Help! We got our fabia 1.9 diesel back from skoda dealers 3 weeks ago after having a new engine put in because the cam belt which they fitted damaged the stud and shreaded the cam belt and engine. They did the job free of charge saying it was a good will gesture for being such loyal customers. Apparently costing over a £1000. They had our car for over three months. We thought things were ok but after a few days we found the heater was not working properly. It was staying very hot and even when turned off hot air was coming through the vents. We took it back and they checked it and said their was an intermittent fault with the heater and it would be costly to repair. Why do things go wrong after they have had the car in to do work on it. Today we find that the air conditioning also keeps playing up. We checked it to see if it was working ok too. Can anyone tell me whether these things could be due to having the engine changed and the car being yet again messed up?

We are at the end of our tether with this dealer. We really fel that we should have had compensation for the length of time they had our car off the road but there is no chance of that.

thanks for reading. Hope Lumoux will remember our troubles last July. :confused::(

Its difficult to say without at least knowing if there are any faults in the memory for the a/c system.

It could be as something as simple as the flaps that control the heat into the car have lost their basic settings and need to be reset.

Thanks we will look into that and see.

If it was working fine before the previous breakdown, then dont be fobbed off. They have obviously not put it together properly after being fixed.

To change the engine , the A/C system will need to have been regassed because some of the joints will have been disconnected. Its quiet possible that the gas has leaked out again, again.. because they have not put it back together properly.

Thanks for that mannyo. Would this also apply to the heating system too. Did they have to mess with that when putting in a new engine. We are not mechanically minded at all and have had to trust and rely on Gordon Lamb Chesterfield in all this. It seems when they have our car it comes back to us with big problems. We have bought three Skoda's from them. Always had them serviced by them and they are treating us really badly and as you say fobbing us off!.

Edited 18 November, 200817 yr by brookieme

The basic heating system itself is very similar irrespective of make/model. What it consists of is a small radiator and a shroud which controls how much air flows through it into the cabin. That sorts out basic temperature control. There are then other flaps and valves to control where the air tries to get into the cabin.

The problems start when you add air conditioning, which is a sealed system like a refridgerator, and chills the air. As Manny said, when the engine was out, this must have been dismantled and rebuilt, because the pump is driven off the engine accessory belt (which you can see on the RH end of the engine), so if that's leaking now it's not been reassembled properly. That can only be the garage's fault, and needs dealing with before you can say if the system works correctly now or not.

I don't know if this is the case, but if your car has Climatronic (climate control system) or similar on it, and should hold a requested cabin temperature Ross is certainly correct about needing the system memory read, and flap positions set up properly.

Incidentally, and IMO, all this should have been done as part of a re-commissioning process after the car had been sitting for 3 months with no engine!

Edited 18 November, 200817 yr by KenONeill

Brookieme, sorry to hear your having problems again after the cambelt breaking saga. As lummox & KenOneill have pointed out that the control flaps are the most likely cause of the problem. The heater radiator gets its heat from the hot water generated by the engine, so all of the connecting hoses will have been disconnected and reconnected when the engine was changed. You say that the dealer had the car for three months, how much of that time was spent negotiating with the dealer to replace the engine and is the engine a new out of the factory unit?

I don't quite understand, when the dealer said it is an 'intermittent fault' with the heater. Heaters normally work or they leak, sometimes they get blocked and the water doesn't flow, sometimes there is an air lock in the system and the rad stays cold. Seems too much of a coincidence that the heater /AC has started playing up after the new engine was fitted.

Ive had simillar problems with DM Keith Skoda (Monopolyship) in West Yorkshire.

My best advice is sack the Skoda dealers off and go to an independant VAG specialist.

Thanks for that Moley,

It does seem to be intermittent though. One journey the heater can seem fine then on another after a while it wont switch off. My hubby says the AC seems to be working again now. The air bag light is also constantly on and Gordon Lamb Chesterfield say it's going to be expensive to fix and it probably wont work in an accident whilst it is like that. One thing after another. this car was a great car with never a problem until the cam belt saga,

The engine was a recon with 15,000 on clock. After three months they fitted it free of charge but say it was done as a good will gesture as we have been loyal customers. They still are saying they have never said the cam belt prob was there fault at any time although we had an independent guy look at it and he said it was pretty obvious it due to over tightening.

Well, they're right about the airbag not working if the warning light is on. OTOH the most common reason for airbag warning lights on cars that have had significant work done is a connector that's not properly made, and I'm sure you can guess who's responsibility that would be!

Brookieme, this is what I would probably do if I were in your situation:(this is only a suggestion)

Write a letter to the dealer stating the facts, times, dates, who you spoke to etc (as near as possible) relaying the complete saga from when you first took the car in for the service when they changed the cambelt to the latest problems. State that up to the date of the service the car had been perfectly OK and now after months of being without the car you are experiencing untold problems with it and I would imagine that before the service you were happy with the car & now you probably have no faith in its reliability & want shot of it.

In the letter indicate that you believe that the latest faults are related to the work carried out when the engine was changed and ask the dealer to give an explanation of what they believe is the cause of the latest problems and what their course of action will be to rectify the latest faults. Give the dealer something like 5 working days to respond to the letter. Send a copy to Skoda UK.

In the meantime can you find a good VAG technician to give his opinion & costs to rectify the car? The air bag light needs sorting out farly urgently I would guess.

I know it will cost for someone else to look at the problem, but if they came back and said that the problems were due to errors when the engine was fitted you will have something to go back to the dealer with for compensation claims etc.(did the dealer give any warranty on the engine etc?)

My best guess is the dealer is out of pocket because the engine had to be replaced and perhaps didn't give the job the full attention it required & somethings were overlooked. If I did that to my customers when servicing & repairing their machines I wouldn't have many customers left.

What Moley says makes sense, but I'd modify it as follows:-

1) Write explicitly to the "Dealer Principal"

2) Mark the envelope "Private and Confidential"

If you've bought 3 Skodas and are a regular there then they should be OK, friendly and on first name basis (unless staff turnover is quite high)

I go to Parkside my local Skoda garage for parts and even though I've only really had work done by them once they are always friendly and they know what they are talking about.

If you ar having problems with the A/C and it's leaking it's prob the condensor. My cousin had this problem as a bolt or something went straight through it so all the gas would leak out.

Also if there's no heat in the rad you'll get no hot air in the cabin (like whats happening in my Felly) prob because the thermostat is not working as it should, the pipes ghoing into the heater matix are cool where as the water from the big fat rad pipes are hot.

As for resulting action? erm follow the advice of the more seasoned regulars.

Thanks for advice.

They are friendly but I'm beginning to think the mechanics have changed and are not reliable anymore. This last 6 months have been awful. They don't even want to buy back the octavia we had to buy to get us on holiday. We have been told that if they did we would have to loose £3000 in just three months. Goes from bad to worse for us.

The garage might be the same but you never or hardly see the mechanics in some franchises.

When I had my Astra serviced at a Vauxhall dealer I never had any issues the only thing I didn't like was the hanging around as you were just left in the viewing area to your own devices.

When it needed major work I'd take it to my mechanic friend.

Now I get my car serviced and looked after by my mechanic friend who has a garage. (as mentioned above)

I hang around there whilst the work is being done but can have a good chat etc even help out a little here and there learn a few more things.

So its not all just about getting the work done cheaper.

I think the dealer may be reluctant to buy back the Octy as this "credit crunch" means people are hesistant on buying atm.

You might get more interest if you sell it privatly yourselves to be honest if you don't mind all the calls and emails depending on where you advertise.