My dealer who i got the car from new has serviced it until now and I know they have replaced all the filters and other parts. They are a great family run dealership with 100% service.

Only previous problem I had was that they used to overfill it with oil but they know now that I will always demand it be done correctly and has been ever since

I agree with all comments about services carried out by dealers as a joke.As someone who used to be in the motor trade for over 14 years I have seen first hand issues that have supposedly been carried out. For example on my first vrs I got the services done by dealer when in warranty period a d only 3 days after coming back from full service a scraping noise appeared when braking, quite obvious to me being brake pads. set about doing job myself only to find I had to use a block of wood and a mash hammer to get wheels off. THESE HAD OBVIOUSLY NOT BEEN OFF AT SERVICE. Wheels off to check pads and found that the inside pad on drivers side was basically metal to metal and the passengers side not much better. When I phoned complaining about service their excuse was it was a visual check through the wheels that was carried out and they looked fine. What a joke and £164 out of pocket

set about doing job myself only to find I had to use a block of wood and a mash hammer to get wheels off. THESE HAD OBVIOUSLY NOT BEEN OFF AT SERVICE. Wheels off to check pads and found that the inside pad on drivers side was basically metal to metal and the passengers side not much better. When I phoned complaining about service their excuse was it was a visual check through the wheels that was carried out and they looked fine.

After 3yr at the main dealer the first service at my Indy had exactly the same bother. He had a big grump about dealers never putting any slip on the meeting faces of the wheels to stop the alloys bonding.

I think the Dealers can shoot themselves in the foot over this, and its not just Skoda - Audi and Mercedes have the same problems in my experience!

The full service history thing can work in your favour.

I find out what will be changed on the service or moved and then mark the items.

Before the car leaves the dealers having had its service I always ask "has it had all work done iaw Skoda service schedule"?The reply is obviously yes.

I then go outside and check a few things on the car before I move it.

Brake fluid not changed, oil filter not changed to name but a few!

Back into garage with a request to see service manager and dealership manager usually results in a "free service"!

Confrontational I must admit but this is the way dealers want to play it!

You can't blame everything on "dodgy" dealers! While it is entirely feasible that the cause of this carped up fuel filter is down to the service(s) not being properly completed there is another explanation.

The previous owner ran it on dodgy diesel - either cleaned up red diesel or triple distilled chip fat!

Diesel fuel filters go black very quickly, this is why its replaced every 20K miles. They all look like that when they are removed, diesel is after all oil and is constantly running around the fuel system when the engine is running.

Diesel is derived from oil just like petrol - it is just a higher molecular weight fraction. It is is a clear colourless/pale yellow liquid and is no more "oil" than petrol or LPG. The black in that filter is from contamination in the fuel that is the reason for the filter's presence in the first place.

It makes me cringe when motoring writers in their never ending quest for synonyms refer to diesel engines as "oil burners"

ER? Cleaned up red diesel? That would be diesel then?

TRIPLE cleaned chip fat .. but why ever not so long as you don't have a Greenline as mine where bio buggers up the particulate filter apparently.

'Red' of course is illegal though no different from ordinary diesel as far as the car is concerned.

Chip fat isn't illegal since the customs people now allow 1100 litres a year for personal use without the need for tax on the fuel. Some quarters say bio is by far the more friendly to an engine. Remember when Herr Diesel first invented his spontaneous internal combustion engine he used peanut oil! I did a lot of research a couple of years ago and was astonished to discover a restaurant owner in North Wales who collects duck fat from his premises and has it rendered to run his Mercedes. Apparently no problems whatsoever! And literally dozens of such tales if you care to Google.

I'll stick with the dodgy dealers as responsible for most of our woes if you don't mind.

By the way, hats off to the guy who used oem oil filter and Fuchs oil. Done a service with exactly the same, all from Ebay total cost £34 delivered! plus I KNOW the job has been done! Even ran my own diagnostic [free software from Ross Tech] and reset the service flag on the dash through the same program.

Self servicing is always best .. cheers all.

ER? Cleaned up red diesel? That would be diesel then?

TRIPLE cleaned chip fat .. but why ever not so long as you don't have a Greenline as mine where bio buggers up the particulate filter apparently.

'Red' of course is illegal though no different from ordinary diesel as far as the car is concerned.

Chip fat isn't illegal since the customs people now allow 1100 litres a year for personal use without the need for tax on the fuel. Some quarters say bio is by far the more friendly to an engine. Remember when Herr Diesel first invented his spontaneous internal combustion engine he used peanut oil! I did a lot of research a couple of years ago and was astonished to discover a restaurant owner in North Wales who collects duck fat from his premises and has it rendered to run his Mercedes. Apparently no problems whatsoever! And literally dozens of such tales if you care to Google.

I'll stick with the dodgy dealers as responsible for most of our woes if you don't mind.

By the way, hats off to the guy who used oem oil filter and Fuchs oil. Done a service with exactly the same, all from Ebay total cost £34 delivered! plus I KNOW the job has been done! Even ran my own diagnostic [free software from Ross Tech] and reset the service flag on the dash through the same program.

Self servicing is always best .. cheers all.

My point has nothing to do with legality. The point I was trying to make is that it is all too easy to take pot shots at the dealers but the person (people) who have had a far greater impact on the state of a used car are the previous owner(s). You really don't know what they have been putting in the fuel tank.

Cleaned up red diesel no different to normal diesel?!?? Hmmmm.... Depends how the red diesel has been cleaned up, what additives were used, what equipment was used and how it was stored. Unlikely to be pristine clean stainless steel kit I would think a few rusty steel drums are more likely; and as long as the red is gone they are unlikely to give a flying **** how they did it. These are not reputable businesses doing this but bunches of crooks trying to make a dishonest living. Small rural filling stations are a major outlet for these folk so you may think you are putting decent stuff in your tank but...

"Triple distilled chip fat" was my somewhat OTT description of bio diesel but once again depends how that bio diesel has been produced. Maybe some DIY "genius" making his own? Someone who hears "you can run diesel engines on used chip fat" and tries it blending it into the tank without realising that it needs processing first. As you say VAG recommend that biodiesel is not used in their engines but when did that stop anyone? .

The motoring press's insistence on referring to diesel engines as "oil burners" is enough to convince the ignorant masses that they really will run on "oil". I have even seen recommendations that it is OK to blend used engine oil into a diesel tank. Now that would turn your fuel filter black!!

I really wouldn't want to buy a used diesel with DPF - who knows what ash laden snake oil additives have gone in the tank cos some bloke on a forum said it woz gud!!