I bought my Fabia vRS from Simpsons Skoda in Preston in June last year. The car has been in 3 times for various problems to be fixed on the warranty. One of which has yet to be sorted.

However, the most recent time it has gone in they decided to tell me that the cam belt should have been changed in November 2010. Seeing as I bought the car in June 2011, should they not have done this for me? The car was supposed to have been checked by them before handing over the keys to me but, considering the trouble i have had with the car, i think their check consisted of standing back and making sure it was actually a car.

If anyone can give me an idea on where i stand that would be great, cheers.

Imagine their problms if the belt had gone ,just after you'd bought it? .Might be worth a word with Trading Standards( or whatever they call themselves these days) .

Try a google on Consumer advice .They're part of TSA,.They're on an 0845 number, but I used saynoto 0870.com to give me a list of their offices and local numbers

Edited 18 March, 201214 yr by VWD

Cheers for that. Will have a look.

Im gonna go in and see either the after sales manager or service manager this week. Not really happy with the after service at all. Like i said its been in 3 times. Its had a rumble from the front end near side that i reckoned was a wheel bearing. Been there since i bought it. When i took it in to get looked at, I was told the noise had been traced to the steering pump or something but the warranty company wouldnt fix it 'because it wasnt a fault' and that they would only fix it once once it had developed into one.

Now to me, if a car is making a noise it shouldnt, then there is a fault. So i was told i could either have my money back, wait until another vRS comes in (cos im sure that happens all the time) and swap it, or wait until this noise 'develops'. I decided to wait because i didnt want to give the car up. Since then its been in for a new airbag, which the warranty did fix, and an MOT and service. Again i got them to look at this noise but was told it had not got any worse.

Decided to take it in again recently because the warranty is up in 3 months and want it sorting. Before i did i took it to a mechanic friend of mine and he said it sounded like a wheel bearing to him. He jacked the car up, checked all the wheels, and found it to be the driver side front wheel bearing. The opposite side to where it sounds like its coming from, when you're in the car. Which says to me that the Skoda mechanics have only check the passenger side, because thats where i said it was coming from, and assumed its the steering pump making this noise. Surely a good mechanic would check all possibilities? Especially seeing as i said it sounded like a wheel bearing the very first time it went in.

Anyway, the car went in on tuesday last week and i told them what my mate had said about the wheel bearing. Picked the car up on thursday and sure enough they found that it needs a new wheel bearing, although there is still some fault with the steering pump, and a list of other things they reckon is wrong with the car. Couple of tyre issues which is fair enough. But they reckon the front brake pads are getting low and that the discs need changing. Now i know about the discs but the pads are completely fine. Also this issue about the cam belt. Why have they only picked up on this now, after the 3rd time and an MOT and service, since ive had the car? Are they just trying to get money out of me?

Got myself riled up now typing this out. haha. Up for kicking off when i go in next week now,

Sorry for the essay guys.

Normally if you change the discs you should change the pads at the same time irrespective of how much is left on them as the pads wear into the grooves of the old disc.

Another thing I would recommend is a complete VCDS scan and see what it brings up, you could then print this and take it with you if any faults show up. I did this on mine yesterday and found faults I didn't even know I had.

Most warranties state cambelt only covered if changed at makers recommended times. Something else to look up ,and ,if necessary have out with dealer/TSA

For god's sake mate dont let them do the cambelt, I took mine in last wednesday and it's not right, pump timing a tooth out, will not show on vcds timing graph, just reports timing too retarded to plot.But they say it's set to specification??????? how?????

It's back in for sorting out (3rd time in 5 days )I would have done the job myself,( toyota registered technician ) but I am recovering from donating a kidney for my wife.

They won't admitt they have done it wrong, you have been warned

Let me put this another way, if I did my job like this, I would be in the ranks of the unemployed and rightly so !!!!

Best wishes to you kblackburn and Mrs kblackburn for a totally excellent recovery for both of you. Take it easy and get well. Apart from the loved ones in our lives nothing else matters worth a damn.

Nigel

A main franchise dealer shouldn't have made a retail sale without doing the cam belt if it was already due, get onto Skoda UK if they try and fob you off. If it's on finance involve the finance company as they're jointly liable.

Discs and pads are debatable, it's not unusual to just replace the pads if the disc's are in good condition and thick enough to see out another set of pads. Personally I prefer something with a break in coating the second time round but a pad will wear to the disc reasonably quickly but most of the time I'd put new discs on anyway for the minimal cost involved. Ask for the disc measurements if in doubt, pads should be obvious from a visual check by you.

Failing that if they don't sort the cam belt then trading standards followed by moneyclaim.gov.uk and get the work done by another dealer, you end up covering the costs initially but they'll cave before it goes to court.

I would argue something like this...

"You sold me a car with a full service history, but it's not been serviced to schedule, so you mis-described the vehicle. Please make the vehicle match the original description or give me my money back".

Simple.

LB123

thanks for the message, both doing ok

kev