.......... and Skoda Assist / The AA have just delivered it back to the garage for us!! Not even 36 hours

Took it on a long ish run to visit family and get it all run in before SWMBO starts using it for work this week. Got to within about 30 miles of home tonight and Bang!! Only 450 miles on the clock.

Sat at some traffic lights on a dual carraigeway (in the outside lane!!) went to pull away, nothing racy, just normal, and heard a huge bang, saw a big plume of black smoke and had no power.

Managed to limp it to the side of the road and called the AA. It runs but very unevenly.

Thinking it might be looking like a bit of a Turbo problem.

Anyone else had similar?

Oh Dear :eek:

Sounds serious, hope it hasn't put you off .

Let us all know what the service is like on getting it sorted.

Steve

Sounds like the intercooler pipe has blown off.

Does make a bang when they go dont it, and clouds of smoke. Dont worry it will be just fine, prolly didnt clip it in properly at the factory and its not something you can see on PDi so its not the dealers fault.

I originally thought it might be a pipe, it's just the big bang that made me unsure.

Have you seen it at your place Ross?

Yeah it was a big ole bang, SWMBO reckoned the guy in the car next to us **** himself, god knows what the bloke in the car behind thought!!

It happened on my car after I fitted the hybrid, but had been fine for 6,000 miles or so previous and we didnt touch the pipe that come off, very strange, hasnt done it again since, just the once.

Probably the bottom i/c pipe. I had to coast mine to a mates house who lived close by lucky for me and use his trolley jack, jack it up and get it back on, not easy when youve got an undertray to deal with...lol.

It is sooooo reassuring to those of us who aren't technically minded to have people like Mr Ross Clarke around, and i mean that sincerely. Whenever someone posts a tecchie problem or needs tecchie advice he is always on hand. Fair play to you Ross.

Aww shucks

Ta

Well done Ross, you were right - Not that I doubted you !!

Got the car back this evening. They wanted to keep us waiting for 2 - 3 days for parts (They said the pipe was damaged) but when pressured a little caved in and took the pipe from another car.

Thats was good of them Stu, its not allways easy taking parts off another car to get you on your way, the technician still only gets paid for doing the job once but has to do it twice, but its all in the name of keeping you lot happy

Sounds like the intercooler pipe has blown off.

Does make a bang when they go dont it' date=' and clouds of smoke. Dont worry it will be just fine, prolly didnt clip it in properly at the factory and its not something you can see on PDi so its not the dealers fault.[/quote']

I had this happen on my 200sx, scared the crap out of me when it happened. Sounded like a shotgun had gone off under the bonnet. Felt like a right tool when the AA man got the car going in less than 2 mins of popping the bonnet...

Good indicator if it is this, the car will start and run lumpy, but will smoke and probably die if any throttle much above idle is used...

Exactly what happened JUT.

Are you paid by the job then Ross? I thought you would be salaried or hourly paid.

The biggest issue was with the dealers blaz'e attitude. I fully appreciate that these things can happen and I wasn't at all pi$$ed off with it happening but I did expect supreme service from the dealer, not only because of the age and mileage of the car but also as they know I am an existing customer at the groups Subaru dealership.

Still, it's all sorted know - I'll just be looking for somewhere else to get it serviced.

hey mr clark was well shocked when i was looking though the max power site then saw a furby vrs and happend to be ures nice one! atlast some mag has the balls to show what skoda can do :P

This one

http://www.maxpower.co.uk/car/your_template.asp?idArticle=3008

This one

http://www.maxpower.co.uk/car/your_template.asp?idArticle=3008

Chav alert

yeah that be the onE!!!!!

Ahem, yeah thats my car

Opps again..he he, what a tart.

Are you paid by the job then Ross? I thought you would be salaried or hourly paid.

We are paid a salary, but to be honest for the training and qualifications we have its really quite poor industry wide. To add to this most places run a performance bonus scheme, ours runs on a time saved method. So for example I get 2 hours to do your service, I do it in an hour and a half I get paid the two hours for doing it so im half hour up. So at the end of the day I have worked 8 hours but 'sold' 10 for example I earn two hours bonus at my bonus rate. Problems arise especially this time of year when the work gets quiet and your effciency goes down you only earn your flat money.

That's a very nice motor Mr Clarke, but more impressive is the fact that yu seem to have shut the saddo's up at Max Power (petrol heads, PAH)

Well done :drive:

Thats was good of them Stu, its not allways easy taking parts off another car to get you on your way, the technician still only gets paid for doing the job once but has to do it twice, but its all in the name of keeping you lot happy

Not sure what the score with Skoda is -- but from an Audi point of view,if a part is on back-order and we can put a car back on the road by taking part off a donor car(as long as its newer than the recipiant) They are more than happy to pay us twice to do the job. Keep's the customer happy,saves them money for car hire and involves less hassle.

We've just changed the way our technicians are paid, we used to use the same type of bonus scheme that you have Ross. We were concerned about the quality of work, there is more and more paperwork that has to be done and done correctly and this was suffering becuase of the time pressure the guys were under, so we have changed the bonus to a direct link with our service by design results - these are based on quality of work,number of complaints, number of 1st time fixes. So now it doesnt matter if the guys take 2 hours or 4 hours.

The boss was concerned the guys would take the mickey and go slow - but to be honest the overall efficiency's have gone up - the guys are much happier becuase they are not so much under pressure any more - and everyone can see the performance that they get paid on as Audi send us the results every month - so we can see where we are good and where we need to improve.

And in the end the customer's will benefit - we've always tried to get the Technicians to speak to customers directly if they have any queries - straight from the horses mouth so to speak - now they are happy to do so, becuase it doesnt matter if it takes 5 or 15 minutes.

Results speak for themselves and out scores have gone from low 70% to 87% in three months and seem to be getting better - Monday will tell a big story as Audi(UK) are coming to do an ISO audit :eek:

As for a break-down on a new vehicle - you should certainly expect the best service - with a minimum of delivery back to you, rather than you collecting - a phone call a couple of days later to make sure everythings fine, and if it were us you'd be getting a goodwill gesture - something like weekend break or along those lines.

But to be fair to them -as Ross said, those pipes are not easy to get at and are not part of a PDI to be checked. We do a minimum 10 mile roadtest on our new cars - 50 in the case of A8,S4,RS6 and those types,but would probably not discover such a fault.

Anyway the main thing is you've got it back.... and hopefully are now having the chance to enjoy fully

Totally off topic, but what kind of qualifications do you need, to become a "techy" for skoda?

I didn't want blood from them but promptness and courtesy never hurt anyone.

A good will gesture of some sort would have been well recieved, money off a service or something would have been fine.

As for a phone call in a few days - I'll not hold my breath.

Totally off topic, but what kind of qualifications do you need, to become a "techy" for skoda?

Same as any motor vehcile technician really. Start an appreticeship which these days will lead to a NVQ of some discription or another so you can get your national craft sert. I did my City And Guilds in repair of road vehicles (which is now defunct but a valid qualifiaction), HND in motor vehcile engineering and now master tech (which is a recognised qualification in its own right). Next step up the ladder is licenced tech which im not sure if Skoda are going to do.

The Volkswagen group are quite strong on training,Audi have set up the Audi Academy which basically brings all training in house - VWG have just spent

I didn't want blood from them but promptness and courtesy never hurt anyone.

A good will gesture of some sort would have been well recieved' date=' money off a service or something would have been fine.

As for a phone call in a few days - I'll not hold my breath.[/quote']

You should certainly expect a good discount, if not free first service AS A MINIMUM - although I am basing this on what we would do at Audi.

Its normally split between us and Audi - we do the service, Audi provide the goodwill as far the weekend away / theatre etc,whatever it may be.

I'm suprised you've not had a phone call - it only takes a minute and is usually of more benefit than throwing lots of money at a problem, its a shame that a lot of motor dealers - not just Skoda don't seem to have realised this simple fact!