rbss

Just my 2p, I think it has started waaaaay before Brexit The way I see it, living 21years in UK, there was a big change following 2008 crash. Before that time, lots of products (like electronics, appliances etc) were cheaper in the UK by some margin, there was also usually better selection of the products in the UK. After 2008, prices in the UK started climbing up very fast and everything on the continent became cheaper... I think after Brexit, the selection of products became very limited compared to the rest of Europe. Anyway, this is discussion for another forum, I diverged quite a bit from the "mechatronic" topic, apologies!

It's a shame that there is no direct competitor to the Kodiaq on the market really.... Before I bought my 2nd Kodiaq, tried few cars and only few were equally spacious and comfortable, but they were much, much more expensive. I am buying my cars with cash, so even if I had that much cash, would not like to part with 40-50k on an Q7 or Cayenne or something like that... Modern cars have so many systems that make the ride great, when these systems work, we take them for granted.... but any time any of these systems goes wrong, we're facing huge bills. I am pretty sure that if you bought something from the higher end market, the average time between repairs is similar, but the costs are much higher than Skodas What drives me nuts, is the pricing discrepancies between the countries. UK really became "rip-off Britain" in last 15 years, my story with the mechatronic unit is just one of many. All the flights to UK are much cheaper than the flights on the same dates in the opposite direction. 4 years ago my sister visited us for Xmas with her family, total cost of flights and luggage - £400. When I tried to initially book the flights for the same days in the opposite direction, the total was £2300 for the same amount of people and luggage. I know lots of my friends are now booking the holidays in exotic countries from Poland, as it is cheaper to fly to Poland, get accommodation before/after flights, and go for a holiday (e.g Dominican Republic, Egypt etc) than to fly there directly from the UK. You'll lose one-two extra days travelling (in some case you get an extra wee holiday in Poland), but in some cases the savings are huge. Ok, rant over, coffee break over, back to work :D:D:D

Remember that I drove to Poland and picked the new unit myself, but I'm sure you could get something similar arranged.

Would need to dig out the invoice from Skoda Poland (official Skoda dealership), thought I've got it with the rest of car docs but it's not there. Anyway, when I was discussing it with Skoda, this was the part number that was quoted/ordered : 0BH325025PZ3R . Please note there are several different models/versions of the DSG so not sure if it is the same for your car, someone with VCDS should be able to confirm. Gearbox was pre-loaded with some software based on VIN (had to provide it to Skoda Poland along with some other info) and it will be locked to the car. Apart from that I can definitely vouch for Fife Autotech garage, they have done great (and quick) job replacing the unit.

I have tried cleaning my tail lights and remove dead insects from them as well - very limited success, I think I managed to move some of them inside the light (nothing came out, but at least they have been moved within the lamp enclosure and not visible) by use of compressed air and vigorous shaking As said, partial success only, some smaller ones are still there. When I had the lights off, took a bit of foam packing (some electronic equipment I bought was supplied in it), cut matching pads for the vents, and glued them around the perimeter of the vents, did not notice any new dead insects since then.

just had this in my skoda kodiaq '18 (dsg q500 gearbox). The mechatronics unit was the issue, quite expensive to sort out - described my story here:

Tighter fit, but this stopped the rattling. Initially I didn't think it could be actually the handle making these noises, it sounded more like something inside the door, but I was glad that it was a quick/cheap fix

in my case the plastic handle was making a noise and it was driving me nuts... I followed few videos from YT (one below and some others) and took the plastics off, then instead of spraying/coating it with the grease I used small pieces of foam which I glued to the handle to stop it rattling. Simple job, in my case completely cured the rattling.

I think the issue with the mechatronic units (not sure if all of them, but certainly the one I bought for my DQ500) need to be .... pre-loaded with software that links them to specific VIN number - this is done in the factory so you cannot really purchase these parts up-front (given the price difference I thought about buying a few! :D:D:D) . Totally ridiculous, but I'm guessing all manufacturers are stupidly follow this trend ... give it few years and if we can still drive, you will have to get the brake pads with soft pre-loaded to your specific car....

I'll chip in with what I've heard - the garage who was replacing mine (FifeAutotech) was saying that there was some change in the mechatronic units after 2nd part of 2019, so far they have not seen the issues with the new part. What I don't know, is whether this is applicable to DQ500 gearbox which I have, or to others as well. And perhaps this is due to the fact that some of the cars that have the new mechatronic units fitted didn't do much mileage? Skoda Poland was saying that they are still regularly getting issues with the DSG gearboxes, mechatronic is one of the most common problems. After reading a bit about this issue on the net, it looks like some of the problems might arise when the gearbox oil is not changed too often - this of course does not explain why these units fail after 28k (sic, that's a new car really!). The other thing is that VAG constantly changes the advice/requirement for the DSG maintenance. After calling few garages, I was told 1) oil doesn't need to be changed 2) needs to be changed after 120k miles, 3) changed after 40k miles 4) changed after 40k miles only if you towing/constantly driving like mad.... All Skoda garages btw The other thing is that over last few years, I consistently lose my confidence in branded garages.... Seen instances where things that were ticked on the list were not done, seen oil spilled on the engine, seen loose parts left after job, or tools left in the engine bay after jobs ... My recent approach to all my cars is ... changing the engine oil/filters on annual basis (all cars do less than 10k miles), maybe an overkill but ... little cost, easy job. If I'm going to get a new car with automatic gearbox (I do like Kodiaq a lot, so that issue with the DSG would not discourage me from looking to buy another), I will be changing the gearbox oil between 20-25k miles in some private garage with good reputation (or learn how to do the job myself :D).

all in (with part imported from PL) £1700. Still a lot, but roughly half the price with the UK sourced part...

Unit replaced now, I only had a chance to drive the car back from Glenrothes (FifeAutotech) to Aberdeen, so far so good. I've got some friends coming over next week so will take car for a spin around Scotland. Hats off for the guys at Fife Autotech, probably the most friendly and professional garage I've seen in the UK to date!

Damn, just read the referenced website.... DSG lifespan approx 250kkm, bearing/other issues around 200kkm .... not great knowing my car has done nearly 165kkm!

From what I've heard (from both independent garage and Skoda in Poland) the failure rate for the mechatronic unit for DQ500 dropped to nearly zero after that hardware update in 2019. We might be talking about the same garage, will confirm later on this week

I was told by the Skoda/TPS that the part I bought (based on its number) is the updated version of the mechatronic unit (I think there was some change in 2nd part of the 2019), so hopefully this will be ok. Skoda did verify the VIN and other details before I could order the part. The unit is pre-programmed by Skoda to match VIN of the car (and therefore they say it's a non-returnable part). My gearbox is DQ500, but I think the issues are similar across the range. Repair will be carried out in Scotland, I'll wait and see how it goes before disclosing the name of the garage.

@Ootohere - this is the price for the new part given by TPS in the UK. I am aware that you can get the unit repaired under 2k, but considering I could buy new part for 1k, I decided to go for that - with replacement it should be under 2k as well.

My car was bought used last year with 80k miles on the clock. I was offered extended warranty but declined.... I wonder though whether this would be repaired under warranty (from previous experience lots of things are not really covered by the warranties). Car is 5yr old now, with 96k miles on the clock, and Skoda UK actually carried out the DSG maintenance in Feb this year. From what I was told DSG mechatronic issues can start at any time really, but most common from 60k upwards.

Coming back from Glasgow few weeks ago, when I was accelerating in Sport mode, my car suddenly showed me the error saying "Gearbox in emergency mode - no Reverse gear". I was already doing 68-70, so enabled cruise control at 72 and continued the journey to Aberdeen. I realized that when I was trying to accelerate on the way, the car was accelerating only if I was pressing the pedal very gently, and harder pressure on the pedal (i.e. when going up-hill) resulted in car actually slowing down. When I got closer to home realized why this is happening - apart from reverse gear, car actually lost all even gears (2,4,6)... Managed to get back home safely, stopped the car in the side bay and tried to reverse - no R gear. Then I switched off the engine and switched it back on in 10 seconds. Surprisingly, all gears are back on and no error messages. Done some investigation using VCDS and speaking to the garage I was told that it's the mechatronic unit that controls the DSG has failed. Then, I heard the price for this unit .... 2.7k ! This of course does not include any fitting and additional parts/fluids, this is just the mechatronic unit! I was totally gobsmacked, we were about to go for a long holiday in Europe, and I could not afford such an expense... Speaking to one of my friends from Poland, he told me to check the Polish Skoda garage and get the pricing for this part.... So I've done that and got price for the same unit .... equivalent of £1k ! I could not believe the difference! I am familiar with "rip-off Britain" phrase, but I have never seen such wild price differences! On top of that, I was told that usually the entire repair in Poland costs approx £1.6k but Skoda covers half of that cost as they do admit (not every time!) that it's a common problem ... So the guys from Polish Skoda garage told me - bring the car here and the repair will be much cheaper - but I wasn't brave enough to take entire family to a trip across the EU potentially with odd gears only and no reverse But I did order the part, and brought it back to the UK, getting it fitted on Wednesday ... Fingers crossed - I'll update once the car is back on the road!

Unfortunately not, but I think I was using Skoda manual which is downloadable on this forum ( ). From memory, the clips were sitting very tight and I tried to pry them with multiple plastic tools - as I was worried that I will break something. Eventually, one clip popped-off and it was then a bit easier to remove the rest of the trim...

CarParts4Less which I think is the same outlet as ECP?

TBH, I think I've checked only one pad with the sensor cable, and didn't think they were any different...? No longer have the old parts, otherwise I'd get them out and re-measure everything, I wonder if the new pads are maybe just so slightly different in measurement (would need to be 1-2mm) and whether they could be causing this... Just checked the ECP website, all different pads for my car (including the Brembo pads) seem to have identical fitment/dimension details ....

Last year I have replaced front and back pads and discs in my Kodiaq - we were going to go for a long family trip across Europe, so wanted to have nice and new brakes. Replaced originals with the Brembo, all parts were bought online and stated that these are direct replacement of standard parts. One thing I have noticed after a while is that sometimes the car makes a knocking noise, which sounds like it is coming from the suspension, as it usually happens when the front of the car goes into a hole etc and the nose of the car dips... Took the car to two local garages (one of them is the guys who worked for Audi garage before so they know the parts quite well), they checked everything and said that no issues with suspension. They checked some other things and said that most of the bushings etc look like brand new, there is no loose parts etc. Strangely after the car was taken down from the car lift and put back on the road, the noise disappeared for a day or two, but it comes back on again. I started thinking that the only thing that has changed really is the brakes, and I can't really see how the discs would cause this noise, the only other part would be the pads - so I am thinking about replacing the fronts again this year to see if that noise disappears. Does anyone know what brand/type are used for the 190bhp 4x4 Kodiaq mk1 ? The parts I have now are shown below I think these numbers are universal, they seem to work across few car part shops: Brembo pads - 10144422A Brembo discs - 10444212A

Not sure what "jolt" it is, but my car was also making a weird noise and stuttering a bit when starting, especially when I was turning... Cleaned the Haldex system (pump filter), put new oil in, resetted the pump and it improved massively (the car still does the noise when I start dynamically, but it's much reduced from what it was). Not sure if it helps, but it's worth checking , the oil and parts are under £50, and a bit of work under the car to get the pump/filter out.

Yes, I'd need to stress though it needs to be correct grease - I think previous owner of this car was lubricating the latch but with some very dense grease, which accumulated more and more dust/grit and in the end caused the failure of the latch ...

Ok, trip to the garage, 2hrs of work, and bonnet is now open. All done under £100 and no damage done (I think they have taken out the bottom grille and worked their way up to the lock), but it's going to be the lesson I'll remember till the rest of my life