HI

 

Posting on behalf of my parents…

 

They have an early Roomster, low millage, well serviced and looked after. Just been told that it needs a new gearbox at a cost of £2000. It had an oil leak from a gasket. This was fixed but the garage (a Skoda main dealer) failed to notice the metal shards inside the gearbox, and it leaked again. Today they gave this bad news. 

 

It has already had a clutch replacement, prematurely.  It's hard to accept that a car that's been well cared for needs this type of work doing.

 

Going to approach Skoda customer care about it, but anyone else had the same problems, experiences?

 

Thanks
Dan

How old and what mileage?

 

Does sound like they've been unlucky. When you say well cared for, do you mean they wash it once a week, or do you mean well driven without crunching the gears etc? There is an important difference!

HI

 

It's a 2007 car… with about 23000 miles on it.  When i say looked after, i mean serviced every year, all MOT advisories always done, not driven hard or badly.  And yes… probably washed too  

If the garage that repaired the gearbox initially failed to notice the metal shards and these have caused further damage, surely they are responsible for the cause of the second failure?  If they deny responsibility, contact Skoda customer care and, if necessary, Trading Standards.

Skoda are talking to us about it… so fingers crossed. Will let you know what happens

So they have had the car from new & bought it in 2007?.....................If the first repair was botched then you have to prove cause & effect between the first botched repair & the now current situation.

 

I personally find it hard to believe that the gearbox would self destruct like that! But I have seen & heard OAPs driving cars up hills where they ride the clutch & leave the car in to low a gear .I feel like kicking them out & getting in & forcibly changing the gearstick up a gear for the sake of my hearing!!!

The other side of the coin is what OAPs would like to do to youngsters ragging their cars without showing any mechanical sensibility or sympathy...

We had a similar problem. Something in the gearbox went, leaving a hole in the casing. Had 55K on the clock, at 5 years old. A 1.9 diesel. Skoda UK did not want to know. New recon gearbox cost 2k fitted at my local garage.

Unbelievable experience. I will never buy VAG again. Except we got another, but with the 5 year warranty, as it is a unique design and carries our bikes.

But, I ignored VAGs when I replaced mine. Their marketing does not match the general feedback on reliability.

Do you know why the clutch failed? Was it wear or did something break?

I did over 160,000 miles with my 07 reg 1.9tdi roomster in 5 years before I killed it and it was CAT D'ed

these boxes are generally pretty tough, but as with all things you do get some failures

the information we are missing is when was the first repair carried out, and where did the information about the metal shards come from (eg do you have it in writing) as that could affect your claim

also reading the posts it would seem your issue is with the garage that carried out the initial repair and failed to notice the metal shards, which I assume was carried out outside warranty (in which point skoda uk is technically off the hook, but they do often make goodwill payments if everything is carried out by dealers and to skoda standards)

I have had 4 VWs and the present Skoda in my long  lifetime ,and all have performed without any real problems , never letting me down. So I was surprised and dismayed to read in a recent Car Mechanics they VW gearboxes were number one for problems .Something to do with rivets being used which break off and mangle the gearbox. I don’t know what years  ,or model numbers were affected?

The only thing I would say to your parents is at 22 thousand miles the car is barely run in ,so if they have to take the £2k hit, it may last another 10 years if the job is done properly.

Mind you they may be so brassed off only another make of car will, and Vauxhall 10 year warranty looks unbeatable under these circumstances!

Hope it alll works out well for them.

I have a 56 reg 1.4 diesel with 52K on the clock. Second gear has 'crunched' for the last 25K miles despite using a heavier gearbox oil. I will be changing vehicles shortly and doubt if it will be another Skoda. Pity really because there is a lot to like about them in some respects.

 

You expect a modern car to just run these days, basic things like engines and gearboxes should not be a problem. There have been one or two niggly problems that I have never had on any other car. Like the wiring harness breaking down where it goes from the back of the car into the tailgate section. Plus the annoying rattle somewhere under the dash (this only happens when the temperature approaches zero).

 

Time to look at the opposition methinks.

I have a 56 reg 1.4 diesel with 52K on the clock. Second gear has 'crunched' for the last 25K miles despite using a heavier gearbox oil...

Using the wrong gearbox oil won't help.

Using the wrong gearbox oil won't help.

Using the 'right' oil is worse.