The rear diff on my 2011 Octavia 1.8TSI 4x4 Estate seized at under 20,000 miles.  The failure was due to oil leaking from a breather hole on top of the diff.  The complete rear diff, Haldex 4 and Haldex ECU were replaced under an extended warranty I purchased when the manufacturer's warranty expired.  The discounted cost of parts only was circa £3150.  

There has been a number of other failures reported on Briskoda.  Search using 'site:briskoda.net Haldex diff failure'.

 

See also:

 

Edited 3 April, 20188 yr by DGW

Surely if something has been thrown up and pierced the casing, it is a straightforward insurance claim?

Either the insurance will pay up to repair the car, or it will be written off if uneconomic to repair.

If something has done this there is a good chance the debris from the case or indeed the item which caused the damage will be found inside the differential.

Edited 3 April, 20188 yr by kenfowler3966

39 minutes ago, kenfowler3966 said:

Surely if something has been thrown up and pierced the casing, it is a straightforward insurance claim?

Either the insurance will pay up to repair the car, or it will be written off if uneconomic to repair.

If something has done this there is a good chance the debris from the case or indeed the item which caused the damage will be found inside the differential.

 

Exactly.
I can see a couple of problems, however.

You have to prove that something did hit it and pierce the casing, or you have to prove that this wasn't a mechanical failure, which means it has to be stripped down, and someone has to pay for that. Personally I would be asking the mechanic who did the video for his opinion and I would be talking to my insurance company at the same time.

I think I can see the problem ,there’s a gremlin in there

Edited 3 April, 20188 yr by Sad555

Looks internal failure to me. The propshaft coupling wear would be exacerbated by the catastrophic failure of the differential.

 

Don't you just hate the patronising on-message commentary on the video 'thank you for using blah-blah for your Skoda'.

 

When I phone my local dealer the length of the opening statement from the telephonist makes me want to scream ( although I understand this would be the last thing on the OP's mind).

 

 I wish you well.

 

Bill 

Edited 3 April, 20188 yr by Sad555

Re, on the video.

What has the tyre wear, brake fluid, & possible perishing of the shock absorber rubbers  got to do with the Original problem. ie Failure of the haldex unit?  

22 minutes ago, Carlodiesel said:

Re, on the video.

What has the tyre wear, brake fluid, & possible perishing of the shock absorber rubbers  got to do with the Original problem. ie Failure of the haldex unit?  

It's a complimentary health check, that's why.

You’ve lost both your legs and your arms but your hair is parted nicley and your teeth are clean and it’s all complementary 

What was on the Complimentary Health Check at the Skoda Dealership, other than the hole in the diff, 

should have been seen 2 weeks or however long back by the Local VAG Specialists operative / Tech / mechanic / fitter / engineer / whatever, while servicing the Yeti.  But then the question still needs answering by the OP what that establishments manager / owner is saying 

about their workmanship.

you have brought your vehicle to be inspected because it’s been picked up on a low loader after some sort of major failure with a hole in the diff with the lubricant dripping out(what’s left of it) and a mechanic points out  you have 4mm on your tyres  and wear on suspension,get real ,is he taking the pi$$ .or was it the blind mechanics day off.

Edited 4 April, 20188 yr by Sad555

Following his procedure. Start at the front and work back.

 

Do you think before filming he never checked under and had seen the hole?

Whot hole?......i only noticed the old labels

Rather alarmed to read this, given I'm currently the owner of an "out of warranty" 14 plate 4x4 Yeti

 

My most recent service (and Haldex / brake fluid) was also done outside the dealer network 

 

Hope this can be repaired at reasonable cost.

On 03/04/2018 at 17:35, Rustynuts said:

I'm not sure that the haldex and rear differential use the same oil. If you've had the haldex oil and filter service done and the differential has exploded it could be unrelated. Unless I'm missing a trick here.

 

Possible that someone drained the rear differential and refilled it with Haldex oil. That would make a bit of a mess I guess.

Correct, Haldex and diff oils are completely separate.

 

One of the reasons I changed my Haldex fluid myself was to be 100% sure it went in the right holes, as I'd read stories of garages getting it wrong!

On 03/04/2018 at 16:15, paulfjr said:

Thank you for all your replies. My Yeti had only done 39,000 miles and was regularly serviced at my local Skoda. I phoned them to ask about the Haldex oil change before I left on holiday, and they said it could be done at the next service. Ironically, as I like the Yeti, I decided to go to a local VAG specialist garage to have the 40,000 mile service done early; and Haldex oil changed; as I thought they would do a good job. I did this two weeks before the problem occurred. The local specialist garage did a good job I believe, it just does not help me now with goodwill. I am just very surprised and disappointed to have such a fault in such a young vehicle.

If the car was fine before the garage carried out the oil change then  maybe they have drained the diff instead of the haldex? but id be surprised if the car was fine for the following 2 weeks with no funny noises etc,how many miles had you covered in the 2 weeks since the garage worked on your car? What oil is listed on your bill & how much did they use? I have attached a picture of the haldex drain & re fill points & also the Rear diff drain & re fill points,the haldex drain plug could be tricky to find if you dont know in advance which one it is. 

Having looked at the video again, there appears to be oil film around the Diff drain hole and the Haldex Filler hole. but none around the Haldex drain hole or the Diff filler hole. Anyone else think this looks a bit strange?

Appreciate it doesn't help, but it does all makes Skoda Extended warranty look good value. Not sure how much it was on a Yeti, but £630 on a Karoq, £515 on an Octavia 5 years 100,000 miles

shame Skoda don’t charge the extra £500 when new and provide a 5yr warranty.

Warranty is very unlikely to cover poor workmanship such as this appears to be. It would cover component failure, but not negligence.

21 hours ago, Sad555 said:

you have brought your vehicle to be inspected because it’s been picked up on a low loader after some sort of major failure with a hole in the diff with the lubricant dripping out(what’s left of it) and a mechanic points out  you have 4mm on your tyres  and wear on suspension,get real ,is he taking the pi$$ .or was it the blind mechanics day off.

Yeah and they didn't even check the wiper blades, oil, coolant or windscreen wash fluid 

 

Basically they pointed out all the things that would earn them a fair amount of cash to fix and I bet they wouldn't have even spotted the volcanic hole in the diff should he not have known about it already.    They probably would have just said "oh that's not diff oil,  just condensation from the a/c compressor". 

Edited 5 April, 20188 yr by penguin17

Re Karoq Warranty.

Good to buy an extended warranty before the car is first registered, and anyone buying a new Yeti Unregistered might pay for that, 

not much use though with a car discontinued, other than for a Unregistered.

 

As to a Skoda Warranty on a car out of Manufacturers Warranty, that is available, and there are T&C's.  Someone not Servicing using the OEM fluids parts would invalidate a claim, much like a Technician putting the wrong fluid in the wrong place.

But then if that happens they or their employer is insured for such errors or incompetence.

 

Extended Warranty from ŠKODA Insurance – putting ŠKODA into your insurance..mhtml

 

As to how many weeks or miles after a Haldex service and failure, others have reported failure weeks after.

Maybe the usual short runs, commute are no issue, run it on a long journey, up a motorway towing etc and the fluid or lack off, or the wrong fluid, heat and the inevitable.

Edited 5 April, 20188 yr by AwaoffSki

I'll be doing this ^^ when I take delivery of my Superb, later this month.  It's potentially the car that I will be keeping for a while so I'm going for extended warranty and I'm also going to put my faith back into main dealer servicing as it can help with 'good will gestures' further down the road.  

 

 

I don't know how often the oil should be changed. We had a 40k mile service on our Yeti the other week and they did recommend that the Haldex oil be changed. Didn't actually do it as we were trading the car in the next week anyway.  We had the car from new and got 3 free services as part of the finance from Skoda FS , so all the services had been done by Main Dealer. I'm not aware that the oil had been changed at any of the other services. We took the 5 year warranty with our Karoq and have spec'd it on our Octy Scout due in June.

2 hours ago, Smokeyjoe said:

Having looked at the video again, there appears to be oil film around the Diff drain hole and the Haldex Filler hole. but none around the Haldex drain hole or the Diff filler hole. Anyone else think this looks a bit strange?

Ive just watched the video & i agree with you,it looks like to me that the garage has messed up the oil change,if i was the op i would be asking the garage to show exactly which drain & refill plugs the undid & refilled & hope they are honest about it & if they have messed up then sort if free of charge for him.