Hello,

Now that Finland is getting cold again, I must use the heaters more often in our Superb iV.

While the car is on the charger in the mornings, the electric-only heater is preferred, but when the vehicle is parked somewhere else, the aux heater should be used to keep the battery charged.

Due to a long-standing issue with missed scheduled climatization, the climate control unit was replaced in April 2024.

This seemingly did not fix the scheduled climatization issue, but it might have improved the situation a bit. At least during the last two weeks, the heating seemed to work every morning.

However, there seems to be a new problem, which I believe was not tested after the climate control unit was replaced: The aux heater cannot be started from the Skoda Connect application (including the classic and the new versions); however, it can be started with the Webasto remote control and with the car's built-in button. So, the Webasto heater is functional, but commanding it from the mobile app is not working. Turning on the electric heater from Skoda Connect and using other functionalities from the application works, so there is no problem with the communication link.

 

I wonder if others are facing similar issues with starting the aux heater from the Skoda Connect application.

This functionality was very often used during the last winter, but, unfortunately, it was not tested after the climate control unit replacement since the weather was already changing to milder.
I believe this might be due to incompatibility between the new module and the rest of the car or between the Skoda Connect application and the aux heater Webasto unit.

 

Screenshots from the classic and new Skoda Connect applications are attached.

 

The classic app says:

"Something went wrong with the operation of the air conditioner. Please try again later. Please contact your Škoda service partner if the problem reoccurs. Thank you."

 

New app says:

"Auxiliary heating will not start
Unfortunately, we cannot complete your request right now.
This situation is likely to be a temporary connection issue please try again later"

 

Thanks for your help.

 

I’d take it back and ask who ever replaced it.

 

Another thing I can think of is the Skoda connect subscription hasn’t ran out has it?

Thanks for the reply.
 

The subscription is still valid for 3 more months, all other functions are available in the application.

 

I just remembered the same issue the car had at the beginning of 2023, which was resolved by a software upgrade or reconfiguration. It seems now likely that the replaced climate control unit did not receive the same settings as the old one.

I'm contracting the Skoda garage with these findings; hopefully, this will be sorted out quickly. Being able to turn on the Webasto heating 10-15 minutes before leaving is really valuable when the temperature drops to -20 Celsius.

I frequently find that I can turn on the heater via the app at non-peak times of day, like 10am, but it almost never works at, say, 8am. It usually gives some banal error message much like the one above, blaming 'connection issues'. I've just assumed that the Skoda servers are overloaded/undersized for use at peak times, given the poor quality of the rest of the VW software it doesn't really surprise me.

On 05/11/2024 at 15:05, SteveMcK said:

I frequently find that I can turn on the heater via the app at non-peak times of day, like 10am, but it almost never works at, say, 8am. It usually gives some banal error message much like the one above, blaming 'connection issues'. I've just assumed that the Skoda servers are overloaded/undersized for use at peak times, given the poor quality of the rest of the VW software it doesn't really surprise me.

For me, the Webasto heating from the MySkoda app worked well after the software update at the beginning of 2023; before that, it did not work at all, as the situation is now.
I don't remember any exceptional connectivity issue with the aux heater; I believe it is affected the same way as all other features in the app, with the usual lag.
I noticed that on Sunday late evenings (EET), the app seems to be completely unable to reach the car. Some scheduled housekeeping or garbage collection might be running on Skoda servers or simply a good old reboot😀. I also use Skoda Connect connectivity from my Home Assistant with reasonably slow polling (every 10 minutes), which also gets disconnected. I thought Skoda would throttle my connection, but they cannot be that conservative, and the connection seems to be back by the morning.

 

I talked with Skoda Connect support and delivered screenshots and logs (shaking the phone right after the error message) to them.
They returned with instructions that I needed to visit a shop for a firmware update.
Now, it seems that the firmware on the replaced climate control unit is not the correct one, perhaps a factory default.
However, I got the information from the shop that they might need to update the OCU (online connectivity unit), and they will see how much of the costs the importer (Helkama) would cover.
I would be quite angry if they tried to charge me anything after all the troubles, dozens of hours of troubleshooting, emails regarding the climatization unit, and missed heating schedules in the mornings with temperatures as low as -20 °C.
Also, if this were the lack of correct OCU (online connectivity unit) firmware, it would suddenly affect many Skodas this autumn, not only mine.
I should have a shop visit in two weeks and have this sorted out before the really cold days arrive. Hopefully, I will finally have a car with proper scheduled electric heating in the mornings and on-demand Webasto heating in the evenings.
I will update this topic with the final results and try to get as many details as possible about the job they will do with the firmware updates.

I’m having the exact same problem, more or less.

Starting the heater manually from the MySkoda app in the morning when the charger still is plugged in only works sometimes aswell.

To me it seems like software issues or as SteveMcK suggested, server issues.

 

I have owned the car for only a few weeks though. I haven’t made any software upgrades. But it’s quite a disappointment anyway.

On 21/11/2024 at 22:18, G-Enis said:

I’m having the exact same problem, more or less.

Starting the heater manually from the MySkoda app in the morning when the charger still is plugged in only works sometimes aswell.

To me it seems like software issues or as SteveMcK suggested, server issues.

 

I have owned the car for only a few weeks though. I haven’t made any software upgrades. But it’s quite a disappointment anyway.

Maybe I have some updates regarding this issue. Yesterday (2024-11-24), my Suberb iV received an OTA update. (Unfortunately, the description of those updates are very scarce, not even a version number or which modules are getting updated mentioned.)

After the update was ready, I rode in the car, which was parked at home. I attached the charger and locked the car. Afterwards, I tested the Webasto heating from the MySkoda app. Surprisingly, this time, it worked, and I let it run until the end of the heating session.

I did not have another time yesterday to test it again, but another test is coming this afternoon.

For me, after the climatization module was replaced last April, during this autumn, it worked twice out of 40-50 attempts, once yesterday, and once after I removed and reinserted the fuse of Webasto.

It is very unlikely that something is wrong on the servers side because the other functions work from the app. If I try electric climatization from MySkoda, that works basically always.

 

Unfortunately, this morning, the other, years-long problem revealed itself again: the planned schedule did not start the climatization; only the charging was done during the night. The car stayed cold.

Luckily, we were late, so I still had time to start the electric heating manually from the MySkoda app. I prefer not to use Webasto in the morning since the car is parked near our entrance door, and the smell can be quite bad.
The previously missed planned heating was around two weeks ago. I have the feeling that this was more frequent before the unit was replaced, but it could be something else that is not yet blocking the planned heating. Maybe it will be more frequent when the weather gets colder.

 

 

 

10 hours ago, Attila_K said:

Maybe I have some updates regarding this issue. Yesterday (2024-11-24), my Suberb iV received an OTA update. (Unfortunately, the description of those updates are very scarce, not even a version number or which modules are getting updated mentioned.)

After the update was ready, I rode in the car, which was parked at home. I attached the charger and locked the car. Afterwards, I tested the Webasto heating from the MySkoda app. Surprisingly, this time, it worked, and I let it run until the end of the heating session.

I did not have another time yesterday to test it again, but another test is coming this afternoon.

For me, after the climatization module was replaced last April, during this autumn, it worked twice out of 40-50 attempts, once yesterday, and once after I removed and reinserted the fuse of Webasto.

It is very unlikely that something is wrong on the servers side because the other functions work from the app. If I try electric climatization from MySkoda, that works basically always.

 

Unfortunately, this morning, the other, years-long problem revealed itself again: the planned schedule did not start the climatization; only the charging was done during the night. The car stayed cold.

Luckily, we were late, so I still had time to start the electric heating manually from the MySkoda app. I prefer not to use Webasto in the morning since the car is parked near our entrance door, and the smell can be quite bad.
The previously missed planned heating was around two weeks ago. I have the feeling that this was more frequent before the unit was replaced, but it could be something else that is not yet blocking the planned heating. Maybe it will be more frequent when the weather gets colder.

 

 

 

Does the OTA update start itself? Or do you have to start it manually? If so, how?

 

Maybe not a server problem. But the Webasto heater always starts when using the remote key for me. And just like you, when I use schedule the battery powered heater wont start. But starting it manually with the app it most often does work. It seems it works less often when the charger is plugged in. But I’m not completely sure thats true.

 

For me other functions like locking/unlocking the car doesn’t work either. So thats what making me believe it’s software/server related.

I remembered this the other day, when I tried my first "planned" pre-heating and obviously it did NOT work.

Strange because I stored it, and when I turned off the car, the aux heater light stayed on a few seconds, and I took this as indication

Luckily I had sometime for some extra loading so I put it manually on but I will have to investigate.

 

Before this, I've started it few times on manual, no problems.

I also will try to load the Skoda app and see what happens ...

17 hours ago, G-Enis said:

Does the OTA update start itself? Or do you have to start it manually? If so, how?

 

Maybe not a server problem. But the Webasto heater always starts when using the remote key for me. And just like you, when I use schedule the battery powered heater wont start. But starting it manually with the app it most often does work. It seems it works less often when the charger is plugged in. But I’m not completely sure thats true.

 

For me other functions like locking/unlocking the car doesn’t work either. So thats what making me believe it’s software/server related.

I need to always manually accept OTA updates, basically just pressing accept or install or something like that when the car is stopped.
But I was only lucky right after the OTA update. It was not possible to start a new Webasto heating session. Yesterday afternoon and evening the whole MySkoda was unavailable for me (was it only me?), so I could not do further tests I planned to have. I tried turning on the Webasto from the MySkoda app a few times this morning, but it failed. 
Maybe some module gets to an initial state after the software update, and that allows Webasto to start from the app. I should do another test by reinserting Webasto's fuse, as I remember that was another occasion when Webasto worked from the app once.

Manually starting the Webasto with a remote or the dedicated button in the car always works so that part of the system is flawless.

 

If you are also facing the missed planned climatization, then my problem is not that unusual. At least I know another person here in Finland, and now you are from Sweden. This could help Skoda do the troubleshooting! Have you opened a case with that? This is an offline function; that is, it should run whatever the momentary status of the MySkoday app and servers is.

 

Locking and unlocking the car works for me, though I rarely use it. However, that required a visit to a shop to sign a contract enabling the feature for me. Have you done that?

Generally, all the other features from the MySkoda app work OK when the app works. The problem is that it often does not, like yesterday's whole afternoon and evening. Maybe it gets better when they disable the old API in six days.

Edited 26 November, 20241 yr by Attila_K

5 hours ago, Attila_K said:

I need to always manually accept OTA updates, basically just pressing accept or install or something like that when the car is stopped.
But I was only lucky right after the OTA update. It was not possible to start a new Webasto heating session. Yesterday afternoon and evening the whole MySkoda was unavailable for me (was it only me?), so I could not do further tests I planned to have. I tried turning on the Webasto from the MySkoda app a few times this morning, but it failed. 
Maybe some module gets to an initial state after the software update, and that allows Webasto to start from the app. I should do another test by reinserting Webasto's fuse, as I remember that was another occasion when Webasto worked from the app once.

Manually starting the Webasto with a remote or the dedicated button in the car always works so that part of the system is flawless.

I haven’t noticed any updates popping up yet. Non other than CarPlay updates, claiming it will update some of the apps. And I accepted those.

 

I didn’t really use the app yesterday afternoon/evening. So I can’t confirm that it didn’t work for me either.

 

5 hours ago, Attila_K said:

If you are also facing the missed planned climatization, then my problem is not that unusual. At least I know another person here in Finland, and now you are from Sweden. This could help Skoda do the troubleshooting! Have you opened a case with that? This is an offline function; that is, it should run whatever the momentary status of the MySkoday app and servers is.

No I haven’t opened a case (yet). I have only owned this car for about a month. So I haven’t really done any tests or so. Rather more like I have just acknowledged whats working and whats not.

 

I haven’t thought about it as an offline function. But now that you mention it, it makes sense.

 

6 hours ago, Attila_K said:

Locking and unlocking the car works for me, though I rarely use it. However, that required a visit to a shop to sign a contract enabling the feature for me. Have you done that?

Generally, all the other features from the MySkoda app work OK when the app works. The problem is that it often does not, like yesterday's whole afternoon and evening. Maybe it gets better when they disable the old API in six days.

 

No! I haven’t signed any contract about that. I had no clue that was needed. The dealer never mentioned it. And when I tried using that function I have only got an error message as response. No information about any actions needing to be done.

Like you’re saying, it’s not a function that is really important. But it have occured situations when it could have been handy. Like when carrying my kid and some luggage from the car to the house. Not beeing able to pull the carkeys from my pocket and lock the car on spot… luxury problems 😅

I have some news regarding the unavailable Webasto heater from the MySkoday app. Actually, nothing was done to this today, but I was in the shop to have it fixed, and to have the missed scheduled heating further investigated.
It turned out that the importer wanted to charge me for some software updates/adjustments required to restore the Webasto remote control, which worked perfectly until they attempted to fix the missed scheduled heating by replacing the climate control unit in April 2024. So I'm quite confident Skoda is behind the broken Webasto remote control from MySkoda app, either because the new climate control unit does not have the same firmware/settings as the old one, or they did something to the server infrastructure, which broke the compatibility with the car. By the way, nobody did anything to the car's firmware or settings after the unit was replaced.
First, I do not accept this attitude to customers (they already wanted to charge me partially for the new climate control unit, but that was sorted out). They break something, and then they want to charge the customer for the fixes.

Second, they gave wrong instructions to the shop. So, even if I wanted to pay for restoring the Webasto remote control, it would not have been possible to do anything. Additionally, no instructions were given on what the shop should do to troubleshoot the missed climatization plan further. However, the appointment was originally booked for that purpose.

 

15 hours ago, G-Enis said:

No I haven’t opened a case (yet). I have only owned this car for about a month. So I haven’t really done any tests or so. Rather more like I have just acknowledged whats working and whats not.

 

I haven’t thought about it as an offline function. But now that you mention it, it makes sense.

It is good to start testing thoroughly. It looks like the scheduled climatization plan fails once every two weeks, and there should be around three mornings with a pre-heated car per week. That means one out of six missed. This might have been worse in the past, but I'm not sure. Earlier, we used to pre-heat five days a week, and at least one morning was a disappointment with cold car. Yes, you can use the car infotainment UI to configure those scheduled plans, but it does not seem to make a difference. The MySkoda app and the infotainment are in sync regarding those plans, but it still fails randomly, no matter which interface is used for the scheduling. 

 

15 hours ago, G-Enis said:

No! I haven’t signed any contract about that. I had no clue that was needed. The dealer never mentioned it. And when I tried using that function I have only got an error message as response. No information about any actions needing to be done.

Like you’re saying, it’s not a function that is really important. But it have occured situations when it could have been handy. Like when carrying my kid and some luggage from the car to the house. Not beeing able to pull the carkeys from my pocket and lock the car on spot… luxury problems 😅

Sometimes it is a lifesaver, for example, when you need to open or lock that car, but your partner's purse has your key, who has already walked out of reach.  

Latest update:

Webasto control from MySkoda app is still unavailable, except the few times when it works. I have yet to find the reason why it starts sometimes, but I have a vague idea.

Since I had been testing the functionality multiple times daily, few times I received a warning in the MySkoda app related to the 12V battery: "Battery protection limit reached. Some remote controls are now disabled—low 12V battery level."

I even charged the 12V battery with my AGM-compatible charger and measured the voltage several times. The resting voltage (off-state of the car) was around 12,38V and 11,98V at the moment when Webasto was attempting to start.

This seemed a bit too low, as it also seemed to be less than my neighbor's Suberb iV's 12V battery, which showed around 12,60V while the car was off and 12,15V when Webasto was starting.

 

I also informed the importer in Finland (Helkama) about my latest finding, and I expected some actions related to the 12V battery.

However, today, I received an email stating that they would update the OCU/Emergency call system as a next step (it seems to me like trying instead of knowing what to do).

Also, they want me to cover the costs of the software update, which is basically the correction of a buggy Skoda software.

I don't get this attitude from Helkama/Skoda. If they assume some software bug (which was not there earlier), how do they dare ask the customer to pay for a fix that was either caused by an OTA update, incompatible changes in the cloud/MySkoda app, or, in my case, maybe the new climate control unit due to the failed warranty fix attempt?

Either of those options is causing the new issue; the responsibility is at the manufacturer!

Or can they just regularly break something and ask the customers to visit the shop to fix what they broke and issue an invoice?

 

Anyway, my question is: Has anyone had an issue with a faulty 12V battery in a Superb iV?

Of course, as I have the factory Varta AGM 12V battery in the car, which was never disconnected, I do not want to start testing by myself with other batteries before Helkama/Skoda further investigates the issue.

Hello,
Updated from January 2025.

Finally, after sending numerous emails and long calls to the importer and the garage, the Webasto remote control from MySkoda app issue has been resolved.

It turned out that in the spring of 2024, when the garage replaced the Control Unit for Air Conditioning as a vain attempt to fix the long-open issue with missed scheduled heating, they did not update the module to the better (I don't say right) firmware version.

The replaced module had the old version 2101, which has now been replaced with version 2301.
After the correct firmware was installed on the module, the Webasto remote control from the MySkoda app was immediately restored.

 

Now, the original problem of randomly missed scheduled heating is back, and it is very soon celebrating its second birthday! At least I reported the issue first on February 1, 2023.

Actually, after replacing the air conditioning Control Unit last spring, the missed scheduled heating problem was not solved, but perhaps it became less frequent. 
On 2025-01-21, I started testing the scheduling again after the firmware upgrade, and since then, the heating has been missed 2 out of 4 mornings. (One plan is configured with weekday morning preconditioning .) 

I'm basically back where it started 2 years ago. It is unbelievable that nobody is there to identify why the schedule is missed and what should be replaced or the configuration adjusted.

 

Besides having this issue, nowadays, I regularly face the Unavailable status of that car in the MySkoda app in the afternoons/evenings, despite the car always being online in the morning. I believe it started 2024 autumn, but I'm not sure.

I even disabled the "Vehicle wake-up" function in the MySkoda app, which has a daily limit of 3, but that did not help. By the way, does anybody have any clue about what wake-up does in the case of Skoda Superb iV?

I called Skoda Connect support, and they recommended that I book an appointment at a Skoda garage to restore the functionality without mentioning what the problem is. I believe they have applied some updates to the cloud parts of the infrastructure, and perhaps the OCU must be brought up to a newer version. 

I think they want me to pay for the fixes, even though Skoda caused the problem by creating a mismatch between the car and the cloud servers.

I asked them to clarify the job to resolve the issue. After all, I should make an appointment for something.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I actually had my car at the dealer the same day you wrote you last message, Attila_K. But I didn’t want to reply before I tested my car properly.

 

My local Skoda dealer resolved my issue with Webasto remote control from MySkoda app aswell. And I think they did the same thing, more or less. They said they updated the heaters firmware. Which is not included in the car system software, thats how I understood their explaination. And now starting the heater in petrol mode works pretty much flawlessly. The app is still pretty ****ty.. Sometimes I get a error message when starting the heater. But when I get to my car the heater is on. So it works even though the app is saying it isn’t…

 

Regarding the schedules, it seems to work ok now. The first tries it worked just as it should’ve. But sometimes it just kind of works. The times it worked worse it seemed it had started the heater to late. It was barely warm. I could hear that the heater was on, but there could still be frost on the windshield for example. Actually, the times it worked most pleasantly, I had separate plans for climate control and charging. For example, I don’t charge my battery at work so I only planned a departure time for climate control. And the car was plenty warm in time, spot on. But I’m not certain if separate scheduled plans is the reason for that.
But honestly, I don’t think I will bother too much with schedules for climate control. Using the webasto heater with both the remote and the app works for me good enough, now that I’m used to it.

 

But! They haven’t yet resolved my issue with locking/unlocking the car in the app. And that is something they should be able to enable at the dealer. But my dealer can’t even reach that part of the system where they are suppose to be able to do this. The guy from the dealer told me that he gets access for the systems where they do this for VW and Seat, but not Škodas part of the system. Seems pretty strange to me… Anyhow, I believe they will be able to solve this in the future.

It is now the last day of March 2025, and I'm still experiencing the same issue with unreliable scheduled heating that I first reported on February 1, 2023. It has been over two years now, without any improvement. In fact, the situation has gotten worse.

Currently, remote control of the car is no longer available through the MySkoda app; the primary user cannot be configured in the infotainment, and removing the old user is simply unavailable. This is the result of the garage visit on March 17, 2025, which aimed to resolve the scheduled heating issue. A new visit is planned for April 16, 2025, to conduct deeper troubleshooting. I just wonder why more thorough troubleshooting was not taken as the first action? Or if they are unable to find the reason, simply replace all modules which might fail. If it still fails, the problem is with the CAN or Ethernet link between modules.

After the firmware update of the climate control unit in January 2025, I began documenting the results of all the scheduled plans. I shared them with Skoda to help pinpoint the problematic component.

I will also share these logs and results here; someone may have some insight into what might cause this very irritating issue.

From the results, it is visible that scheduled heating starts more reliably on Mondays, which might indicate something related to the calendar or perhaps the larger gap between activations due to the weekend. Please take a look at the attachment.

On 13/02/2025 at 23:08, G-Enis said:

My local Skoda dealer resolved my issue with Webasto remote control from MySkoda app aswell. And I think they did the same thing, more or less. They said they updated the heaters firmware. Which is not included in the car system software, thats how I understood their explaination. And now starting the heater in petrol mode works pretty much flawlessly.

@G-Enis, yes, I'm sure that unit needed the update for you, too. Actually, in my car, the same update was performed at the beginning of 2023. However, after they replaced the module in April 2024, the old firmware version was reinstated with it, and Webasto control became unavailable. Now, Webasto works when the MySkoda app is functioning. The issue here is that the remote control becomes essentially unavailable every afternoon and only returns around 2:00 to 3:00 in the morning. Therefore, when we need Webasto before leaving the office, it is not available. Another mysterious issue, maybe related to the main scheduled heating problem.

On 13/02/2025 at 23:08, G-Enis said:

Regarding the schedules, it seems to work ok now. The first tries it worked just as it should’ve. But sometimes it just kind of works. The times it worked worse it seemed it had started the heater to late. It was barely warm. I could hear that the heater was on, but there could still be frost on the windshield for example.

I also complained about it, and it might even be configurable in the adaptation of one unit, but the scheduled heating starts only 10 minutes before the planned departure, even at -20 °C. That is basically enough for nothing. However, I also learnt that the heating might last for 40 minutes, which already gives some better results. The trick is to schedule your program 30 minutes earlier before you actually leave.

On 13/02/2025 at 23:08, G-Enis said:

But! They haven’t yet resolved my issue with locking/unlocking the car in the app.

At least this one got sorted out pretty fast from me, still back at the beginning of 2023.

Scheduled_heating_analysis_2025-03-31.pdf Scheduled_heating_logs_2025-03-31.pdf

Wht a nightmare for something that should be fairly simple!

Now that the season is finishing, I am going to have a go at my neighbour whose workshop is also a Webasto authorized install/service/repair, and see if he can scan my unit and spot anything worth mentioning, since I also have the same calendar problem ....