May 2013 Octavia 1.6 SE TDI, about 75k miles, full Skoda service history.  Couple of weeks ago coolant level light came on, dealer diagnosed water pump failure and

this was replaced with the timing belt last week.  I wasnt aware that this was a known issue.  Once we got car back we noticed that the heater wasnt working.  Dealer suggested may be air pockets in the system with 3? different coolant systems working. Car went back in to get recalibrated? but still no heat.  Said to leave it a few weeks to see if it settled down. I know very little about cars but would have thought that the heating should be fully working assuming all the work had been done correctly?

 

Anyone any advice for us please?

Contact Skoda customer services to complain that your heating was broke by the dealers and they havent fixed it.

it takes at least an hour for the system to charge properly and it done on a computer, is your dealer doing it correctly? i had mine done last week at an independent but who had the correct software and hav no issues

@durhamfisher I am always too soft with these matters and usually adopt the give them a chance to put it right first attitude but I will definitely bear your suggestion in mind!

 

@JohnnyType2 This is a main Skoda dealer and I have to assume they are doing things correctly and when I was calling a few days ago when it was in the 2nd time he did say about it being on the system and it takes so long to calibrate.  Having said that I would fully expect that everything should be working perfectly once the work was done and it not taking a few weeks to settle down. It has been driven for 100+ miles since we got it back again. I will see how it is tonight and get back on to them again tomorrow if its not working again.  

 

I just remembered too that my wife said last night that when she was using the car in the afternoon and clicked the button to lock the doors the 4 electric windows all went down!  Something not right.

if its not heating then its likely they did not bleed it correctly, dont assume because its a dealer they know what they are doing! Ive seen them get trainees to do alot of the work they just check it over. 

Thanks @JohnnyType2, I will get them to take it back in and keep it until they have it fixed.  Will let you know what happens

17 hours ago, AidanL said:

clicked the button to lock the doors the 4 electric windows all went down!  Something not right.

If you HOLD the lock/unlock botton for long enough all the windows will go up/down.

Re heating,they made a bollix of it simples.

It's not bled properly.

Bring it back jump up and down,leave in a courtesy car.

Simple analogy,make a ham sandwich forget the ham is about the same as fit water pump don't bleed properly.

2 hours ago, 181ce said:

If you HOLD the lock/unlock botton for long enough all the windows will go up/down.

Re heating,they made a bollix of it simples.

It's not bled properly.

Bring it back jump up and down,leave in a courtesy car.

Simple analogy,make a ham sandwich forget the ham is about the same as fit water pump don't bleed properly.

If you HOLD the lock/unlock button for long enough all the windows will go up/down.

 

Didn't know that. Thought it was just on the remote only.  Will try when I come back to the car in a few weeks.

This sounds like an air lock in the cabin heater core. They suggested leaving it a few weeks because it will probably clear itself if you drive around with the heaters on max temp. 

 

You could try manually bleeding it yourself, plenty of videos online to demonstrate what to do. You just need to make sure you've set your cabin heater to max, so the core opens to coolant flow. 

Take back to dealer. Tech told me that the electronic thermostats for coolant can be opened by computer. Told me this when I asked about mechanical bleed valve, eg Allen key on some Peugeot.

11 hours ago, bmbmdmb said:

Take back to dealer. Tech told me that the electronic thermostats for coolant can be opened by computer. Told me this when I asked about mechanical bleed valve, eg Allen key on some Peugeot.

definitely this ^^^

and apparently the process can be interrupted and if it is? you have to restart it again.

Thanks @ian_feel_keepin_it_reel, @bmbmdmb, @JohnnyType2.  We have booked car back in to dealer to sort.  They were suggesting it could be something else but I said that heater was working perfectly before it went in for the water pump so it must be something they done.  They have actually carried out the bleeding twice now so will be interesting to see what they say. Won't be happy if they suggest it is something other than what they have done themselves. Will keep you informed.

2 hours ago, AidanL said:

Thanks @ian_feel_keepin_it_reel, @bmbmdmb, @JohnnyType2.  We have booked car back in to dealer to sort.  They were suggesting it could be something else but I said that heater was working perfectly before it went in for the water pump so it must be something they done.  They have actually carried out the bleeding twice now so will be interesting to see what they say. Won't be happy if they suggest it is something other than what they have done themselves. Will keep you informed.

strange that they have bled it twice, suggesting it didnt work first time around? interesting to see what they find and if they are truthful about it

***UPDATES****

Garage looked at car this morning and tests were run which shows everything working fine. They can only assume the problem has been caused by engine overheating or cross contamination of the system. I confirmed that the car was never out of coolant prior to the waterpump being replaced and was only driven about 5 miles the two times the coolant levels light came on. The car was low on coolant but not empty and temperature was never showing as raised. Both times the coolant was topped up with garage bought coolant. Was asked which colour it was but I cant remember if it was red or blue.    The car now needs to go through some degreasing process which takes about 4hrs and some special flush to clean the system.   There has been no mention so far as to who is paying for this but I am adamant that heating was working fine even after the coolant was topped up and that it only stopped working following the replacement of the water pump.   I am now waiting to get car booked in for this new process.  

**UPDATE**

Latest explanation is a build up of residue in the system which has become dislodged during the installation/bleeding process when the new water pump was installed. This has blocked or damaged the part that deals with the heating. As per above the car needs to go through some specialised cleaning/flushing process which has about an 80% success rate and failing that then some small radiator will need to be replaced.  The cost of the cleaning process alone is about £400. I queried who would be responsible for this.  They said that in the 3 times it had cropped up before 2 the customer had to pay and not sure about the other one.  I asked what could have caused this build up of gunk/residue as the car had been fully serviced all the way by Skoda but there is no explanation at present for this.  

3 minutes ago, AidanL said:

**UPDATE**

Latest explanation is a build up of residue in the system which has become dislodged during the installation/bleeding process when the new water pump was installed. This has blocked or damaged the part that deals with the heating. As per above the car needs to go through some specialised cleaning/flushing process which has about an 80% success rate and failing that then some small radiator will need to be replaced.  The cost of the cleaning process alone is about £400. I queried who would be responsible for this.  They said that in the 3 times it had cropped up before 2 the customer had to pay and not sure about the other one.  I asked what could have caused this build up of gunk/residue as the car had been fully serviced all the way by Skoda but there is no explanation at present for this.  

Do not pay,they made a *******s of the job ,simple as.

 

26 minutes ago, 181ce said:

Do not pay,they made a *******s of the job ,simple as.

 

Is there any merit in going directly to Skoda customer services to complain if garage wont cover it?

Ask if they intend to try and charge you,if so then got straight to Skoda.

15 minutes ago, 181ce said:

Ask if they intend to try and charge you,if so then got straight to Skoda.

It was an open ended kind of answer when I asked. Will call Skoda this evening when I get home.

Many thanks

Their explanation of the cause does not make sense to me. Reducing the amount of coolant flow does not give NO heating, maybe reduced heating. I wonder if the Pump had dust caps fitted at manufacturing for shipping/storage protection that were not removed when they fitted the new Pump? I’ve seen this with a Charge Air cooler.

 

You had heating, the replaced the Pump, you had no heating. How is that your fault?

3 hours ago, KevC_Derby said:

You had heating, the replaced the Pump, you had no heating. How is that your fault?

 

Indeed @KevC_Derby! Exactly the line we are taking. Spoke to garage yesterday and explained again this position and we just want  our car back

with the heating fixed and that we had already paid for the replacement waterpump and it is their responsibility to give the car back fully operational.

I suggested that something has gone wrong in the process either when the water pump was being installed or if this has happened 3 other times then the Skoda servicing/installation process needs to be changed to prevent a similar scenario. 

They said that they needed to take the matter higher and I am just waiting for them to come back to me.  Skoda customer service were to follow things up with me today also.

Skoda called back, I explained everything again. They are going to speak with their technical team and also with the garage and get back to us by Tuesday.

@AidenL I’d seen this post in my feeds but not read it before until now. 

 

It is clearly the garages fault as it was working before you’d taken it in and only after did you experience problems. The coolant isn’t normally changed when the pump is but you will get coolant loss in doing so. Obviously once the pump has been changed the coolant should topped up and any air burped from the system to avoiding an airlock which can cause overheating and more expensive repairs. I would bet my left nut that they hadn’t topped up the coolant and burped it afterwards. They should have run the car to operating temperature, checked for leaks, levels and heater function as they are all linked. 

The flush is nothing complex other than adding a solution to the coolant and allowing the car to run at operating temperature which will clean the furring build up in the cooling system as well as any gel products caused by mixing coolant types. It is then drained, flushed with clean water before filling with coolant. Labour costs are around 1-1.30 hours for this as the majority of the time the engine is running and not supervised. The coolant flush chemical is less than £10 and coolant around £30.  No idea where they plucked £400 from. Their excuse of the heater matrix (the some small radiator) blocking up due to some residue breaking off is unlikely and again they should have checked the cooling system was operating correctly and it would have been apparent then. 

If they try to make you pay for the fixing of their poor work demand a full report of the work done with a breakdown of costs and labour for each stage of the process including their initial fault finding and let them know that you will be taking it for an independent automotive engineers report and settling through a small claims courts including all expenses incurred by yourself. 

Many thanks indeed @CWARD for your detailed response, it certainly sounds logical!  They had to have known the heater wasn't working when the signed it off the first time we got it back.  

 

18 minutes ago, CWARD said:

No idea where they plucked £400 from.

I have been told that this is some sort of "degreasing" process which requires specialist kit which costs £1500.  The process takes 4hrs including set up.  The kit is available at another Skoda garage so the work will be done their or they will have to transport this kit to the garage I have been dealing with. Doesnt fit in a car.

 

Wish I had paid the initial bill with my credit card and perhaps there may have been some come back via them but in the mean time we will just have to wait to see what they come back with on Mon/Tue.  I will try and take note of everything and let you all know how it goes.  Thanks once again.

 

 

Edited 21 September, 20187 yr by AidanL
additional info.

Using a machine is much quicker to change the coolant. The degreasing/flush is chemical and takes around 20mins. If you watch the video below you see how easy it is. Stretching out to 4 hours set up is a fairy tale. 

 

Even Halfords only charge £37 and estimate an hour

https://www.halfordsautocentres.com/car-care/coolant-antifreeze-change

 

Stoneacre who are main dealers for many brands only charge £39.95 for a Mk3 Octavia

https://www.stoneacre.co.uk/treatments-part-two