Common faults with Skoda cars

[sparky2]

How about a list of common faults with Skoda cars, while we have a 3 year warrenty then the garage sorts it out (brill), but after that we have to PAY for the main dealer to tell us what common faults are on our cars. If everybody lists whats gone wrong with thier cars and whats been found to have caused the fault etc then we could rectify common problems without going to the main dealer.

[Dr Zoidberg]

Clutch master cylinder failing on cold days.

[DGW]

It's been done already for the Fabia. Try using Search.

[sparky2]

we have a Fabia and an Octavia both Tdi

[sparky2]

The Octavia has a fault at the moment - the wipers dont function now and again when on interval time or slow speed but work on fastspeed, and then they work for a while in the other modes, have taken out the relay and cleaned out the contacts on both relays but problem still persists, could it be the parking contact section on the motor dirty ?

[devonutopia]

common fault is embarrassing drivers in much more expensive machinery.

But on a serious note, I'm not sure there is a serious fault on Fabias, especially TDIs? I think the ARB bushes may be an issue if modding goes on. However a well serviced TDI engine should go on forever, as my now departed 164k mile Octavia showed.

[lozparry]

I have had 3 sets of front discs and pads on mine and are overdue for more now, 2 sets were done under warranty luckily, they kept saying hevy braking :really: :surprised

[ScoobyChris]

From my experience, driver's heated seat packed up (fixed under warranty before I collected the car), air con temp evaporator sensor packed up ~60k miles, track rod arm (worn) ~63k and clutch pedal snapped ~67k miles. None was especially expensive to fix, although the air con fix involved the dash coming out which pushes the price up to 3 hours of labour, although Ross tells me he can now do it with the dash in place!

Chris

[William]

Well on the Octavia (both I have owned) the wipers give trouble. They are noisey and often do not switch off as soon as you set the stalk to off, often continuing for some time and then stopping half way up the screen. HAd nothing done to the vRS as the dealer failed misserably to fix the 1.6LX, despite changing almost every component. Taking that and the fact the same thing has happened on a 99 pre facelift car and a 2003 vRS, I assume that it is a 'characteristic' of the Octavia wipers.

For Felicia 1.3MPI owners the most common fault is the altenator (sp) failing.

[agent006]

most common fault i've found is the dealers being really rather poor.

[sparky2]

Any thoughts on the wipers being intermittant on the slow/interval setting is it the relay box or the wiper motor, anybody had a similar fault and knows the cure ?

[Witchfinder]

Dare I say it? Coilpacks.

[pbirkett]

most common fault i've found is the dealers being really rather poor.

Ditto.

[stan_deezy]

:confused: :confused:

My dealer: David Ian Skoda, Morecambe, have been a total ray of sunshine in an otherwise cloudy and dreary world of car dealers. Okay they never valet the car after a service, but hey, that's not what I'm looking for really: I'm looking for a good service and some expert advice and Graham, the Foreman, is the dogs wotsits when it comes to knowing about Skodas.

The wiper fault is well-known and Graham showed me what the problem was with noisy wipers and slow wipers: it's water getting into the spindles. He showed me how to access the spindles and spray in some waterproof grease and hey presto: no problems since!

In fact that was on the first Octy, so when it happened again I just did the job myself and saved all the hassle of booking it in. I also did the same trick on a friends SEAT Leon with exactly the same problem.

Graham also reprogrammed the ECU to accept the cruise control kit I'd fitted from the parts I bought from the Skoda Dealer (he did it FOC) and it only cost

[scrutineer]

I have had 3 sets of front discs and pads on mine and are overdue for more now, 2 sets were done under warranty luckily, they kept saying hevy braking :really: :surprised

:eek: how many miles did they last?i'm still on the original set after 45,000 miles so I cant be doing too bad

[stan_deezy]

:eek: how many miles did they last?i'm still on the original set after 45,000 miles so I cant be doing too bad

My Octy, which has to cope with double the motorway speed limit has still got the original brake pads and discs at nearly 60K

It's a driver education thing don't ya know

[lozparry]

:eek: how many miles did they last?i'm still on the original set after 45,000 miles so I cant be doing too bad

Ist change- 19000miles, warranty

2nd change- 65000miles, paid

3rd change- 70000miles, warranty

now on 100,000 and really should have changed when they started juddering about 20K ago :eek: well I've been too busy and getting rid soon do it before then.

PS I've seen this problem raised on the Top Gear website.

[sparky2]

Check your rear pads around 30,000 mls, I just caught them in time as they were just coming down to the metal, front ones had plenty of miles left.

[cmcm789]

Do Skodas have a warning light for when your brakes are due replacing?? If they don't, i think they have there priorities wrong, warning for no water in the washer resevior, but your brakes can look after themselves :confused:

JD

[agent006]

Rear pads generally don't have warning sensors on them as they aren't critical. Front pads should do though.

[WayneH]

Do the rear pads tend to wear before the front's then? :confused:

That doesn't make sense on a FWD car.

[JBS Auto Design]

You tend to find that the common problems Skoda know about , and they could be covered under the customer services warranty.

Alot of common faults are covered for a fourth year.

Even if they are not , if you give the customer services a call they will help.

Or if you have a good dealer they will get in touch with the Customer services rep. and get this for you.

Alot of the warranty claims that I did was for customer services claims.

On Fabias you have the con links that are common.

They got covered and anti roll bars.

[sparky2]

The Fabia had a fault once that the heater wouldn't turn down, but if you switched off the engine for two minutes it would clear the fault, fault was behind the dash after blaming the cabin filter which I had to pay extra for even though it was under warrenty and two or three trips to the dealer.

[bertJ]

Fabia horn push. Very hard to press and only works when you press in certain places and not always then. Supplying dealer said 'They're all like that' but another dealer fixed it very quickly.

[On-my-4th]

most common fault i've found is the dealers being really rather poor.

Can't say I've experianced this, both my local dealers have been really good with regards to the Skodas I've had.

Clist and Rattle in Failand (Bristol) (replaced immobilser with aftermarket jobbie after skoda failed to send the correct replacement fob TWICE )

and

Roadworthy (Skoda specialist NOT dealer, though they are getting the dealership back) (Replaced the Cylinder Head on one of my Fav's after head gasket went 2 months after warranty expired :eek: )

I have heard some horror stories about Williams Autos in Bristol (never used them myself) which is probably why Skoda are taking the dealership away from them and giving it back to Roadworthy.

Both the Aforementioned dealers are excellent in my book.

As far as common faults go, whenever I put Texaco fuel in my Octy, at about 1/4 tank it trips a fault in the Lambda sensor which sticks on the Engine Light on the Dash . This has happened twice now :( , never does it if I use Esso fuel though , I don't use Texaco fuel anymore .