oldgroaner

Absolutely agree, and sad because the dealership network has proved to be better than Skoda deserve, and suffers because of their incompetence.

Especially when they are so patently turning a profit on poor quality control at the Customer's expense! Needless to say I have reached the point of diminishing returns , and the remaining sum outstanding not worse the effort to recover it, However I hope that bringing this to the attention of other victims of what is after all a scam, will enable them to react during the Guarantee period and avoid a bill after it has expired. Best wishes to all!

Monday 5th August 2019 Just an update for you Skoda responded as promised today with the feedback from my comments about the service life of the coolant in these engines. Briefly the Technical people don’t see any advantage in replacing the coolant on a cyclic basis, which is of course their choice to make, a cynic might observe that when it fails the cost is generally incurred outside the guarantee period, so from Skoda’s point of view can be ignored, as the customer pays, though not usually in full. Further they stated that they do not think that Ph changes are as reliable as colour changes and particles appearing in the coolant. I did point out that Ph changes indicate a problem forming as the coolant becomes more acidic, while colour changes and particles appearing Indicate nothing more or less than that the coolant has failed and damage has already been done! On the credit side they will be sending me a letter authorising a Free service, Major or minor of my choice, and frankly the balance outstanding of my claim is too small to be worth pursuing. So for the sake of arguing over the small sum Skoda have saved, they will lose the many thousands in purchase and servicing of my next car, as I will move to another manufacturer. There is a moral there somewhere If you have problems with coolant levels, or the heater not working on either while the car is under guarantee, do not hesitate to contact your dealer and get it investigated to avoid paying for the poor quality control of Skoda limited. And if you don't get satisfaction, do as I will do and take your business elsewhere next time.

From what I can find out failure of the silica bag is pretty rare, the colour in the heat exchanger is interesting as it would suggest corrosion of the Gray cast iron cylinder block and crankcase, if the coolant fails diesel engines sometimes have problems with electrolysis. Remove the silica bag? I would have thought it better to leave it in, if they go to expense of dosing the coolant with it, it's likely they have good reason to, and the risk of it failing is it seems remote. As to the 5 year change cycle, Skoda say not a problem, I'm not convinced. Has the heat exchanger part been superceded? Sorry but so far no information available to suggest so.

Will do! and thank you!

I have kept an eye on the cooling system and sent another letter to Skoda 10th July 2019 Ref; XXXXXXXX Dear Sir/ Madam Further to my previous letter dated 27th June 2019, to which you have not responded. I trust that you have not forgotten the issue, which is still not resolved, and new factors have emerged. When the matrix was replaced and the car returned to me all seemed well , until the coolant level started fluctuating again and I returned the car to the main dealer who tested it and declared all was well. I commented at the time that the coolant appeared cloudier than it had when the repair first took place this was on June 25th I tested a sample of the coolant new straight out of the container and it has a ph of 5.0, which does not change when diluted with de-ionised water. Testing the coolant in the Expansion vessel in the car showed the ph had risen to 6.0. And now once again it has risen to ph 6.5 This is a progressive failure of the coolant that the “Mit-Silika” T bag has failed to prevent. I had also measured the Standing Voltage of the coolant relative to earth when the car came back with a digital voltmeter and it was an acceptable 0.1volts. That has now risen to 0.3volts, with the engine running, and this rises to 0.35 volts when the headlights are on. This is an indication of a Grounding Fault and Electrolysis taking place within the cooling system, which will lead to early failure somewhere in the engine or cooling system. This situation is entirely the responsibility of the Manufacturer and clearly your liability. I shall be away on holiday and look forward to your reaction on my return Regards etc ends. Still as you can see not happy!

You did the right thing to ensue they have logged the event just in case!

That is very good to hear and commendably good service from the dealer Just one question... why is it necessary to change the coolant which should have lasted till the cam belt is changed? why couldn't they just top it up with the correct coolant? The amount of water you added shouldn't have been enough to contaminate 7 litres of coolant Flushing out is a very expensive and time consuming process, I know having paid for it, Strange that they thought it necessary, they must have had a reason. I would be asking them why?

Still best to get the dealer to deal with the problem so they have a record, it may well be an air lock issue, but then it may not.

Surely that indicates something is very wrong? I did a little under 35,000 miles in my last two !.9 TDI Octavias and neither ever used or lost a drop of coollant.

Best advice is do not add water, take it back to the dealer for them to check that they coolant is OK there could be a problem, and in any case you really need the correct coolant see my post Low coolant warning led to large bill Let them sort it out at their expense

Actually it hasn't.while my coolant loss was being checked I had a 2019 Octavia with both the marking "Mit Silikat" and the bag in the header tank, and the replacement header tank fitted to my car has the label and the bag too. Apparently sometimes it is there , and sometimes not. I would advise you to ask the dealer why yours is less the marking and the bag to avoid possible problems in the near future. Better still ask Skoda directly.

I have checked with the Motor Ombudsman and find that Skoda have eight weeks to resolve this complaint before I can involve them. Very well, patience is a virtue. Unless I decide to go to the small claims court instead, or simply write to the AA and Motoring Press. Under the Consumer Protection act you have three years comeback on the supplier, and You have six years to take a claim to the small claims court for faulty goods in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and five years in Scotland. And since I have proof that this fault was a known one by the manufacturer, to the extent that they are doping the coolant to delay failure , that is looking like the way to go if all else fails.

I sent my letter of complaint to Skoda on the 27th of June They have it seems decided not to respond and "Tough it out" Which rather illustrates the sort of company I am dealing with and the indifference it has to Customer Care. You would think after Dieselgate VAG would have learned their lesson Perhaps they need another?😎 As Churchill said "This is not the end, nor even perhaps the beginning of the end But is is surely the end of the beginning. OG

There has been a problem with corrosion in the cooling system (see my earlier posts) which pollutes the coolant by leaching Silica from it, the bag is intended to replenish that loss and hopefully extend the life of the coolant . It is hard not to see this as a bodge to ensure that failures occur after the Guarantee period has expired and the cost born by the car's owner as I was. In reality the manufacture should have solved the problem before installing parts of questionable quality , or recalled the ones that failed in the field. So in answer to your question do not remove the bag, there is a greater risk from the corrosion it is intended to prevent than from the unlikely and rare event of the bag bursting.

Excellent news, Boxer Boy! don't forget to ask what warranty now applies after the repair

I wouldn't go so far as to be "not worried" when there is a likely failure due to a known manufacturing fault at any time after the warranty runs out! Get the dealer to check

Yes it replenishes silica lost from the coolant if there is contamination of the fluid....shouldn't be required really as the only way for contamination to be thee is from a manufacturing defect .. read through my posts and follow the links, it's all there VAG group had a problem and they know about it..

Make sure that the dealer is aware that you know people have had problems with the manufacturing defect i mentioned and check if it says "Mit Silikat" on the Expansion tank .unscrew the cap when the engine is stone cold and the bag (if there) is visible in the front of the coolant opposite the two prongs of the electrode at the rear. Make sure you record when this happened and what assurance they give you for future reference.

You certainly SHOULD have, check with the dealer what is going on! I can see the bag at the inside at the front of the vessel on my car

Obviously I wish you luck, make sure to jot down the points raised on here! and let us know how you get on

With thanks to the posters who brought up the possible failure of the silica bag in the coolant tank, failure of this is of course still Skoda's liabilty and a bit of a bad joke to present someone with a wacking great bill for the failure of the equivalent of a tea bag! A very good point indeed!

That I'm sure does happen but there didn't appear to be a bag in my original unit, and the dealer clearly mentioned sand not crystals, and the technical bulleting cited corroded aluinium particles that would look like sand. Mind you whatever it was it's till Skoda's liability is't it?

A fair point, but as you can see in the video link, I posted the contents of the bag are a white crystal and could not be mistaken for sand. However I have read of blockages due to these crystal on other VAG forims so you make a very fair point. The original tank either didn't have a slica bag , ot it had completely disappeared, apparently they were not always present according to posters on other VAG forums,