[anilkalvani]

@Invisible
First of all, any manufacturer who introduces a car in India knows what fuel is available here & do long term road tests in rugged conditions (500,000kms in most cases) and suitably tune/de-tune their cars before bringing them out into the Indian market.

Regular stalling occurs in the Fabia 1.4MPi and now the Skoda Superb 1.8TSi and not as much in the Skoda Octavia 1.8TPi vRS. If the fuel in India was that bad, Mercedes, BMW's, etc would have had similar complaints, but they don't have it as much as Skoda. Why? Are their engines inferior in quality as compared to Skoda's gem of an engine which cannot consume Indian fuel? Humbug.

My Two cents bro, nothing personal against you ok please, my tone is directed at Schkoda.

[ivar1951]

Originally Posted by ph03n!x

I somehow feel we need to do a lot more than what we are doing now for the sake of Skoda owners. Is there a way to start an off-forum propaganda? Just a thought- this is way too much issues from one car maker, who either do not price their cars right, or does not care what their dealers do, and most important- sell unreliable cars for a huge premium!

How about a media conference? Even a short coverage of the issue in the electronic media will shake up Skoda. The conference should be held on a weekend as Government offices and Ministeries in Delhi are closed and media persons usually have more time on their hands. Of course, all documents and photos must be provided to the media.A press note detailing the issue is also a must as simply briefing the media is not enough as most of them later forget/overlook the details. There should be no exaggeration of the issue as some of the media pesons ae bound to cross-check with Skoda. In fact, they should be encouraged to do so and can also be given Skoda's contact details.

[McLaren Rulez]

Can any Superb owner quote the user's manual if it makes any references to what kind of fuel is the minimum requirement?

[ImmortalZ]

Originally Posted by Invinsible

Reason well it's seems the owner had been using unleaded fuel, the car 6 months old, had a choked fuel pump, injectors, engine had lot of carbon.

What did he say the customer use instead of unleaded fuel? Leaded fuel was phased out decades ago.

Originally Posted by Invinsible

Finally in the end I get to learn that even the 1.2L engine needs a high octane fuel atleast 93 if not 97, and if nothing speed petrol should be used.
As far as I know 1.2L is not a very compression engine and why would it need a 97 octane fuel. I checked my manual and online specs to find out that skoda petrol engines are not detuned for our indian fuel condition.

Let me correct you. The 1.2 HTP engine has a 10.5:1 compression ratio. This is the same as the R18A in the Civic which demands 99RON in stock JDM tune. When the engine is dropped into our Civics, it is heavily detuned, especially in the torque department. The Fabia engine on the other hand, is sold as-is.

Originally Posted by Invinsible

The specs are similar to the one in Europe, whether it is fabia or Superb they all share the same specs. I suppose that's where the problem is. Audi 1.8/2.0 petrol is slightly detuned where as the Superb with 160Hp uses a different turbo compared to the Audi engine thus produces 160hp and is available in same state of tune as it does in Europe. I suppose Skoda hasn't realise that the high octane fuel is available only in selected cities, selected places and not every part of city or country. No wonder they don't feel the need to make changes to the ECU as per the standard octane fuel and that's what is hitting their petrol engines badly. No doubt they are one of the best petrol engines around but they just can't run on our regular unleaded fuel.

As seen on Skoda Australia's page, the Superb 1.8TFSI requires 98RON petrol. What were they thinking, releasing that engine here without any detuning? Information on the web suggests it will run with 95RON, but anything less is asking for trouble. Hell, it isn't even high compression by today's standards. It runs 9.6:1, that too on FSI, which is supposed to let the engine run leaner with higher compression ratios on standard fuel, letting the engine extract the maximum out of it. Of course, it is turbo charged.

Audi believes that the engine is fine with our fuel as their A4 spec sheets say "Recommended fuel is super unleaded with 95 ROZ. If this is not available, normal unleaded 91 ROZ may be used; power output will be slightly reduced" for all their petrol engines in India. (ROZ is the German equivalent of RON.) The 1.8 in the Laura TSi is also the same motor, requiring 95RON minimum.

With TFSI and the high pressure fuel shenanigans the tech brings with it, the basic reliability of the old 1.8T is no longer there. I believe that these engines are running at their limits in India. Adulterated petrol with less than the 91 octane we expect will cause problems. Skoda petrol owners - you need to watch where you fill up.

[sohail99]

Sorry to hear about your car! :(

Just make sure that whatever parts they(Skoda) replace, are all genuine!!

[rajatsingh78]

how about ?koda Auto - Contacts

Anyone tried emailing here ?

[frankmehta]

i wont do any skoda bashing. but just send a link to this thread (and the earlier LARGE skoda thread) to the all the people high up there in Skoda. You are sure to get a lot of calls on Monday.

[ImmortalZ]

frank, that was done a million times already. Hell, T-BHP's mods went and met with the dude who RUNS Skoda India.

Guess what? Harish still pays EMIs on a car that he doesn't have any more.

[frankmehta]

oops. my bad. i havent tuned into that large thread much so i didn't know. I guess the best advice we can give gagan here is to keep fighting. best of luck. we are with you.

[Vid6639]

Gagan, what are they replacing in your car and by when? If they are replacing the gearbox/ECU/power steering system and AC unit then it should be fine.

They should also extend your warranty FOC for the trouble caused.

I don't think you can expect more than that in India.

If they are ready to replace the necessary parts that is atleast in improvement in their service.

The cars are problematic all of us know. The TSI engine is supposed to run on 95 RON and I did not get any proper confirmation whether any tuning was done for indian 91 RON fuel when I was considering the Superb.

Also did you drive over any waterlogged roads?

[PatienceWins]

All The Best!!

It is sad to see issues cropping up with Superb, which is a great car. I hope Skoda will improve their customer service and reduce the ownership cost. Good to see that they are ready to replace the faulty parts. Make sure that they do it properly.

[lancer_rit]

wow, this 95RON could be a reason for the engine problems being reported.
Even in 2005, the 1.6 non-FSI in the Passat needed 95RON or higher (user manual)! That engine didn't have FSI nor turbo.
Honda and Mitsubishi detune their engines somewhat for peak bhp/torque, so I am wondering how Skoda/VW/Audi can run an advanced engine like 1.8TSI/TFSI at same rating in Germany and India ?

[vkochar]

Wow !! Another Skoda Buyer in trouble !!

I have been advising all my friends and business circle in Agra & Delhi not to buy Skoda's ever since the SKODA problem came up in T-BHP. I might have successfully changed the mind of at least 20 - 25 prospective buyers in the last 3 months.

I personally loved the Skoda Superb & it's pricing BUT was always hesitant in buying a Skoda.

On the other hand I know quite a lot of people who simply swear for their Skoda's and love it and have not received any problems despute running it for over 50k km's.

Your Problem if / when solved by Skoda ( which it will be ! ), drive the car for a few months and see if it gives you any repeat problems. If the problems persists then just go ahead and sell it. I know it sounds a lot easy to say BUT very difficult to do. The first year with Warranty will get you excellent resale value. There are plenty of people who are not going on the Internet and reading all this !!

I am sure the problems mentioned will be solved soon hopefully. Best of Luck

Keep this thread updated Gagan so we can all benefit from the experience.

[akj53]

Last year I had TD Fabia 1.4 petrol. I noted the pathetic power of the engine and immediately suspected the culprit to be the adulterated petrol. I demanded to see the user manual and the dealer's GM grandly told me, 'I have been selling these cars since long and have never read a manual so why do you need it. So much so for the dealer knowledge. The recommended fuel in the manual was 95 RON. Our standard is 91 RON in metros and very few pumps sell 97 RON also at about 70 Rs. per litre. Skoda had not even bothered to change 2-3 pages of the manual as per Indian requirements, so I could not expect them to have modified the car to suit our conditions.
I had told my concern to a Skoda official also.

Other culprit I suspect for repeated engine breakdowns may be Fuel / oil filters. Standard Europeans filters may not be able to handle the adulteration and dust in our fuel. Some parts especially DSG Gearbox may be susceptible to our heat, humidity and dusty environment.

To conclude I think Skoda has not bothered to test and modify / customise their cars for Indian conditions before launching new models. Then customers become Guinea pigs and only after repeated complaints mighty Skoda will bother to change something.

[vijaythacker]

may be this VW group are expected some high notch quality and service assurance which is why cause of some phathetic dealer network and attitude towards owners makes the whole of company liable which is infact their own part, but these kind of issues coming up with quite more vehicles is not at all acceptable.I do have seen many people very happy with their skoda vehicles and running more then 50-60K's along with good quality of *** from dealer, but others ruins this from the whole of skoda which also does play's bad game with customers like Harshiv and now Gagan.