well the car is now at the dealers for the 4th attempt to stop the alarm going off. It went of at 4 am this morning. I was not impressed. I called the dealer as soon as they opened and said I wanted to drop the car off and have a courtesy car and they can keep the superb as long as they need to solve it. I cant stand waking up my family and neighbours anymore.

to be fair to Hortons they phoned me back in 5 mins and siad they had juggled their loan cars an i could haveone at lunchtime. Sure enough they phoned me at 1pm to say the loan car was available. I took my superb at 2pm and left it. better that its on a forecourt in an industrial estate if the alarm is going to keep going off !! They even managed to get me an octy and not a fabia. Its only a 1.4 so a bit gutless but never mind - at least there is plenty of room in teh back and boot for the family stuff over the weekend

the alarm is completely baffling the master tech and skoda UK tech, They keep sending diagnostic info to skoda and they have replaced the sensor that is supposedly causing the false alarms but its still going off !! can you believe that it is not possible to disable the alarm on a superb II ? I woudl hav thought with comouter they could disable it but apparently not

can i reject a car because the alarm keeps going off and skoda cant fix it ?

I really feel for you, you've had nothing but issues since you've had you're car especialy since ou were so upbeat before getting it.

I think now it would be a good bit of PR for Skoda to replace it as there must be something worng somewhere.

No way!

can i reject a car because the alarm keeps going off and skoda cant fix it ?

No way!

explain ?

its not fit for purpose

I cant park it outside my house anymore as it wakes up my kids

its not doing what it is supposed to do

they cant fix it

Misaligned boot/bonnet/door switch?

Misaligned boot/bonnet/door switch?

the point is the computer keeps telling them its the passenger door switch. they have replaced that but its still showing the same fault.

I think it's an airleak myself.

i dont think it is an airleak as we have tried tuning off the interior sensors when we leave the car but the alarm still keeps going off. I think the fault code they are getting refers to a different door sensor than the one they have rplaced and someone has mis-interpretted the fault codes. On all other models fault code 1 on the alarm is the boot sensor so its odd that on the superb 2 its the passenger door !

I expect they've already done it, but have them erase the ecu completely and reload the software, you might find one program channel isn't responding to one command change, sort of like NTLDR is missing and no matter how much you replace the file it just upsets the other files so to speak, ask them if they've done a full ecu flash yet.

I know nothing much about ECUs but I know a fair bit about computers and software and this and all the other faults you describe JB must be a ECU fault. I don't know what it costs (obivously nothing to you as its warranty) or if its even possible but I'd want a new ecu.

I really think that'll solve 90% of your issues. I really feel for you as you clearly spent a long time waiting for the motor and deserve it to be much better than it is.

1 rat, plus 1 wire = faulty sensor.

I assume they have checked the wiring loom.

1 rat, plus 1 wire = faulty sensor.

I assume they have checked the wiring loom.

The big problem these days is that 'technicians' simply don't understand how the various elements of the car work, either in isolation or as a whole. They lack the basic troubleshooting skills to go beyond what the diagnostic computer is telling them.

I don't think this is their fault, as the dealer training seems to be centred around teaching them to:

a) Use the diagnostic computer

Change the parts it tells them to.

A friend of mine once had an Audi RS6, and had nothing but problems with it. The diagnostic equipment kept saying 'no fault found', yet the car just didn't run right. In the end, Audi sent over an engineer from the factory, who fixed the problem in about 10 minutes. He was able to do this because he understood how the engine and it's management system actually worked.

It seems to me that even 'master technicians' aren't given enough information by Skoda to truly understand how the whole car hangs together.

If I was you, Jonathan, I'd be asking Skoda to replace the car. If billhum can get his replaced because it didn't have hill hold, then I'm certain you've got a good case for the same treatment.

Bagpuss.

well I have written to skoda UK asking them to tell me the steps in their rejection procedure and guess what.....muppets havent even bothered to reply !!

I am due to pick the car up tomorrow and shall make a judgement on what to do next once I know what they have found. I think I will contact the SMMT arbritration service and ask for their help in the first instance. The biggest problem I have is the fact that the supplying dealer is 200miles away which makes things harder to deal with.

well I have written to skoda UK asking them to tell me the steps in their rejection procedure and guess what.....muppets havent even bothered to reply !!

I am due to pick the car up tomorrow and shall make a judgement on what to do next once I know what they have found. I think I will contact the SMMT arbritration service and ask for their help in the first instance. The biggest problem I have is the fact that the supplying dealer is 200miles away which makes things harder to deal with.

Did you ask them to do what I said?

Did you ask them to do what I said?

i passed the message on. i am meeting the service manager and tech later today to discuss as they are no saying they cannot find anything wrong other than a low battery voltage so they have charged the battery.

i passed the message on. i am meeting the service manager and tech later today to discuss as they are no saying they cannot find anything wrong other than a low battery voltage so they have charged the battery.

If that turns out to be the fault then it would seem there's an earth or and a drain problem, a new battery isn't going to die within months, best keep an eye on things for a few mths after as I think it's gonna do the same thing once the battery drains out again, which it will if they don't find out what's causing it.

they say they cannot find a drain. we will see what happens

they say they cannot find a drain. we will see what happens

That's fair enough, but should it continue, ask them if the alarm could be the drain/bad earth itself.

I had this same issue on my old mk4 golf, in the end I worked out that it was the alarm sounder under the scuttle plate. It has a battery backup and it had failed and it would go of at all times, purchased a new one as the car was outside of warranty fitted it in about 20 mins and not had an issue since.

I've had one false alarm so far (4 weeks or so) this coincided with some of the settings being changed ie the all doors unlock feature had changed and the MFD showing mpg had reset may be other things i havent noticed as yet

2 false alarms in a week now :(

Richf, sounds like a volume sensor fault due to the hot weather. The dealer should be able to check and adjust sensitivity.

Can you elaborate???

It has both been on hot days , well hotish at least and both times around 5-6pm , when the drive gets the sun and both times shortly after a short trip

Booked in to go on the machine next friday

they are now talking about a replacement ECU on my car !!

Its not unheard of, a friend had an new ECU on her Touran but it does smack of grasping at straws a bit