harry vederci

Here are the part numbers for the satin finish transfers as supplied by my local dealership (cost is £6.34 each):

Look at the picture of the inside of the resprayed tailgate up thread. If they can reach all of it with undercoat (which they obviously did) then they can paint it as well.

Are you referring to the crappy paint around the top edge of the window, or the whole job? It seems to me that not painting the inside is a cost-cutting exercise by the body shop and I had expected it to come back fully painted, as it was when it went in. The dealer has come back to me claiming that Skoda has confirmed the inside doesn’t get painted and that what’s been done satisfies the warranty repair terms. According to the dealer, Skoda said: “The inside of panels are not fully painted as would the outside be and the cavity wax is used to protect them from moisture without this wax corrosion can start from the inside of the panels.” I still feel they’re having a laugh. Has anyone else had similar with a warranty respray?

The body shop is saying that the state they left the interior of the tailgate is normal and that “it does not get painted, it is just coated with cavity wax”. I think the tailgate should be restored to what it was like before the defect, and that was fully painted. Here’s how they returned it: And if that yellow sticky stuff is the wax coating, they’ve managed to apply it anywhere but where the rust was! Here’s how it went in: They also messed up the area at the top of the rear window as you can see from these photos: Am I being unreasonable in rejecting this repair?

I’m going to have a look around YouTube for videos showing how to replace those window strips and do it myself. They aren’t that expensive. I’ll maybe replace the vinyl on the B-pillars at the same time as they’re pretty rough now too. I got the car back a couple of days ago and the paint job on the outside of the tailgate is good enough but they’ve cut corners when finishing the interior. Much of it (the ‘unseen’ area behind the plastic boot trim) has been left as undercoat and not painted at all! And there’s an area the top of the rear window, for its whole width, where the undercoat is still visible and there’s an obvious run in the paint. I’ve emailed them with photos and asked for it to go back in. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have it properly painted, the way it was when they got it.

If it’s anything like the Mk 2 Fabia, undo the screw retaining the rubber pull strap in place and then pull off the inner boot trim. It should be mounted with about ten or so pop clips. Use something plastic but stiff to start the panel off. Be careful as it is easy to mark the trim, so don’t use something narrow like a screwdriver. Edit: Sorry, I just remembered I have a 2022 Fabia in the drive as a courtesy car while mine is in for repair! In addition to the pull strap there appear to be five further screws (torx) holding the trim on.

Yep, says so in my handbook 🙂. Besides, Skoda wouldn’t be fixing it now if it wasn’t still covered.

They tried that nonsense about missing paint inspections at the start but I put them straight on that! Not only isn’t it a warranty requirement, I had job sheets attached to recent services by them stating that the car had been checked for perforation and nothing found. That resulted in the claim being accepted, with Skoda paying for 60% and the dealer coughing the rest. The car will be 12 in October this year so still inside the time limit. If it’s easy enough to replace those trim parts I might do it myself. I’d rather get it done by Skoda though as I still see it as their fault.

My car went in today for a warranty repair to the common problem of rust around the registration number lamps area of the tailgate. At the same time that I reported the tailgate rust (last October), I also reported the bubbling rust under the paint on the metal trims that sit at the top of each door. This affects both sides of the car but is worse on the passenger side (see photo). No explanation has been given, only that ”they believe this is not a defect” but I don’t see the difference between that and the tailgate rust. Both are a result of rust under the paint and there is no paint damage that has allowed moisture to get in. Anyone else had the same rust and had it repaired under warranty?

It’s a 2011 (61 plate) Greenline that I’ve owned from new. Funnily enough, the cruise control and the start/stop were all working normally again when I was out again in the car tonight.

The battery was showing 12.5V on the meter yesterday, before I put it on charge. The charger showed similar voltage initially then rapidly went up to 14.7V with just one bar (of about ten) flashing to show it didn’t need much more. I left it on overnight anyway and at disconnection, 16 hours later, it was showing fully charged. The battery is an E39 Varta Start-Stop Plus 096 AGM 12V 70Ah (570901076) which I fitted in July 2019 after the original gave up. The car had had a good run both on Friday and Saturday when I made a trip to Fort William and back (around 120 miles each way). I’ll look at replacing the air filter as you suggest.

Thanks for that. It does sound beyond my skills so I’ll leave that to a professional. I’m just back from the suggested motorway run of 16 miles at 60-70mph and on the out run it was definitely sluggish, very slow to accelerate through the gears, so I guess was in limp mode. Before the return trip I switched it off for a minute before rejoining the motorway and the glow plug light did not come back on but the exhaust inspection system light remained. The car was no longer in limp mode and drove as normal. Back at home, I switched it off and checked the fault codes again with the OBD reader; the same two faults were listed. I started the car again and it fired up well with no warning lights showing. Is it still worth getting the dealer to diagnose the two recorded faults? P.S. The only symptom I forgot to mention was that since all this started is that the cruise control function can’t be set. Don’t know if that matters.

Last night on my way home, the glow plug light began to flash steadily (1 sec on/ 1 sec off) and the exhaust inspection system warning light came on steady. No loss of power, the car appeared to drive normally. Recently the stop/start had been inactive for a few weeks so I took the battery out and charged it overnight with a smart charger. Put it back in this morning and started the car. It was very lumpy on idle and felt like a cylinder maybe wasn’t firing. I turned it off, waited a few minutes and tried again. It took a few cranks longer, maybe 1.5 seconds instead of the usual instantaneous start, and ran normally but still with the two warning lights mentioned at the start. (I don’t think this charging of the battery is anything to do with the faults but I’m including it for completeness.) I borrowed an OBD reader and it reports fault codes P0321 and P0697. Not being a mechanic, I have no idea how significant these are so I’d be grateful for some advice. I called the dealer who services it and they said to take for a good run at 50mph+ for at least ten minutes to clear the DPF but I’m not convinced that’s the problem. Car is regularly serviced and has 86,000 miles.

They had recorded the first few inspections correctly in the service book but none since. However, attached to previous annual service invoices I have their job sheet copy which states the paint inspection was carried out and no defects noted. 🙂 I hadn’t made them aware of that detail as I wanted to see how they handled the claim but it’s obvious that no such inspection was actually performed. It makes me wonder what else they didn’t do at each service but charged me for anyway.

Last October I noticed very slight bubbling on the tailgate, just where the body panel turns horizontal for the reg plate recess. When I checked where the number plate lights are mounted there was heavy rust staining. I pointed this out to the dealer when it was in that week for its annual inspection and service and they said I’d have to bring it back and leave it for the day so they could take off the interior trim to establish the cause. After that inspection, they requested a scan of my service book to supply to Skoda, which I provided. They subsequently emailed to say that, in their opinion, the corrosion must have been evident for at least two years and the car had missed several paint inspections. I pointed out that they had inspected & serviced the car for 11 years and if this corrosion was ‘evident’ for me to have seen then it equally should have been picked up by their service staff. I drew their attention to the text on each service page which states, “Make sure that the corrosion protection of the body is intact or note any possible damage.” No possible damage was ever recorded and I asked them to explain this failure. I also challenged them to explain how paint inspections could have been missed when the car was presented to them every year for service and inspection purposes. I didn’t get a direct answer to any of my questions but they did come back to say that they would resubmit my claim, based on the proof of regular servicing and the fact they had since checked the job sheets which showed that the car was inspected for corrosion but they hadn’t recorded this in the service book. (That still didn’t explain how they’d missed the rust; they’d obviously just ticked the box to say they’d checked without actually doing so.) They now advise me that Skoda will pay for 60% of the repair with the dealer paying the balance “as an apology for the inconvenience caused”. What I don’t know yet is what form this repair will take. Having read through the numerous similar threads across Briskoda, I see that the most common fix is a replacement tailgate. However, I suspect they will try to fob me off with a sand/fill and respray only. What was the argument for successfully getting a replacement tailgate? I don’t trust that a filler job would last or that should other rust appear elsewhere they wouldn’t try to get out of fixing that because the panel had been resprayed. Any advice welcome.