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Skoda Rapid 1.2 TSI Faulty backrow headrests


Akos

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Hi all.

 

I wouldlike to bring your attention to a possible design deffect of a Skoda Rapid Spaceback's back headrests. We own such a car and one of the back headrest broke off and the other two have cracks on them. I tried to reach Skoda regarding this matter but they are telling me that it is a user fault that the headrest broke off. This is quite unheard of! Ive owned couple of cars but this is the first time such thing happend. Not to mention that the car is my wife's car (she is using it) and they are telling us that she tore it off!?

you can find pictures of the headrests over here:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kc543q5efdohki2/AAAXgHysj00jz7vhBIB951Aja?dl=0

 

From the look of it, it seems that the whole headrest is made of plastic mold and there is a small steel rod that holds into the plastic and that is where the plastic starts to crack! We have this problem on all the three headrests! Anyone have noticed similar cracks?

I do not really know where to turn to, especially that our Skoda came with a 4 year Porche Hungary warranty and they are refusing it to accept this as a manufacturing defect. Any idea?

Edited by Akos
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Ok, only going by your photos, I see nothing there to suggest a manufacturing defect.

 

That damage looks to me to be entirely human inflicted. Either your kids swinging off them, or if you don't have kids, some other human has excerpted brute force on them in the process of taking them up, down, on or off.

 

They are only head rests at the end of the day, not a roll cage. Not designed to take excessive force. 

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12 minutes ago, chrisgreen said:

Ok, only going by your photos, I see nothing there to suggest a manufacturing defect.

 

That damage looks to me to be entirely human inflicted. Either your kids swinging off them, or if you don't have kids, some other human has excerpted brute force on them in the process of taking them up, down, on or off.

 

They are only head rests at the end of the day, not a roll cage. Not designed to take excessive force. 

 

I have to disagree with you. They are designed to take excessive force, they are there to protect passengers from whiplash injury (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiplash_(medicine). Let say a 100kg passenger sits on the back and there is a crash the headrests will simply collapse during the force of the impact causeing the passanger death or spinal cord injury. My kids are 20kg each, so doubt that they cant tear it off if they can then there is a manufacturing defect right there.

 

Also see skoda manual http://ws.skoda-auto.com/OwnersManualService/Data/en/Rapid_Spaceback_NH/11-2014/Manual/Rapid/A05_Spaceback_OwnersManual.pdf

page 70 and i quote"

WARNING
With seats occupied, the respective head rests must be correctly set (may
not be in the bottom position) - there is a risk of fatal injury!"
 
So this is a very important safety part of the car that is why I am so uptight about this.
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In the fully down (stowed) position, the rear headrests push a passenger's head forward or press on the upper spine depending on the size of passenger. That's why they need to be raised. It's got nothing to do with them withstanding heavy load or impact. The average human head only weighs 5kg. At most, that's all they need to withstand. Also, in the event of a crash or heavy breaking that would cause someone's head to recoil, there is nothing that says the headrests won't break under a heavy impact. They merely serve as an obstacle to stop your head snapping all the way back. They certainly are not designed for your offspring that weigh 4x that of a human head to swing off.

 

You are unnecessarily obsessing over the effective function of the headrests in their current state, and, without further evidence other than your own pics, my original view of accidental damage by the owner or other users of the car still stands. They look like they should still fit in place as-is, but if you are really that concerned about the cracked mounts, you should buy new ones and handle them with care. I can't see Skoda replacing them for free. It will draw the same conclusion I have without further evidence of part failure.

 

I will be curious to see if other members have similar issues.

 

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Looking at picture 12 the crack has started at the hole which has the pin in it. This I think would not surprise most engineers as the stress concentrates at such features and if you have to have one it is normal to reinforce the material with a boss or such like. I could not guess at the load needed to cause a fracture like that but it is also possible that it could be a fatigue crack cause by flexing. In both cases I think it looks a poor design for a piece of safety equipment.

 

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My wife went back to our local official Skoda(Porche Szeged) dealer and behold the first and only Rapid there had the same problem!:)

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gh9hobpxnp6pag6/AACQAresSEPIyJWCZY_dtPfwa?dl=0

 

MFD: 2015.03.

 

Any of you have similar issues? Also I am in contact with the factory will keep you posted!

 

 

Edited by Akos
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23 hours ago, RickTT said:

Guess the damge can occur if the seats are dropped with the headrests up and make contact with the front seats.

 

Not suggesting thats the reason, but could occur.

 

Then how do you explain cracks on the middle? No seats in fron of it and the middle headrests can be pulled out much less then the other two (left, right).

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