My Superb ownership experience

[oh_superb]

OK, so I am fairly new to the skoda supeb ownership experience, having purchased my 2002 2.5 elegance with only 75000 miles and one owner from new (who clearly knew exactly when to sell it!). SO far I have had:

1. brake failure, turned out to be flooded battery compartment, drained and cleaned, brakes now OK. Should have been suspicious when saw the invoice for a new set of brake pads only a week before buying car. He probably had brake failure then thought it was the pads, but turned out water in servo.

2. glow plugs snapped, needed a new cylinder head, so replaced the water pump at this time and all the belts too. A mighty £1700 bill.

3. I have just discovered both CV boots are split, so I will need to have this done quick as I am off to Europe end of the week! Any idea on labour time for this? No time to tackle this myself.

Furthermore, as the car has never had an ATF change, I have had that done (£200)

And even though the car was main dealer serviced 4000 miles ago (long life), the service light has come on. Wonder why. But will just ignore it until the 10000 mile mark assuming they did not reset.

Also when the timing belt was changed (by main dealer), they did not renew the water pump and the whole front end was put together in a shabby way using only 2 out of 6 bolts! (discovered my mechanic while swapping cylinder heads). I had headlight and bonnet misalignment, now all looking good.

BTW, getting a replacement cylinder head for the V6 tdi was an absolute nightmare, took 3 weeks to locate and deliver one!! Skoda wanted £1700 for the head only (part supply only!), and then delivered the WRONG one after mixing up VIN numbers, and wrong cyl head bolts, so decided to go to an independent remanufacturing place which saved me a grand.

What next, injection pump?

Is there anything else that could go wrong for me here? I think I have had pretty much everything that goes wrong with this car. Except all my interior convenience lights work as I resealed the shabby seal on pollen filter housing before it was too late!

On the plus side I do have a comfy cruiser car that everyone I know is impressed with.

[allclownsareevi]

Oh man you have my sympathies, I'd have gotten rid of that sucker a long time ago. Once I lose confidence in the vehicle, it never feels the same to drive any longer and it's time to go.

Hopefully this will be the end of all your motoring headaches fella.

[sidewaze samm]

I too commiserate with your experiences to date - but look on the bright side, there's probably not much more that can go wrong and now it's easier to carry your lightweight wallet round with you. Hmm, I don't think you've mentioned parking sensors and flaky door handles yet though...

As for the CV boots - they were a nice surprise for me at cambelt time last year! The cambelt was done at Unit 18 down your way and it took what seemed like next to no time to swap both CV boots. Mind you, I seem to remember the comment about there being a quick VAG way, and a much slower way for those less familiar - give them a call.

cheers

[rotodiesel]

Several important lessons to be learned:

Avoid the V6.

Avoid the dealers.

Get a 4 cyl 1.9 diesel young and look after it yourself or get an independent to do it.

Use this site and others to find and fix the design stupidities (eg. pollen filter seal, plenum drains and pinch bolts + plenty of others).

Do this and the Superb offers comfortable cheap motoring - apart from cliff-edge depreciation. It is, potentially a very long-lived car. Look after it and run it into the ground - it will go a long way. The 4 cyl diesels also go a very long way on a tankfull of fuel.

rotodiesel.

Edited 24 May, 2010 by rotodiesel

[Cown]

Several important lessons to be learned:

Avoid the V6.

Avoid the dealers.

Get a 4 cyl 1.9 diesel young and look after it yourself or get an independent to do it.

Use this site and others to find and fix the design stupidities (eg. pollen filter seal, plenum drains and pinch bolts + plenty of others).

Do this and the Superb offers comfortable cheap motoring - apart from cliff-edge depreciation. It is, potentially a very long-lived car. Look after it and run it into the ground - it will go a long way. The 4 cyl diesels also go a very long way on a tankfull of fuel.

rotodiesel.

Very well replied. You are 200% correct.

[Supurbia]

Go to GSF and ask for a GSP CVJ kit, you get a joint,boot and all the washers bolts grease etc, all for just over £30 a side, I did a how 2 if you get stuck. atb.

[oh_superb]

Go to GSF and ask for a GSP CVJ kit, you get a joint,boot and all the washers bolts grease etc, all for just over £30 a side, I did a how 2 if you get stuck. atb.

Thanks folks, some good points raised, in hindsight maybe I should have gone for the 4 cylinder, but then again all my previous cars had 3 or 4 cylinders and wanted a bit of a 6/8 cylinder car. Yes, PDC packed up too, not fixed yet! Hopefully this is it, like one of you said, hopefully I will now have lots of pleasurable motoring to do, these cars do feel like they can do mega miles in comfort.

I have booked car in for CV boot replacements, 95 quid labour, plus about 25 for the pair of boots (from GSF). I have read on this forum about those tight pinch bolts so dreading trying this myself. I hope there is no risk in someone knackering something.

[rotodiesel]

As part of my "fix the design stupidities on the Superb" programme, I apply silicone grease to the CV joint boots annually when I do my other preventative maintenance - like taking out the pinch bolts.

The boots always crack at the bottom of the pleats and they never crack on the inside because the grease keeps them soft. If you look at the boot on full lock it's obvious that it's more or less bound to fail - there are just not enough pleats.

The only thing to be afraid of with pinch bolts is doing damage when they are stuck. I can get the suspension pinch bolts out on my car in under 5 minutes without even jacking it up or taking the wheel off. Given the crappy front suspension on this car, these bolts will have to come out eventually and a rusted one will double the job time and cause grief - and further damage. There is even a special VAG tool to get the rusted bolts out - sheer Teutonic genius. Of course it doesn't work...

rotodiesel.

[CRC]

The only thing to be afraid of with pinch bolts is doing damage when they are stuck.

I had a chat with the lad who gave me a hand to do my recent service, and he seemed to think that the pinch bolts tend to bend when they're initially tightened, so getting them out can be a bit of an issue even when they're not rusted? Have plied them with Plusgas for now, but doubt if it's done a lot of good.

When undoing the pinch bolts, does anything move, or can they just be taken and lubricated out without scribing marks to enable re-alignment afterwards?

Took your advice with the silicone grease, and the rubber certainly feels a lot more pliable after after a good application of the stuff .... I'm a convert to silicone grease on all rubber parts now.

Thanks

[rotodiesel]

The pinch bolts bend a little - but not much unless overtightened.

The ball joint pins are a tight fit in the knuckle and the suspension pins don't usually move when you take the long pinch bolt out. If they do, you can just put them back.

You need to be more careful with the track rod end because the vertical position of the ball pin is adjustable (raised toe) using the set bolt on top. This is a setting you don't want to disturb - especially as Skoda seem to set it properly in the factory and very few dealers even know about it.

In practice, with the track rod end bolt if you release the top bolt a few turns you can then remove and de-rust the pinch bolt (do the bores as well). Put the pinch bolt back and then just nip up the top bolt.

All the ball pins are tight in their housings and are unlikely to move accidentally unless you are very heavy-handed. If you do this job when the vehicle is young, there is no need to apply any undue force - the pinch bolts on my car come straight out with a pin punch and very light hammer taps.

rotodiesel.

[skodanut]

i got my cv joint rubbers replaced for 60 quid for both sides....and i didnt get my hands dirty...i was well pleased with the service as well......they even did my rear pads for around 40 quid fitted.....just the front pads next and i can continue to drive in luxury

[ian0x0r]

My interior locks seem to be starting to go. If they dead lock shut on the remote central locking and you cant unlock it I have no idea how you get the door open again. Some one else on the forum here is ahving the same problem. I have disconnected the wiring from the locks on some of my doors starting to fail and operating them manually. Dont want to run the risk of not even being able to get in the car!

Other things to look at: (that I have had go wrong)

Front coil spring snap

Quick tyre wear (although not really a fault)

Im sure something was wrong with my steering when I firt got car, suspect it was CV joint but that was replaced under warranty.

Seems to of only happened to me this one, The black protector strip on the rear doors gets caught on the front doors when you open it so it bends it off the car.

Plus the other things mentioned above about interior lights and parking sensors

Despite its faults, I do still love this car (madness I know) Ive done similair mileage and cars similair age to yours, im just hoping all the things you have had to fix are not about to happen to me :S

[rotodiesel]

I've seen the rear door trim strip problem before - when I was shopping for a Superb I had a look at one at Marlborough Skoda in Isleworth. The trim was hanging off a back door and the car was in a generally deplorable state. They weren't in the least bit concerned and were not interested in changing the car to meet my requirements. I quickly walked away...

I think there's a tolerancing problem with these trim strips. I've tried to replicate the foul with the front door and can't reproduce it on my car - so all the trim has stayed on. Bloody stupid fault on such an old design though.

Door wiring and locks are another perennial. The lock microswitches either fail or suffer from cracked soldered joints on the print. Slamming the doors probably doesn't help (rear doors on taxis come to mind) which annoys me, because the Superb doors close so nicely. Good standard of assembly in Cz. The wires also tend to break in the door jambs near the connectors.

Another problem to think about is a broken bonnet release cable. This is a really stupid conversion for RH steering in which the cable outer has to push the release lever on the latch. It feels horrible and is horrible. Unless the last 2 ft of cable is kept free to move, it will jam and break. Then the fun really starts - you need to be a serious vehicle breaker to fight your way in.

With a bit of lateral thinking, it's possible to rig up an emergency release with a bit of bike brake cable inner. I'm not going to elaborate for security reasons - but given the crappy design, it's well worth doing and could save you a very nasty job. Apart from an emergency release, keep the catch and the bowden really well lubricated and make sure the cable outer does not get jammed under the air inlet trunking.

rotodiesel.

[sidewaze samm]

Seems to of only happened to me this one, The black protector strip on the rear doors gets caught on the front doors when you open it so it bends it off the car.

and I thought I was the only one

really annoying - quarter inch of the black strip was bent back and then fell off. Not too noticeable though as the chrome is untouched. God knows how much a new one is :(

one possible fault coming up - front passenger door sometimes more difficult to open from the outside than it should be. Well, when either my mum or my wife try to open it - seems OK to me when I try it... :S

Edited 25 May, 2010 by sidewaze samm

[oh_superb]

I have just picked up my CV boots from GSF, £23.50 for the pair, and seem like decent ones, made by GKN, and come with two large sachets of packing grease, and a few fitting bits and bobs you expect to see, but what I was a bit surprised with is a big bolt in each box, 8.8 specification.. the guy said it was for the driveshaft? :wonder:

[rotodiesel]

That's precisely what it's for. This bolt is torqued to a highish figure then angle tightened. As this stretches the bolt, it's a single use job only.

rotodiesel.

[oh_superb]

An old post I originally opened up - now on 110000 miles, still on the same CV boots that were fitted at 75000, and all good (relatively speaking), except for a dodgy coolant temperature sensor giving intermittent difficult cold starts, rear (2x) PDC broken (still not fixed), rear door lock sometimes does not lock/unlock - known B5 gremlin. Sometimes the interior mists up quite badly - need to check my pollen sealant for integrity - it has been 3 years since I sealed up with some MS5 clear silicone. One broken spring - replaced - experienced the pinch bolt (!@£@@@£@!) along the way. Some new disks and pads, and a few services. Dim headlights prompted some new D2S bulbs and now much better night time experience. Overall it's not done too bad I think in 3 years this old girl. Oh and auto dim rear view mirror is broken - still not fixed. Boot sometimes floods - tried fixing 3 times - still dodgy. So ripped the carpets out of the boot to stop them rotting and intention is, when the weather gets warmer, to lock my wife in the boot while I sprinkle the car and see where water comes in! :-) Nice plan ey (PS I haven't told her yet)

Edited 26 February, 2013 by oh_superb

[Browser]

Remembered an old joke about wife in boot...

What is the difference between wife and dog locked into boot?

At least dog will be happy, when you let him/her out

---

Does the misting happen in summer or also in winter?

[devilman9050]

An old post I originally opened up

Hi Oh_Superb, thanks for reviving the post, sometimes it's difficult to get a handle on all of the things that I need to keep an eye on!

when the CV boots start to go, is there anyway to tell without having a look under the car?

Reason I ask is that if i'm accelerating with the steering turned (normally when moving off round a junction), i get a bit of a noise. apologies for the rubbish example, but it sort of goes cucucucu.....

[Browser]

Well, it's better to look at the boot. Then you can see cracks/holes in there. Also if the crack is large, there should be some lubricant around the CV also, because the centrifugal force will throw the lube around.

[dieselV6]

CV boots are consumables for this car, but then DIY takes less than an hour to replace both, and they're not that expensive, even from the dealer.

I recently replaced first genuine old age item on my Superb (do not count pads/discs, filters, belts, 2 sets of outer CV boots, and various underbody covers I managed to smash) , 116k miles and coming to 7 years, I had to replace the coolant tank on top of the engine. I had coolant spitting from under the tank, new cap nor cleaning the opening would not fix it, new coolant tank and cap fixed it 2500miles ago (ie 2 weeks ago ), cost £40. It gave me a bit of a scare, as I thought head gasket was on its way out (same location for coolant being expelled under pressure). This may be V6 specific problem as coolant tank is heated by exhaust and the head, I put some reflective alu tape strips underneath the tank for this not to happen again.

But to keep the V6 in good shape, you need to DIY it or have access to reliable independent garage. 2 cans of high purity zinc are a must over engine block/injectors, exhaust, airco clutch, various mounts/bolts and anywhere you see rust, as the V6TDI has evidently been put together from dissimilar metals, resulting in accelerated corossion in quite a few places. I zinced it up ~4 years ago, since then I only recoated exhaust in places and rust is no longer a problem.

Still, I would not swap my V6TDI for any diesel 4-cyl, especially the PD , the difference in power delivery is just too great, and every time I go around town at 1000-1200rpm, I still keep in mind I paid £20k for a car consistently delivering £35k car experience (nowadays more like £40k+). I wish VW/Skoda did come up with at least 5-cyl diesel offering in the Superb/Passat class, but I guess Audi would resist that. Plus current DPF offerings are drinking a lot of fuel in town driving/on cold engine, that you do not see in EU fuel economy test numbers at all.

[oh_superb]

WIth my CV boots gone both sides I did not feel any difference in how the car was going, but due to reading some posts on this great forum I thought I'd better check and bingo, both sides gone, £100 labour + parts and all fixed 3 days later.

Now that I have had the car for 3 years and having experienced all the usual B5 platform gremlins, and got my hands dirty and swearing on multiple occasions, all I can say that even though the issues are a nuisance, most can be addressed without special tools or too much time, but being on top of the issues before they happen is the key to a long and happy ownership experience (pinch bolts, water ingress, etc etc).

Most of my miles are on the continent, we are just now getting ready for another trip 1st May (big holidays in most European countries, socialist ones anyway ) and then another big summer holiday (4th one in a sequence) - last year took us to France, Switzerland, Italy, Croatia etc, this year we are thinking maybe repeating that, and for that sort of thing, quite heavily loaded with kids stuff plus the missus, it's nearly perfect.

Please tell me more about that zinc coating, I am interested, dieselv6.

Edited 27 February, 2013 by oh_superb

[dieselV6]

Zinc as in zinc primer, just make sure it is 95%+ pure and can withstand up to 500degC. Liquimoly Zinc spray (good) or Terosol?Teroson (better but stinky/toxic one, you want to wear mask for this one) work just fine. Beware of many sprays that only contain 60% zinc after drying up, only get something stating 95%+, you want metal covering, not lacquer.

I noticed after 2 winters that my car's engine was eaten by rust a lot more than the Octavia's ever did. I put it to dissimilar metals used all over the place, there's aluminium, brass and even copper in direct contact with iron/steel. Plus exhaust was very rusty, looked like coating was sub-par quality. Normal way of protecting it is to put these in contact with a sacrificial metal (galvanic protection), or in other words coat with zinc. Then zinc gets eaten up by corossion while the rest of the engine stays intact. Exhaust pipe was most rusted at the kink at the rear, just before the muffler, and around welded exits from the resonator.

By then I already knew from the Octavia that on these diesels the exhaust rusts through from the outside, as inside it is coated by soot and well protected against corossion. Judging by location of most corodded points, road salt did not help, one particular place that was quite rotten was airco clutch that is exposed at the bottom.

So I put the car on 4 jack stands, crawled underneath, removed engine and rear suspension covers, and sprayed the entire exhaust, the injectors and neighbouring areas, the engine fan mount, the various rusting bolts and nuts, and the airco clutch with nearly pure zinc spray. Prior to spraying, I cleaned rust and dirt, what I could with a brass wire brush and a cloth dipped in isopropanol (rubbing alcohol). Be careful not to get zinc onto the belts, though it is not the end of the world if it gets there, just wipe it off. Pure zinc spray can withstand the temperatures, and it will actually reduce heat soak quite a bit when compared to a rusty exhaust downpipe/precat.

After that initial job, I only spray an odd bolt from time to time, and had to respray the downpipe and the rear exhaust kink close to the muffler recently (4 years later).

Note normally zinc would be overcoated with paint to prevent contact with water, that would work for a long time. But leaving bare zinc has the advantage of being able to easily top it up if it falls off or corossion gets the better of it, though it is more wasteful and probably not as eco friendly. Also, large area of exposed zinc reinforces galvanic protection to neighbouring bits of metal, basically zinc+other metals and a bit of humidity/water/salt is a constant battery that's using zinc while protecting the rest.

As with all spray paint, the better you prepare the surface, the longer the zinc paint stays on.

The net result of all this is that I can undo every bolt on the car as needed without much hassle, despite age and mileage. Came in handy around TB job, It's also much more pleasant to work on an engine bay that's not covered with rust, not that there is much work needed

[oh_superb]

Thank you for this write up - very interesting. I knew about galvanic corrosion from uni lectures all those years ago, but never thought there was an "aftermarket" utilisation of the principles to sacrificially protect the important bits on the car. I'll definitely look into this myself though mine is a few years older and the damage has probably already been done TBH.... :(