Corroded wheel caps

[gwu]

Hi,

 

I just noticed that all the four plastic wheel caps on my two and a half years old Superb were corroded around the edge (white bits eating into the caps). Showed that to my Skoda dealer in Dartford and the very first response from the service manager was "You must have used some corrosive cleaner to wash your wheels". He just did not accept the customer's words that only soapy water had been used and no damage was observed on the alloy wheels themselves. I am not happy that a Skoda dealer would not accept the possibility that the corrosion was a symptom of poor quality wheel cap. He just would not sort them out on warranty. I wonder if any other owners have experienced a similar problem?

 

 

Kind Regards,

 

Gilbert

[Danny 57]

Buy a hard abrasive cleaning (Plastic type) "cloth". This is what I used together with some Jiff, sorry Ciff, then thoroughly rinsed off. It worked for me but I did catch it early.

[gwu]

Thank you Danny for the suggestion. The car is still under warranty so they might accuse me of damaging the caps myself by using the hard abrasive cleaning cloth. I have reported the case to Skoda UK and am waiting to see what they are going to do about it.

 

[stevew33]

Your car is about the same age as mine and mine went exactly the same way. I had my first set of wheel centre caps replaced under warranty without any issue. Sadly the replacements are now also showing the same problem. I do not use anything other than normal car washing shampoo and nobody other than me washes the car.  I'll be hoping they replace them again under warranty

[Danny 57]

II know of someone who had their claim for corrosion on their wheels rejected as it was clear that the corrosion on the wheel caps clearly pointed to using non ph neutral cleaning agent. Their first set was replaced under warranty but the dealer became suspicious when they claimed again ten months later. Btw when the owner was challenged and they looked at his spare he had a bottle of wheel cleaner in his boot, the acid one.

Since I cleaned off my caps four years ago the corrosion has not returned and I always use the ph neutral foam etc.

[silver1011]

This has been an ongoing issue for Skoda since I bought my first Skoda back in 2009.

 

Whilst acidic wheel cleaners will no doubt exacerbate or accelerate the issue the dealers regularly roll this reason out as an excuse not to pursue a claim under warranty with Skoda UK.

 

The centre caps are of dubious quality, whether your dealer is willing to accept it or not. It should be noted that the issue isn't limited to VAG, it happens a lot to many different cars from multiple manufacturers.

 

Vote with your feet, choose a dealer that values you as a customer worth retaining more that the one you recently visited. If this isn't feasible then contact Skoda UK directly online using this form and let them know about the disappointing service you've had from one of their franchised retailers...

 

http://www.skoda.co.uk/about-us/contact-us

 

There are plenty of examples of successful warranty claims on the caps over the years on this forum, find a better dealer. It should also be noted there are also plenty of main dealers who use the aggressive wheel cleaners themselves in their own wash bays!

 

My caps have gone the same way, I'm the only one who washes my car, however they have done over 100,000 miles.

 

Edited 11 September, 2017 by silver1011

[TheRobinK]

3 hours ago, stevew33 said:

Your car is about the same age as mine and mine went exactly the same way.

 

Same here, car has only been handwashed as well. If acid cleaner was ever used, it was Skoda Ireland or the dealer that used it!

 

17 minutes ago, silver1011 said:

It should be noted that the issue isn't limited to VAG, it happens a lot to many different cars from multiple manufacturers.

 

Every BMW I had from 2001 onwards had exactly the same thing after about 3 years. Before 2001 it seemed to take about 10 years.

[amwphotos]

There's loads of people on here that have had them replaced under warranty. My Octavia 3 was like that when I got it at 16k miles and 2yrs old. I didn't notice it originally as I could have more easily pointed it out then when I bought it. I'll try with a warranty claim anyway soon.

 

Incidentally my gear knob leather hasn't lasted well either.

[gwu]

Danny,

 

Just like Stevew 33, I only used car shampoo to wash the car's wheels as well. We have a few other cars of various makes in the family. They have been washed using the same car shampoo in the same way. None of them have problems with the wheel centre caps. Since my original post this morning, I have been browsing this forum and discovered that the corroded/corroding centre cap problem is quite wide spread among Skoda's cars. Moreover, the poor service I received from the Skoda dealers is a norm rather than exception. Quite disappointing really. 

[gwu]

Thank you all for your responses. Having owned the Skoda Superb from new for two and half years, I am still trying to find a decent main dealer to look after my car. Both dealers I used (one in Croydon and one in Dartford) have shown to be disappointing. Any recommendation would be much appreciated. Happy to travel if there is one in the UK. Failing that, perhaps time to look for another brand who truly provides a good service. The fact that my car has one of the VW "clever diesel engines" does not help either.

[gwu]

Quote

 

I got a phone call from Skoda UK. Unfortunately, the chap on the phone did not read any of the emails I sent them before he called hence just kept talking to himself while reading his screen.  I thought a customer service operative would have read the customer's case before contacting the customer. That was not the case here at all. I must say Skoda UK has a pathetic customer service at its best.

[SuperbTWM]

Mine is over 2 years old with 23K and its starting to show the same signs but not as bad as that yet. Was hoping to get them done under warranty but I don't think they will be bad enough to moan about come next year when it runs out