Went to Skoda dealer this morning to try to diagnose the noise that the car first had in Dec 2010 - back when it was -6 degrees outside. The noise was a knocking from the steering when you wiggle the wheel from side to side whilst the car is stood still. They said back then they could reproduce the fault but not tell where it was coming from and to let it develop. The knocking was there when the car was cold and went away when you'd driven it for a few miles and it had warmed up slightly. Now 18 months later, car out of warranty (it was still only 13 months old back in Dec 2010) and the fault happens all the time regardless of temp except worse.

They again said they weren't sure but suggested I try replacing the N/S track arm at a cost of £250.......

So, not being fully satisfied (especially as I'd just paid £50 for them to tell me they weren't sure what the issue was) I took it to ABC Car Service up in Pudsey after reading on here how good they are with this kind of thing. Within 20 mins of having the wheels off and track arms disconnected and pulling round on the track arms they told me the rack has play in it and needs replacing - not the arms themselves.

Skoda wanted £650 plus VAT just for the rack alone. One from Andrew Page was £250 plus VAT with a 2 year warranty - essentially using that part, fitted and then adding a 4WA on top (my rear tyres have gone square again even though Skoda were supposed to have sorted that.....) it came to £480 all in. Not as scary as I thought.

So I called the dealer back and told them what had happened and they're going to try and sort something out, but if they can't deliver then it's less than £500 to sort out at least,

Sigh. Next car will be a Honda. Sick of spending ££££££ just to keep this thing healthy with failed air con compressors, faulty paint, rust, knackered steering racks, expensive tyres, rip off insurance, rear windows that drop out of the rails, worn drop links, stereos that go POP! and make you poop yourself, flaking wheel paint etc etc etc.

Either that or a Ford. In fact quite like the look of some of the new Vauxhalls.....the Astra GTC is lovely.

But on the plus side this turned up today......

Good luck with the astra.

You know something i get a knock when moving the steering wheel but its always there wether its cold or hot.

I so cant wait to get rid of this car i know exactly how you feel mate.

Something with a warranty longer than 3 years is needed these days.

Lots of cars have a slight knock moving the wheel while stationary. Also a steering knuckle inside the car will give same noise.

The knock first appeared in Dec 2010 when it was -6 outside and as soon as you'd driven it for a bit, thus there was some heat in the exhaust, it went silent - you could wiggle the wheel all you wanted and it was fine.

But now it does it all the time. Spent a bit of time under the car whilst my wife shook the wheel, and also had my dad take a look who's a former mechanic and we both felt it was the rack as that's where the noise was most prominent. Also as I said ABC disconnected the track arms from the hubs and pulled to and fro on them from both sides and confirmed the same - it's the rack with play in it.

Doesn't surprise me that Skoda can't figure it out. They were quick to point out at the time that I have 3mm left on my front tyres and 4mm on the rears but failed to notice the rears are shaped like a 50p again on the inside - something a wheel alignment they'd carried out earlier was meant to stop happening again hence that's the other complaint I've got logged with SUK.

It's making me feel that the people who work in the dealer ships don't know a great deal and would rather throw parts at a problem in an expensive game of "process of elimination" rather than diagnosing it properly.

ABC spent a good 30 mins on it, sussed it out properly and didn't charge me a penny....

EDIT - And to add, Skoda dealer thought £150 to fit a new N/S rear caliper on the wifes Fabia (labour alone - the part was another £150) was acceptable. That literally took me 45 mins from start to finish including jacking it up, taking the wheels off etc and bleeding it, and that included drinking tea and scratching my bum for a few minutes. They're clearly not on this planet.

Edited 20 June, 201214 yr by Chrispy

Good luck with the astra.

Was that meant genuinely or with sarcasm? If it's the latter it can't be any worse than this thing has been, and considering many of these faults are common across the VAG range buying an A3, Leon or Golf would make no difference - the A/C pump would still fail, the wheels would still flake, the DPF would still screw up etc etc.

Jap is the way to go.

Jap is the way forward just about to pick up a 2000 w reg legacy 2.5 GX estate 100k on the clock old boy had it A4 folder full of reciepts for things like bulbs and fuel lol.

A lot of knocking can be contributed to the sub frame bolts stretching. Id try the ECS subframe fixing kit first for £15.

Was that meant genuinely or with sarcasm?

100% sarcastic. Astras are nasty. They're cars for people who don't like cars. My father in law has the current one and had the previous two generations. All awful, woefully lacking cars.

100% sarcastic. Astras are nasty. They're cars for people who don't like cars. My father in law has the current one and had the previous two generations. All awful, woefully lacking cars.

Oh dear - that's a shame. :( The GTC is very pretty.

Id try the astra for yourself & make your own mind up,we have started to get them in at work & whilst im not a big vauxhall fan nowadays i have to say i like them,nice looking car,well spec'd & seem to be well built & nice to drive.I used ABC to do a 4 wheel alignment on my octy & was very impressed with them.

It's booked in at ABC for 4 new tyres and a 4WA on Monday as the rears are screwed, the fronts are low-ish and wobble the steering wheel like mad at 70+.

Then after that I'm still waiting on Skoda to let me know what's going on with the rack. If they don't come up with the goods it'll be going to ABC for that too and I'll never touch a dealer again for anything....in fact the whole thing has soured my experience of VAG as these are component failures as opposed to them not being assembled very well. And if an AC pump/ DPF etc can fail across the board then so can a rack as they all share the same parts bin.

I had an E36 BMW with 156k on the clock and still on the original rack etc. In fact even the clutch and flywheel were original. VAG seriously need to sort their s*** out.

It's booked in at ABC for 4 new tyres and a 4WA on Monday as the rears are screwed, the fronts are low-ish and wobble the steering wheel like mad at 70+.

Then after that I'm still waiting on Skoda to let me know what's going on with the rack. If they don't come up with the goods it'll be going to ABC for that too and I'll never touch a dealer again for anything....in fact the whole thing has soured my experience of VAG as these are component failures as opposed to them not being assembled very well. And if an AC pump/ DPF etc can fail across the board then so can a rack as they all share the same parts bin.

I had an E36 BMW with 156k on the clock and still on the original rack etc. In fact even the clutch and flywheel were original. VAG seriously need to sort their s*** out.

I agree to every single word of that mate. Skoda will never sort the rack for you its a certainty.

ABC of Pudsey are fantastic, cant recommend them enough

Surely if the fault was reported when the car was in warranty and they said let it develop it should be fixed free of charge ?

You would think that Nick but its Skoda here.

Surely if the fault was reported when the car was in warranty and they said let it develop it should be fixed free of charge ?

Precisely. Not only that but as it happened when the car was 13 months old then we're into sales of goods act territory here as the car was inherently faulty when "new". We'll see if I need to take it that far as it'll be small claims court if so.

It's back in on Monday for the dealer to confirm the rack (I'm speaking personally to the master tech this time). This HAS to be sorted.

On a side note the other dealer has been quite accommodating with my rear alignment issue and I'm hopeful that both my re-alignment and a pair of rear tyres (Eagle F1's) will be paid for by them as if it wasn't for them being shaped like a 50p there'd be plenty of life left in them. To summarise that one in early 2010 I found my rear tyres were lunched on the inside which explained the droning noise. So I got all 4 replaced (the fronts were low anyway) and took it to the dealer for a 4WA assuming they could do it - they said they could. I collected it later that day to find the steering wheel not straight.

So I turned round and took it straight back only to find them saying they couldn't fix it now as the "place they take it to" is closed........grrrrr... Although it was clear where they'd taken it as there was a receipt for a local tyre place in my file on the desk that supposedly does alignment.

So I took it back AGAIN the following day and left it with them for another day, and after that the wheel was straight. Alarm bells should have been ringing at this point but I remained hopeful.

Anyway, was at ABC the other day when they were looking at the rack issue and the first thing they did when it was on the ramp was look at all my tyres and said "ha, typical Skoda Octavia - rear tyres are square". Again that explains the road noise that had gradually gotten worse recently. FFS. Annoying as hell as the dealer was meant to sort that before and they tyres otherwise have over 4mm on them and would be fine were it not for the inside edge being covered in obvious flat spots.

So all in all not having a good time at the moment with this poxy car or the dealers hence Skoda Customer Services are now involved. If you're reading this cust services, Hi!

Update. Returned to dealer yesterday where they were able to take another look at the car with me also in the garage with them, pointing things out. They're now saying there's play in both track arms at the ball joint on the rack end - apparently a known issue on A3's with which this car shares its platform. Rack failures are unheard of......

Also whilst I was there they confirmed my rear tyres are shot and took photos for Skoda customer services. Apparently for this they're meant to take all their cars to Wakefield Audi to be put on the machine for alignment and the car needs adjusted camber settings on the rear that VAG released a couple of years ago. They also claimed that ABC won't have access to these settings.......pfft....I think Snap On would have something to say about that.

So I'm now waiting to hear back from them on both fronts which are ironically linked. There's no point doing the wheel alignment until the front steering issue is fixed and there's no point replacing the rear tyres until the wheel alignment is sorted.

Now considering I know they want to charge £250 to fit a new track arm (WTF?) unless they offer to do all this practically for free there's no point in them doing any of it as I know a track arm will be far cheaper than that and is minutes to fit, it's the alignment after that's the key. If they go down that road then ABC will be doing the lot and Skoda won't see me again and that includes for new car purchases. Next car will be a Honda.

Will be at ABC this saturday, around 12ish, to get my tracking/alignment checked, any chance anyone from here might be there?

Depending on the outcome I may have an interesting tale relating to a local dealer...

Vauxhall Disastra.

Fare thee well!

£250 to fit one??... they are what £50 to buy (if its the same things i'm thinking lol)

I got both track arms replaced plus a full geometry / alignment check done for £172 inc vat at my local dealer on my old vrs. The parts were around £32+vat each

Funnily you should say that price.....well, maybe not...

Been called by the dealer. Skoda UK have offered to pay for 40% of the price of 2x track arms and a front wheel alignment (not all 4 wheels mind you). The original price at "warranty rates" was £290 and minus the 40% that comes to £174 inc VAT.

So the fact you got it for £172 all in without all the warranty and contribution faff suggests this dealer is hellish expensive.

I'm still waiting to hear back on what happens with the rear tyres and alignment thing as they need to do the alignment, at least at the front for the track arms anyway. If they can merge the 2 jobs then that would make sense. Will hopefully know tomorrow.

To be honest to get pattern parts is about £32-odd plus VAT anyway, and then labour on top of about an hour (max) and then tracking. So that's £76.80 on parts alone. Then an hours labour at a normal garage is about £50 plus VAT takes it to £136.80, plus tracking at about £25 (used Halfrauds as an example) takes us to about £160. So for a dealer to do it all at £174, after warranty rates and 40% of the cost taken care of......hmm......

But seeing as there's not a lot in it I might as well use them for this. Hoping the 4WA that they need to re-do takes some more off the cost as there's no point just aligning the front. That's if they can merge the 2 complaints......

Will be at ABC this saturday, around 12ish, to get my tracking/alignment checked, any chance anyone from here might be there?

Depending on the outcome I may have an interesting tale relating to a local dealer...

You shold have gone yesterday I bumped into Chrispy at ABC yesterday