OK - bit of a rant really. Now had the Octy 1.6 for 5 months and thought I'd share the issues with the car in that time. In that time it's had the following - and each or these points involved a separate visit to the dealer:-

• Rear Passenger Electric Window Defeat switch replaced - wouldn't lock.
  
• Accelerator Pedal Assembly (fly-by-wire unit) "Cleaned-out."
  
• Accelerator Pedal Assembly (fly-by-wire unit) Replaced!
  
• NS Camber sensitivity "corrected" they swapped the rears tyres to the front which didn't "cure" it.
  
• NS Camber sensitivity really "corrected" (needed to be tracked) but not by a dealer this time!
  
• Starter Motor Replaced (changed just before delivery)
  
• CD Autochanger replaced - kept skipping.
  
• An attempt to re-align the washer jets - which failed. Asked if they could change 'em and was told "We can, but they could be worse than those ones on the car now!" Gave up.....
  

Following my ongoing moans about a grinding sound from the front end at low speed and a whining sound at higher speed, I was told by the service guy on a roadtest that "Nothing wrong there - It's normal road noise mate - just turn your radio up." Not really happy with this intelligent, professional and very useful tip, I went to another dealer a month ago. They roadtested and said "Wheelbearings" so: -

• They changed the front wheel bearings (they were shot allegedly) but it didn't cure the noise so....
  
• I moaned at Skoda HQ and they arrange to get a Technical bod from HQ to meet me at a dealer to look at it.
  
• Go round with him, he hears the noise (big relief from me!) and an all new and improved whine now developing from second gear
  
• Back to the dealership and they shove it on a ramp and now.....
  
• They believe that either the gearbox, diff or both are shot so it needs a whole new unit or total rebuild!
  

"It'll all be done under warranty." says Skodaman. Good think I. Climb back into the car switch-on and the Engine Management light is on - never happened before. Go find Mr Service Manager - "Hmmmm - that's due to the wheels being off the gound and wheels being turned by the engine." he tells me. A Technician is sent and he fiddles about with his Vagcom, resets the EM light but says ominously "If it comes back on again, just bring it back." Drive home with lack of power and misfires a-many, get home, leave for ten minutes, switch on and hey presto - EM light is back on again! So, back to the Dealer - another 45 minute drive; "We'll put it on the big computer this time!" says Mr. Service Manager, rather proudly! Wait around for another 30 minutes and then get told they can't reset it - the Crankshaft Sensor has failed OR it's faulty wiring! "We'll order a new one!!" he said with a smile! Hopefully should be in this week and should be able to do it whilst I wait.

So - all-in-all, one or two problems on a 2 1/2 YO car with 45k, but good service from Skoda UK and the second dealer. Shame I have to wait for two more weeks to get the car booked in and then I don't actually know if it'll be a new unit or re-build 'til they open up the box. I just hope these are the last bits to fail - there's only six months warranty left!

Yep , thats unlucky , although hopefully you should have had most of the problems sorted out under warranty.

Think how much it could have cost you if that lot happened a bit later!

Did the car have a hard life with the first owner? That's a disappointingly long list of defects, but on the bright side quite a bit of the car is going to be new by the time the warranty expires. :(

My 1.6 is about the same age and has 40k miles, I've had it 15 months now and I've had:

1. On collection they had fixed the ashtray spring, the driver's side remote central locking motor, one of the speakers and a cracked windscreen.

2. Persistent leak into passenger footwell which took about 4 trips to the dealer to fix (was a result of a missing drainage tube).

3. Few more speakers went before I went aftermarket.

3. Temperature gauge sender failed.

Other than that, my only concern is that it sounds like it's a diesel when I reverse it, and ffelan's question "has the clutch pedal always been that spongey or are you going to be buying a new clutch soon?".

So I wouldn't say you've bought a lemon, but I wouldn't say you were particularly unlucky either!

Rob.

Lemon and unlucky...

:(

:wave: I don't know if my dodgy electrical fault with the turbo was unlucky or a lemon, but obviously the turbo was a lemon and cutting out intermittently. It had to be replaced (under warranty thankfully) - and this is the most serious dealer fix problem I've had....

[no one mention that tyre!, ok? ]

oh, and I had a door barrel replaced under warranty, but that's about it - 46000 miles and this amount of trouble is fine in my book - and the last 10K has been very uneventful problem wise, but very exciting modding wise!

With only 6 months warranty left it might be a good idea to get everything in writing re: ongoing faults. It doesn't have to be a snotty letter to your dealer, just something they can file in case anything similar crops up in future.

Jason, how exactly can you have an electrical fault with a turbo?

You know what? It confused the hell out of me!

Basically, they first thought it was the turbo sensor but it was replaced and the turbo would still cut out... It normally did it under power, when cold, but would also cut out at the most inexplicable of times.

Restarting the engine after a few seconds of off-time would bring it back online, but then after a couple of miles of TDI power, and it would just suddenly jolt a little, and I'd back at SDI power (or even worse! :()

BUT, when they renewed the turbo it never happened again, so I can only assume something internally in the turbo was causing it to cut out. (a mate suggested perhaps the waste-gate was jamming open, but I never found out the precise reason - all I wanted was my TDI back with a T in the name again)

I don't know if I ever posted about it back along, but it was an incident that preceded my time in Briskoda.

:cheers:

Sounds freakily like the problems I have had with mine!!

Loss of power, reset ign, all power restored.

Looking at hoses \ DV loosing pressure somewhere next.

Sounds freakily like the problems I have had with mine!!

Loss of power' date=' reset ign, all power restored.

Looking at hoses \ DV loosing pressure somewhere next.[/quote']

Hmmm, possibly. But my "loss of power" was not like a gradual thing - It was a "CLICK" and a sudden reversion to having no turbo, and even having less get-up-and-go than a normal SDI (IMHO)

I could have my foot on the floor when it cut out - and I'd get to 60 in about 20+ seconds (revving it hard, but without the turbo it was hard) - and it wouldn't get above 80mph on the motorway, still foot to the floor. It was a very desperate period of my car's history, one which was thankfully solved and has not occurred again in any other part of it since.

even having less get-up-and-go than a normal SDI (IMHO)

Impossible. Absolutely impossible. From my recent experience of a courtesy car (Fabia) with the SDI engine, I can categorically say that if your car had worse performance, you'd have been going backwards .

Did the car have a hard life with the first owner? That's a disappointingly long list of defects...

Well, "Hard" is relative I guess.

It'd done 42k in just over 2 years, mainly motorway work - spoke to the original owner before committing to purchase and he'd never had a problem with the car. 20+K PA should not be really classified as "hard" for cars these days; we have cars that have done 100k in 12 months and have never had a problem and many more that cover 30k PA. I have to say that the service I've had from SUK has been very good and my ultimate aim is, of course, to get any further issues rectified prior to the warranty disappearing and then having to go to SUK for a "contribution" to cost.

...but on the bright side quite a bit of the car is going to be new by the time the warranty expires.

Yep - I guess that's true :1:

Well, Si - I've never had the dubious honour of driving a Furby SDI, but have driven a couple of non turbo diesel vans, and I'm sure they had more pick up and go. Normally in a non TDI, the revs still pick up at a slightly exponential rate, but during my little probs the revs, if anything, went up non-exponentially ( whatever the term for that is... inverse exponentially? ) - It was just real bad!

Well - oddly, the EM light went out last night after stopping at Tescos for SWMBO on the way home from work and hasn't re-appeared! Still - in for a new one anyway tomorrow PM