Octavia rear differential woe's

[marciav]

Hello all, I am hoping someone could provide some advice, I will try and keep this concise but bear with me as it is creating some stress.

Octavia 2.0Tdi 4x4 estate, 57 plate bought from new with all relevant servicing done by skoda dealer. We are on our third rear differential, and I think that one has gone also as it is making a noise when under load at motorway speeds. The big problem is my car is now out of its warranty, by TWO DAYS and I cannot afford the cost of fixing/replacing it myself.

Can anyone give some advice on what I can do? Wether it be getting it fixed (preffered option as we love the car), or getting a refund/replacement.

Any input on my legal position with the car not being fit for purpose etc incase it goes nasty?

Thanks in advance.

Simon and Marcia

P.S. I won't name the dealership as I want to make every effort to sort this between us and to be fair they have been helpful so far.

[skippy41]

If you have already had it replaced under warranty, it will still be covered, I cannot remember if your covered for a year or 3 years, on replacement parts, it looks or sounds like an alignment problem that is causing it to go

[cheezemonkhai]

If you have already had it replaced under warranty, it will still be covered, I cannot remember if your covered for a year or 3 years, on replacement parts, it looks or sounds like an alignment problem that is causing it to go

You are incorrect, if it is repaired under warranty, the part is warranted to the end of the warranty.

If the car has always been VAG serviced, then I would look at getting your dealer to refer it to skoda customer services, or even calling them yourself.

Obviously if the part has failed three times (I assume they mean the haldex) they are fixing the symptom, not the root cause of the fault which will have occurred either during manufacture, due to another faulty part or during the warranty and was identified as a problem during the warranty.

I'm sure if you point this out to them, they will be reasonable and if not then you always have the legal route (look up goods of sufficient durability) as a last resort.

[Hauptmann]

Warranty is really an irrelevance in this case.

A warranty is a contract between you and the manufacturer and is IN ADDITION to your legal rights. The dealer is merely acting as Skoda's agent for warranty purposes.

You have rights under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 which over-ride any warranty considerations. In this case the product is obviously not fit for purpose (insufficient durability) and, given the repair history, you would have no problem at all in making a claim against the dealer.

I would point this out to them and give them the option of sorting out the problem without needing to go to Small Claims Court.

I do wonder if the repairs have been incorrectly done, or if there is a fault elsewhere in the drivetrain. Whatever, it is the dealer's problem and not yours.

Edited 30 December, 2010 by Hauptmann

[cheshire_cat]

Warranty is really an irrelevance in this case.

A warranty is a contract between you and the manufacturer and is IN ADDITION to your legal rights. The dealer is merely acting as Skoda's agent for warranty purposes.

You have rights under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 which over-ride any warranty considerations. In this case the product is obviously not fit for purpose (insufficient durability) and, given the repair history, you would have no problem at all in making a claim against the dealer.

I would point this out to them and give them the option of sorting out the problem without needing to go to Small Claims Court.

I do wonder if the repairs have been incorrectly done, or if there is a fault elsewhere in the drivetrain. Whatever, it is the dealer's problem and not yours.

Please keep us all posted on this one- fingers crossed

[silver1011]

We are on our third rear differential.

Wow, I think I'd have hit the roof after the second one failed.

The second failure would have prompted me to pursue Skoda for some kind of recompense. An extension of warranty at least.

As others have mentioned, something is very wrong here.

Your calmness amazes me, although I hope your not being too calm. You need to make it very clear this is unacceptable and ask to know what they intend to do about this obvious manufacturing defect.

Good luck

[marciav]

Thank you for your replies, it has helped our mental state considerably.

Yes we hit the roof too after the second diff, but what we were told was it was a seperate fault and it was a faulty part that was fitted. We had the dealer look it over this week and they have not found any fault, so I will keep my ears open for any further noise from the back end. The first failure manifested itself as a rumbling noise from the rear of the car when at 70Mph in sixth gear then planting your foot. I perhaps was overly sensitive thinking I was hearing the same noise again ths week, but as I have winter tyres on PERHAPS it was that, not entirely convinced but will wait and see. If it fails yet again I will be going back to the dealership with a view to giving them back the car and recovering my money, which would be a shame as they have been good to us and we love the car.

So as it stands at the moment I am waiting for it to either fail on me, or not and will be happy ever after. LOL If anything changes I will ask for more advice, but I hope it will be smooth sailing from now.

Si and Marcia

[skippy41]

You are incorrect, if it is repaired under warranty, the part is warranted to the end of the warranty.

If the car has always been VAG serviced, then I would look at getting your dealer to refer it to skoda customer services, or even calling them yourself.

Obviously if the part has failed three times (I assume they mean the haldex) they are fixing the symptom, not the root cause of the fault which will have occurred either during manufacture, due to another faulty part or during the warranty and was identified as a problem during the warranty.

I'm sure if you point this out to them, they will be reasonable and if not then you always have the legal route (look up goods of sufficient durability) as a last resort.

I have just checked some of my bills and any part that was replaced has a 12 month parts and labour warranty from the date fitted, I had a gearbox jam up at 98,000 on a Felicia and it was changed under the 100,000 waranty skoda used to give, the new one was covered for 3 years or 100,000 miles

[mannyo]

Surely there must be something wrong with the Haldex coupling. Replacing the diff is only fixing the symptoms and not fixing the cause, result is that it fails again and again.

The rear diff should only be under any sort of drive when the front wheels lose traction, up to that point the rear diff should be doing nothing.