Coming back from Glasgow few weeks ago, when I was accelerating in Sport mode, my car suddenly showed me the error saying "Gearbox in emergency mode - no Reverse gear".  I was already doing 68-70, so enabled cruise control at 72 and continued the journey to Aberdeen. I realized that when I was trying to accelerate on the way, the car was accelerating only if I was pressing the pedal very gently, and harder pressure on the pedal (i.e. when going up-hill) resulted in car actually slowing down. When I got closer to home realized why this is happening - apart from reverse gear, car actually lost all even gears (2,4,6)... Managed to get back home safely, stopped the car in the side bay and tried to reverse - no R gear. Then I switched off the engine and switched it back on in 10 seconds. Surprisingly, all gears are back on and no error messages.

 

Done some investigation using VCDS and speaking to the garage I was told that it's the mechatronic unit that controls the DSG has failed. Then, I heard the price for this unit .... 2.7k ! This of course does not include any fitting and additional parts/fluids, this is just the mechatronic unit!  I was totally gobsmacked, we were about to go for a long holiday in Europe, and I could not afford such an expense... Speaking to one of my friends from Poland, he told me to check the Polish Skoda garage and get the pricing for this part....  So I've done that and got price for the same unit .... equivalent of £1k ! I could not believe the difference! I am familiar with "rip-off Britain" phrase, but I have never seen such wild price differences! 

On top of that, I was told that usually the entire repair in Poland costs approx £1.6k but Skoda covers half of that cost as they do admit (not every time!) that it's a common problem ... 

So the guys from Polish Skoda garage told me - bring the car here and the repair will be much cheaper - but I wasn't brave enough to take entire family to a trip across the EU potentially with odd gears only and no reverse   But I did order the part, and brought it back to the UK, getting it fitted on Wednesday ... Fingers crossed - I'll update once the car is back on the road!

 

 

I don't have DSG, but I have taken out the extra 2 years warranty, so bills like this should be avoided.

@rbss

Where did you hear the price of £2,700 including VAT? 

 

You can get the repair here for under £2,000 with a refurbished MCU & not a main dealer.

But is it a New / Refurbished MCU that it does require.

 

The failure rate of DQ381 MCU,s is becoming ridiculous & still VW Group seem not to be admitting Fundamental Design, Manufacturing or Material failings.

 

A refurbished / upgraded MCU beats a Like for Like 'NEW MCU' even if there is a 2 year parts & labour warranty from Skoda / VW.

?

Is it a Main Dealer doing it, and can you say who & where? 

Edited 12 August, 20241 yr by Ootohere

My car was bought used last year with 80k miles on the clock. I was offered extended warranty but declined.... I wonder though whether this would be repaired under warranty (from previous experience lots of things are not really covered by the warranties).   Car is 5yr old now, with 96k miles on the clock, and Skoda UK actually carried out the DSG maintenance in Feb this year. From what I was told DSG mechatronic issues can start at any time really, but most common from 60k upwards.   

@Ootohere - this is the price for the new part given by TPS in the UK.  I am aware that you can get the unit repaired under 2k, but considering I could buy new part for 1k, I decided to go for that - with replacement it should be under 2k as well.

The issue is that you are buying the not improved unit, so it is the labour cost when the replacement might be as crap as the original.

 

Who is doing it?

Or where in Scotland? 

 

Even Main Dealers can mess up fitting a MCU.   Some farm it out. 

I was told by the Skoda/TPS that the part I bought (based on its number) is the updated version of the mechatronic unit (I think there was some change in 2nd part of the 2019), so hopefully this will be ok. Skoda did verify the VIN and other details before I could order the part.  The unit is pre-programmed by Skoda to match VIN of the car (and therefore they say it's a non-returnable part).  My gearbox is DQ500, but I think the issues are similar across the range.

 

Repair will be carried out in Scotland, I'll wait and see how it goes before disclosing the name of the garage.

Good then that you have a DQ500.

 

DQ381,s MCU,s are failing in 2020,21,22,23 & even 2024 vehicles. 

 

I have a mate that is a top Independent Autobox repairer, as used by Dealerships, but in Angus and always busy.

 

As for who Parks of Hamilton uses, no idea if more than one place, but i would be checking out before using. 

 

??

Had your DSG been serviced twice? 

Edited 12 August, 20241 yr by Ootohere

From what I've heard (from both independent garage and Skoda in Poland) the failure rate for the mechatronic unit for DQ500 dropped to nearly zero after that hardware update in 2019.  We might be talking about the same garage, will confirm later on this week

My mate is Jeff Butler, 

Charles Butler Motor Engineers of Forfar. 

https://gearboxlist.com/volkswagen/dq500/

Damn, just read the referenced website.... DSG lifespan approx 250kkm, bearing/other issues around 200kkm .... not great knowing my car has done nearly 165kkm!

Unit replaced now, I only had a chance to drive the car back from Glenrothes (FifeAutotech) to Aberdeen, so far so good. I've got some friends coming over next week so will take car for a spin around Scotland.  Hats off for the guys at Fife Autotech, probably the most friendly and professional garage I've seen in the UK to date!

@rbss What did it cost in the end? 

all in (with part imported from PL) £1700. Still a lot, but roughly half the price with the UK sourced part...

Good.

Just as well to have it imported from Poland as it had to come from someplace, Germany or Czechia or elsewhere and then to Poland unless manufactured there. 

It doesn’t seem unusual that UK Skoda dealer pricing seems to vary so wildly.

 

This issue is worryingly common over on the Skoda Kodiaq Facebook group too, but with most being repaired under Skoda’s ‘All-in’ extended warranty. Those outside warranty are being quoted anywhere up to £1,500 for a replacement mechatronics unit via a main dealer.

 

Given that Skoda (as well as the wider VAG) know it’s an issue and aren’t doing more to support their customers is, well, typical of Skoda UK.

A very interesting thread for me, having been relayed 220 miles home from Wales yesterday by the AA (brilliant service, by the way). The breakdown was the fault discussed in the thread - I was driving an L&K Tsi S 2 litre petrol Kodiaq, registered in December 2019. The car has still only done 28k, and was bought from a main dealer last March.

 

My question - I'm not knowledgeable about cars, but have driven and liked Skodas for many years - is this. Are Skoda vehicles sold new still breaking down with this fault, or has it been addressed? If a new Mechatronic is fitted to my vehicle under the warranty, is it still equally liable to suffer the same fault?  

 

It seems incredible that such good cars have been sold with such known issue for so long. 

Edited 25 August, 20241 yr by zander1

I'll chip in with what I've heard - the garage who was replacing mine (FifeAutotech) was saying that there was some change in the mechatronic units after 2nd part of 2019, so far they have not seen the issues with the new part. What I don't know, is whether this is applicable to DQ500 gearbox which I have, or to others as well.  And perhaps this is due to the fact that some of the cars that have the new mechatronic units fitted didn't do much mileage?  Skoda Poland was saying that they are still regularly getting issues with the DSG gearboxes, mechatronic is one of the most common problems.

 

After reading a bit about this issue on the net, it looks like some of the problems might arise when the gearbox oil is not changed too often - this of course does not explain why these units fail after 28k (sic, that's a new car really!). The other thing is that VAG constantly changes the  advice/requirement for the DSG maintenance. After calling few garages, I was told 1) oil doesn't need to be changed 2) needs to be changed after 120k miles, 3) changed after 40k miles 4) changed after 40k miles only if you towing/constantly driving like mad.... All Skoda garages btw

 

The other thing is that over last few years, I consistently lose my confidence in branded garages....  Seen instances where things that were ticked on the list were not done, seen oil spilled on the engine, seen loose parts left after job, or tools left in the engine bay after jobs ...  

 

My recent approach to all my cars is ... changing the engine oil/filters on annual basis (all cars do less than 10k miles), maybe an overkill but ... little cost, easy job. If I'm going to get a new car with automatic gearbox (I do like Kodiaq a lot, so that issue with the DSG would not discourage me from looking to buy another), I will be changing the gearbox oil between 20-25k miles in some private garage with good reputation (or learn how to do the job myself :D).

 

 

 

Many thanks, rbss, and strangely remarkable timing. This afternoon I've been told that the parts required are now on back-order - which means nobody knows when they will be available. I was given an explanation by the service receptionist on the phone that this is all to do will the Ukraine war, at which point I politely put the phone down, and sent an email. The service manager - it's a Skoda main dealer - did his job professionally called me back then and said he thought they might have the parts within a couple of weeks but obviously he couldn't etc etc...

 

I agree the Kodiaq is a great car in many respects (I've had Skodas for many years) but I'm afraid I have lost confidence in the brand, especially as there is no certainty that DSG issues will reoccur on the next long journey. So I'm looking at RAV 4s and seriously thinking about changing brand after a lot of years.

You might think that VW Group would try a bit harder to satisfy demand for replacement parts quickly especially ones that they used with p!sh poor reliability, they are reducing the  production of vehicles and ration what ICE vehicles are being delivered while they make sure they have the 22% EV,s first registered to stop them having to be fined  £15,000 on every vehicle because they missed the target.

 

They seem to ignore that the demand for replacement parts like a MCU are because of their Fundamental failures in design, manufacturing, material or workmanship. 

Ootohere - this is simply socialism in action. The future looks awful, especially for people who love cars. 

I think the issue with the mechatronic units (not sure if all of them, but certainly the one I bought for my DQ500) need to be .... pre-loaded with software that links them to specific VIN number - this is done in the factory so you cannot really purchase these parts up-front (given the price difference I thought about buying a few! :D:D:D) . Totally ridiculous, but I'm guessing all manufacturers are stupidly follow this trend ... give it few years and if we can still drive, you will have to get the brake pads with soft pre-loaded to your specific car....

@rbss looking at this thread my partner as the same issue with the car. Can you send me the link for the unit you bought from Poland? Car going into emergency mode, no reverse, then turn vehicle off then back on after a minute and it resolves. Usually starts again about 20-30 mins into a journey. 
Got a friend who is a mechanic looking at options but be good to have a few more.

car is Skoda Octavia 2019 vrs tdi 

Would need to dig out the invoice from Skoda Poland (official Skoda dealership), thought I've got it with the rest of car docs but it's not there. Anyway, when I was discussing it with Skoda, this was the part number that was quoted/ordered : 0BH325025PZ3R .

 

Please note there are several different models/versions of the DSG so not sure if it is the same for your car, someone with VCDS should be able to confirm.

 

Gearbox was pre-loaded with some software based on VIN (had to provide it to Skoda Poland along with some other info) and it will be locked to the car.

 

Apart from that I can definitely vouch for Fife Autotech garage, they have done great (and quick) job replacing the unit.