My 2007 Octavia vRS Combi is playing up something rotten!

This is my third Skoda in succession. But this Octavia MK2 must have run under a couple of ladders when leaving the factory!

Out of 53 weeks of ownership this has now spent 5 and a half weeks in the garage with electrical faults. That is 10% of its time with me, and as a high mileage user it is frustrating, and hugely annoying.

I do 40,000 miles a year, and it has 20,000 miles of warranty left, which will easily be covered in the next 5-6 months. As they don't seem any nearer to resolving the issue, this is a concern I have. As once the warranty is expired, they'll wash their hands of my car and it's increasingly unreliable nature.

Yesterday I contacted Skoda UK to tell them of the issues I am having with the car. In an ideal world i'd like them to replace the car with an equivalent age/spec vRS, or just condemn it.

Has anyone else had any similar recurring issues that never seem to be resolved?:confused:

What electrical issues have you been having?

Mine has had a few problems with engine management issues and recently spent 3 weeks in the garage because a part was on back order. Thankfully the dealer has been good and supplied a loan car at no notice.

But I have to say that reliability issues have taken the edge off ownership satisfaction, though I'm not sure that these Skodas are any worse than other makes with high output diesels and particulate filters.

AFAIK the warranty is unlimited miles in the first 24 months, only is it limited to 60,000 miles in its 3rd year.

Steve

Earthing problems which has been now described by my dealer as a section of melted wiring loom! They are waiting for Skoda UK to approve repair under warranty. This is the 3rd time it has been in for this fault, each time it has come away 'repaired'. and if it's melted wiring loom, then surely it's a potential fire hazard!

It last occured on my way back from Scotland to Yorkshire, in the rain with no wipers....Great fun!

The dealer has been good in all fairness, it's just the car that I now have issues with. I don't trust it, at all.

Fixing the effect rather than the cause is a great way top deal with it... not.

Why don't they find out why it's melting the loom?

how about crashing it into the showroom. Maybe the brakes stopped working due to the fault with the loom ?? ;-)

Are you paying on finance? If so remember the finance co is also liable for the quality of the goods supplied. They may carry a bit more clout with Skoda. If it was me and the car was as bad as this I think that I would be taking legal advice.

Good luck.

That sir is a very good point...As used car prices are now falling off the plateau, the negative equity in this is probably pretty high. So the next step could be the finance company. This is an ex Skoda UK HQ car aswell! All the whistles and bells...And a right royal pain in the ***!

Sorry to hear of your woes. I have had a number of minor electrical faults in my van, but these seem to be mostly poor quality lock mechanisms, and once they are replaced the new ones seem OK.

Maybe give your car to a GOOD automotive electrician for a thorough going over. These days many dealers just plug your car into the computer and simply do whatever it tells them to do. Of course if the electrics are faulty then the computer may be getting incorrect info for its diagnosis. So they end up going around and around in circles, and you have an unreliable vehicle.

By going back to first principles a good car sparky may actually locate the problem/s (possibly an intermittent earth or short somewhere).

I had a MKI vRS with electrical problems like this. The car kept blowing fuses on the wipers and main beam headlights. After a few dealer visits which fails to fix the problem they got an auto electrician in who found that when the alarm was installed the engineer had put a screw through the wiring loom behind the bulk head. This was after removing the dash and tracing back the short. Most annoying as it cost me a lot of time and grief, but his advice was sound. Where a new car has a miscellaneous electrical fault 90% of the time it is caused by installation of additional accessories such has hands free kits or alarms. Maybe you could check if any aftermarket kit was installed as a root cause.

I'd the same thing with a Kangoo van. 8 months of REALLY dodgy electrics, fried relays, dead central locking, etc, etc. Turned out to be the screws holding the rear number plate on went through the loom in the back door.