Hi all, after some advice please....

Took my 2010 petrol vRS estate in for a minor service and MOT yesterday. I have owned the car from new and covered 52k miles without any issues of note.

I took a call from the service guy about an hour later. "An engine management light has come on as we started the MOT. We were running the engine to heat it up, and the light was noticed."

He went on to ask whether it had been on before (no) and then explained that they had investigated and that it was an intermittent throttle flap fault.

Anyway, when I picked the car up, they said that the light had not come on during the rest of the service and MOT and during the test drive that they do. They stated that it may not appear again and that, without deeper investigation, they wouldn't be able to say anything further about the cause, likelihood of recurrence etc.

Drove home, no management light. Turn the car on this morning, engine management light!

So, I called the dealer. The person I had been dealing with yesterday was not available, so I spoke with another of the service team. Predictably, he said that these faults could come at any time and that it was just coincidence that this light has come on while the car was with them.

I explained that I wasn't happy, and that I have had no engine management or other warning lights in four years of ownership. I could see that I wasn't going to get any further with him on the phone on a Saturday morning, so have booked the car in with them for next Wednesday which is the first day they have a loan car available.

I am, however, minded to speak to the person that I dealt with yesterday first thing on Monday morning and potentially escalate to the service manager or even Skoda UK following that.

Am I being overly suspicious about what has gone on, or do you think I have some redress bearing in mind the car was absolutely fine when I took it into them?

I can imagine them asking for about £50 to even examine what the problem is and then I will probably be facing a bill for the repair on top of that.

I have probably said enough for now, so over to you guys!

What do you think? What do you think will be the best approach on Monday morning?

As ever, all advice gratefully received.

PS car seems to drive fine and they have said it is safe to drive (when prompted!) so long as the EML doesn't flash or turn red.

Do you think it likely they have tampered with your throttle flap? Doesn't seem likely!

No, I'm not saying that, but just finding it hard to believe that the car when fine when I took it in, and isn't fine now.

I'm just frustrated! And I'm always interested in the varied thoughts on here!

I hate electrical gremlins. Live in constant fear something will spontaneously die and cost me a fortune to fix... I'm very pessimistic about this sort of thing and just presume that the gods have shat on me that day...

Probably just one of those things unfortunately. It may have been thinking of dieing for a while and being left on idle to warm the engine up for the MOT was enough to finish it off. Or total coincidence.

On a similar note I got blamed for breaking my mum's laptop recently. I'd changed the default program for opening PDF files and the very next time she switched the laptop on it wouldn't boot.... had to be my fault of course as she never changes any settings and I'd touched it last . After some investigation I found that the cause was actually the data cable connector on the hard drive choosing to come loose at that precise point after 5 years use . Sod's law.

Coincidence im afraid. Its a pain but a fact of life.

The car should have been scanned for fault codes when they serviced it. May be worth asking if they noted any down.

 

Mark

The car should have been scanned for fault codes when they serviced it. May be worth asking if they noted any down.

Mark

They obviously did as they have told him what the reported fault is.

They obviously did as they have told him what the reported fault is.

 

If it was me I'd still like to know the codes. Some of them have several different causes.

I always worry that someone will get in my car and give it a good old ragging, bouncing off the rev limiter - you never know what they're up to, just have to trust their integrity but there is always a 19 yr old workshop scroat up to no good! allegedly.

Friend had same sort of problem on an Audi told him he needed a New flap .

But googled it and found something about some pin poping out of the houseing he pushed pin back in car run fine since

Ok, update. Not a satisfactory one yet!

The car went back in and they reset the ECU. It was fine for a while with no faults, but an 'extended' test drive by the dealer let to the light coming back on.

Resolution - replace the variable intake manifold as the plastic flaps inside were sticking intermittently. Nearly £700.

I negotiated a 75% discount - paid for by the dealer and Skoda UK and end up having to pay £163 myself. We were due in France before the dealer could fit me in, but their senior technician said the car would be fine for the 1200 mile round trip.

In France, about 500 miles later, the idle became pretty lumpy as the sticking flaps led to the manifold struggling to balance air and fuel. I called the dealer and was again informed that no other / resultant damage elsewhere would occur.

The lumpy idle worsened during the trip, but the car always ran okay at speed. The revs hunted a little at low speeds, but it was fine on the autoroute / motorway.

The car was fixed last Thursday. New variable intake manifold My wife picked it up on Friday morning. Running normally. No warning light.

The car wasn't used yesterday. Today, Sunday, on a 10 mile round trip, the engine management light has come back on. Pretty frustrating.

Any thoughts guys before I call the dealer in ether morning? I'm slightly concerned the manifold issue may have led to another problem elsewhere (despite the 'senior technician's' earlier assurances).