My understanding was that the VRS petrol had a chain cam and not a belt and was good for 10 years but on the health check Skoda showed me it said cambelt due in 48 months so I thought I'd check here as there's a lot of knowledge around.

 

Pretty sure it’s a chain...

Top health check !

Yep all EA888 are chain.

 

Great work from the dealer there... Makes you wonder what else they get wrong.

Thanks both.

 

To be fair to them they've been good on other things when I've spoken to them so hopefully everything else they got right!

2 hours ago, ahenners said:

Great work from the dealer there... Makes you wonder what else they get wrong.

They're not the only dealer to get it wrong regarding cambelt replacement.

 

Before my current 1.4TSI Octavia  my previous 3 cars (Audi, Skoda and Citroen) ALL had cam chains - but that didn't stop the Skoda dealer, the Audi dealer and the Citroen dealer all sending me letters telling me that their cambelts needed replacing

Unfortunately, not all members of staff at dealerships are up to speed on details like this, office staff and even some on the servicing side.  When the exhaust manifold needed replacing on my old MB W124, I rang several places looking for a spare.  I knew it was a potential problem as the car was then nearly 20 years old.  After lots of calls, I found one dealership member was an enthusiast and he went on line looking for me.  He found one in Yorkshire and told me which shelf it was on because he knew it was old stock.  I rang the dealership and the lady answering denied they had one.  I told her the shelf it was on and she came back amazed that a geezer in Somerset knew where their spares were.

 

More recently I ran a Toyota GT 86, lovely wheels.  Again, by using forums and finding out about things I was able to correct a number of mistaken assumptions by staff.  Once my Octavia is out of warranty, I will be using specialists.  It is not really the staff's fault as they are expected to know about a large range of models and years and try and keep up with ever changing specs and problems.  

14 minutes ago, Oldmansomerset said:

 Once my Octavia is out of warranty, I will be using specialists.  

Why wait? It can't invalidate your warranty if OE parts are used and it's not exactly like manufacturers offer 'goodwill' gestures for your loyal service custom, well not without a hard fight anyway. 

Yes - thanks for reminding me, they do mention it several times in the handbook.  I do have a specialist already and he always gets the OM bits for my other cars including going back to 1930

1 hour ago, penguin17 said:

Why wait? It can't invalidate your warranty if OE parts are used and it's not exactly like manufacturers offer 'goodwill' gestures for your loyal service custom, well not without a hard fight anyway. 

 

I would disagree with that.

I had an inlet manifold fault on my Mk2 Octy vRS that happened at almost 4yrs.

My vehicle had a full, main dealer, service history.

They started the offer at 40% goodwill without too much hassle and I finished at 60%.

I may have got that if I'd had no Skoda service history, I'll never know.

With "specialists" not actually being that much cheaper, I go for main dealer services up to 5yrs, at that point the goodwill ends and you may as well go where you like.

^^^

That should have been 100% down to Skoda not 60% goodwill on an over inflated price for part and labour.

They do rather well with Main Dealers servicing which is money for old rope and then when there are manufacturing failings out of Warranty and making it seem like they are a owners friend.

17 hours ago, Skoffski said:

^^^

That should have been 100% down to Skoda not 60% goodwill on an over inflated price for part and labour.

They do rather well with Main Dealers servicing which is money for old rope and then when there are manufacturing failings out of Warranty and making it seem like they are a owners friend.

 

I purchased the car with a 3yr warranty. I knew what I was getting in to and I knew that once those 3yrs were up, there was no expectation I'd see any kind of assistance on parts failure.

You can go down as many "sales of goods" routes as you like, but with zero proof that the fault existed at manufacture, you are not going to win anything that way.

I priced up the replacement at "specialists" - hate that word, you do not need a specialist to work on a VW, and with the 60% goodwill on the work, it came in considerably cheaper to go to the main dealer.

 

The main dealer servicing, for me on average every 18k miles, is close to what I'd pay at an independent garage anyway - however that very little more gives me the virtual stamp in the virtual Skoda service book and the ability to get goodwill up to an additional 2yrs after the warranty runs out.

Not much done at Main Dealer Skoda Servicing in Major Services for £279 if that is what people pay.

Oil & Filter and maybe a Fuel & Air Filter and maybe spark plugs, and a look see and report and Free Wash & Vacuum.

Money for oid rope.

Not much in the way of Preventative Servicing & Maintenance, that costs extra, Brakes, DSG, Haldex.