hi all,

long time lurker, first time joining/posting.

edited to add car details: 2012 diesel Skoda superb, estate.

my clockspring broke back in July 2023 and my usual trusted mechanic didn't have the ability to program it so I went to a local Skoda dealership.

lots of issue talking them into preordering the part (they weren't convinced that "grinding when steering, no horn, airbag lights on, steering wheel buttons don't work" was the clockspring, should've been a warning sign).

they replaced the part and forgot to program it, so I spent 45 mins after pick up hanging around waiting for them to program it.

less than four months later (Nov 2023) the new clockspring snapped. about 3000km in. luckily under warranty, so again, I try and convince them to preorder the part. they refuse, and I'm car-less for two days. on the plus side, they actually programmed this one.

now jump ahead to tonight, and while reverse parking I hear that dreaded click of the spring snapping. within a second of me saying "you've gotta be kidding me," the airbag light is on. obviously the steering wheel buttons are dead and the horn is nonfunctional too. we got about 25000km out of this one.

now, I'm pretty sure I'm covered under a two year Skoda parts warranty so my question is, how is the Skoda dealership stuffing this up so badly? should I try and ask for a refund, or keep asking them to do better? are there any hot tips I can give them on how to install this thing properly? am I wrong for expecting that this $1100 part last more than 18 months?

for context, on the second visit, the dealership performed an emissions recall and didn't tell me. car drove awfully for months as it relearnt to drive. I only worked out what had happened when I googled a mysterious code scrawled in the back of my service book.

Edited 28 May, 20251 yr by popritual

When mounting a clock spring, it is extremely important to have to steering wheel position match the orientation of the clock spring. The clock spring can only handle the ~3 rotations of the steering wheel. If the clock spring was mounted one complete rotation offset from the position of the steering wheel, it will break very quickly.

Edited 29 May, 20251 yr by andrehj

thanks Andrehj! I'll make sure to bring that up with them when I drop it off next week. I'll also be asking that they don't have an apprentice do the work this time.