Hello there,

I have owned by Skoda Octavia vRS since June this year and to date have been really pleased with it, that was until a few days ago I noticed the coolant warning light coming on when I started the car from very cool. Initially I did the usual thing of stop, turn the ignition off and the leave it a few moments before restarting and it seemed to cure the problem, BINGO!. Today I decided to check the coolant reservoir as the light has been coming on and taking longer to go out over the last two days. What i found was that there was only a trace amount of coolant in the bottom on the reservoir, which I thought was very odd as the car has only done 4500 miles in the 6 months I have owned the car.

I have been in contact with my local service centre in Camberley, Surrey, who have stated that as it covered under warrantee they would like to see the vehicle for themselves to try and diagnose the problem. My guess, having no engineering or mechanically experience, is that a hose has either got a small hole in somewhere in the system or there is a leak in the reservoir itself, although there are no obvious signs of either at this time.

Does anybody on here know if this is a common problem or have I just been unlucky?

Thanks for reading.

Regards

Mark

I had a bottom radiator hose rubbing against an electrical plug last year, just enough to make a small pin hole in the pipe, and purely by coincidence a few weeks before that I was losing turbo boost, turned out my top hose that runs into egr was rubbing against plug on top of brake fluid reservoir and made another pin hole... Top up coolant, get car on dry surface and run engine and have a good check around hoses and joints etc.

I had a bottom radiator hose rubbing against an electrical plug last year, just enough to make a small pin hole in the pipe, and purely by coincidence a few weeks before that I was losing turbo boost, turned out my top hose that runs into egr was rubbing against plug on top of brake fluid reservoir and made another pin hole... Top up coolant, get car on dry surface and run engine and have a good check around hoses and joints etc.

I took the car in yesterday to the Camberley Service Centre, who were fantastic, and after an hour of checking the car was informed that there was a small leak coming from the EGR which will require a new part. They topped up the fluid levels in the car and put a temporary patch on the leak to get me through to next week when the car goes in for the day to be repaired. Although I am a little disappointed to have a fault so early into owning the car I feel it could have been far worse.

Regards

Mark

I had similar on my 1.8TSi a short while ago.

It needed a new bottom hose.

I took the car in yesterday to the Camberley Service Centre, who were fantastic, and after an hour of checking the car was informed that there was a small leak coming from the EGR which will require a new part. They topped up the fluid levels in the car and put a temporary patch on the leak to get me through to next week when the car goes in for the day to be repaired. Although I am a little disappointed to have a fault so early into owning the car I feel it could have been far worse.

Regards

Mark

Hi

The thing to remember is that **** happens - things go wrong.

Skoda customer service is good and they are willing to sort out any problems.

I have found the dealership we use in Stirling to be very good and if they make a mistake (paint scratches etc) they own up and fix it.

I also have a vauxhall astravan and the vauxhall dealers are very different. They first tell you that "that part only has 12 months warranty" or "that part is not covered" or "thats a wear and tear part".

Then if they have to, they think up some other reason to get out of their obligations.

I have even lost bits off the van (£300+ engine undertray) and they told me that they definately remember re-fitting it and it must have blown off. When I took the van in, they left me in the waiting area for 20mins and then took me to the workshop and said it had no clips fitted for the undertray so never had one fitted.

I asked why there was a large smooth lined, clean, undertray shaped area in the middle of the engine bay - they said "we can't explain that but it's never had a tray fitted".

I never got anywhere with them and had to buy another one and the clips but I got them off ebay at a fraction of the cost and fitted them myself. Surprise, surprise, the undertray has never blown off since. I have never been back to them and do all my own repairs, maintenance and servicing myself - at least I know it is done right.

Be glad you own a Skoda instead of a vauxhall. I like driving my van but will never have another vauxhall because of the dealers and the warranty.

I will be getting another Skoda to replace my van when I can afford to.

Cheers

Dave

Edited 17 December, 201114 yr by FatblokeVRS