Hello

new fella here just looking for some advice

I have a Skoda fabia elegance estate 1.9tdi, 07 reg. bought from a main dealer at 1yr old with 7000m on it.

it has been maintained by them in accordance with the warranty. it has now got 17000m just coming up.

its always driven extremely gently, no speeding over speedhumps or kerbed.

i am told by the main dealer when it was in last friday for its service that the lower front suspension bushes are splitting and will need replacing.

am disgusted and astounded that a car with so little use would need this doing so soon.

especially at the quoted cost of approx £200+, which as a disabled pensioner, doesn't come as freely as at may do for working age people.

main dealer advised me to complain to skoda directly but said they wouldnt do anything themselves, as the warranty has just expired.

have yet to contact skoda regarding this.

has anyone else had this problem from a car with so little usage?

any help or advice is appreciated.

thanks

Mine on my mini went at 74000

Hello

new fella here just looking for some advice

I have a Skoda fabia elegance estate 1.9tdi, 07 reg. bought from a main dealer at 1yr old with 7000m on it.

it has been maintained by them in accordance with the warranty. it has now got 17000m just coming up.

its always driven extremely gently, no speeding over speedhumps or kerbed.

i am told by the main dealer when it was in last friday for its service that the lower front suspension bushes are splitting and will need replacing.

am disgusted and astounded that a car with so little use would need this doing so soon.

especially at the quoted cost of approx £200+, which as a disabled pensioner, doesn't come as freely as at may do for working age people.

main dealer advised me to complain to skoda directly but said they wouldnt do anything themselves, as the warranty has just expired.

have yet to contact skoda regarding this.

has anyone else had this problem from a car with so little usage?

any help or advice is appreciated.

thanks

That is poor. It is a known problem with the particular design of voided bushes that were insattled at production -apparently there is an improved design available at refit. This problem seems to occur more with the diesels than the petrol models (Difference in weight of engine ?) and it has been reported before on this forum.

That said, it does sound like an awfully low mileage for this to be happening. Usually, its the Anti Roll bar bushes that go at this mileage (They went on my petrol Fabia saloon at just short of 3 years/17,000 miles and were replaced under warranty. Symptom is clonking sound coming from the front when you go over speed humps or potholes.

Main dealer told me at the last annual service (50,000 miles) that the console bushes needed replacing, although it got through the MOT. Console bushes are on the wishbone swing arms. The symptom is squeaking coming from the suspension units (Usually in right-hand drive cars the nearside ones breakdown first, 'cause you make more left-hand turns driving on the left !) when you lift-off or apply the power/go-over speed bumps.

Personally, I'd go and get a second opinion.

Nick

have seen the split, and the guy at the main dealer took photos on both sides for reference but was adamant that Skoda UK wouldnt do anything about it at all.

Mine on my mini went at 74000

Mine on my mini went at 74000

yeah you said that....

Yeah I know. I'm at work using my iPhone and posted it twice by accident.

have seen the split, and the guy at the main dealer took photos on both sides for reference but was adamant that Skoda UK wouldnt do anything about it at all.

When's your MOT ? If its not banging, crunching or squealing or causing handling problems - what's the problem ?

Mine are happily squealing away at the moment. If the split is not too bad, putting some silicon grease on them will stop the noise temporarily.

Presume that as a pensioner your driving style won't be to test the vehicle to the limit mechanical or do an excessive mileage, and the dealers notification is advisory. So you got a bit of time to play with.

I'm going to wait on doing mine, but will keep a regular eye on front tyre wear so that if the tracking suddenly goes off, then perhaps that's an indication that the wear is serious and the swinging arm bolt has dropped out of position.

If its the swinging arm bushes, its definately a design fault with the bushes. So even if the car is outside the 3 year mechanical warranty, I'd still approach Skoda for "Goodwill" assistance with the costs.

Nick

spoke to 2 people at Skoda today, they aren't interested and say its acceptable wear & tear.

i disagree. very much.

spoke to 2 people at Skoda today, they aren't interested and say its acceptable wear & tear.

i disagree. very much.

Horlicks. That's the response you get from the first-line, relatively non-technical, therefore "Party-line" customer services people - in my experience CS people aren't there to help you . In the words of Mr Eastwood, you got to get angry and you got to take it higher within Skoda GB. Try speaking to the CS supervisor. Emphasise that you bought this seemingly low-mileage '07 car in good faith from one of their main dealers and wouldn't expect a premature failure of this type to occur so early into the life of the car/your period of ownership, given that the dealer will have done acceptance and pre-sale checks -on a low mileage car like yours, this type of fault won't happen overnight ! If they still persist with this line get a written response from them re-stating what they told you verbally.

Following that, if no joy, might be worth posting an enquiry, with all the opinions/information obtained to date, with the Honest John web site, quoting their response and asking the question whether any other vehicles in the range had/have the same problem e.g. the Octavia:-

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/

Failing that writing in progression to the MD of Skoda GB (Copy to his home address won't hurt) and then, if not satisfied to VAG HQ at Wolfsburg (Done that been there)

You can always copy-in the Department of Transport querying why a potential MOT failure item isn't the subject of a recall and questioning whether a car should still have "Type approval" in these circumstances.

The only reason that these bushes have failed is penny-pinching (AKA Value analysis) in the production process. Bushes with voids in them save money i.e. less rubber is used reducing the cost.

I had a VW Golf Mk1, 1981 vintage, which went on to 15 years old and 75,000 miles without failure of the ARB or swinging arm bushes, excessive piston ring wear, leaking doors, fooky electrics or any of the miriad other problems that plague the current generation of Skoda/VW cars.

Are car companies trying it on nowadays because they perceive the mass of the car buying public today as technically illiterate as comapred with 30 years ago ? Answer . .. err . . .err . . YES !

Oh! By the way, a main dealer quoted £396 cost for replacing both sides on my saloon.

with so many faults on the Fabia, the psychology that the dealers use on the customer is whereever possible to get them to pay for rectification work. And, once you got them to do that once, you've set the precedent. And the next time you have trouble, the female receptionist (And they all are nowadays), in the slightly patronisinhg way that they have towards OAPs "well, Mr Snodgrass, you remember last time when you had that problem and we put it right for you, did you pay or did Skoda ?" - bit of an Oxymoron really.

Postascript.

Just think of it as Skoda's banker's bonus and it will be so much easier to swallow next time you pay the "Reasonable" interest and charges on your unauthorised overdraft.

@£200, that sounds like that's the price either for the Anti_roll bar bushes to be completely replaced or the cost of doing one side of the swinging-arms. There are 2 x SA and advice to me was that if one's gone (As in my case) both will need doing bring th cost to £400 approx.

Nick

Edited 10 March, 201115 yr by Clunkclick

Nick

I suppose the fact that you're not actually dealing with Skoda but most probably a company called Ventura who Skoda outsource customer services to means that they will attempt to fob people off rather than sort problems out in a fair way. I would have thought that bushes giving up at 17000 miles means that they're not fit for purpose.

Typical VAG group policy - tight barstewards. Mk1 has the same problem and they haven't bothered to devise a solution for the Mk 2.

Like the blowing cylinder head gasket on Golf Mk1s,Mk2s and Mk3 - always at the location of the number one cylinder - never fixed on the production line in 20 years.

How long have they been building monocoque chassis, coil sprung suspension, front wheel drive cars with water cooled engines and they still get it substantially wrong.

Personally, I think the costs of German re-unification have probably subsided now, so they can start putting the money back into get decent quality parts from their subcontractors for first builds .

Nick

Typical VAG group policy - tight barstewards. Mk1 has the same problem and they haven't bothered to devise a solution for the Mk 2.

Like the blowing cylinder head gasket on Golf Mk1s,Mk2s and Mk3 - always at the location of the number one cylinder - never fixed on the production line in 20 years.

How long have they been building monocoque chassis, coil sprung suspension, front wheel drive cars with water cooled engines and they still get it substantially wrong.

Personally, I think the costs of German re-unification have probably subsided now, so they can start putting the money back into get decent quality parts from their subcontractors for first builds .

Double Post - apologies

Nick

Edited 10 March, 201115 yr by Clunkclick

is it worth a 2nd phone call in the hope of speaking to someone more sympathetic?

Bruce, this should be sorted under warranty without any question. I speak as an ex tech and if the vehicle has only covered such a low mileage and the car is only just out of warranty by a few months then Skoda will cover most of the cost for sure, I would say. You need to get past the front line customer service guys as others have said. I would speak with customer services again and ask to speak with a supervisor as you were unhappy with your first response, and ask them for an official written response to your problem as you wish to pursue a claim. Explain the car is covered under the Sale of Goods Act and has to be fit for purpose. This means under EU law that something like a car should realistically last for around 6 years before repairs of this kind are needed. There is some room for negotiation under the law regarding what is reasonable, but I don't think anyone would argue that bushes should last longer than yours have. I would point out that the Sale of Goods Act doesn't cover much about cars. Cars are a bit special and have their own legal acts but Sale of Good should cover this generally. Once you mention sale of goods attitudes often change. At this point the customer service guys will realise you are very serious about pursuing a claim and may suddenly change their stance. If so that's great. Get the names of any people you speak to and always be very very polite as this suceeds much better than giving someone a hard time. It's entirely possible Skoda will do a good will repair for free or will heavily subsidise it for you. Otherwise, just wait for a written response from Skoda and come back to us all for some further info. On the whole, reports I have from many people are that Skoda are generally very reasonable and treat their customers very well so don't worry about it at this stage. I think it will come good. But you may have to be a little persistent at first.

Incidentally, I literally know dozens of people with various models of the Fabia Mk2, I have one myself and don't know anyone who has, or who had this problem. This bush failure is not that common in spite of what you may read on here. The bushes were upgrade after the Mk1 and it seems to have largely worked. Skoda are one of the best manufacturers I know at building out problems. Let us all know how you get on.

Edited 11 March, 201115 yr by Estate Man

Bruce, this should be sorted under warranty without any question. I speak as an ex tech and if the vehicle has only covered such a low mileage and the car is only just out of warranty by a few months then Skoda will cover most of the cost for sure, I would say. You need to get past the front line customer service guys as others have said. I would speak with customer services again and ask to speak with a supervisor as you were unhappy with your first response, and ask them for an official written response to your problem as you wish to pursue a claim. Explain the car is covered under the Sale of Goods Act and has to be fit for purpose. This means under EU law that something like a car should realistically last for around 6 years before repairs of this kind are needed. There is some room for negotiation under the law regarding what is reasonable, but I don't think anyone would argue that bushes should last longer than yours have. I would point out that the Sale of Goods Act doesn't cover much about cars. Cars are a bit special and have their own legal acts but Sale of Good should cover this generally. Once you mention sale of goods attitudes often change. At this point the customer service guys will realise you are very serious about pursuing a claim and may suddenly change their stance. If so that's great. Get the names of any people you speak to and always be very very polite as this suceeds much better than giving someone a hard time. It's entirely possible Skoda will do a good will repair for free or will heavily subsidise it for you. Otherwise, just wait for a written response from Skoda and come back to us all for some further info. On the whole, reports I have from many people are that Skoda are generally very reasonable and treat their customers very well so don't worry about it at this stage. I think it will come good. But you may have to be a little persistent at first.

Incidentally, I literally know dozens of people with various models of the Fabia Mk2, I have one myself and don't know anyone who has, or who had this problem. This bush failure is not that common in spite of what you may read on here. The bushes were upgrade after the Mk1 and it seems to have largely worked. Skoda are one of the best manufacturers I know at building out problems. Let us all know how you get on.

+1 be very polite and firm don't flap or get angry estateman nail on head,if you loose it they will not bother with you take names and dates,also try and talk to the franchise owner as well he will try to sort it out as you are a potential purchaser in years to come,my dealer here is brilliant "why" because I have spent about 50k there in the last 15 years

Absolutely right Seb!

Service report

above is a link to a scan of the service report from the garage (name and reg have been scrubbed for privacy).

As you'll see, it does state that the lower arm bushes are starting to split.

In my conversation with Skoda, I was told they had spoken to the Service Manager at the dealer and he had told them that the splits were only 'microscopic' and that was why Skoda weren't going to do anything about it, warranty or not.

I was told I would get another couple of years out of it and I simply don't believe the fella.

they also told me the actual part isn't covered under warranty and they wouldnt pay for, or partly fund any kind of replacement work to be done on these parts.

the change of story from the initial chat with the service department at dealer, to this new one where the split is only microscopic, sounds very much like a company backpeddling away from having to answer to an angry customer like me.

Hi Bruce,

There is a difference between 'being split' (needing to be sorted under warranty right away) and 'starting to split' (not needing any current work under warranty). I understand now why they won't tackle the job. Especially if the splits are microscopic. In actual fact if we all went out and looked under our cars at the same bushes, roughly one third of us would find the bushes have tiny microscopic cracks or splits, even on cars of your age. I've seen them on cars just a couple of years old too, and on all makes of cars. It's not just a Skoda thing. These tiny splits are not very important and don't even affect the life of the bushes quite often to any real degree. However, the service manager has said you should get another couple of years out of them so your splits, small or not must be a bit more substantial than what I am referring to, if not they wouldn't have even have mentioned it. It's difficult for anyone to advise you on this without seeing the bushes. I can only suggest a second opinion from an independent dealer or another Skoda dealership. Good luck. Keep us posted.

if they are so microscopic, why even mention them at all?

like I said, sounds like backpeddling to me cos I kicked off over the quality control. wasnt mentioned last august at its first MOT.

the guy at the desk at the dealer told me that it could be the cause of premature tyre wear and would cost £200 to sort out.

just trying it on to get a further sale out of me?

I think the service manager needs to explain why he put "starting to split" instead of microscopic which after all means that its only visible using a microscope under which conditions you would see all kinds of wear happening. Regarding this not being confined to Skoda I think the Mk. 1 Fabia definitely had an issue with these bushes and it is well known by some members of this forum. I don't know if there was any change of design in the Mk. 2 Fabia.

I think the service manager needs to explain why he put "starting to split" instead of microscopic which after all means that its only visible using a microscope under which conditions you would see all kinds of wear happening. Regarding this not being confined to Skoda I think the Mk. 1 Fabia definitely had an issue with these bushes and it is well known by some members of this forum. I don't know if there was any change of design in the Mk. 2 Fabia.

Yeah...the bushes are different.

Well they should have got it right second time around then. lol

Yeah...as far as I know they have. I'm sceptical as to whether bruce has a real problem either. A few microscopic surface cracks/splits don't add up to a problem.

After seeing this thread I did some research on my own car and my neighbours. This is what I found.

My front near side lower bushes are just showing, when examined with a torch very close up, some very small surface cracks in the front facing of the bushes. These are hard to see. My Fabia has 20k on it and is two and half years old. In no way is this a problem and is normal. My neighbours BMW 2.0i diesel Coupe (3 years old) is also showing the same slight surface cracking to one of the bushes front nearside again. All completely normal. Nothing to worry about. I would add that my car is often used to carry items that push it to the limits of axle weights front and back. That makes a difference too as it loads everything up, especially bushes, to near maximum stress levels. I don't expect to be replacing my bushes anytime soon. My car has also just been services and no advisory was given...and I go to one of the fussiest dealerships in the country. They fine pick at everything.

Hope this is helpful to someone. I think the garage guy was a little over zealous with his description of Bruce's bushes from what the service manager is now saying.But a second opinion on Bruce's bushes would be good if he is still in any doubts.

Edited 14 March, 201115 yr by Estate Man