I'm hoping one of the Skoda-lock Holmes out there can shed some light on what I'm about to explain. 

 

Wife took her Roomie to Garage A (franchise dealer) for the usual annual service. When she came back she was pretty annoyed that she got the red cooling light up - and when she checked back she was told to "just top up the coolant tank with water" (and the level was about 1cm above the bottom of the tank when I checked  :no: ). So a kettle of cool water went in. Oh and Garage A also managed to leave her with a duff headlight bulb - despite us asking for it to be replaced, and them charging us for the replacement part, fitting and testing. 

 

Suitably discouraged she then decided to take el Roomie to Garage B (Bosch service franchise specialising in VAG brands) for the replacement clutch that Garage A insisted needed done. Coincidentally I'd been moaning about the clutch slipping for a while, so I was happy to see it done. Anyway, job got done, and cheaper than Garage A was charging by a good margin.

 

I drove the car back from Garage A, noticing that the "one-shot" on the windows wasn't working. Being a warm day :sun: , I turned on the air con only to be greeted with a furnace blast of heat. Then I noticed that the air-con button wasn't lighting either. So I tried the temp control which seem to give me either hot or "Florida hot"  .

 

Missus - now very p'd off - phones Garage A to get them to look at it, (since they were the last ones messing with the electrics), only to be told (not very politely) that A's service department would insist on "at least £80" to even look at it. On the other hand when we approached Garage B we were told that it was very unlikely that changing the clutch would screw up windows, aircon and heating, but if we could bring the car down then they'd take a quick look in case it was a blown fuse or a connection come adrift.

 

Anyone got any ideas what's gone wrong?

 

(PS what the heck happened to the "class leading" customer care that JD Power etc assign to Skoda - not impressed with the dealer at all - had better service from the Ford garage I used to use for my car).

(PPS Missus - who really likes her Roomie - is now thinking of defecting to Renault because of the inept treatment she's received)

 

 

I can't advise about the heating issues, but you should be able to re-set the windows.  Individually, hold each switch to fully open the window, plus keep holding for an extra 2 to 3 seconds, and repeat for closing.  This usually happens when the battery has been dis-connected, though it happened to me recently when I started the engine with the window operating.  The volt drop when cranking causing the problem.

I can't advise about the heating issues, but you should be able to re-set the windows.  Individually, hold each switch to fully open the window, plus keep holding for an extra 2 to 3 seconds, and repeat for closing.  This usually happens when the battery has been dis-connected, though it happened to me recently when I started the engine with the window operating.  The volt drop when cranking causing the problem.

Thanks for that - useful information to know.    Is there some kind of capacitor or similar that needs refilled by the extra open/close time?

 

Missus (who's car it is) took Garage B up on their offer, the service manager put the diagnostics on the car and - surprise, surprise found a blown fuse which they replaced then and there and gave a quick apology for the inconvenience caused. Car is now working as before, except the pull-off from rest is obviously better and a strange squeak that we sometimes got on gear changes is now a thing of the past. Think we'll be using Garage B again in the future.

 

Solved.

Good outcome - well done.