Dear all

I post this for my mate who has a Skoda Octavia II 2007 Petrol (2.0L) Estate. She has bought this car on recommendation of myself and my mate(I have TDi Estate - best car ever etc. etc. He also has a Fabia best car ever etc etc.). However she has come unstuck with what seems to be a terminal gearbox problem. The problem is that there is noise coming from gearbox when clutch not depressed and it disappears when the clutch is depressed. It has been examined by a sensible friendly garage and they report that the g/box needs to be replaced for def as there are shards of chewed up metal in the oil.......Clearly a terminal problem.

I expect that this is complicated by the fact that it is a 4x4.

Now to the question..Can anyone recommend a decent garage to perform this repair and a decent place to obtain the gearbox from. (Skoda garage is quoting £2500 for the job - clearly too expensive for my friend)..........

Here's hoping and thanks in advance etc.......

Tom

PS Surrey area but will travel for this type of repair :(

Edited 22 October, 201015 yr by Thomas P

Give Ally a call at Unit18, im sure it can be rebuilt for a lot less than that.

Dear all

I post this for my mate who has a Skoda Octavia II 2007 Petrol (2.0L) Estate. She has bought this car on recommendation of myself and my mate(I have TDi Estate - best car ever etc. etc. He also has a Fabia best car ever etc etc.). However she has come unstuck with what seems to be a terminal gearbox problem. The problem is that there is noise coming from gearbox when clutch not depressed and it disappears when the clutch is depressed. It has been examined by a sensible friendly garage and they report that the g/box needs to be replaced for def as there are shards of chewed up metal in the oil.......Clearly a terminal problem.

I expect that this is complicated by the fact that it is a 4x4.

Now to the question..Can anyone recommend a decent garage to perform this repair and a decent place to obtain the gearbox from. (Skoda garage is quoting £2500 for the job - clearly too expensive for my friend)..........

Here's hoping and thanks in advance etc.......

Tom

PS Surrey area but will travel for this type of repair :(

Techie

thx v v v much for the post but how do i contact Ally..........pm me if it is not protocol to publish it in the post thanks

Tom

well if it was me, and I now too old/lazee to do my own, after draining and refilling -it might work if not I would go to a gearbox specialist, it's box out and may just be a pilot bearing, unless there are more problems- like loosing power in certain gears . If so it's labour plus a few quid for a bearing, one look with the top off and a good outfit will repair or replace either way I guess 2.5K is way OTT give the stealers a miss good luck Nic slow typer :-(

Edited 22 October, 201015 yr by cheshire cat

Techie

thx v v v much for the post but how do i contact Ally..........pm me if it is not protocol to publish it in the post thanks

Tom

No thats fine, Unit18 are forum sponsors.

www.unit18.co.uk

Edited 22 October, 201015 yr by Tech1e

No thats fine, Unit18 are forum sponsors.

www.unit18.co.uk

Ok, Update............................

Well, all I can say is a great big thanks to Ally and his colleague at Unit 18.

The offending bearing has been replaced. He has tested the finished job and the car is now fine, WITHOUT the replacement of the gearbox and a bill of £2500!.

Hopefully, my friend has had her faith restored in Skoda vehicles.

So thx again to Ally and also to Techie for making me aware of Unit 18's existence.

The usual problem though..............Why, Oh why do dealers quote outrageous prices to potential customers. This one was clearly a misdiagnosis. Almost definitel, I am reliably told they did not look at the gearbox oil, so why tell a customer the things that they do?

Who was it who said ' You are only someone's customer once'? One would presume that they get away with these activities more often than not so perhaps in a twisted way they see it as a profitable money making exercise. I only ever visit a dealer to buy a part (very rare with Skodas) and even then it will be because I cannot find it elsewhere.

So thx very much to everyone on this excellent forum

cya

Tom

Great to see a happy ending to this

If anyone else gets a more serious problem with a 4x4 box these dont appear to fail very often so s/hand boxes if you can find one are cheap due to almost zero demand.

I know from personal experience that on the Mk 1 Octys the internals of a VRS box went straight into the 4x4 casing, If a similar design process was followed on the Mk 2 then this may again be another option rather than paying the stealers prices.

Its unfortunate these days that main dealers are scared of attempting repairs & simply want to fit a new part

Ok, Update............................

Well, all I can say is a great big thanks to Ally and his colleague at Unit 18.

The offending bearing has been replaced. He has tested the finished job and the car is now fine, WITHOUT the replacement of the gearbox and a bill of £2500!.

Hopefully, my friend has had her faith restored in Skoda vehicles.

So thx again to Ally and also to Techie for making me aware of Unit 18's existence.

The usual problem though..............Why, Oh why do dealers quote outrageous prices to potential customers. This one was clearly a misdiagnosis. Almost definitel, I am reliably told they did not look at the gearbox oil, so why tell a customer the things that they do?

Who was it who said ' You are only someone's customer once'? One would presume that they get away with these activities more often than not so perhaps in a twisted way they see it as a profitable money making exercise. I only ever visit a dealer to buy a part (very rare with Skodas) and even then it will be because I cannot find it elsewhere.

So thx very much to everyone on this excellent forum

cya

Tom

do you know which bearing for future ref'' ?

Nice to see a favourable outcome rather than a massive bill from a main Stealer.

A majority of people will automatically default to a main dealer as they don't think anyone else can/will undertake the work.

I was quoted £1750+ fitting +VAT to have my PD140 turbo replaced by a main dealer. Once i got up off the floor i went away and purchased a hybrid and had it fitted by a Skoda Indy, all in it was just under a grand including a service.

If you can find a good Indy (such as unit18) it's always the way to go IMO.

This one was clearly a misdiagnosis. Almost definite.

Please. please ring up or better still pop into the offending dealer and take pride in letting them know how useless they are.

Back this up with a quick email to Skoda UK to ask why one of their approved franchised dealers is unable to a diagnose a fault on one of their own vehicles.

This isn't a bad reflection on Skoda, just a sign of the times and a perfect example of an incompetent modern day car dealership.

These guys aren't mechanics, they are parts fitters

Many years of experience in the motor trade have taught me that franchised dealers are 'unit changers'. It is unlikely that anyone in the dealership had the expertise and experience to strip and rebuild the box. Franchised dealers generally see newish cars (mostly up to 3-4 years old) that don't suffer these problems. When a fault does occur its is usually covered by warranty and so a replacement unit is fitted.

The independent sector deal mainly with cars over 3 years old where the (usually less affluent) customer foots the bill - so they are used to seeking out a repair, rather than a replacement.

Edited 3 December, 201015 yr by Hauptmann

As the service manager at a skoda dealer once said to me "we replace, we don't repair".

As the service manager at a skoda dealer once said to me "we replace, we don't repair".

Did he add "at your cost of course, sir"

Many years of experience in the motor trade have taught me that franchised dealers are 'unit changers'. It is unlikely that anyone in the dealership had the expertise and experience to strip and rebuild the box. Franchised dealers generally see newish cars (mostly up to 3-4 years old) that don't suffer these problems. When a fault does occur its is usually covered by warranty and so a replacement unit is fitted.

The independent sector deal mainly with cars over 3 years old where the (usually less affluent) customer foots the bill - so they are used to seeking out a repair, rather than a replacement.

WHY OH WHY DO ALL DEALERS GET TIED WITH THE SAME BRUSH. We strip gearboxes and rebuild them and also strip and rebuild engines etc, Ive personaly rebuilt loads of skoda/vw boxes and engines, Cant comment about other DEALERS but we do not "Quote" unit change (even when the car is under warranty unless skoda warranty tells us to replace with new) My personal thought is, Its the replace it generation of techys, gone of the days of strip it and see how it works and repair just throw it away and fit new because its quicker to, And thats not the techys fault its how they are taught at college.

Its not a miss diagnosis, replacing the box would have fixed it. It is however an over repair being quoted more than it should be (by a lot ill admit).

However a lot of techs such as myself, Ali and many more are very capable of rebuilding a gearbox but a lot of modern dealers just arent equipped now to do it. I know the last three dealers I have worked at dont even have a press big enough to get a mainshaft in, nor do they have all the required pullers and tools to do it. This is purely down to cost and what they would get back for it in terms of work with most opting to sublet to a specialist which will then carry a warranty with their work.

Final comment

A great big thanks to all those who took the time to contribute to this thread. Comments all sensible and helpful. I am not a great contributor to this forum but I have managed to help a couple of people on here, it is truly the best forum I know.

There were a few comments that were made about dealers. I am sure that the individual technicians are decent enough chaps etc but after many years of driving/mending cars I have to say that the only time I ever enter the premises of a main dealer is to order (they invariably never have the part in stock) the absolute minimum from them. I just stay away and go elsewhere.

Tom

Merry Xnas to you all