I sent my 2011 Superb Combi Elegance for its 1st service at 19440 miles to my local Skoda main agent. The car took two and a half hrs to complete and i was on my way home, a journey of two miles.

The following day I left home to go to the Motorhome and Caravan show in Manchester, On my way there and about 20 miles from home the red "no oil stop the car and contact your garage" warning lights came on, I stopped in the nearest lay by. I checked the oil and the dipstick was dry!

I looked under the car and oil was visible and running down the road and all the engine was splashed with oil. I contacted the RAC and the garage, the RAC came to recover the car and the garage sent a replacement car to so I could carry on with my day.

I returned to the garage later in the day to be told the oil filter seal was leaking and it will be the subject of a warranty claim. They completed the work and I got my car back the following day. The following day I also checked my driveway and it was full of oil from my car from the day i brought it home following the service. So, obviously the oil was leaking from the filter the minute it was brought out of the garage following the service.

It's scary to think that something as simple as a first service could well have ended with a seized engine and even worse had i been travelling at speed on the motorway, a serious accident.

It was indicated to me by the garage that the filters may be faulty? or the seal ? as anyone out there experienced a similar incident. Obviously i am concerned that in the future some damage to the engine may become apparent from this incident.

Not least of all the oil damage to the impressed concrete driveway will need to be addressed too.

Any comments, advice would be welcome.

Regards

More likely that they simply did not tighten up the filter.

My money is on dealer incompetance, but the reality is you'll never know.

Ask them to pay for the drive and engine bay to be cleaned and push for a partial refund of the servicing bill.

They may of damaged the O ring when fitting it or simply not done it up fully.

I agree you need to be pushing for the bottom engine cover to be removed, cleaned and the engine to be steam cleaned, plus £50 for your drive to be cleaned (a bottle of brick acid @ £10ish and then jet washed off) is the minimum to go for…. push them for a free service next time.

hi Roy

Sounds like you where Lucky or they where if you don't get what you ask for you need to speak too Skoda UK.

They have always been very good with me. i would have it logged with them so that if you have any problems with your engine in the future you wont have to pay for repairs.

Skoda UK gave me a free service when i had problems with my local dealer.

bill

Forget the driveway or engine being dirty. What about long term damage to the engine??

I would be positivley fuming, I hate having these idiots they have the cheek call professional mechanics, even touch my car and this is a good reason. They are so often incompetent and have no respect, they seem to forget that these vehicles they are working on are NOT thier property and have taken some owners, many years to save up & pay for.

You do need to get this recorded with Skoda UK, you need to consider the damage this may have caused, it may have done 100,000 miles of wear to the insides of your engine.

The posters above are right about the need to get the car cleaned properly, it will be very difficult to detect any fresh leaks if the car is already covered with oil etc. They also need to pay for your driveway to be proffesionally cleaned too, maybe the local press could help?

I had a similar experience with a 140 hp tdi passat 2000 miles after changing the oil an filter myself (time served mechanic)

I stopped the instant the warning light came on.

I owned the car for another 18 months till it reached 120k miles with no problems if thats any consolation.

I am not sure if the light is tripped by low oil pressure or perhaps oil level sensor but which ever it is stopping immediately would appear to have saved any damage in my case.

I had previously changed the oil and filter on many occasions on this and other cars owned with the same oil filter system without any problems and always replaced the o ring which comes with the filter.

Not unknown for the seal between the thin metal of the canister body, and the heavier metal of the filter base to fail. It is a crimped joint, and I've seen OEM filters leak at the seam. Generally, it is visible as soon as the vehicle has been started; When I change filters, I run the engine for a few minutes, turn off for a few to let the oil drain, and then check not only the level, but also the sump plug seal, and the oil filter area for any sign of leakage.

Of course, we would expect our dealer to do the same, wouldn't we ?............

The following day I left home to go to the Motorhome and Caravan show in Manchester, On my way there and about 20 miles from home the red "no oil stop the car and contact your garage" warning lights came on, I stopped in the nearest lay by.

That's very strange. According to the manual that came with my S2 there should have been an orange warning light first, warning you for a low (but not yet critical) oil level. Didn't this light work? Or is it not present on all versions?