Just got my 2021 Karoq Edition back from the dealers yesterday. It was in for service and the fifth look at the SOS system. First time it went in it had a new aerial, second time the other aerial was replaced, third time one of the replacement aerials was replaced (second dealer), 4th time, software update (second dealer), 5th time another replacement aerial (don't know whether its 2 and 2 or 3 and 1, first dealer). Went out today to get replacement tyres and it made it ~35 total miles until it alarmed again. Waiting to hear what they are going to do next. I was told there is a control unit, perhaps they'll change that. Thank goodness I'm not paying for it.

16 hours ago, Routemaster1461 said:

~35 total miles until it alarmed again.

If the car is sending an alarm, that will have noting to do with the Arial. It will be something in the firmware or a sensor in the car sending an SOS signal to the control box.
As it is automatic if the airbags go off, I would look for something there or between the airbag circuits and the SOS control box

If its anything like my old MY21 car, its not an SOS alarm as such, its just the SOS system reporting that it's not available! Mine was fine for the first year and would then periodically go into the 'failed' mode and put on the red light and warning message in the dash.

My conclusion was that it was a combination of the battery in the SOS unit not being fully charged and being in an area of reduced mobile signal. I never quite got around to taking it back to a dealer, every time I was about to, it would sort itself out!

8 minutes ago, NottsIan said:

My conclusion was that it was a combination of the battery in the SOS unit not being fully charged and being in an area of reduced mobile signal. I never quite got around to taking it back to a dealer, every time I was about to, it would sort itself out!

Quite likely the battery or similar, causing the system to reset or go into "safe" mode and phone home.
It didn't occur to me that it would have its own battery, (I am getting old and forgetful) but that makes sense these days with small long life rechargeable batteries and that it may need to work after an accident where the main battery has been forcefully disconnected from it.

I had an airbag problem on my 15+ year old Nissan, when anyone knocked the wires under the front seat intermittently it gave airbag warning.

The problem is these things that are intermittent is that they are difficult to find and therefore expensive on a per-hour basis at a garage.

Personally, I would put a can bus monitor on the input to the SOS control box... Easy for R&D to do, less easy on a production car where you need to start plugging on to the right wires on the loom. There can be more than one CAN bus on a car these days... Then you have to be able to read and understand the CAN messages, easy for R&D not so much for an ordinary owner.

Have you tried replacing the aerial? :-)

23 minutes ago, chills said:

Have you tried replacing the aerial? :-)

No, I replaced the car 😀

2 hours ago, NottsIan said:

If its anything like my old MY21 car, its not an SOS alarm as such, its just the SOS system reporting that it's not available! Mine was fine for the first year and would then periodically go into the 'failed' mode and put on the red light and warning message in the dash.

My conclusion was that it was a combination of the battery in the SOS unit not being fully charged and being in an area of reduced mobile signal. I never quite got around to taking it back to a dealer, every time I was about to, it would sort itself out!

Mine got to the stage where it alarmed 6 times in one day, in fact it alarmed 16times in 17 days. It never reset until I stopped the engine and restarted. I travel quite a lot on the continent, and I have no wish to repeat what happened one when it alarmed when on the M25 and M20 heading for Folkestone, leaving me without a safety system which I've paid for.

I have a full warranty so it will not cost me anything (I hope) to get this sorted. I spoke to the service desk tecnician this morning. Skoda want to run a whole series of tests on other parts of the system and need the car for 3 days I expect they will need it longer, but I have a courtesy car booked, so that will be no problem. As the car can be fine for days on end and then go into frequent failure mode, it may be difficut to sort unless they change everything.

2 hours ago, chills said:

Have you tried replacing the aerial? :-)

There are 2 aerial, I don't know whether ive had each replaced twice, or one 3 times and the other once.

12 minutes ago, Routemaster1461 said:

As the car can be fine for days on end and then go into frequent failure mode, it may be difficut to sort unless they change everything.

Mine would be fine for weeks and then go into the frequent failure mode!

Its final episode was last October, a few days before I was due to collect the new one. Was on holiday in the wilds of Norfolk for a week. SOS was in failure mode for most of the week. Fortunately it sorted itself out on the trip back. Told the dealer who was taking it in P/Ex that it occasionally had the SOS fault, but they didnt seem concerned...