I've had my Octy VRS CR TDI in to the dealers twice now with what i perceive to be some kind of DSG/DMF time bomb failure waiting to happen.

1. Soft 'chirruping' from drivetrain when box shifts up in low revs. Noise fades when revs build.

2. Afore mentioned noise sometimes constant whilst cruising. Noise disappears when you hit the accelerator and revs build

3. Ridiculous premature upshifting causing judder ( intermittent fault ) This has to be the most irritating complaint of all.

Hills are the worst. If you drive gently up an incline, the box will shift up far too early causing the judder. When you accelerate, the box shifts down into what feels like the correct gear only to shift back up again. The stupid thing can't make up it's mind and it's seriously

P***ing me off.

All I get from the dealers is the standard. "Computer says no" Why cant these lazy arses get a bloody spanner out and have a proper look?

Seems like it's too much like hard work. My biggest fear is that they are just fobbing me off until my warranty expires next month.

"It's a long drawn out process, diagnosing and fixing things like this, we have to talk to Skoda and submit report before they authorise repairs" is another boring useless excuse.

I bet all this changes when the warranty is out and I'm mullered with a thousand quid bill to replace A, Knackered DMF. B Knackered Mechatronics unit. Car has just past 30K. Oddly these symptoms seem to occur more as the weather gets warmer. In the cold winter months they did not seem quite as bad.

Never buy another car with DSG again. Any thought people?

Edited 12 March, 201214 yr by harrysprout

Unlucky..Quite simple

Many many DSG boxes are fault free

If youre unhappy with your dealer...Ring Skoda

Try another dealer, some are better than others.

The DSG box in my old Superb was brilliant, it was the 6 speed wet clutch one. Never faltered in the 2 years and 45K miles I owned the car, and I had no fear keeping it after the warranty run out. I only sold it on in January because the work situation changed, otherwise I would still be driving it today and it would have been more than 6 months out of warranty.

Try another dealer, some are better than others.

The DSG box in my old Superb was brilliant, it was the 6 speed wet clutch one. Never faltered in the 2 years and 45K miles I owned the car, and I had no fear keeping it after the warranty run out. I only sold it on in January because the work situation changed, otherwise I would still be driving it today and it would have been more than 6 months out of warranty.

I have tried two different dealers, both trot out the same line. "We can't fault it" How? all they do is plug it in to a bloody laptop.

Unlucky..Quite simple

Many many DSG boxes are fault free

If youre unhappy with your dealer...Ring Skoda

I reckon that's my next move. Thanks

Whereabouts are you located, maybe another member can recommend a dealer who knows a little more than simply "The computer says all is well".

I agree its a silly situation, take my sisters Renault. The computer says no fault, but it stalls all the time when cold because of a faulty sensor that is outputing incorrect data, but still within acceptable range.

Whereabouts are you located, maybe another member can recommend a dealer who knows a little more than simply "The computer says all is well".

I agree its a silly situation, take my sisters Renault. The computer says no fault, but it stalls all the time when cold because of a faulty sensor that is outputing incorrect data, but still within acceptable range.

I'm in Harrogate, had the car in Benfield and a dealership in York, DM Keith. I am thinking about a trip over to Huddersfield to see a transmission specialist. It might be worth 80 quid for an unbiased opinion

i was under the impression at least , that an ongoing fault within warranty would be covered , have a mooch about on the net , if its reported get it in writing when you told them

I agree, it is crazy. I was in a similar situation at DM Keith in York with several niggles I had. All they kept doing was plugging it into the diagnostics machine.

No faults logged therefore I must be making it up.

Do dealers not employ / train mechanics any more? The ability to operate a computer and pick parts off a shelf seem to be the only requisites these days.

i was under the impression at least , that an ongoing fault within warranty would be covered , have a mooch about on the net , if its reported get it in writing when you told them

I seem to recall them saying this as well, but the waters were somewhat muddied by 'A gesture of goodwill' What does that mean? We will pay the first 300 hundred quid and you pay the rest. Not sure.

I agree, it is crazy. I was in a similar situation at DM Keith in York with several niggles I had. All they kept doing was plugging it into the diagnostics machine.

No faults logged therefore I must be making it up.

Do dealers not employ / train mechanics any more? The ability to operate a computer and pick parts off a shelf seem to be the only requisites these days.

I had a look in the workshop at Benfield, it looked more like some kind of medical facility with computers and car lifts. Not a torque wrench in sight. They don't fix things they are bit swappers.

A goodwill gesture is a contribution from Skoda towards the costs involved in attempting to diagnose and fixing the fault, however this is for out of warranty claims and is dependent on the persuasiveness of your dealer, service history / brand loyalty etc.

Skoda UK have actually been extraordinarily good to me over the years contributing to well over £2000 of work on my out-of warranty Octavia's.

Give them a call on 08457 745745 and open a case, you may be surprised how quickly things start to progress...

I'm in Harrogate, had the car in Benfield and a dealership in York, DM Keith. I am thinking about a trip over to Huddersfield to see a transmission specialist. It might be worth 80 quid for an unbiased opinion

Don't spend £80 having it looked at! You're in warranty, so insist on a decent service. Call Skoda directly.

I've had 2 DSG 'boxes and the father-in-law had one. No problems at all. Brilliant when working properly!

Good luck sorting it!

A goodwill gesture is a contribution from Skoda towards the costs involved in attempting to diagnose and fixing the fault, however this is for out of warranty claims and is dependent on the persuasiveness of your dealer, service history / brand loyalty etc.

Skoda UK have actually been extraordinarily good to me over the years contributing to well over £2000 of work on my out-of warranty Octavia's.

Give them a call on 08457 745745 and open a case, you may be surprised how quickly things start to progress...

Brand loyalty will count then I've had four Octy's. Thanks for this I will call them tomorrow.

Don't spend £80 having it looked at! You're in warranty, so insist on a decent service. Call Skoda directly.

I've had 2 DSG 'boxes and the father-in-law had one. No problems at all. Brilliant when working properly!

Good luck sorting it!

Good advice, thanks.

Edited 12 March, 201214 yr by harrysprout

I have a juddering DSG box in Harrogate too. I must say Benfield have been more than helpful and I have not had the 'computer says no' at all. They are taking it in again at the beginning of April for 3 days to have another look.

I think they know what is wrong but due too the red tape laid down by Skoda UK they have to rule out the basics first before Skoda will authorize a £1500 repair.

Keep in touch and let me know what your outcome is, the fault you describe is Identical to mine.

Dsg Is complicated , expensive to fix and auto takes the pleasure out of driving for me, I love manual s end off.

Hope u get sorted mate but as said already I'd be onto Skoda uk.

Unfortunately you appear to be in a situation where the Dealer has some wriggle room. Don't know if you have read the stuff in the papers recently about Toyota. They had a clear (internal) policy to avoid repairing anything within the warranty period unless it was a safety item. The rationale being that if they could push it timewise to outside the warranty period then they would flag up to the customer any faults they could find so that they could then do chargeable repairs.

I have never worked in the car industry but you can bet somebody in Skoda UK has the responsibility for minimising warranty costs so if a subjectively jerky DSG gearbox does work OK when the Skoda Dealer drives it then they will go for "no fault found".

Prior to my Skoda I had a Mercedes and it had a dodgy DMF. It took a lot of discussion with the Dealer before they got Mercedes UK to authorise it and it got changed within the warranty. This flags up my final point which is that the way the industry seems to work is that the local Dealer will only do major warranty work if the UK national organisation underwrites it.

As some previous posts have said, make sure your complaint is in writing to the Skoda Dealer and keep up the pressure. Personally I would consider the independent chargeable inspection you mention. Irritating to have to spend it but if it saves the cost of a new DSG just out of warranty then well worth it.

Good luck!

Book the car in for a 10 minute test drive with you and the mechanic. Show them the fault then they will know what is wrong and how to replicate it. To prove to a Mazda garage that SWMBO car had a gearbox fault we just got them to compare the gear changes to another same spec car they had on the forecourt, then there was no argument as it was obvious our car had an issue.

I bought a 2004 1.9tdi Octavia DSG 2 months ago, due to the good fuel consumption for my 63 mile a day work commute.

 

It is a total pile of crap.

 

Takes forever to start, main dealer was useless. Last night, on way home from work, the juddering and lurching were so bad I thought the rotten thing would shake apart. It stalled 8 times on my journey.

 

Total crap.

 

cheers, Mark

We never did find out what happened to Harrys car

Fortunately the fault is out of the ordinary...most DSG boxes are fine

Informing Skoda rather than the dealer appears to be a better way forward

I bought a 2004 1.9tdi Octavia DSG 2 months ago, due to the good fuel consumption for my 63 mile a day work commute.

It is a total pile of crap.

Takes forever to start, main dealer was useless. Last night, on way home from work, the juddering and lurching were so bad I thought the rotten thing would shake apart. It stalled 8 times on my journey.

Total crap.

cheers, Mark

no disrespect but the car is 10 years old....sounds like you have a pup or it has something desperately wrong with it and needs to go to a garage to be looked at.

Yes it would  be nice to hear how Harry got on but................

 

If you look on the MK3 forum, Harry has popped up again (or perhaps sprouted again might by more appropriate! ha ha).

 

Seriously he is about to buy a MK3 VRS DSG so one can only presume he has retained faith in Octavias and DSG. Surely down to a satisfactory result eventually. He has also put his MK2 in part ex so it must be still going strong.

 

A happy ending after all?

no disrespect but the car is 10 years old....sounds like you have a pup or it has something desperately wrong with it and needs to go to a garage to be looked at.

Yes, I know what you mean. I'm just a bit furious at the moment with the dam thing. Its only 60,000 miles. Going to try and get it looked at tomorrow.

 

I don't know if its the DSG itself or the DMF. Its been hard to start recently (I put it down o the cold) but I reckon this could have been the DMF due to the timing/cranking speed not being right. I've also thought I could hear rattling / clanking noise from under the bonnet recently. Its the older 6 speed wet clutch DSG, which I understand is not supposed to be too unreliable. So I'm hoping its the DMF, as that is only very expensive, as apposed to extremely expensive DSG.

 

cheers, Mark

Yes, I know what you mean. I'm just a bit furious at the moment with the dam thing. Its only 60,000 miles. Going to try and get it looked at tomorrow.

 

I don't know if its the DSG itself or the DMF. Its been hard to start recently (I put it down o the cold) but I reckon this could have been the DMF due to the timing/cranking speed not being right. I've also thought I could hear rattling / clanking noise from under the bonnet recently. Its the older 6 speed wet clutch DSG, which I understand is not supposed to be too unreliable. So I'm hoping its the DMF, as that is only very expensive, as apposed to extremely expensive DSG.

 

cheers, Mark

Actually the older 'wet' DSG 'boxes are the most reliable of the lot. It should have had an oil change at 40,000 miles. Worth checking if this has been done.

Good luck sorting the car!