Lights - mess and fibs.

Happy New Year, All! To make my year a little better, I would greatly appreciate some help with getting my Yeti lights sorted.

STORY

The car is a 1.2 Tsi and the spec is the French one, the Ambition, which fits between the SE and the SE Plus.

I imported it to the UK when we returned from a few years in France. We’ve had the car since new and it’s been a brilliant vehicle – until Arnold Clark in Inverness got the job of changing the halogen headlights and the rear fog light to meet the spec for registering in the the UK.

At first, I understood that they would be able to doctor the French lights to remove altogether the “kick-up” of the headlights to the right. So long as there is no dip to the right, the law says flat beam dip is OK. However, having messed with the car for hours, they could not do that (although they do it to RHD cars which are going on holiday to Europe) so I agreed new headlights.

When they finished with the replacement job and rewiring the rear fog light, several codings appeared to have been messed up. Eg, The instrument lights were on full power all the time.

Instead of simply recoding the dimmer switch as I suggested, they sent for a new one; this one wouldn’t work so they asked me to come back (for the 4^th time, 50 miles round trip) so they could recode it having asked Skoda what to do.

RESULT

The instrument lights dip now.

But now the when I select “Auto” on the headlights, they don’t turn off at all in bright light. And there’s an even more interesting thing…. When I engage reverse with the dipped lights on, the front driving/fog lights come on! What? To go backwards?? Unbelievably, Arnold Clark’s people say that’s what’s supposed to happen.

Question : IS IT? Never used to. I have usually run with the driving lights on, which disappeared when the headlights were used. If the headlights were on Auto, they went off in light and the driving lights came on. End of.

Given that this Skoda dealer appears to be unable to manage the coding of the car, I think I’ll now write and say I’ll get someone else to do the job properly and send them the bill.

Any advice, friends? (Incidentally, purely to get a RHD one, my Yeti is for sale somewhere on here.)

According to the UK owner's manual (page 53 in the electronic copy of the May 2011 version which I have), if your foglights have the cornering function then they also come on when you select reverse. It's to help judge what the front of the car is doing/about to hit when you're manoeuvring in reverse. It's perfectly sensible: the front end swings farther out than the rear because that's where the steered wheels are.

Maybe the dealer's fiddling about has activated the cornering fogs for you? In which case, I'd keep 'em (IIRC you can't turn them off through any of the normal user interfaces).

Rather than the rather old-fashioned "send them the bill" (which has all sorts of potential complications), just get the work done by someone else and then register a formal complaint with AC requesting a refund of the cost - with the fallback option of a Small Claims Court action if they drag their heels. Remember to keep full records eg notes of telephone conversations, and copies of all correspondence.

Edited 5 January, 201313 yr by ejstubbs

And there’s an even more interesting thing…. When I engage reverse with the dipped lights on, the front driving/fog lights come on! What? To go backwards?? Unbelievably, Arnold Clark’s people say that’s what’s supposed to happen.

The fog light do come on when you select reverse, I assume to give you more light when manoeuvring.

The dealer is correct in the fact the front fog lights come on when the car is placed in reverse gear… but only if cornering lights are activated (the reverse bit can be deactivated mind).

Arnold Clark do not have a wonderful reputation for customer service or getting things right.

Oh dear, a bit late now but Arnold Clark = avoid at all costs!

Sadly, If in Inverness, you have little or no choice really in where you go.

Further South down the A9 does not actually guarantee much better service or knowledge from some Skoda Dealership Workshops

http://www.briskoda....ers-in-scotland

george

I'm stuck with Arnold Clark as well. Recently traded in my 140TDi4x4 for another - I won't go into the day I had when my new one arrived without the extras ordered.They have some individual good guys (Ian Eastwood in sales)but the whole company is geared towards profit and nothing else.Unfortunately we don't have any other option up here in the far North. If I were you I would chase up one of the independent guys to fix your probs. Also the Skoda guys in Maud near Aberdeen have a good reputation

Well well well. Thank you, ejstubbs and others, incl drum (not a fellow drummer are you?).

Now... Comes a time when a certain amount of humility or something is in order, on my part - but only in part.

So here's MY part. Don't laugh :- We have owned this car from new, in France, then here in Cromarty. Early on, like all of us, I got to know the car in detail, including the lights and the dash controls for mph-display parallel to the speedo in km, the turning fog lights (really useful sometimes) and all the rest - almost.

So, deep in the country in Burgundy, we often ran on driving lights on poor days and if we were visiting the UK etc. The headlights were on "Auto" because we had a local tunnel and so that they came on if we were approaching the car after an evening thing. Of course the driving lights and headlights alternate.

The other thing was, wherever we went, I parked up to drive out forwards if poss.

Anyway, parking in France, with all the space, is virtually all free and is, as many of you will know, usually a matter of just driving along to a shop and taking one boot on the pavement if necessary. Arriving home, the car was driven straight at where it would sleep. Sort of turned out like a pony at the end of the day.

One way or another, this car spent virtually all of it's life going forwards (natch) in daylight and almost zero time being reversed - at night. Yup. Never ONCE saw the fog lights come on when engaging reverse! What's more, I have both the UK and the French handbooks and will go look. Senior Management will larf her head orft.

But, as for the other fault, we have driven around in bright sunlight and the lights on auto, waiting for them to go orft. Nowt. So, taking advice from one or two of you guys and I'll see if someone can fix them, having written to AC to ask what they want to do.

Anyway, thanks again and, by way of a bit of a return input, see my post to the Yeti topic called, I think "Dunlops on Yetis"

I have noticed a similar "charcteristic" with the auto/tunnel lights. Even Provence in autumn, where low light levels are not that common. I have resigned it to the "features" list.

Thanks for the comment, nickguzzi. I Shone LEDs and the sun into the sensor area. No dice. Then, this morning, in half-light between, it has to be said, infrequent rain clouds, I started the car and the Auto lights stayed off! They came back on when I ran the wipers and seem to have behaved properly since then. I think VAG/Skoda have been reading the book according to Microsoft.... "Reboot or restart in another mode"! I'll see what happens. BTW, that wouldn't be an Octavia you want to replace with a LHD Yeti?

It's not just the level of light that can trigger the auto lights.

Wipers, speed, low sun etc. all input into the function of the auto/tunnel light feature.

I also find that once the lights turn on they rarely turn off by themselves until the ignition is turned off.