Folks, my steering rack has an internal failure and I'm going to have to replace it.
Unfortunately, the warranty ran out on my Octavia VRS in December. I've contacted SKODA, who have offered to pay for 20% as a goodwill contribution, and are awaiting my thoughts. Obviously they would need to carry out their own diagnosis first (so don't know what their price for the job would be)
What I'd like to have is some kind of position to bargain from to try and increase their contribution.
To do this, it would be helpful to have some knowledge of other folks experience and what the amount of their contribution was.
Obviously, if others have received more in similar circumstances, then it may increase the chances of me asking / receiving more by using those examples.
Would love your thoughts / experiences chaps.
This is the invoice from the independent VAG specialist:
This is the email from SKODA:
"Good afternoon Mr XXX,
Sorry to hear you have issues with your steering rack.
Having checked the criteria for a goodwill contribution for your vehicle, I can offer 20% towards the repair.
We would need to carry out a diagnosis to confirm the fault before we could take this forward.
Please advise me of your thoughts.
Regards,
XXX MIMI CAE
Warranty Executive"
Cheers folks.
I had thousands of goodwill from Audi
My abs pump went
All done for free
My window regulators went - £50 each!
It depends who you get in the phone and how far to go
Steering racks shouldn't go on a modern car
Google it
Go on the forums
See if there are any known probs etc
Don't roll over
Stay polite but firm
They should do it for free
It's only done 41k
Ask them how long they expect s steering rack to last?
“Traced fault to internal knock inside steering rack”.
That’s not my understanding of the term “traced fault” :)
Can’t they open the thing up? Perhaps even (whispers) fix it?
Has anyone here ever had a 100% contribution out of warranty? I'm wondering how that conversation went!
Double post
I had an 07 TT ragtop
It went out of warranty
I advised that the item should surely last in excess of 100k miles etc and that vag have prided themselves on quality
I'd now ask to speak to the head of customer service by phone and I'd also be talking to the service manager of the dealership you use
Offering to oerhaps go 50/50 on another years warranty afterwards was also a good tactic if they'll goodwill this error
Thanks chaps, great replies in a time of need!
I've also tweeted to Skoda UK.....here's the link to the tweet folks, would be really helpful to getting something positive if you guys could comment & share?
Thanks in advance chaps,
https://twitter.com/TaitCammy/status/632503681787797504
Last edited by Scottishcammy; 15th August 2015 at 12:00.
20% seems a bit paltry. I've seen numerous 50/50s (or part supplied Gratis and labout paid for by customer). What bothers me here is that - assuming a rack is c£600 (?) the VW cost is probably no more than about £200, so if they offered the part FoC.............
I suspect they'dwant it fitted at a franchised dealer though........
I wouldn't have thought a steering rack should fail. The only one I've ever had was in a 3 series BMW after 100,000 and that was probabl;y down to sand as it was parked near sea for several years. I think Skoda can do much better with their offer.
It seems an awfull lot of money to tell you it's the rack! However many racks with internal ball joints can have shims removed to take up the play/knock It is usually an end ball joint problem, Also if by accepting Skoda offer it means using original parts and main dealer 80% will still be an eye watering figure, Many companies do perfectly acceptable Recon exchange or even OE rack for at least half the price, Using a local independent to fit it could save you hundreds off your 80%. Look into options and as said search forums, And Google exchange rack.
Totally agree folks, in all my years of driving I've never had a rack fail. Its rather odd.
20% seems very paltry, I just need to be careful in how I go about arguing my case!
More on this...........I don't want to cast aspersions on your Indie, but I just called my parts supplier and a replacement rack is £218 + Vat to me. So I'd sell it at c£450-500. £1340 fitted means £900 in labour with a typical indie charging £70-75 per hour?
The Octavia rack is two parts - the mechanical part (worm gear etc) and the electric motor. If the noise from your is in the rack, it can only be the mechanical part? I wonder if your indie and main delaer are quoting for a replacement motor as well?...............
Last edited by afcneal; 15th August 2015 at 12:43.
Thanks for taking the time to do that mate. Interesting, I'll speak to the indie garage and see what their answer to that is...
Contacted indie garage, waiting for their answer :-)
Ok, update:
The tweets worked well, got loads, and received a phone call from their customer service this morning. She said they'd make a goodwill offer once the fault had been diagnosed by the Skoda garage. Annoyingly, she wouldn't budge of a free diagnosis, even if the diagnosis is a confirmed failure of the rack (it's £95), which means I will have paid three bloody garages for the same diagnosis, all telling me the steering rack is knackered.
The car is booked in for the diagnostic at West End Skoda in Endiburgh on Monday.
While this was all going on, the West End dealers offered me 20% as a goodwill gesture, and have said that's absolutely non-negotiable.
Their reasoning being;
the car has a full Skoda service history.....except for the last service, which I had done at Autohaus Edinburgh (an approved VAG indie garage), who stamped my book accordingly.
Because that service was done at an independent, the chap at West End says he can't go above 20%, and it's non-negotiable.
To be honest, I'm a bit pissed off as all the servicing has been done at Skoda, bar the last one, and it's hardly a cowboy garage that did it! The servicing will have been done properly.
The car is three years old, a few months past it's warranty, has 41K and all, bar one, a skoda main dealer service history. It's not like it's 2 years ou tof warranty with no service history...
We'll see what happens once it's been diagnosed at the Skoda garage. I certainly would like, and feel as a customer deserve, more than 20% but I'm not getting the impression they're up for any movement on that.
More importantly - the service 'activity' and parts have zero relation to the rack - so even if a chimp did the service, it doesn't affect that particular part's failure!! For several years now you can have a car serviced outside the dealer network without affecting the warranty so the 'policy' is dealer specific only....Originally Posted by Scottishcammy
Absolutely agree mate.
As an aside, Autohaus have been excellent in their communication and they seem very decent. This is the breakdown they gave me:
"the steering rack comes as a complete unit, with the electric motor attached, it also doesn't come with tie rods or track rod ends so they were also in the quote which ive listed below
steering rack £852.61
tie rods an dtrack rod ends £67
labour £270
total including vat £1427.53
its 6 hours labour to do the job, ive confirmed with the trade parts centre that it is a complete unit and ive attached the parts illustration so you can see for yourself, the tie rods and track rod ends are serviceable so we could reuse them if you wanted but not a great saving, I hope this helps, please let me know if you have any other questions at all? the price above is for the original equipment rack"
Here's the parts illustration he's talking about
I am amazed you managed 20%. When a fault developed on my Volvo V50 and I had spent hundreds on new sensors, air mass meters, etc, et-bloody-cetera, the garage took it to Volvo to look into it. They discovered the ECU was badly corroded because it was sat in a non-draining cradle and I was charged £1500 to replace it, along with a modified cradle that now drains. An email to Volvo UK and the CEO, requesting a contribution of 50% towards the repair of a poorly designed cradle was met with a firm and unequivocal no.
That is not to say that you should simply roll over and accept 20% but I can't see them budging. Best of luck!
From looking at various forums, it seems incredibly inconsistent. Some get 100%, other get nothing, others are like yourself (and the same two instances with the same background in terms of servicing, etc are met with different amounts of goodwill). Strange.
Anyway, assuming it is the rack, this is what the Skoda garage quoted when I asked them:
"...your servicing at Autohaus is irrelevant as regards any goodwill contribution offered by Customer care.
Autohaus are correct, you do not need to have your vehicle serviced with a main dealer to keep your manufacturers warranty valid.
Now your vehicle is out of warranty and we are dealing with goodwill which is different. One of the criteria looked at when offering goodwill is - has the vehicle been serviced in the dealer network, which in your case is no.
Costing of this repair is difficult at this stage until we determine exactly what parts are required, (the steering rack comes without the arms and ends etc and if they have not failed then we cannot replace them as part of the goodwill contribution).
With that said and the Autohaus diagnosis is correct, ( which I have no reason to disbelieve). I would assume that you will only need the main rack body. the cost to you with your 20% discount included would be £1041.71 including part, labour and VAT + the diagnosis charge of £90, would bring a grand total of £1131.71.
Without the discount: £1527.37"
Before you go any further, I'd do one simple thing yourself. Using the jack for changing your tyres I would carefully check both track rod ends both visually and by rocking the wheels to check for play. This wouldn't be the first time I have seen worn balljoints in the track rod ends mistaken for a problem in the rack. Track rod ends do wear and if the seals go they can wear very very fast indeed. Racks generally do not except with high mileages or seal failure that would show up quite clearly.
Even on one of these a competent home mechanic could change a track rod end in twenty minutes. For a garage mechanic let's call it half an hour to allow for a teabreak. Likewise, a pair of OE track rod ends are a little over ten quid on ebay. Do it yourself, factoring in ten quid for a cheap ball joint splitter and twenty five quid to get a local garage to do the tracking and that's sub fifty quid.
I'm not suggesting that you do it, but I am suggesting that it's more than possible that the problem is a shot track rod end and incompetent diagnosis. When you rock the steering, the track rod is connected to the inside of the rack by a rod of steel and it's a well known fact that a small tick in a balljoint might be barely audible but the same noise can travel into the rack and be amplified. If you are not mechanically minded drop it into a different garage and tell them you are worried a track rod end might have failed. This means they will start off suspecting that and will eliminate it before looking for the rack.
Carry on doing everything else, but when there's a cheap problem that is often mistaken for an expensive one eliminate the cheap one first!
Well, the car went into Skoda yesterday, and, surprise surprise, it's the steering rack.
So, £90 lighter for them to tell me that, and I'm waiting on Skoda UK getting back to me with their goodwill offer.
As an aside, they do a #health check', with a sheet showing any concerns.
I had one done at Skoda on 16/09/14, 30,000 miles, and everything was 'green', including the brake discs/pads.
The one from yesterday: 24/08/15, 41,000 miles, shows;
"Front Brake Discs Excessively Lipped/pitted replace with pads & Rear Brake Discs heavily Corroded/scored replace with pads"
at a cost of £500.
I'm not expert, but is 1 year & 11,000 miles not rather quick to go from "Green - no issues" to "Red - pitted/lipped/corroded replace immediately"?
I'm looking at a new steering rack, three new tyres, a major service and new pads and discs all round.....ouch (though would be less painful without the £1,500 steering rack of course) :-(
If I follow Skoda's advice:
Steering rack: £1522.50
Service: £259
Tyres: £300
Pads/Discs £500
Total: £2,581.50
For a 3 year old car that I've driven a total of 20,000 miles in myself :-(
Don;t get me wrong, I realise some of these are consumables that are just part and parcel of having a car, but it's sair tae bair!
Last edited by Scottishcammy; 25th August 2015 at 13:55.
Hmm a fair few quid to get that little lot sorted out then!
You could save yourself a fair few hundred though ,by getting service/tyres/brakes done elsewhere? Even an "indy" will be cheaper than the £300 service, and I assume brakes and tyres would be cheaper from elsewhere ? Just get the steering rack done with Skoda? Just my opinion.
Oh definitely mate, sorry, I should have made it clear I'll just be getting the rack through them. I can get tyres I like through black circles, Vredestein Ultra Sessanta, the three tyres coming in at £253.38 fully fitted, £206.58 just delivery.
Everything else is going to have to wait I'm afraid, and, when I do get it done, it'll be through an indie.
Still though, there's a lot of haggling to come with skoda re: the rack first!
looks like its time to trade it in at another dealership.
Recon rack on eBay for £145 with two year warranty
I'd go down that road or just sell it for something else
Yep, seriously considering sourcing a rack myself (reconditioned possibly) and getting an independent VAG specialist garage I know to carry the labour/coding out.
I've been quoted £270 for the labour.
There are a couple on ebay from looking just now (would need to confirm they are definitely the correct part no of course, but gives an idea). One of them is £350, so, all in, I could get the job done by going this route for around £620. Which, whilst still painful, s a lot better then £1550.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2010783066...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1718208201...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Phoned these guys
http://www.acspowersteering.co.uk/ (which is the ebay link above fpr the new unit)
seemed very decent on the phone, they can do me a brand new unit delivered for £349.99 with 2 years warranty, and I send them my old steering rack (delivery paid for by them) within 14 days.
Waiting to hear back from the inde re: them sourcing the part.
Along with the track rod ends already suggested, I know Audi often have knocking from the rack which is down to the bolts that hold it. They are 12 star stretch tension bolts so should be replaced with new but again worth ensuring is not these before replacing the rack, although with 3 diagnoses one would hope it is the rack...
If I were you I would buy 4 tyres so they are all the same with the same amount of tread, keep the reasonable one as a spare in the garage just inc case you clip a sidewall. Tyres are right up there with the most important components on the car, the only link between you and the road so it makes sense to have 4 equal ones.
Shocking response from Skoda on a component that should be well within 'rated life' irrespective of the warranty having expired. Are Skoda trying to get back to the old days when the name 'Skoda' was a joke?
I have a 2009 Audi 2.0L A4 Quattro which has been out of warranty for a couple of years now, in June I had the electronic ignition switch fail which is a £350 replacement. Booked it into my local Audi in Tile Hill in Coventry and mentioned to the service guy that I was a bit irritated as this is a known Audi fault, I was just grumbling really as I knew the car was well out of warranty. Well, to cut the story short, the car was delivered back to me the same day, switch module replaced, washed and valeted and the bill was..... £0!
The service guy said as it was a known issue and as I had bought the car from them, they were happy to do it under warranty. Now THAT is customer service!
Well, Skoda have made their final, non-negotiable offer of 25% of a £1552 bill.
Absolutely refuse to move on that. Also, turns out if you try and escalate your complaint, it just gets sent back to the same person!
https://clyp.it/bpxnlz21
Folks, if you agree this is pretty poor, and can be bothered to tweet sharing that sentiment to https://twitter.com/SKODAUK, I'd be much obliged to you.
Here's my twitter profile
https://twitter.com/TaitCammy?lang=en-gb
Here's my post to Skoda UK about. Again, feel free to comment folks, cheers.
https://www.facebook.com/Skoda.uk/posts/923231007744776
Thanks again in advance (better get saving, no hols for the family now!)
As a matter of interest how bad is the knock, did you pick up on it or was it picked up on the up sell inspec....sorry the vhc?
I picked up on it mate. Noticeable but not mega bad to begin with, but developing big time now. They've also refused to give me back the £90 for the diagnosis, which is nice!
Tbh I'm hardly suprised this is the stance they've taken. To them it's clear cut but to the onlooker it's ludicrous. Manafactures seem to all different levels of goodwill some a lot better than others.
Good luck anyway.
Cheers mate. I did mention to them that I've found umpteen posts on VAG forums where folk have had the same fault (the rack is shared across the range) and there is huge inconsistency across the brands.
Audi seem to be the best at paying out, many manufacturers have paid 100%.
Unfortunately Skoda's response was that's nothing to do with them. Which in turns means they will lose custom. Seems very short sighted.
Thanks anyway mate :-)
Simply check round Indys and go for best price, 20% main dealer discount will still leave you WELL out of pocket at main dealer rates, it's a no brainer.
Yep, did that mate, and agree it seems the way ahead. The whole thrust of this is to get Skoda to do the right thing.
It's surprising, there are quite a few folk on twitter / facebook following this, who are genuinely commenting that they are in the process of looking for a new car and won't take the risk of buying Skoda if their customer service is *hit.
Skoda don't seem remotely bothered.
3 folk from work have bought kia's off the back of this because they don't want to be in the same boat (yeah, I know, Kia..not for me!).
I've no doubt I'll end up going through an indie, and had just hoped Skoda would have been decent, particularly if it seemed there are a few folk commenting as such...
Well, Skoda refused to budge an inch, case now closed. The whole experience was crap, never returning calls, taking days to answer queries. Very disappointing. If their customer service message is, "We couldn't give a *hit about you now we've got your money" they succeeded!
So, buying the rack from ACS Power Steering and having the work done by Autohaus Edinburgh the 8th. Will report back here so folk know what ACS & Autohaus were like (though all my experiences of Autohaus have been excellent so far).
Cheers.
The problem you have is that the warranty has ran out and so their responsibility for your vehicle has expired to a certain degree. If your vehicle was subject to a safety recal then clearly they would still be held responsible. The fact they've offered you 25% in their eyes draws the matter to an end.
Unless you take them down the " not fit for purpose " route I don't really see where else you can go with this. I think in this day and age it amazes me they offer anything to be honest, I'm not saying I agree with it because it's poor that you have to spend that much money on something which shouldn't be worn like that being just over 3 years old.
Is 75% of the Skoda bill dearer than 100% of the Autohaus bill?
Know where you're coming fro mate. Yes, it's about £500 cheaper, and the main dealer refused to replace the tie rods / rod ends or carry out wheel alignment (all included in the Autohaus price).
I've had loads of messages from folk in the market for a new car and were watching to see what happened. I've had around 20 replies from folk saying they're not going to buy a Skoda now of the back of this as they don;t want to be in the same boat.
They've lost thousands of pounds of custom for the same of a few hundred. Completely inflexible model.
Whole thing has been a giant pain in the ass!
Having done the small claims court thing recently if deffo have a go with this
Take them to cc for the costs incurred via the indie
Goods not fit for purpose
3 yrs for a steering rack?????
Any judge will award it
You'll get the lot back and costs
The dealer may not even dispute as will cost them too much time and money
Irrelevant I know but I remember buying a steering rack for my Mk V Cortina about 25 years ago for £29.50.
They're not a lot more than that now.
Seemingly so! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Brand-New-...item3d022f44d8
I thought it might be interesting to give another example of Skoda customer service. My wife took her soon to be 4 years old Octavia to the main dealer where she bought it for a service and MOT. During the service they found that the air conditioning condenser was cracked and would need replacing at a cost of more than £500. Since she'd bought the car from the dealer and had always had it serviced there, the dealer contacted Skoda and negotiated a 100% contribution from Skoda to the parts and 50% towards labour. She went ahead and got the work done. When she went back the next day, she was told that the dealer had negotiated a further contribution to the labour. It ended up costing around £75 to have the condenser replaced. We were happy with this.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
