Well, the car went into Skoda yesterday, and, surprise surprise, it's the steering rack.

 

So, £90 lighter for them to tell me that, and I'm waiting on Skoda UK getting back to me with their goodwill offer.

 

As an aside, they do a #health check', with a sheet showing any concerns.

 

I had one done at Skoda on 16/09/14, 30,000 miles, and everything was 'green', including the brake discs/pads.

 

The one from yesterday: 24/08/15, 41,000 miles, shows;

 

"Front Brake Discs Excessively Lipped/pitted replace with pads & Rear Brake Discs heavily Corroded/scored replace with pads"

 

at a cost of £500.

 

I'm not expert, but is 1 year & 11,000 miles not rather quick to go from "Green - no issues" to "Red - pitted/lipped/corroded replace immediately"?

 

Edited 25 August, 201510 yr by scottishcammy

Checking Skoda's site, the prices there are for discs as well as pads. You need to question them on what they are proposing...If it's pads only (as per the text) its £135 per set.

No, it's the discs as well mate, the chap going over it said that, muck up in their sheet.

Its not a muck up - it says "replace with pads"... as in "replace the disks and the pads"

 

£500 is a reasonable price from a main dealer, would be less at an indy. And these things dont wear linearly - but you can check for yourself how big the lip is

I just thought it was a relatively short period of time to go from 'green' to 'red', but, as I say, I'm no expert.

 

These things would also less painful if I wasn't looking at a £1,500 steering rack to replace as well of course! (along with three new tyres soon and a major service.......)

Ignore them!

 

I had an advisory on an MOT I had done at a Skoda main dealer for excessive corrosion and the lip around the outer edge of the front discs you describe.

 

I got home and examined them myself, yes they were corroded but the surface (pad contact area) was fine on both the inside and outside. The lip was also present but this was a sign of natural and consistent wear of the disc.

 

I took the decision that the dealer was being a little over-cautious so left it.

 

That was two years / 20,000 miles ago. Two MOT's at the same dealer since then, no more advisory's - same discs and pads!

 

Every so often I give the car a good brake test, a hard but controlled reduction in speed to scrub off any corrosion and get some heat into the pads and discs.

Thanks mate.

 

if I follow Skoda's advice:

 

Steering rack:    £1522.50

Service:             £259

Tyres:                £300

Pads/Discs        £500

Total:                 £2,581.50

 

For a 3 year old car that I've driven a total of 20,000 miles in myself :-(

 

Don;t get me wrong, I realise some of these are consumables that are just part and parcel of having a car, but it's sair tae bair!

The steering rack is unfortunate, hopefully Skoda UK will work with the dealer and come good with a sizable goodwill gesture.

 

Do not get the £259 service unless you can be sure that they are changing the fuel, pollen and air filters. These are included in the more expensive (major) service @ £259 but there is a caveat - they are only replaced "if required" which more often than not they aren't! The air and fuel filters are roughly every 3 years / 60,000 miles so there is a good chance they won't be replaced but you'll still be charged £259.

 

Far better to get the £139 (minor) service which is an oil and oil filter and then add the air, pollen and fuel filters separately from their menu price list. My dealer chargers roughly £100 for all three including fitting which is still less than the £259 for the major service.

 

Better still do the pollen and air filter yourself - dead easy. Seriously anyone can do it. Both filters can be had off Eurocarparts for around £20 delivered.

 

Tyres depend on user preference with regard to brands. I usually go branded and pay the premium but have run budgets before and never noticed much of a difference. Opinions are varied and quite strong and there are lots of threads about tyres on here so I won't go into more detail but assuming you need a pair of tyres you should be able to do better than £150 each assuming your vRS is running 18's?

 

Pads and discs as mentioned above, leave them for now. As a point of note, this is a good guide to the dealer pricing...

 

http://www.skoda.co.uk/owners/service-and-maintenance/simply-fixed

 

£384 for discs and pads for each axle - no idea where they are getting £500 for, unless it is for both axles in which case the price sounds fair, but I suspect you don't need them, they are touting for business. Anything brake related usually gets people twitching so they end up being a nice little earner for the dealers.

 

Where there is a will there is a way, there is ample opportunity to cut down on that potential £2.5K bill  :sun:

Oh definitely mate, sorry, I should have made it clear I'll just be getting the rack through them. I can get tyres I like through black circles, Vredestein Ultra Sessanta, the three tyres coming in at £253.38 fully fitted, £206.58 just delivery.
Everything else is going to have to wait I'm afraid, and, when I do get it done, it'll be through an indie.

Still though, there's a lot of haggling to come with skoda re: the rack first!

 

Some cracking advice there, thanks silver ;-)

Seriously considering sourcing a rack myself (reconditioned possibly) and getting an independent VAG specialist garage I know to carry the labour/coding out.

I've been quoted £270 for the labour.

 

There are a couple on ebay from looking just now (would need to confirm they are definitely the correct part no of course, but gives an idea). One of them is £350, so, all in, I could get the job done by going this route for around £620. Which, whilst still painful, s a lot better then £1550.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201078306696?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171820820105?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Phoned these guys

 

http://www.acspowersteering.co.uk/ (which is the ebay link above fpr the new unit)

 

seemed very decent on the phone, they can do me a brand new unit delivered for £349.99 with 2 years warranty, and I send them my old steering rack (delivery paid for by them) within 14 days.

 

Anyone here used them before?

Well, Skoda have made their final, non-negotiable offer of 25% of a £1552 bill.

Absolutely refuse to move on that. Also, turns out if you try and escalate your complaint, it just gets sent back to the same person!

 

https://clyp.it/bpxnlz21

 

Folks, if you agree this is pretty poor, and can be bothered to tweet sharing that sentiment to https://twitter.com/SKODAUK, I'd be much obliged to you.

 

Here's my twitter profile

 

https://twitter.com/TaitCammy?lang=en-gb

 

Here's my post to Skoda UK about. Again, feel free to comment folks, cheers.

 

https://www.facebook.com/Skoda.uk/posts/923231007744776

 

Thanks again in advance (better get saving, no hols for the family now!)

Who have u been dealing with at skoda UK ? As I spoke to a lady called Michela who was a manager and went the extra mile for me hope u get things sorted

Someone called Natalie. Didn't keep to appointments either. Waiting 2 days for her to phone me back, never did, I had to phone three times before I got her. All in all a pretty crap customer experience.

Cheers mate

lousy contribution to the repair.

 

Don't believe her when she says it will just come back to her.

 

Don't you Poms have some form of consumer rights?  Basically "An item is warranted by the manufacturer for a period that a reasonable person would expect it to last."   That's how it works down here - you have to prove the case but I know people that are getting new engines out of VW because the old ones have failed (cam chain tensioner fault leading to bent valves) at 100,000km.

From reading this, I don't see why you are bothering with the dealer at all. Their prices are ridiculous, especially as you have much lower quotes from independents and the brakes seem to have been added on simply to make back any money they offer as 'good will'.

The reason I was bothering is because I felt they should pay 100% in the circumstances, or, 2nd best, I'd pay for labour only. Just trying to get them to do the right thing mate. Their actions will also determine whether or not I stick with Skoda in the future.

Well, Skoda refused to budge an inch, case now closed. The whole experience was crap, never returning calls, taking days to answer queries. Very disappointing. If their customer service message is, "We couldn't give a *hit about you now we've got your money" they succeeded! 

 

So, buying the rack from ACS Power Steering and having the work done by Autohaus Edinburgh the 8th. Will report back here so folk know what ACS & Autohaus were like (though all my experiences of Autohaus have been excellent so far).

 

Cheers.

I would be tempted to take your case to the small claims - a steering rack on a 4 year old/40k mile car should not fail under normal use. Poor service on Skoda's part but probably more cost effective for them to refuse or offer a small contribution and pay the small percentage of claims that will end up in court.

cammy,

Please have another look at my post (#23). I feel you should be able to get more. The VW in question was 5 years old!

Threaten to involve the motoring press. Invoke small claims (assuming you have that or similar North of the border).

You are not being treated fairly!

Good luck,

Dunc

Thanks guys, food for thought there. I asked Skoda UK about escalating it, she said, "You could if you want, but it'll just come back to me anyway".....Crazy!

Check it out (I recorded all the calls)

 

 

https://clyp.it/bpxnlz21