Recently the DPF warning light and the engine warning light came on, the glow plug light started flashing, and the car went into limp mode. My dealer replaced a faulty exhaust pressure sensor, but the fault indications failed to clear. Next diagnosis was a faulty EGR valve, which was replaced without clearing the fault indication. Finally I was advised that the DPF was completely blocked. It was suggested that I must have driven the car with the DPF warning light on and ignored it, so the fault was down to me for not driving the car correctly, hence the job was not covered by the warranty, and my repair bill was estimated at £2000. It was only after I strongly refuted the suggestion of incorrect use of the vehicle that someone within Škoda UK advised the dealer to input some new values into the ECU, which apparently cleared the fault immediately.

So a major error in fault diagnosis by Škoda UK could have cost me £2000, and wouldn’t actually have solved the problem. If they hadn’t told me it was down to my driving I’d have been none the wiser, and would have had to shell out. I contacted Škoda UK to raise my concerns, but they offer no guarantee that lessons will be learned and that other owners will not suffer the same expensive mis-diagnosis. I cannot believe that I am the only person to experience this particular problem, but Škoda UK won’t tell me that either, citing “confidentiality”, which is clearly rubbish.

Up until now I’d have recommended the Superb to anybody. Thanks to Škoda UK’s attitude, all my faith in Škoda has evaporated.

Had my DPF go faulty at 9k, there are 2 on the 2.0 TDi 140PD, the one that went was by the turbo and took 2 days to fix! done 60k now and no problems since.

I have found you get better technical info from this site than the dealers!

Hmmm. I'm wondering if what happened here is that the Skoda Dealer ****ed-up the "Calibration" which is necessary after replacing the pressure sensor. That would have pretty much the exact symptoms as described.

If so, you need a different Skoda Dealer.

It would appear that the dealer spent the best part of a week in consultation back and forth with Skoda UK before the wrong diagnosis was forthcoming. It was definitely the technical department at SUK that were responsible for the foul-up, and I am staggered that they cannot guarantee that their error will not be repeated with other vehicles. Having threatened me with a bill of £2000 before they realised their mistake, I would have thought that they would be pulling out all the stops to alert dealers to the situation, to avoid other owners being caught in the same mess.

It would appear that the dealer spent the best part of a week in consultation back and forth with Skoda UK before the wrong diagnosis was forthcoming. It was definitely the technical department at SUK that were responsible for the foul-up, and I am staggered that they cannot guarantee that their error will not be repeated with other vehicles. Having threatened me with a bill of £2000 before they realised their mistake, I would have thought that they would be pulling out all the stops to alert dealers to the situation, to avoid other owners being caught in the same mess.

I've never encountered a car manufacturer that actually does that. BMW had an issue with Nickasil in the late 90's and remained ignorant that there was clearly an issue. They charged customers huge figures for new engines for out of warranty cars and had mechanics working huge amounts of overtime trying to keep up, yet carried on alienating customers and later had to refund those who had paid out (some of whom had of course sold the car on by then). The diff on the E46 M3 was the same story but with less affected but I did hear one guy who had 6 over a couple of years, all because of a grinding noise on the rear end that you got when turning. I had it myself but BMW would not let the mechanics dissassemble the diff so all they could do was replace it...at £3000 a time. The final solution was to use different oil in the diff to eliminate the noise for less than £60.

Recently the DPF warning light and the engine warning light came on, the glow plug light started flashing, and the car went into limp mode. My dealer replaced a faulty exhaust pressure sensor, but the fault indications failed to clear. Next diagnosis was a faulty EGR valve, which was replaced without clearing the fault indication. Finally I was advised that the DPF was completely blocked. It was suggested that I must have driven the car with the DPF warning light on and ignored it, so the fault was down to me for not driving the car correctly, hence the job was not covered by the warranty, and my repair bill was estimated at £2000. It was only after I strongly refuted the suggestion of incorrect use of the vehicle that someone within Škoda UK advised the dealer to input some new values into the ECU, which apparently cleared the fault immediately.

So a major error in fault diagnosis by Škoda UK could have cost me £2000, and wouldn’t actually have solved the problem. If they hadn’t told me it was down to my driving I’d have been none the wiser, and would have had to shell out. I contacted Škoda UK to raise my concerns, but they offer no guarantee that lessons will be learned and that other owners will not suffer the same expensive mis-diagnosis. I cannot believe that I am the only person to experience this particular problem, but Škoda UK won’t tell me that either, citing “confidentiality”, which is clearly rubbish.

Up until now I’d have recommended the Superb to anybody. Thanks to Škoda UK’s attitude, all my faith in Škoda has evaporated.

Surely the diagnosis error was your dealer, not Skoda UK?

Sadly, dealers vary. I've had this with both Seat and Skoda. My nearest dealers are both ****e, especially after-sales and servicing. Find yourself a better dealer.

Finding a good dealer is getting harder , they arent what they used to be , I know there are a few good ones out there but in my experience standards have dropped

My experience of Skoda UK however is very positive , they have supported me as a customer and are a "big stick" to beat the dealers with if need be.

Had the same fault as you BTW , the RAC guy sorted it with a new pressure sensor and then came with me for a test drive and forced regen , been fine since

Surely the diagnosis error was your dealer, not Skoda UK?

Not the dealer's fault at all. Skoda UK came up with the fault diagnosis, based on data passed to them by the dealer, who was on my side throughout. The dealer was given the job of passing SUK's diagnosis on to me, and later SUK phoned me direct. It was only after my conversation with them that they began to have second thoughts about their diagnosis, and provided the dealer with the electronic fix, rather than the unnecessary DPF replacement.

Dealer should still have known better imo , thats the issue they are getting less and less technical

Your symptoms were identical to mine , my pressure sensor was changed and crucially then recoded then the car was put into regen mode, I would think that the breakdown guys probably see much more of these failures than the dealer.

Cant help thinking your dealer changed the sensor then didnt recode it and started blaming other parts when that didnt work

Not the dealer's fault at all. Skoda UK came up with the fault diagnosis, based on data passed to them by the dealer, who was on my side throughout. The dealer was given the job of passing SUK's diagnosis on to me, and later SUK phoned me direct. It was only after my conversation with them that they began to have second thoughts about their diagnosis, and provided the dealer with the electronic fix, rather than the unnecessary DPF replacement.

That's pretty bad.

Just thought to share my story with Diesel particle filter too.

My Superb 170tdi popped out a dpf warning light couple months ago. After checking manual i decided to try regen it by driving with a low gear. As result i got a christmas tree like yellow lightshow of warning lights and order to get the car to workshop.

Nearby was a Metroauto (i'm from Finland) Skoda service that diagnosed the fault as broken dpf pressure sensor, sensor was changed (200 euros :/) and after attempting to force regeneration they told me that my dpf is fully blocked and need to be replaced, price for part and work being 3300 euros. I told them to stop what ever was going on and towed the car back to home.

Next adress i sent my car was a local car service that has a long history succesful dpf cleaning. Cleaning went fine but car refused to reset any error codes with VCDS plugged in and the guy in workshop told me that theres propably something cheesy going on with that new pressure sensor (Not giving proper values or something), so again i had to take my poor vehicle to another "official" skoda service VEHO.

Its been 8 weeks of waiting and taking car from shop to shop and today electrician from VEHO called me and told they still get too high values to start force regen, Max value being 45grams and my car gives 45,4grams.

I'm tired and frustrated and my wallet is getting thinner day by day. So i would really appreciate if anyone could confirm that those pressure sensor need to be calibrated when installed, because i'm 99% sure that it didnt happen when it was changed in a first workshop.

Also any other tips, even links to part dealers with lower prices than 3000euros for dpf would be great help and highly appreciated.

(Oh btw, my car has been driven only 90000km, so considering that it shouldnt be the mileage at least.)

Edited 24 August, 201213 yr by Jerehe

Easiest solution here in Uk to this would be to removed DPF and have ECU remapped. I have no idea whether this would be legal in Finland, but if it is, this is what I would do.

Cheers

Steve

The sensor must be calibrated at the point in time when it is replaced, it cannot be done after the engine has been started with the new sensor as the ECU will now have all the wrong values. Calibration is dead easy, and involves entering a code with VCDS and going for a drive of a minimum distance and speed.

DPF sensor failure is quiet common on earlier cars, when mine went I drove about 300 miles before replacing and calibrating the sensor.

If you have access to VCDS you can look at the appropriate channels to see what loading the ECU thinks the DPF is at, and also the pre/post sensor readings.

I had a faulty sensor on my Octavia Vrs and it took the dealers 8 days to fix the problem. Again the DPF was tI full to regen so I had to have a new filter. My car was on 34000 miles and not quite 3 years old. Luckily still in warranty

Get rid...get a petrol!

Hardly a solution the common theme is that two dealers here dint follow the correct procedure when changing the pressure sensor, this is likely to be a common fault we went through three sensors in 6 years with our pd Octavia

You make it sound like this is new to Skoda/VAG that parts go wrong and they won't accept responsibility?

You only have to look at the whole 170Pd injector issue to see that it's nothing new. It took them nearly 18 months to accept responsibility for it and start changing them FOC.

And don't forget it's not just skoda, these engines are in cars across the VAG range...

Hardly a solution the common theme is that two dealers here dint follow the correct procedure when changing the pressure sensor, this is likely to be a common fault we went through three sensors in 6 years with our pd Octavia

No, you're right, it was rather flippant of me. sorry. But the problems with the DPF was the only reason I changed from Diesel to Petrol many years ago.

You make it sound like this is new to Skoda/VAG that parts go wrong and they won't accept responsibility?

You only have to look at the whole 170Pd injector issue to see that it's nothing new. It took them nearly 18 months to accept responsibility for it and start changing them FOC.

And don't forget it's not just skoda, these engines are in cars across the VAG range...

I agree but i wont hold my breath with it , the RAC guy told me that the Audi diesels have a different part number for the pressure sensor although the engine is the same , and that part is even worse , getting stock can be difficult and often the part is on two weeks back order !!

In the scheme of things its a minor irritation , I still think the 170 diesel is the pick of the bunch for the Superb , putting a new sensor on every 3 or 4 years certainly wouldn't lure me away from the diesel,