Sorry if this is in the wrong section.

 

I recently (28/11/14) had a major service on my 2011 manual 1.4 TSI. The car was 3.5 years old and had done 41,000 miles, I've always had it dealer serviced and decided to continue with this for the major service as recommended. After trouble free motoring for 3.5 years a catalogue of problems occurred following the service (which I hasten to add the dealer denies all responsibility for, so from a legal view point my comments should read 'allegedly' where appropriate).

 

When I collected the car and drove it home I immediately felt that performance was down and more gear changes were required; I initially put that down to all the fluid changes etc., but after a couple of days (I drive a 50 mile commute in total every weekday), I also noticed that the economy was down 4-5 mpg on the display. I reported this to the dealer and said I would do a tank to tank to verify before deciding what to do.

 

Eventually after two tank to tank tests (dealer was very busy over Christmas), the dealer agreed to carry out a diagnostic check if I agreed to pay for it. By this time (4 weeks after the service) I had boiled the problem down to a cylinder problem (highly unlikely) or a turbo problem - I told them this; however, it took them 2-3 hours to work out that it was indeed a fault with the turbo (obviously don't believe Mr Thicky customer).

 

Here's where things get really interesting - when I picked up the car from the diagnostic session, the dealer said the car was ok to drive but I might notice the power was slightly down - well it was, couldn't get much above 50mph going up hill and it was very difficult to engage 3rd and 5th gear. It was only the next morning when I discovered that the air box and all the connecting hoses were in a box in the boot!!! The apologetic dealer said that there wouldn't have been any engine damage and said they would send out a mechanic to put the car back together. That's alright then!?

 

To add insult to injury - during this period a 2 foot long crease appeared on my driver's side door - I do a car share and can confirm that I didn't do it - but the dealer denies any knowledge of the damage - so stuffed yet again!

 

Anyway - luckily Skoda UK agreed to provide a new turbo as the car was just out of warranty - the dealer said I would need to pay the labour (another 4 hours); we eventually agreed on 2 hours as a gesture of goodwill because of the air box **** up (very generous!!).

 

The new turbo has now been fitted but the performance uphill still feels slightly down and the economy is still down 4-5 mpg; I have now tried a tank of super unleaded and that has had no effect. Skoda UK paid for a diagnostic test at a second dealer - but all they did was follow standard diagnostics, so found nothing as they said 37 mpg was within tolerance (even though I told them that for 3.5 years I'd been getting at least 40 mpg). I asked the second dealer to do an emissions test, as I had the figures from my MOT last June, but they wouldn't.

 

Can anyone on the forum offer any advice or ideas please?

I would find a trusted Independent VAG specialist for a second opinion. Not sure where you are based but Shark performance are well respected. Based on what you find out send a recorded delivery letter to your dealer principle copied to Skoda customer services demanding that the problem is sorted.

If this fails get the independent garage to fix the problem and take your dealer to the small claims court to recover your costs,

mark

Edited 14 February, 201511 yr by mark999

Update - in the last couple of days going home from the office (25 miles) the air temperature has been 10 and 11 degrees C. At the these temperatures the cars performance and mpg returned to normal - 41 mpg last night. This morning (25 miles) the temp was 5 degrees and the mpg was right down again - 32 mpg - very similar traffic conditions to last night.

 

This leads me to believe that there is a fault with a sensor telling the ECU the car is cold when it is not.

 

Am I on the right track, any comments or pointers appreciated. 

A sensor fault should log a fault code which would have been picked up through the diagnostics sessions your car has had.

 

I do believe that there are set tolerances that first need to be met before a sensor will log as at fault though?