In our 3 years old Rapid Spaceback a crack appeared in the instrument cluster lens. It was couple of months back when there was the hottest day at that point - car parked outside, stationary on direct sunlight. So no impact like going to a pothole or such. Later we noticed it's not just the crack but also the black rim around the two buttons under has deteriorated quite badly! Has anyone else had a similar problem?

Is it normal? Has anyone else seen something similar? 

 

Edited 2 July, 20187 yr by PrHr

I have never had such an issue in any of my Skodas since 2002. My Roomster is eight years old and do not suffer such an issue.

 

Maybe you should go for a warranty claim.

 

 

Yes - we have not experienced this in our previous Skoda and I checked before we sold it if we just had not noticed? But nothing.

We have already contacted Skoda but seems there is really not much we can hope for as we got suggestions "we pressed the buttons too hard" or "there is a scratch on the right from the crack"... will see what their decision will be. I just wanted to know if anyone else had similar issue (maybe not the lens crack but the black rim around the buttons going bad?) because the dealer (we are the second owner) suggested "this may be a common fault on this model of car".

 

That's a new one on me too, in any car, but extreme heat will cause a flaw in plastic to crack, just like it will a flaw in a glass windscreen.

 

Do keep us posted, but I don't think you will get any support from Skoda UK - just too many ways for it to deflect a manufacturing fault claim on this one and put it down to user error or wear and tear.

Will keep you posted, still waiting for the decision.

It's a lot hotter in the Czech Republic in summertime than it is here.

I'd be amazed if that's a heat related failure, unless the part was defective beforehand.

To be honest I thought the same myself that it can't be heat related but there is no other explanation why it happened. For some reason the material does move a lot though - the two cracks in black rim around two buttons vary from almost 0 to 1mm. When it's really hot simply you can hear the cracking noise as the material works against each other where the crack is and it stops only when the air-con cools the inside down a bit.

But just by the look at the rim on the picture it does not look "healthy"... I would love to know what's the cause. I think I would have to send it to some lab for analysis to get an answer to that...

I had a 2014 Rapedo for 3.5 years and it spent 2 whole summers parked up outside in the sun whilst I was abroad, without degradation of any interior fittings.

Yours must have had a manufacturing fault surely.

The case is closed, Skoda technician suggested it was caused by an impact from the outside (in other words we did it by god knows what but suggestion was we pressed the button too hard).

It was an assumption on their side, not anything they can say for sure. They can't explain what was the cause but apparently not knowing means not their fault. From my point of view there has been some sort of tension caused by material expanding way too much, but unfortunately I can't tell what material and where exactly.

Now I have seen how the lens looks like separately (not from our car) and must say it could be actually caused by the case in which the lens is sitting and that force if pulling to sides would result exactly in what has happened - crack in the middle and crack in the weakest point being the corner (does not matter what side, in our case it was the right side that cracked but you can see the left side has been weakened as well). For that reason there are all the minor cracks all around the black rim. Any impact from the top or front or simply from the driver's direction does not make any sense at all.

Something is simply not right.

That's opinion from my mechanical knowledge and seeing what the part actually looks like. (will post the picture later)

Of course my opinion is not considered in this case as

a) I am not the expert

b) I am the complaining customer (that makes sense) and

c) I can't prove anything.

 

Anyway, if there is anyone having similar problem let me know. My car was registered in February 2015.

My concerns are, if there was any impact from the outside (not aware of anything) why would the crack appear with a delay and actually while the car was stationary and not moving at all. And also, if whatever caused the lens to crack what else could be affected?