My 27,000 mile, 2.0FSI Octavia, registered in late May 2005, with full skoda SH, has for the last six months or so been suffering from a constant, yet small, annoying oil leak, that has been making rather a mess on my driveway.

When the car was last serviced (+MOT'd + given a 3 year health check for any warranty issues) by my supplying Skoda dealer in May this year, I asked for the leak to be investigated, but other than a small amount of residue round the oil filter/sump drainage point, the dealer claimed that no fault could be found.

This week having got fed up with the oil spots slowly increasing I contacted my dealer again, they refused to carry out any investigations into the leak unless I paid for 0.5 hours labour (circa £60). Not happy with that (together with the 25 mile round trip to the dealer) response I took the car to a local garage, who investigated for problem for several hours at no cost to me - their conclusion was that the leak was from the rear main seal between the gearbox and engine - a major job for which they have quoted around 6 hours labour plus parts, for which they would charge me around £450. They agreed with me that Skoda should have picked up this fault earlier in the year.

When I contacted my Skoda dealer to enquire about any chance of getting it done under the (now expired 3 year) warranty I got a poor response, indeed they have stated that if indeed that is where the fault lies, they will charge me a lot more than the £450 that the local garage has estimated!

I would welcome other bbriskoda users views - is it worth taking this up with again with the dealer and demanding the work is carried out under warranty or raising it with head office - Skoda UK?

Many thanks

The Captain

How do you rate your chances of proving to Skoda UK that the fault existed before your warranty expired ?

That's what you will have to do to get them to do anything. And you are unlikely to get any assistance from your original dealer, as they would have to admit to their incompetence back when they couldn't identify the problem.

Unless you can find a more co-operative Skoda dealer to help you out then I can't see that you are likely to get too far. The lesson here is to be much more assertive while you still have a warranty (and also don't give any more of your money to that unhelpful dealer that failed to identify the problem when you were still covered by warranty).

And also to give all instructions, niggles, faults complaints in writing, and keep a copy!! You can then tie that to the paperwork that you get from them and significantly restrict thier 'wriggle room'.

The Main Dealer had the car in for a hour today and agreed that the oil leak was from the rear main seal between gearbox and engine - which was as reported by the independant local garage two weeks ago.

They refused point blank to do the work under warranty, despite a real effort from myself and my wife, they would not budge. In their opinion this was a new fault and had nothing to do with the original oil leak, reported when the car was still under warranty.

When I mentioned legal action, their view was 'bring it on'.

What should I do next?

We are really fed up with this situation - although I cannot name the dealer, can I give the county or even name the town they are located in?

TC

Have you mentioned the word "press" while you were there?

I'd complain to skoda customer services.

Express your concern as to how one of their apparently approved dealers could miss such a thing when they are allegedly trained to skodas high standards and how this doesn't fill you with confidence.

I would go somewhere else.