I wrote last week about my dealings with an unnamed Skoda dealership. I am now looking to take them through the Small Claims Court and report them to Trading Standards.

Before I do this it would be really helpful to confirm some technical points:

1. Could someone confirm for sure that the reverse parking sensors on an Octavia are powered by the reversing lights? So, if the the reverse light switch is off the reverse sensors wouldn't work, right?

2. I sent my car in to fix a problem with the central locking, but my car was returned to me with the reverse sensor wires unplugged from the control box, without me being informed. The reason stated for doing this by the mechanic was that he was "worried about the ignition shorting out" because the control box was corroded. This sounds like a red herring to me. Does this explanation make any sense? Also, I assume garages have a material duty of car to inform their customers about any changes to the driveability of a car they may have affected?

3. Skoda have tried to assert that my control box was materially corroded and needed replacing. The only evidence of corrosion was some blue tinges around the connection points which were cleaned up in 30 seconds. I think this just mild oxidation of the copper points which is natural when copper is exposed to moisture in the air. Have others had this blue tingeing around the connection points? Anyway, it turns out the control box works fine, the reason it didn't work was because the reverse light switch had been turned off and the control box wires disconnected!

Many thanks for any advice.

Tom

GOOD LOOK have you asked them to put it right

Hi,

Good luck with your case. I've looked through the haynes manual and the reverse parking sensors aren't on the diagram at all so can't help you there unless someone else out there has a decent wiring diagram that they can post here or pm me with (I am an electrician and fairly good with electrical diagrams). Failing that I'll pull the fuse for my reverse lights and see if the park sensors still work but can't do this until sunday.

Let me know if thats any help to you.

geoff

the reverse sensors are wired yo the reverse lights only not directly to switch ....as for taking them to court ,what do you hope to gain?cause all they will say is at the time there where signs of corrosion so they unplugged it ,hard to prove anything else

Edited 23 September, 201015 yr by mountie66

After reading your other thread on this subject i dont see what you hope to gain by going through the small claims court,i agree the garage was wrong to tell you the control box needed replacing but they fixed the fault free of charge for you.I suspect when they were working on your wiring they may of blown a fuse which stopped your reverse lights working which stopped your rear parking sensors working & when you pointed this out the mechanic saw the corroded wires on the control box & said that was the fault,He should of checked the basics first,sadly this happens a lot in some dealers.

After reading your other thread on this subject i dont see what you hope to gain by going through the small claims court,i agree the garage was wrong to tell you the control box needed replacing but they fixed the fault free of charge for you.I suspect when they were working on your wiring they may of blown a fuse which stopped your reverse lights working which stopped your rear parking sensors working & when you pointed this out the mechanic saw the corroded wires on the control box & said that was the fault,He should of checked the basics first,sadly this happens a lot in some dealers.

I agree with Mikey, dont know why you want to sue them. They fixed it for you, whats the point of all the extra hasle?

I can't see what you are trying to gain, isn't it all working now?