Following the Yeti, we have had our Karoq "Style" 1.5 DSG ("Edition" equivalent in UK) here in France for a year and, apart from having to solve the jerky start-offs - by switching off Auto Hold permanently and opting for disabling Stop/Start at the start of every trip - we are still delighted with the car.  Thanks to the good roads here, we even get pretty close to the expected fuel consumption.

However, in the past few weeks, one of the "Full LED" headlamps became covered with water drops all over the inside of the outer protective plastic cover.  It never disappeared.  There was a lot of this water, so that the left hand headlamp blazed out a diffused but pretty useless light  - especially when we drove at night in the UK.  Looking for a cause, like a stone impact, I found cracks starting from the top outside of the headlamp and spreading into the centre of the part but there was no impact damage  Clearly there was a stress failure.  The other headlamp was clear ...but there, in the corresponding corner, were the start of small cracks.  I set up a visit to the dealer. 
By the time I got to the dealer and to the person to whom my email had been directed, they must have had one or two other cars with the same issue because the tech manager had the papers already filled out and simply took a few photos before saying they would order lamps that day.  The entire headlamp units, that is.   The Lamp units took quite a few days to appear - from Czechoslovakia - but, two days ago, they replaced them, valetted the car and apologised for the inconvenience.   All of which was a bit different from one or two people's experiences in these pages, telling of dealers saying that folk should expect the lamps to evaporate any "condensation" and, essentially, to go away and not bother them.  
So, it would appear that, although we haven't seen anything about this type of failure mentioned anywhere, the Skoda dealers, at least in France, are ready to act.

Happy Karoqing,

Scribble

Was mentioned in this topic the other day - 

 

Scribble I think I might be one of those people that said some condensation goes away, that was our experience when the car was brand new and I mean only a slight misting of about 2cm square.  Yours look terrible this is obviously a fault that we all need to keep an eye open for.

Hi scribble, it's nice to hear from someone who is happy with their Karoq even though you have had problems, and this has been sorted! you don't know how good your dealer is until you have a problem.

Although mine is the Diesel 4x4  DSG we are delighted with it, a very nice car to drive and live with. We may be lucky but we have never had any major issues with the last 4 Skoda's and any minor probs have been sorted well by my dealer.

Happy motoring.

This is a little bit concerning since these examples show what appear to be stress fractures, not damage from an impact.

 

Replacing the unit is all fine and dandy, but unless they determine the cause then what is to stop the replacement unit suffering the same or similar fate? Unless they have revised the manufacture or tweaked the design of the unit slightly then I can’t see there being any guarantee against the same fate befalling the new units. Fingers crossed that your faulty ones were just rare bad units.

My guess is that water is getting into the seams between the lens and main body of the headlight and freezing, resulting in the stress fractures to the lens and subsequent water ingress.

 

I hope that the headlights are being replaced with ones that have had the issue resolved, otherwise if you get a wet / cold period they'll do it again.

I noticed today my headlamps fog up. It cleared a bit while left parked up and then when I got back in and took it for another drive it came back. Both headlamps and fog lights are the same. Haven't noticed any cracks so possibly bad seals? But if it's happening to all of them it must mean most of the Karoqs are like that?

SP I imagine that some temporary fogging like on yours is expected and not indicative of a faulty seal. Unless the light unit was vacuum sealed it’s unavoidable surely? 

 

The first photo in this this thread showed an unacceptable degree of condensate having formed whereas it is not particularly noticeable with yours. All cars be owned in the past, regardless of headlight type, have had some degree of transient fogging depending on environmental factors.

When I gave the car a wash I noticed that the headlight unit on the passenger side had fully fogged over but the other side was fine. Looked a little odd for a while but disappeared after half an hour. Checked for cracks but all appears okay.

9 hours ago, Breezy said:

When I gave the car a wash I noticed that the headlight unit on the passenger side had fully fogged over but the other side was fine. Looked a little odd for a while but disappeared after half an hour. Checked for cracks but all appears okay.

Cool. Seems like a common and somewhat normal occurrence then 

Had the same issue on my new BMW and it caused me concern for about a week, after which it didnt happen again. 

Gave the Karoq another wash today (Its a full two days since its last wash ) and no sign of the condensation so all is indeed good.

Hello, All.  Re "CONDENSATION" in our Karoqs...  I wrote my report on WATER in my left headlight because it was absolutely NOT condensation (which we've all had in the lights of previous cars and which the old, hot, bulbs got rid of after a bit) but great drops of water which did not diminish at all, no matter how long we drove or bumped over holes.  It never ran down the surface.  The inside of the lamp looked like someone had polished or greased the lens and then sprayed it with water. 

The give-away was the 10 cm split and other small ones, starting from the outer top in the lens where Skoda confirmed the water entered.  I mentioned that the other headlamp had the beginning of the same stress cracking.  The Skoda guys approached the car to examine, it WITH THE LAMP-REPLACEMENT JOB ALREADY FILLED OUT on their pad, so clearly it's a bit of an epidemic. 

I attached a photo in my topic in which the water shows.  It's thought that the water went in in storms, or car washes.

Really like the DSG Karoq, especially once I disarmed Autohold and got into the routine of disarming the stop-start! 

Happy Karoq-ing! 

On 23/02/2019 at 20:29, scribble said:

Hello, All.  Re "CONDENSATION" in our Karoqs...  I wrote my report on WATER in my left headlight because it was absolutely NOT condensation (which we've all had in the lights of previous cars and which the old, hot, bulbs got rid of after a bit) but great drops of water which did not diminish at all, no matter how long we drove or bumped over holes.  It never ran down the surface.  The inside of the lamp looked like someone had polished or greased the lens and then sprayed it with water. 

The give-away was the 10 cm split and other small ones, starting from the outer top in the lens where Skoda confirmed the water entered.  I mentioned that the other headlamp had the beginning of the same stress cracking.  The Skoda guys approached the car to examine, it WITH THE LAMP-REPLACEMENT JOB ALREADY FILLED OUT on their pad, so clearly it's a bit of an epidemic. 

I attached a photo in my topic in which the water shows.  It's thought that the water went in in storms, or car washes.

Really like the DSG Karoq, especially once I disarmed Autohold and got into the routine of disarming the stop-start! 

Happy Karoq-ing! 

 

I appreciate your photo and that you’ve had your lens / unit replaced but what your photo showed was condensation. Heavy condensation, but condensation all the same.

 

Condensation IS WATER and you can see on your photo that in addition to large droplets of water, there is also a fogging effect, which is typical of the condensing process. Water vapour contacts the surface and condenses into a liquid. If it was just straight up water from a splash then it wouldn’t be up the lens like that it would be swilling about. The very fact that the cracks weren’t where the water was means that water has ingressed into the unit, turned to vapour and then condensed.

 

I do realise that for you it makes no difference because it’s wet and shouldn’t be in there but to capitalise that it was NOT condensation is simply inaccurate. Google image search “window condensation” and see for yourself. Images abound of condensation that looks nearly identical to what you had in your headlamp.

Edited 26 February, 20197 yr by Stevieweevie

13 hours ago, Stevieweevie said:

I appreciate your photo and that you’ve had your lens / unit replaced but what your photo showed was condensation. Heavy condensation, but condensation all the same.

 

There are two separate causes here, but the symptoms are the same, they just differ in their severity.

 

The opening posters headlights have cracked, allowing in rain and road water. A clear manufacturing defect that is being rectified under warranty.

 

SizzlingPotato's headlights have the usual and regular moisture ingress, which is normal and explained in the owners manual.

 

Both issues are resulting in condensation, just of differing levels. A mist or fogging is acceptable. Droplets of water isn't.

 

Edited 27 February, 20197 yr by silver1011

Had my headlights replaced under warranty, same issues as mentioned in first post. The new ones do not  fog/mist at all, and its very humid around here with large temp variation. But the  dispersion of light in left one is kinda odd. Its not terrible but the old ones had more solid  and defined light spread  Some stripe like pattern is visible. It seems like is somehow out of focus when you park the car against wall. Is it possible to adjust focus?  I saw some screw like “rods” sticking  out on the back of headlights.

 Im kinda tired to go to dealershio, every once in a while a notice something, like for example right side courtesy light on left rearview mirror is again filling with water...even though its been replaced under warranty (or is it ?).

Edited 29 November, 20196 yr by Arsen

On 29/11/2019 at 17:06, Arsen said:

...like for example right side courtesy light on left rearview mirror is again filling with water...even though its been replaced under warranty (or is it ?).

 

Same on my Kodiaq, both sides...

 

 

9 hours ago, silver1011 said:

 

Same on my Kodiaq, both sides...

 

 

 

Had same issue, changed under warranty with new ones, no water ingress since 6 months.

Thanks, I'll mention it at the next service.