Roomster 1.9 Tdi is a nightmare...i hate it!

[cranwellpoacher]

Well i have now officially decided that my 2006 (56) Roomster TDI is indeed the WORST CAR i have ever owned!...and i have owned 26 VW branded cars in 25 years.

Well done Skoda....looks like the old stigma is alive and well !...I would never recommend one to a friend....because i would like to keep them!

An absolutely awful, money draining, unreliable car i have never come across, and as for the technology it depends upon to work.....more trouble than it is worth! Got a dashboard with more lights on it than Blackpool currently....and at under 50000 miles and less than 6 years of ownership (from new) it is a joke!

My 17 year old Golf TD is more reliable, vastly less costly to maintain, more fun to drive and crucially it only cost me £400 to buy!.

[Brimma]

And it's taken you nearly six years to come to this conclusion

If it was that bad you surely would have got rid a long time ago

[philipashby]

Sorry to hear! Sounds like you got one of the friday afternoon black sheep!

[Lorenzo]

Just a troll trying to start a flame? (Am I too cynical and suspicious? )

Seriously, you should be much more accurate in details to be taken...seriously.

Edited 31 May, 2012 by Lorenzo

[dieselV6]

_{Judging by your earlier post}

http://www.briskoda....ost__p__2649136

1. The car has never seen proper diagnostics tool (VCDS), get the car scanned for error codes, preferably by someone who knows what he/she is doing (independent VW garage or a VW/Skoda forum user and owner of VCDS is a good bet usually)
   
2. Quite likely there is an electrics problem as you have an increasing number of electrical issues, could be as simple as a faulty/corroded ground.
   
3. You list quite a few other issues, incl suspension. To gather this many issues, the car is operated in "drive it until it breaks down on side of the road" mode, not in "maintain the car to prevent breakage" mode, my advice would be to address the issues immediately as and when they arise, costs far less aggravation.
   
4. If (as you claim) you owned 26 VW cars in 25 years, and you owned that Roomster for past 3 years (another post), either you dirve 8+ cars at the same time, or you only get them when the seller decides they're not worth any money and run them into ground. Perhaps you could explain a little more? Also, If I had more than 2 cars from same brand in a row, I'd get the diagnostics cable (VCDS) as the savings far outweigh the initial cost. In fact, I got VCDS about 12 months into my first Skoda ownership (2003) and it paid for itself many times over. In fact, it again saved me a ton of time finding and fixing issues on the new Roomster: radio (asked me for code, scan fixed it), interior light (shorted it with metal LED jacket by accident, BCM needed to be reset), and airbag (cable shorted at factory by metal trim clip) .
   
5. You're quoting the low mileage as a plus point, ie the car should not break. Actually, it is a big minus point for newer diesels, especially the 5.5k miles per year in its first 3 years. Don't buy a diesel nowadays unless you do 10k+ miles per year and unless it was driven for about as much from new.
   

Finally, my Roomster did not exactly arrive in perfect order from factory, but I did spend time and effort to address all 9 or 10 issues (annoying, but minor), and the last few days it feels nothing else but a solid school bus/shopping trolley/grand touring coach. Over this weekend it'll do 1000+ miles, and I expect nothing but solid performance.

Of course it is too early to tell about its reliability, but I had 1.9 engine for 10years/130k miles and if anything it was one of more reliable ones in VW selection.

Edited 31 May, 2012 by dieselV6

[cranwellpoacher]

Ok Guys......I did perhaps have a little rant this morning, but to be fair I am not a happy bunny at the mo as it seems to be my newest car which always needs cash spending on it!...my 17 year old Golf and my 25 year old Scirocco just work.....and do the job they where designed to do without flagging up a new error virtually every other week! I have better things to do in life than keep attending to a temperamental car!

Ref the 26 cars point after a recount it was not 26 VW branded Cars it was actually the 21 listed below plus a mixture of various Vauxhalls,Seats (non VW brand),Hyundai and Ford. List of VW group cars is as follows: (*reg year)

Mk1 Polo Hatchback first car 1987 (1976 model)

Mk1 Passat (1974)

Polo Classic C Saloon (1981)

Polo Classic C Saloon (1985)

Jetta 1.3 C (1988)

Scirocco Mk2 GT2 (1989)

1989 VW Passat GTI (1988)

VW Scirocco GT2 (1990)

VW Jetta TX Mk2 (1987)

VW Passat GL (1990)

VW Vento SD (1995)

VW Polo Mk2 Hatch (1985)

VW Polo Mk2 Hatch ((1987)

VW Golf Mk4 (1999)

VW Passat mK3 (1991)

VW Vento 1.6 (1996)

VW Scirocco GT2 (1991)

VW Scirocco GT2 (1992)

VW Scirocco Scala (1987)

Skoda Roomster (2006)

All apart from the Skoda have been brilliant cars which only required work to be done after substantial mileage (over 100'000 miles!) or fair wear and tear (clutches,brakes, oils, filters,tyres etc).

The truth is that i did genuinely like the Roomster when we bought it about 2 and half years ago but the constant "alerts" which appear on the dashboard and the several breakdowns due to flat battery (see list of problems) have seriously undermined my confidence in the car......I am not a Troll and I think that my comments as an owner are valid....

By the way I commute a 90 mile round trip to work each day in my 1995 Golf TD and my wife uses the Skoda to get around town, school runs and shopping.....if the car can't cope with what we use it for then perhaps it should be mentioned in the users manual !

So come on then folks.....as it appears i go more replies from my blasphemous comments about the Roomster today than i did when i appealed for help a few days ago......anyone got any useful suggestions that may help my situation....or have i been ostracised from the Forum for my sin?

Faults are currently:

Fan comes on for no reason when car stood on drive or parked and drains battery until you cannot start car

Turning headlights error warning on dash ...although these are not fitted

ABS light comes on and stays on

Power steering light has now joined the ABS light

Just had a belly full of issues.......just want a car that works without "issues" !

[dieselV6]

Fan comes on for no reason when car stood on drive or parked and drains battery until you cannot start car

Temperature sensor is faulty or fan relay faulty, fan normally comes on when engine bay is too hot (heat soak after engine off), prevents fires and cooking electronics. But normal behaviour is for it to be on up to 2-5min after you stopped the car then off until car driven again. Also, once you have this fixed, consider getting a new battery, as the one that went flat several times likely lost 50%-80% of its capacity so even 5min fan is too much of an effort (Fan takes ?20A).

Turning headlights error warning on dash ...although these are not fitted

ABS light comes on and stays on

Power steering light has now joined the ABS light

Once again, could be trivial, corodded ground point in egine bay, check the ground points, and test with a new battery (in view of what you wrote that it's been flat). Also, could be specifically instrument cluster problem, check connectors.

Finally, looking at the car list, every single car you owned prior to Roomster had very little electronics in it. Your complaint is really against every modern car, not Roomster specifically. I also do not like depending on fault code reader, but that is a trend in auto industry, to get you to depend on dealership servicing.

Get the car scanned using a decent code reader (VCDS or at dealer), quite often the answer is directly in the error codes, and there is no way to get dashboard warning light unless an error code is registered. If your current garage/workshop does not care/know what is going on, change the garage/workshop first.

Edited 31 May, 2012 by dieselV6

[philipashby]

Fan comes on for no reason when car stood on drive or parked and drains battery until you cannot start car

My 10 year old Fabia had the exact same issue and after spending more man hours than financially possible the Dealer could not find the fault and eventually snipped the cable to the fan! I'm not an electritian but some sort of short in a cable somewhere?

My experience is that finding a good mechanic and holding on to him is key in happy breakdown free motoring...

Edited 31 May, 2012 by philipashby

[bryanb]

my wife uses the Skoda to get around town, school runs and shopping.....if the car can't cope with what we use it for then perhaps it should be mentioned in the users manual

Forgive me but this does not seem appropriate use for a TDi, especially if it has DPF

[dieselV6]

My 10 year old Fabia had the exact same issue and after spending more man hours than financially possible the Dealer could not find the fault and eventually snipped the cable to the fan! I'm not an electritian but some sort of short in a cable somewhere?

My experience is that finding a good mechanic and holding on to him is key in happy breakdown free motoring...

Dealer mechanics really are not the best, I have had more than enough experience. Best to go to an independent VW/Skoda specialist, their bread does depend on quality of repairs and repeat business, the dealer ones do not.

Also, you want to keep that fan running possibly with a new cable or even separate temp sensor, disabling it causes risk of fire and increased failure rate of electronics, plus worse airco operation if you have it. As I explained it could be sticking relay or the temperature sensor, not neccessarily air temp, as I think ECU looks at all of them and the airco to decide to switch the fan on.

Forgive me but this does not seem appropriate use for a TDi, especially if it has DPF

Erm, it's actually a typical use for a Roomie, as long as you live out of large town centre the DPF is usually OK as the mileages involved are still in excess of 8k+ a year. London city centre is another story... But problems described above likely have nothing to do with engine, looks like a fairly basic electrics issue.

Our 1.6CR 105bhp DPF was bought exactly for the use as above, plus spring and summer trips abroad (only the sightseeing ones, as for real travel I have 30%+ faster Superb 2.5TDIV6), and though I will check DPF soot loading with VCDS along the way, I am not partcularly concerned that it will clog over the life of the car.

Plus 1.9 might not have the DPF yet?

Edited 31 May, 2012 by dieselV6

[rwbaldwin]

Temperature sensor is faulty or fan relay faulty, fan normally comes on when engine bay is too hot (heat soak after engine off), prevents fires and cooking electronics. But normal behaviour is for it to be on up to 2-5min after you stopped the car then off until car driven again. Also, once you have this fixed, consider getting a new battery, as the one that went flat several times likely lost 50%-80% of its capacity so even 5min fan is too much of an effort (Fan takes ?20A).

Once again, could be trivial, corodded ground point in egine bay, check the ground points, and test with a new battery (in view of what you wrote that it's been flat). Also, could be specifically instrument cluster problem, check connectors.

Finally, looking at the car list, every single car you owned prior to Roomster had very little electronics in it. Your complaint is really against every modern car, not Roomster specifically. I also do not like depending on fault code reader, but that is a trend in auto industry, to get you to depend on dealership servicing.

Get the car scanned using a decent code reader (VCDS or at dealer), quite often the answer is directly in the error codes, and there is no way to get dashboard warning light unless an error code is registered. If your current garage/workshop does not care/know what is going on, change the garage/workshop first.

+1

A new battery will almost certainly be required - the deep discharges will have done it in.

The fan controller is sensitive to low voltage. You can get a situation where low battery voltage causes the fan to come on, discharging it almost completely.

I've replaced quite a few earth straps on the 1.9Tdi Roomsters. The crimps corrode leading to broken strands and a poor connection.

[cranwellpoacher]

Ok.Thanks chaps...to be honest I have been having a bit of a mare with life in general...i think the multiple issues with the Roomster coming as they did one after the other where the "straw that broke the camels back"!. Thanks for the info, i will see about getting a diagnostics check done...anyone recommend a decent one in the Grantham/Lincoln area?

[Brimma]

Ok.Thanks chaps...to be honest I have been having a bit of a mare with life in general...i think the mu6ltiple issues with the Roomster coming as they did one after the other where the "straw that broke the camels back"!. Thanks for the info, i will see about getting a diagnostics check done...anyone recommend a decent one in the Grantham/Lincoln area?

Contact Shark Performance at Mansfield, I’m sure they'd take a look for you

[bryanb]

Erm, it's actually a typical use for a Roomie, as long as you live out of large town centre the DPF is usually OK as the mileages involved are still in excess of 8k+ a year. London city centre is another story... But problems described above likely have nothing to do with engine, looks like a fairly basic electrics issue.

Our 1.6CR 105bhp DPF was bought exactly for the use as above, plus spring and summer trips abroad (only the sightseeing ones, as for real travel I have 30%+ faster Superb 2.5TDIV6), and though I will check DPF soot loading with VCDS along the way, I am not partcularly concerned that it will clog over the life of the car.

Plus 1.9 might not have the DPF yet?

I hope you are proved right, as you see I run the same model as yourself.

Yes I agree the problems cited are electrical, I wasn't suggesting otherwise.

[cranwellpoacher]

Hi guys. Last night things took a turn for the worst when, whilst driving back from the supermarket, i almost lost control the after the power steering failed and the engine suddenly began to rev on its own ! This happened as i approached a junction and gave me quite a scare! . The car is now on driveway and i am going to get diagnosis done today.....watch this space.

[the_raz]

I am really sorry to hear about all your problems with the Roomster. Hopefully they are all related to a single point, and once that is fixed everything works again.

We had a 1.9 TDI for 3 years and 45000 KM, and the only probles during that time was that the radio aerial was leaking water into the interior light, and as the connections corroded as a result of the water the radio was unusable due to poor reception. Otherwise it worked very well for us.

[dieselV6]

Electrohydraulic power steering takes lot of current. Still sounds like checking ground straps in engine bay (the battery one and the engine one, at both ends) and replacing the battery as the current one has been abused way too much. You'll still need to clear all error codes, though...

Edited 1 June, 2012 by dieselV6

[cranwellpoacher]

Hi Guys. Had a diagnostic carried out with a SNAP ON machine today which identified a front nearside ABS sensor error with intermittent communication...but no other errors!

On way back from garage the engine yet again suddenly revved to 4300 rpm when the clutch was depressed, the Power steering, emissions and brake system lights illuminated and the dash began to bleep !......have been advised to replace battery and battery earth strap......anyone else have any suggestions to add?

Cheers.Andy

[StuartAB]

Hi Guys. Had a diagnostic carried out with a SNAP ON machine today which identified a front nearside ABS sensor error with intermittent communication...but no other errors!

On way back from garage the engine yet again suddenly revved to 4300 rpm when the clutch was depressed, the Power steering, emissions and brake system lights illuminated and the dash began to bleep !......have been advised to replace battery and battery earth strap......anyone else have any suggestions to add?

Cheers.Andy

The ABS sensor issue and the over-revving may well be related. I had tyres changed; over-revving started, and could not be solved by Skoda dealer. Had to change the tyres again (they'd fitted the wrong size) and the over-revving went away. Suspect faulty or disconnected sensor on the nearside front wheel.

Sorry to hear of your problems; I had 4 virtually fault-free years with my Roomster 1.9tdi,

[cranwellpoacher]

<p>Replaced the Battery today and cleaned and checked earth strap (found to be ok).....went for test drive. As expected the (still to be remedied ) ABS light came on. stopped at local garage to check tyre pressures, started car again and within 60 seconds i had Blackpool illuminations on the dash !. </p>

<p> </p>

<p>The fight goes on!</p>

[cjb]

You need VCDS, it will do more diags than a snap-on tester. There's lots of controllers not supported by a generic OBD scanner. I suspect if you have an error for turning lights that are not fitted then you have an incorrectly coded controller somewhere, for a start. Other than that, as others have said, cehck the earthstraps and battery

[cranwellpoacher]

@cbj. I have replaced the battery and whilst doing so also did resistance check on earth strap and cleaned up connections.....as mentioned before it had no effect and the symptom remain the same. I am going to book into Hortons in Lincoln after BH (god help my bank balance!) as a last ditched attempt to resolve the problem...bottom line is that I don't have a great deal of "spare" cash left over each month and with 3 kids still under my care this is a very unwelcome expense to absorb....I have had a reply from Skoda UK after I posted a very blunt "I HATE MY SKODA" post on their Facebook page :-) (Got their attention!). Not sure if they will take my concerns on board about the dangerous combination of power steering failure coupled with out of control over revving....although i seem to remember a high profile story a while back about a similar fault with some Toyota models:

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/15/business/la-fi-toyota-deaths16-2010feb16

We will have to see what they say.....

[grafitti]

Sorry you've been unlucky. Hope Skoda UK shows you some goodwill. I did read somewhere that the first (06) Roomsters had some issues initially, that were ironed out from the 07 onwards models... fact or fiction, i don't know. I have an 07 with 60k on it and it's never had a single problem. First owner was an OCD who kept every single receipt spent on the car, so i've got an overabundance of info on the car and how he cared for it,

[lemonvrs]

Its not just Skoda, my wifes son had a Megane once and the whole dashboard died after illuminating everything. Needed a new one under warranty. Guy at work, his A3 dashboard died and I once had a Fiat Tipo that reset its mileage to zero and had plenty of warnings up all the time.

Its modern cars, too complicated by far and so hard to diagnose and repair economically.

[cranwellpoacher]

@lemonvrs. I agree entirely. I think the problem lies with the manufacture of modern cars. Having worked in the aircraft industry for many years i know just how over engineered systems such as anti lock brakes are (and have been for decades before they where fitted to cars!). The production of modern cars has a major flaw. They try to incorporate a wide variety of safety and comfort features, whilst still trying to remain competitive in the market....result? Cars built with systems that use cheap components that will work (if you a lucky!) until the end of the warranty period, but then fail and force the owner to have to turn to the dealership for repair! Win Win for the manufacturer then :-).

Mass production and technology are not really happy bedfellows in the long term, and the cost of carrying out very expensive repairs that soon become more than the cars value will ensure a regular turn over of new vehicle sales as they soon become "beyond economical repair".

As I mentioned i have a 25 year old Scirocco and a 17 year old Golf......I very much doubt that in the future you will find any modern car achieving that age!. Of course some will say that that is a good thing and ensures that only the most modern, safest cars populate our roads......but when a device's reliability out ways it's ability to perform it's most basic function,no matter how many technological bells and whistles it has, it becomes a liability and a burden to its owner...not a good situation to base an industry on!

Perhaps instead of asking about MPG, 0-60 times and what colours are available, maybe potential buyers should ask "Do i need to remove the bumper to change a bulb?" or "If the clutch dual mass flywheel fails at 15'000 miles how much will it cost?" or maybe "Can i do ANYTHING with the car without a laptop and a specialist piece of software?" :-)

Technology......Can't live with it.....can't live with it!