Hello all,Does anyone have any experience or opinion as to whether Skoda would consider the use of VAG-COM as invalidating their warranty?I am getting a DTC re: the fuel flap, doesn't look serious and I have thought about mentioning it at the next service, but am wondering if by admitting I use VAG-COM, if in the future something serious goes wrong, could Skoda use my VAG-COM use as a reason to not fulfill their warranty commitment?Cheers,Richard.

I did a VAG-COM scan of my 4X4 just before the warranty ran out and discovered that the Haldex ECU. I showed a printout of the scan to my dealer who then carried out a diagnostics scan with their own equipment so that they had their own evidence on which to submit a warranty claim. The ECU was replaced.

Any of the dealership lads had any problems with vagcom scans etc ?

Never had any issues myself, and I've also supplied VAG-COM scans as supplementary evidence in warranty claims before. A reasonable dealer usually sees it as a benefit as it gives them a head start in diagnosing any issues, and rectifying them. Often they openly admit that VAG-COM information can be more useful than VAS in some cases

Steve

Unless the fault was caused by messing with it, then they have no basis for rejecting a claim.

If that concerned, say you popped into a vag specialist who scanned it for you.

Hello all,Does anyone have any experience or opinion as to whether Skoda would consider the use of VAG-COM as invalidating their warranty?I am getting a DTC re: the fuel flap, doesn't look serious and I have thought about mentioning it at the next service, but am wondering if by admitting I use VAG-COM, if in the future something serious goes wrong, could Skoda use my VAG-COM use as a reason to not fulfill their warranty commitment?Cheers,Richard.

Could they? Sure they could try. But then they could also say that about a Snap-On tool scan or any other vendor's scan. The real issue is can you do any damage by using VCDS (VAG-COM) to the car that would void a warranty? The answer is no. Reading the fault information, adjusting the coding and so on, will not cause the vehicle to fail. It may throw codes. The car may not work as intended and for this reason, you should always refer to a factory repair manual if you are going to effect repairs yourself. But if you just want to show them a fault code report, that should be a non-issue.

I'm not saying that they "will not" hassle you. I am saying they have no basis to hassle you. Reading fault codes can be done by many tools not just the factory tool.

I think the VAG dealer software, from what others have said, isnt as good as VCDS is.

From this month's Car Mechanics magazine, I get the impression a VAS leads you through things more, where VCDS requires you to know more.

I have used VCDS for trouble shooting a vehicle under warranty many times, I have also been asked to use it by Skoda technical, So as long as you dont make a mess of things meddlin, I dont personally see why there should be a problem.

From this month's Car Mechanics magazine, I get the impression a VAS leads you through things more, where VCDS requires you to know more.

I assume the dealer version does all the work and is nicely laid out pictorially. But wonders why so many dealers struggle to enable/disable the most basic functions, or find faults members with VCDS have found.

The dealer tools have "Guided Fault Finding" built into them. Some techs like it. Many do not. Most will agree that using the guided features, they eventually arrive at the right repair but often they end up changing parts that had nothing to do with the real cause of the problem. This leads to additional parts on the work order and higher cost to the customer.

Ross-Tech chooses to present information to the technician or do it yourselfer, letting them make intelligent decisions about the possible cause of a failure. By knowing the systems in the car, the repair person can then choose a course of action, minimizing the number of parts to be changed thereby making the most cost effective repair.

Those that like the Guided Fault Finding, swear by it. Those that do not - prefer to be presented with information. Two different approaches to solving problems. Two different tools to make that happen. In the aftermarket, the user makes the choice of which tool makes more sense to them.

From what I've heard the dealers have to use the guided fault finding so as to have a log to prove that they have worked on the car to support any warranty claim.

From what I've heard the dealers have to use the guided fault finding so as to have a log to prove that they have worked on the car to support any warranty claim.

That's what we understand also. But, when they use the factory tool for non-warranty work, this is where the techs we know get frustrated because they know they end up replacing parts that may not have failed. It's just part of the fault tree in the tool and they are required to follow the troubleshooting tree. For warranty work, the OE is covering the cost. For non-warranty work, the car owner is covering the cost.

Edited 1 January, 201016 yr by bearthebruce