So finally got my new car today, felt the pain of parting with the funds but drove away happy with the engine singing nicely and the gearbox impressing with its slick changes. Plugged in my ebay purchased MDI cable/USB and settled back to the sounds of the foo fighters whilst playing with the sunroof and cruise.

Slid my arm on to the armrest, relaxed back in the comfy seats and started the running in fun.......

Stopped to brim it up with V-power (at this point was slightly disappointed with the 1970's style filler cap) and went off to pay happy that some more fun would be coming when I got back in the car.

Walking back from the kiosk my eyes were working their way over the car, being slightly critical of the styling (but happy that VAT free compensated for these), but loving the red/black combo. Have a habit of visually searching cars for any obvious faults and at this point noticed the oil dripping onto the forecourt below the car...........

GUTTED!! New car feeling gone instantly and now just yet another car with an issue!

50miles on the clock and straight back to the dealer. They checked it out and after trying to suggest that it was residual wax from their vehicle prep, they agreed that it was an oil leak and was gearbox oil based on their calibrated nostrils.

Managed to stay calm, despite wanting to hit the roof, got them to formally log it with SUK and have a letter that I and they have signed saying that if it turns out to be a serious gearbox issue that I do not consider that I have ever received full delivery of the car as it failed on initial drive. I am now stuck with a hire car funded by SUK and feel pretty damn disappoined with the fact that I am never going to have that untouched and happy new car feeling.

Hopefully will be something simple like an oil seal on the gearbox cover, but thoroughly unimpressed at the moment and will be expressing this in the nicest possible way to SUK tomorrow.

Otherwise I loved the first 50-60miles in my new car..................

Andy

Nightmare! Feel for you on that, hope you get it sorted!

Nightmare! Hope it gets sorted quickly.

Good spot though.

damn... never hear of a gearbox oil leak yet! lets hope its just something incidental, and all is fine... you sure it wasn't just condensation from aircon?

damn... never hear of a gearbox oil leak yet! lets hope its just something incidental, and all is fine... you sure it wasn't just condensation from aircon?

Please!!!

Good news is that it is a CTHE engine and I have a 5yr warranty! ;-)

Andy

Good news is that it is a CTHE engine and I have a 5yr warranty! ;-)

Andy

Soooo sorry andy, you may need tat 5 year warranty

I see a new raft of threads springing up.... "CTHE gearbox oil issues" lol ;-)

NO NO NO NO. No worries at all. This is Skoda's gift policy to every new car.

Back to 2002. It was end of June when my black elegance Octavia was at the dealer's. As soon as I drove her a wind whistling sound appeared at speeds between 60KM/h to 120Km/h, after uncountable visits to dealers one of them found that it was driver's door mirror producing that sound. Three nightmare months to find out the source and resolve the problem.

Then it was 2009 when I bought a second hand '06 Fabia MK1, guaranteed by a dealer and the same afternoon God sent us rain. Guess what, water ingress from rear doors. Fixed.

Last one was at the June of 2010 when I trade my two Skodas for a brand new Roomster. TA-DA-H. I entered at driver's seat and before I turned the key I noticed that driver's door mirror was broken. YEAH I am the winner. 3 out of 3. So I am sure that a built in fault is a gift to new owner.

I hope everything is going to be sorted as it should and you will be able to feel the new car's joy (or what left of it)

It just seems carzy that the one main big VW bit in it, engine/gearbox, is the bit with all the issues.

Have not heard of many new cars from any manufacturer having issues on first drive, but on a modern VW engine/gearbox it is crazy......

WHY ME? springs to mind!

Andy

Soooo sorry andy, you may need tat 5 year warranty

I'm sorely tempted to ruin my zero warning points, but I'll pass.

I'm sorely tempted to ruin my zero warning points, but I'll pass.

Go on you know I'm worth it lol

I had a fault with mine from new and although it really did ruin the new car feeling it only took 7 days to fix and after kicking up a fuss at the dealers they let me drive away in a showroom octavia 1.4 dsg rather than the awful hire car.

A phone call to suk to chase it up every so often helped too

Had a call from SUK when i was mid pub-crawl in Polzeath yesterday....

Sadly they were only phoning to check that my enterprise hire car was ok and had no info on my new car that i now don't have but have had 15k leave my bank account for! I don't really give a damn about the rubbish underpowered hire car that I have been provided with and let them know that in future customers may be more impressed with a proactive update phone call if they actually had an update for me on my car, rant over!!

Andy.

Jesus.... i do seem to be seeing a lot of threads starting with the words .... VRS ..... and then PROBLEMS....... I thought this was Skoda's top the the tree Fabia, what the hell is going on ?

I think at present on this forum there are 5 vRS that are being talked about with high oil usage problems

and any more on here with no such problems.

Vehicles have in the past that had problems were rectified & no longer can be considered faulty.

There is a lack of clarity tho from SKODA/VAG.over the cause of high oil usage.

&

then the problem of the stupid Dip Stick that can not show you have the correct oil level if you dip the oil in a cold engine that has not been started and run up to normal running temperature.

THe owners hand book needs to be clearer & drivers need to monitor closely the oil usage if they are having or think they have problems.

*Check & double check your oil level after the car being in a Garage Workshop.

At the Garage Workshop or as soon as possible after leaving it, the oil needs to be at normal running temperature.

Ask the Technician/Mechanic/Fitter to show you how they checked the level was correct after they did an oil change or check.*

george

Jesus.... i do seem to be seeing a lot of threads starting with the words .... VRS ..... and then PROBLEMS....... I thought this was Skoda's top the the tree Fabia, what the hell is going on ?

The Nature of forums is people post the worst and the best the many people in between dont say much at all

I am so sorry to hear about your problems Andy. I for a change am extremely happy with my car so far and cannot fault it.

Did the running in and now driving normally. I will be checking oil level later on today as I passed 500 miles in a week - frequent "drives" are to blame. This car is major smile inducer and stress buster. Yesterday 07 plate Golf GTi felt lucky, until I showed him the error of his ways that is lol! Poor thing tried out accelerating me from 60mph on a motorway...

When I shift to "S" I get a proper adrenaline buzz with sweaty palms and crawling skin still :love: .

I am sure you will have you motor sorted, just keep the pressure on and call them literary everyday, both the dealers and the SUK. Good luck buddy and keep us posted!

Jesus.... i do seem to be seeing a lot of threads starting with the words .... VRS ..... and then PROBLEMS....... I thought this was Skoda's top the the tree Fabia, what the hell is going on ?

Remember you mainly hear the bad on forums, which is of course a minority - but you look at car forums the country over and they all follow this sort of structure. (last car was an RX8 and the forums littered with engine failure topics...)

19 months into my brand new vRS and no problems.

So update time from me, have been in US this week with work so popped into dealer on way back from airport.

The entire gearbox is out and in a few pieces on their work bench, the fault is obvious, the input seal on the input shaft has a clear kink in it where it hasn't seated properly from assembly/manufacture. The replacement seal is on back order and then they will re-build it. Very poor quality for VW as really is a very obvious kink in the seal that should have been picked up somewhere.

Was very lucky that i spotted the leak so early as more miles would have meant less oil in there and potential for early wear of gearbox. I was worried that oil leak may have contaminated the clutch too, but the leak path from the input shaft seal is likely to be down the inside of the bell housing and out the joint between housing and engine (where i spotted it).

As I was at the dealers I took the opportunity to speak with the sales manager, who had no doubt already been briefed on my woes and frustrations. I am taking a very simple view on things and see that there are 3 options when/if they correctly rebuild the gearbox to good order:

1. I get a full refund and walk away (as they have never fulfilled their contractual obligation of delivering me a fit for purpose brand new car)

2. They provide me with a car whilst they order me an identical spec replacement car (although this may take 2months or so)

3. They provide a significant refund to me so that the total i end up paying is more in line with what a nearly-new/used fabia would be worth.

Option 3 is my preferred option at the mo as I have seen the repair they are doing, i will be back in my car as soon as possible and they will no doubt prefer to settle on this option too so that the issue is resolved with minimal fuss.

I have proposed a figure that is both fair and significant, they are reviewing with SUK and regional sales manager. I hope that they will do the right thing here and try to impress me as I have been very calm and straight with them about what i reasonably expect.

Hoping to reach a swift conclusion and settlement on this and be back in my 'nearly-new' vrs very soon, but also happy to walk if they don't do the right thing!

Andy

Option 3 sounds the best as the fault was obvious, easy to repair and looks like no other damage was sustained.

Number 1 will get you nowhere, since you have to allow them a number of times to fix the same fault before you can reject the car as not fit for purpose. If this rule was not in place a suprisingly large number of new cars would be rejected.

You only have option 3. Option 1 won't happen straightaway and Option 2 is another long wait.

Option 1 -rejecting the car, will be a long battle. As above you have to give them reasonable chance to fix it. You have signed for the car and taken delivery, the fact that the fault was noticed on the way home won't cut any ice I would imagine.

Option 3 - a cash sweetener as compo. Defo take this if actually on offer. I can't imagine many dealers offering it as they are only obliged to do the fix as per warranty.

Good luck hope it gets sorted!

Good news is that my car has been kept dry from all the floods and rain over this way,......

Bad news is that after 2weeks of ownership it is still parked in the corner of the dealers workshop with no gearbox in it......!

The input shaft seal that was on back order has now been received, but after hearing nothing this week i had to chase for a status to find out that a double clutch assembly is now on back order too. Reading between the lines it seems they have broken a circlip that is integral to the clutch assembly on disassembly or reassembly that will now delay things for another week.

Really doesn't give me confidence that they know what they are doing or that the car will ever be the same again.

Until I found out the latest revelation, I was assuming that I would be back in my car this week, the offer on the table from them that I do not plan to accept at the moment is 500notes cashback and 3yrs free servicing.

If they don't decide to do something slightly better, and also now based on further issues in gearbox, then I may go down the rejection route. Seeing as I have a letter signed by them and me stating that i have never accepted delivery and that they are now unable to provide a new roadworthy vehicle I am perfectly within my rights to do.

I am still being optimistic that they will do enough to compensate me and restore my faith, but I know that I am often over optimistic..........

Happy days prevail

Andy

Edited 21 November, 201213 yr by A Woodster