Coolant all gone!

[Orville]

Call Skoda CS and ask for a good-will gesture. Water-pump failures are the most common problem on Octavia's, especially early 2013/2014  models. After mine was replaced for the second time the dealer admitted there must be a faulty batch.

 

Manufacturers like to keep replaced parts so that customers cannot claim/prove manufacturing-defect. As said above, I had to pay to keep my clutch parts after it failed within 17k miles. Skoda eventually accepted clear defect evidence after I paid for an independent engineering inspection report. Skoda paid me back in-full plus covered all of my addtional costs, but they were a real pan to deal with.

 

edit: If you are thinking of making a claim be sure to pay for the work via credit-card and not cash or debit card. Section-75 offers you a fair amount of protection. Also consider that ALL manufactured goods sold within the EU must be covered by a six-year warranty against manufacturing-defect. This is EU law and overrides Skoda's 3-year 60,000 mile conditional warranty.

Edited 11 October, 2017 by Orville

[ahenners]

2 hours ago, wyx087 said:

Love this community, so much useful information. Shame about the brand though: after 3 years 60k miles it's your problem. It's my first Skoda and it will certainly be my last.

 

Same. I like my car but the service from my dealer and Skoda CS has been somewhat lacking for a couple of issues I raised.

[Orville]

If you are interested, here is the (long) battle I had to go through to get Skoda to pay for a faulty clutch (pressure-plate).

[wyx087]

Thank you Orville. But I don't think I'll be going through the independent inspection and claims route. Too much hassle, took 3 months on an almost new clutch wearing out! My case has added risk of 4 years old car and my usual bad luck thus non-manufacturing defect.

 

I'm just p'd off with Skoda UK's stance on warranty, and the difficulty to get them to communicate anything other than "3 year 60k warranty is what we offer, F off".

[Orville]

wyx087 - Within the first two pages of this warrant work thread five water-pumps needed replacing. That's pretty clear evidence of a common manufacturing-defect.

[wyx087]

Update:

Had the work carried out, collected and paid by credit card yesterday evening. Only charged me for fixed price £485 timing belt + water pump change. The service centre also gave me the old water pump.

 

Looking at the pump, it's clear where went wrong: the inside of the pulley part is in bits. Visible bits of rubber gasket and other metal bits from one of 3 ventilation holes. One can also see and hear loose bearing inside.

 

SUK customer service has been in contact today, saying they has to confirm with dealership, but person who was responsible for my vehicle is on leave so will call back Wednesday. They are aware that I have the faulty pump. Let's see what they say next week, I'm hoping to avoid the trouble of spending £200 for an independent assessment.

[wyx087]

Getting nowhere with claims. 2 things I'd like to confirm with the hive mind:

 

1. Skoda UK customer services is saying they only believe the dealer's words, in another words independent report on the failed part "for your own benefit".

 

2. Skoda UK does not make direct good will gesture towards the customer, the dealer has a process to Skoda for this if they feel this part is worthy of good will gestures.

This becomes difficult when I've dropped in to do the repairs out of the blue, no previous contact with any official dealers.

[Nickj633]

a quick query to this thread.. is this a problem endemic with all O3 Octavias, or is it a limited selection, ie 2013-14 as may have been previously mentioned. I have a 2015 Scout, and am hoping that this problem had been sorted by 2015!!

[MoggyTech]

50 minutes ago, Nickj633 said:

a quick query to this thread.. is this a problem endemic with all O3 Octavias, or is it a limited selection, ie 2013-14 as may have been previously mentioned. I have a 2015 Scout, and am hoping that this problem had been sorted by 2015!!

Pump was revised late 2014

[Nickj633]

Thank you!