Having, hopefully, had the DSG/Mechatronics problem sorted out (http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/312157-disturbing-incident-when-shifting-from-d-to-s-in-skoda-fabia-dsg/#entry3787545) a different disturbing incident occurred Tuesday (21st May) this week.

 

I had parked the car at a farmshop/cafe while my wife and I had a lunch break while travelling to Cambridge.  The front of the car was facing slightly uphill and I left the car in P as I always do. When we came to set off, I started the engine and selected R and lifted my foot off the brake.  The car gently rolled back but when I came to turn the steering wheel it barely moved.  I pressed the footbrake and found that barely moved either, as sometimes is the case just after starting.  (Apparently, the engine has to run for a short time before the brake servo is fully activated.)  I halted the car using the handbrake, selected D and the car rolled forward back into the parking place and stopped.  With the engine still running, I waggled the steering wheel, but it only moved fractionally to either side. I switched the engine off and on again and waggled the wheel once more; again, little movement on the wheel, certainly not enough to turn the wheels.  With the engine off again, I tried turning the steering again, without success.  I got out of the car and, thinking I might have been wheel clamped (although there is no time limit on parking there), I had a look at the front wheels.  They were angled ever so slightly to the right, but no sign of a wheel clamp.  Eventually, after taking the key out of the ignition and much waggling of the steering wheel, it freed.  I restarted the engine and all was fine and the problem hasn't occurred again, but, presumably, it means another round trip of getting on for 100 miles to the York dealer to have things looked at.

No need to drive to a Dealership, 

 

You have had a Failure already with your DSG and an Interruption to Drive,

and not much to reassure you of the that being fully corrected, By a Skoda Dealership

changing DSG Oil & doing an ECU Update,

& then this incident happened.

 

I would Contact Skoda UK Customer Services or Skoda Assist.

Have them arrange the Uplift of your car to be Examined/Inspected by a Qualified Expert and Repaired so it is safe. They can get a Courtesy car to you at the same time.

 

Stuff driving it on the Public Highway, its not just your safety but other innocent road users.

Let a Skoda UK employee drive it if they think it is safe and H&S allows that.

 

It could be anything with your car not just a Steering Lock/Barrel, that is with the DSG issue you had..

Faulty ECU, Connections, wiring etc.

 

george

Sound advice there, George, which I've taken.

 

Skoda Customer Services have opened a technical file and someone will get back to me, but it may be Tuesday because of the Bank Holiday.

 

Skoda Assist are sending a dedicated Skoda technician out who should be with me this evening.

 

Watch this space.

Skoda Assist have been and gone and found no problems on the system.  What was a concern was that the technician seemed to see the problem as being one of it being difficult to release the steering lock when, as I said more than once, it was a problem  of being able to start the engine with the steering lock engaged.

 

Interestingly, with the technician here I "wiggled" the steering wheel in the locked position and noticed that it would only move to the left, but in the incident of being able to start the engine with the steering  lock, on the wheel could be "wiggled" either to left or right, but only by a very, very small amount, much less than when I tried it just now.

Things have descended into a bit of a shambles.  

 

1.  Yesterday afternoon by the time Skoda Assist could get here, it was too late to take the car in to the local  dealer's (approx 50 miles away) and so the technician told me it would need rebooking to be recovered. 

 

2.  Therefore, as the MOT is due in the next four weeks, I rang the local dealer this morning to try and arrange to have the MOT done when the car was in for the steering lock problem.  I also mentioned the latter problem to them and was surprised to be told that Skoda Customer Care had told them to expect the car to be recovered to them yesterday afternoon.   I explained that this wasn't possible because, although Skoda Assist were here quickly, it didn't allow time to recover the car to them.  The dealer asked could I take the car in, to which I said I would prefer not to drive it with a known fault (whether or not they could have provided me with a courtesy car at such short notice, is probably doubtful too).  The dealer response was that they couldn't send someone that distance to collect and that I should contact Skoda Assist to recover it and that it was also their responsibility to provide the courtesy car. 

 

3.  Skoda Assist refused to recover the car without an instruction from Skoda Customer Service as their (Skoda Assist) investigation had shown no problem with the car, and were not persuaded to change their mind when I said there was a known fault with the car and I was unwilling to drive it in that condition.

 

4.  I then rang Skoda Customer Care and, after holding some time while records were updated and other people spoken to about the situation, was left in the position of waiting for a call back from a Care Manager with a solution, which might be on Tuesday because of the Bank Holiday.

 

All of this would have been avoided with a bit of joined-up thinking by Skoda with Customer Care not just contacting the dealer to tell them to expect the car, but also dealing with Skoda Assist and arranging them to collect it from me, rather than splitting the job between the two of us without me knowing what they were intending to do.

Sorry to hear this.

Is that the nearest Skoda Dealership to you 50 miles away?.

 

I would of had it into a VW Dealership for them to check properly.

I would not have the Skoda Dealership doing the MOT on your car,

get it done locally, and if any issues, then get any Warranty work done while you still have a Warranty.

There is another dealership about 35 miles away in Middlesbrough.  The one I use since the local dealer dropped the franchise/was dropped is in York, a rather more pleasant place to visit and one where we can meet up with friends while the car is being serviced.  I also have a service package with them.  As it happens, there is a VW retailer in Scarborough where I live, but I must admit it never occurred to me to use them.   The Skoda dealer is supposedly the largest dealer in the country, so I would hope they'd be OK.

Edited 23 May, 201412 yr by Seasider

This is just so I get informed of replies.

This sounds just like the same problem in the Rapid Forum.

If it is, it could partially explain lack of Skoda Assist sympathy 

This sounds just like the same problem in the Rapid Forum.

If it is, it could partially explain lack of Skoda Assist sympathy 

I've had a browse through the Rapid forum, but can't find anything on this.  Could you post a link to that, please?

It is half down the page on the Rapid forum.

 

I think it is the thread,

"is this normal or a fault."

 

It is about someone that did not understand Steering locks,  as i read it.

It is half down the page on the Rapid forum.

 

I think it is the thread,

"is this normal or a fault."

 

It is about someone that did not understand Steering locks,  as i read it.

I wondered if it was.  I'd read that earlier just out of interest.  The problem with Skoda Assist was that their approach was from the "the steering lock is difficult to unlock" angle, even when I clearly told them more than once that that wasn't the problem - the problem was that I had started the engine and set off (fortunately slowly and in a car park) only to find that the steering wheel wouldn't turn more than a couple of millimetres either way!

Anyway, an update on the position.

 

By 15:00 on Friday I still had had no return telephone call from Skoda UK customer car, so I rang them and was put through to Ian Bowie, the Customer Care Manager handling my case. 

 

His first response was that Customer Care responded within 24 to 48 hours , and my first call had not yet been 24 hours ago and that he hadn't yet familiarised himself with the situation.  I familiarised him with the "catch 22" situation I was in - Skoda Assist won't collect car and recover to the garage unless Skoda Customer Care tell them to and garage won't collect car because it's too far away, while I am unhappy at driving car with a steering wheel which allows me to start the car and drive off with the steering locked.  He said he would look speak with Skoda Assist and one of Skoda's technicians and get back to me.

 

In due course, Ian Bowie got back to me.  He'd spoken to Skoda Assist who had said that they wouldn't collect the car because their diagnostics showed up no problems and the car could be driven as the steering wasn't locked.  In other words, they were again approaching the problem from the "it's difficult to unlock the steering lock", rather than "it's possible to start the engine with the steering wheel locked and then drive off".  According to Skoda Assist, the car is safe to drive.  Equally, he had spoken with a Skoda technician who had agreed that the car was safe to drive. 

 

The situation now is that I will arrange with the dealer on Tuesday to take the car in for them to look at the problem, always make sure that the steering wheel turns freely before I start the engine, and Ian Bowie will 'phone me on Thursday to see what has been arranged with the dealer.

 

Overall, I am not a happy Skoda driver!

Just another angle. Whilst I haven't teched professionally on Skoda cars, I've spent much of my life as a tech and I can say that it's not possible to start the engine on virtually any car with the steering lock engaged. That's how they are designed. However, I've learned you cannot ever rule anything completely out and this just may be, somehow, an exception to the rule. But, I suspect you may be experiencing a power steering problem rather than a steering lock problem. If the power steering doesn't  'boot-up' with the rest of the car, it will feel as if the steering lock is on. It takes considerable strength to move the steering when it's not assisted and for many it's impossible when the car it at rest and may feel as if the steering lock is on, being only able to move the steering a few centimetres each way. Try it with the engine off and the car moving just a couple of feet in your drive. Make sure the steering lock is unlocked of course and there is no danger to yourself or anyone else. Be prepared to use the handbrake to stop as the footbrake may not work effectively.

 

Another thing to try is to make sure you let the car electrics time to fully 'boot-up' before starting the engine and moving off. If not it just may be possible that in your car the power steering is being left behind due to some sort of software glitch.  Let the dash lights go out before starting the engine. Remember, you are driving a giant computer. There are many cars where just jumping in and turning the key whilst putting it into gear and driving off just doesn't work properly. I don't know if that is your driving style of course. But the ecu needs time to do it's checks properly and engage all sensors before turning the key if you are to be sure of a trouble free drive with the right engine settings. I work these days in engine design for motorcycles (big ones). All bikes require this time (about 4 seconds from turning the key to engage dash lights) and if you don't give the time, just quickly turning the key and starting, the engine ecu loads a default engine map for ignition and fuel injection (as do some cars). On bikes this can result in the engine experiencing anomalies such as engine stalling, using more fuel, not so sharp performance. So waiting for all the dash lights to go out and the fuel pump to prime is a very good idea before turning the key to actually start the engine. I only mention this as a theory for your car as I've experienced many many problems caused by lack of boot time on many makes of cars. Whether it is possible on your Skoda I can't be sure. In any event it must be investigated and could well be a software issue as steering should always work boot time or not. 

Edited 26 May, 201412 yr by Estate Man

Without meaning to decry the many other sensible posts here, the post above by Estate Man is possibly the most rational and universally applicable one I have read on this forum - it should be a "Sticky" :clap:

Thanks for that comprehensive reply, Estateman.  I usually wait until all the lights have gone out on the dash, having had a diesel in the past, but there's always the possibility that on this occasion I hadn't.  I'll certainly try the experiment of trying to steer without the power steering - I can remember the benefits non-power steering produced in upper body strength!  However, I did notice that turning the steering wheel from side to side did suggest that there was some sort of obstruction in the feel of it.

 

It's interesting that you should mention a software issue, as there had recently been a software update applied, although to the gearbox/Mechatronics.  However, from my own software writing days I can remember what are called today "unlooked for consequences" where a software update would affect something apparently totally unrelated.

 

I'll keep you posted.

Indeed Seasider, do keep us posted. It sounds like to are pretty switched on so I'm sure you will get to the bottom of it. Nice to speak to someone who understands the software situation and it's causes and effects.     vxh...I've never written anything 'rational' before as I tend to ramble on and get way too excited (just like Patrick Moore used to)...too much sometimes!   Thanks for the comments though.