterwards so Skoda wouldn't honour the warranty on it. They did make an out of warranty contribution which I had little option but to accept. Second mechatronic failure - estimated at £2,500. Skoda not going to make a contribution as last service was outside of the dealer network. Not sure what difference this makes as the mechatronic and gearbox is not attended to as part of the service schedule.

And now, having spent close to £400 with the local Skoda dealership for them to confirm the diagnosis of the independent, Skoda UK have decided not to assist in any way.

9 and a 1/2 weeks later (now having Kim Basinger flashbacks) the problem has been confirmed by local Skoda dealer (the dealership that replaced the first unit) as the mechatronic. Now the wait to see if Skoda UK are willing to assist.

Similar to last time - big warning on the dash saying "gearbox in emergency mode", and only then using gears 2, 4 and 6. Reverse can only be operated by going forward a bit first

Back from the depths - 2nd mechatronic has failed 20k miles later

Son's Citigo failed similarly last week. Garage ran a bottle of cataclean through it and it passed https://www.halfords.com/motoring/engine-oils-and-fluids/fuel-and-oil-additives/cataclean-500ml-616247.html

I think there needs to be some clarity over what's meant by getting the full brakes replaced. Calipers? Hoses? Cylinders? Fluids? If the idea is to replace all the friction materials (pads and shoes) then that's not a bad idea. Also the front disks might not be a bad idea as they are cheap enough. All that is achievable by a home mechanic for about £170 using proper Brembo parts. Add about £30 for the fluids if you want to change them. Then double it if you want an independent to do it And double it again for a main dealer.

When I bought my second Octavia, I stripped out the interior and completely lined it with Dynamat. It never occurred to me to start hitting the car with a stick though.

That's useful. I wonder if it's possible to get the door card off without cheerily breaking the electric window switch housing..? And is the hitting the car with a stick at the end of the video some kind of punishment for the poor thing? Thanks, both. I can now decide whether to have a go or just rest my arm on the arm rest...

Not for the feint-hearted then.

As so often happens my Google mojo is failing me. Is there a guide somewhere to removing the arm rest on the driver's door? I've got an intermittent rattle which stops the moment I put any pressure - just resting an arm - on the arm rest. I'm sure there's just a loose bolt or whatever under there but don't want to risk damaging the door card getting to it! Help!

The butterfly opening in the intake of the Citigo is limited on the (nominally) 59bhp models and allowed to open fully on the (nominally) 74bhp versions. Because there's no turbo boost to adjust etc, whilst there's likely a little tweaking with the injection and ignition, what the tuners are doing is fundamentally allowing the inlet butterfly to open fully on the lower power engine to match the higher power one. Celtic are showing a slight improvement all the way through the range which is good, but not entirely surprising as the engine will be able to flow a little more air with a wide open throttle. The thing to be aware of is, unlike a diesel remap where the extra torque is usually very apparent all the way through the rev range, you'll likely only notice a difference on the Citigo when you're revving beyond 5k as it'll continue to make power rather than running out of puff and requiring another gear. If your car has a rev counter (I think they all do but not 100% sure), it's worth keeping an eye on the revs you are going to gauge how often you're exploiting that top end of the rev range. i.e. is it worth it for the few times you're up by the red line? The dyno chart on the Superchips site shows similarly that the power continues as the revs increase rather than plateauing at 5,000rpm https://www.superchips.co.uk/ECU-Remap/Skoda/Citigo-MK1-2012-2016/Petrol/SE-1-0-MPI-59-bhp/stage-1 Also worth considering the insurance implications as the insurers, if they will insure a remapped car, typically load the premium based on % power increase. From 68 to 84 is 24%, though if the insurers take is as a 59bhp increase to 84 that's a whopping 42%. Anyway, as in the simplest terms, the Citigo is just being set up to run the same as the 74bhp model then there should be no problems. As the 59bhp car has slightly shorter gearing than the 74bhp, it should feel *slightly* peppier through the gears. Celtic has, as far as I know, a very good reputation. If you get it donw, do report back and let us know how it goes.