Skoda forgot to advise dealers to remove vRS suspension blocks (used for transporting)

[Nikhilb2008]

My ownership thread - link

Skoda strikes again!

I know they had installed spacers in the suspension in some cars and forgot to remove them. I had received pics from a friend who took delivery from TAFE in Mangalore.

However, since I had gotten used to my car's harsh ride, I thought my car didnt have these spacers since the ride wasnt unbearable.

However, after another friend got his car 2 days back and checked and sent me details of how they have installed these spacers, I started having doubts.

I had already driven 4600 kms in total and I was in Calicut.

This morning, I went to my car, used the supplied jack, jacked up the front wheels and looked for the spacers. I found 5! 2 on the right side and 3 on the left side!



I found only 2 on the right side. So, where is the other one? Has it fallen off? Was it never installed? Falling off is unlikely as it is held by the strut boot there. Given it's a Skoda, it's highly likely that that half brained idiot who was supposed to install this, just installed 2 and forgot about the 3rd one.

This is how Skoda treats their customers who spend above 30 lakhs on their flagship sports sedan.

Absolutely appalling and atrocious. No other way to describe it.

Looks like I am in for a world of pain. It's been just one month and I'm already being reminded of why I avoided Skoda for as long as I did.

While my overall interaction with TAFE has been satisfactory, this has worked extremely negatively and they obviously cop some of the blame! They cannot pass this on to Skoda!


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UPDATE: As posted later on in the thread:

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

I want this post to be here to show how after all the good dealing done by TAFE, they have been let down by Skoda India itself.

I spoke to Mr Jose Mathew, a senior person in TAFE and he confirmed that Skoda itself didnt inform the dealership about the suspension spacers.

I will have to hold Skoda India responsible for this mess. How in heaven's name can they miss out this critical piece of information?

[Akshay1234]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

Skoda strikes again!

I know they had installed spacers in the suspension in some cars are forgot to remove them. I had received pics from a friend who took delivery from TAFE in Mangalore.

However, since I had gotten used to my car's harsh ride, I thought my car didnt have these spacers since the ride wasnt unbearable.

This morning, I went to my car, used the supplied jack, jacked up the front wheels and looked for the spacers. I found 5! 2 on the right side and 3 on the left side!

What a joke man. What kind of a PDI was done by the dealer if the transport spacers weren't even removed? I was wondering why you thought the ride was so harsh, when you mentioned it in your first post after getting the car. When I drove the car for the review a few days later, I found the ride quite good! I guess this explains why.

[Sankar]

These are shipping blocks to prevent suspension from compressing beyond a certain limit while strapping down etc. and should be removed before delivery.

http://www.myturbodiesel.com/threads...spection.1271/

http://www.focusrs.org/forum/11-focu...s-removed.html

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...swagen-MK7-gti

These are used to prevent suspension from compression when tied down using straps. From the Ford doc attached 2016 Rail and Haulaway Vehicle Handling Manual.pdf:

Do not compress the suspension (beyond the normal compression that comes from using tie down chains or soft straps) or deflate the tires to reduce vehicle height.

Focus RS Specific Instructions:

• Strict adherence to the 1 mph rule when loading and unloading the vehicle must be followed to avoid damage
• Focus RS units can only be loaded on the top deck of a carhaul rig using over the tire soft straps on each tire (no chains)
• Verify that the vehicle is equipped with spacer blocks. There should be two spacer blocks per spring and can be easily seen by looking between the fender and tire on both sides of the vehicle (Front tires only).
• If spacer blocks are not on the vehicle, the vehicle should not be transported to the next destination.

Src: link above.

I think the spacers are the reason why the front end seems to be sitting a bit high compared to the rear in the photo you posted above.

Dear Skoda... no words

[Nikhilb2008]

I wonder if the rear also has these spacers. The strut cover is very tight on the rear suspension and am unable to slide it up or down to check.. I am trying to feel through the cover and I can feel something. I'm not sure if it is a shipping block or just some suspension component.

Terribly disappointed, angry, upset and not to mention scared. If this is my experience in the first 1 month, god save me! Probably, even he cant.

Incompetence. Clear and simple. Typical Skoda. They should change their tagline to "Simply Incompetent"

I just received a message from someone at TAFE saying Sorry.

Sorry doesnt cut it. They(TAFE and Skoda) have risked my family's life, my life, my car, my suspension in that order with their incompetence.

Will anyone actually understand the implications of driving at highway speeds with such blocks inserted in the suspension? Does Skoda have enough technical knowhow to understand the implications of this?

[navin]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

I found 5! 2 on the right side and 3 on the left side!!

Maybe he was supposed to install 2 on each side and decided since he had an extra one in his pocket he'll give you MORE!

[Sankar]

Yes those are suspension blocks for shipping. Images from the third link i posted previously.




Skoda...


I will stick with my decision of not buying one new

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

I had received pics from a friend who took delivery from TAFE in Mangalore.

Was aware of this for couple weeks now. Didn't think your vRS too had them. I had even mentioned it to a Skoda official at the Kodiaq drive on Sept 27th.

[Jaggu]

Seriously this is the heights of miscommunication, carelessness, lack of check list! How can such an important PDI step be missed by an official dealership. I saw elsewhere that this was not a lone instance and there were other cars that were delivered like this. Do they have a test car at the dealership? Do check if that has been corrected also

Don't know if one should laugh or cry at such things!!

[lancer_rit]

Sorry to hear this man! Typical lackadaisical attitude and neglect by dealer:-( This can affect safety big time in certain scenarios, and at the minimum created a harsher ride!
I did read on briskoda forums that Skoda dealers seem to goof up on this even in UK on new Superb deliveries...

Need to check my car as well to see if spacers are removed or not ?

[adi_petrolhead]

Every time someone buys a Skoda, especially a TSI, I feel a hole in my heart

Not only is Skoda Quality Control sub-par to even Maruti, they take more pride in new launches compared to solving actual problems. Giving a 4 year maintenance pack and 4 year warranty, deceiving the costs in the car price itself, Skoda is nothing less than a con artist.

Although the issue that you've got is not mechanical but a stupidity, it could have been life threatening some times. Imagine taking a U-turn on a four lane highway with cross traffic, and just in the middle of the road, the car bogs down and dies. These incidents have happened with me and Skoda turns a blind eye.

Just two months ago I got a coolant leak, which was rectified by changing the water pump. They did not touch the pipes and locks etc. Just the pump was changed. Two days back, my coolant reservoir was almost empty after driving about 60 kms on the highway, and I was stranded at 12 noon, 42 degrees heat, scrambling to find distilled water at a petrol pump to fill in the reservoir.

Now the issue is in the piping and they'll change it, and I am pretty sure the problem will come up again too. Also frustrating is that the amount of "pressure tests" that skoda does, to identify the problem, diagnose and resolve, is just not acceptable.

My fight with Skoda last was left with the great Mr. Ashutosh Dixit, never responding to my emails, extended warranty rejecting claims for oil control valves even though they are an integral part of the engine and require proper functioning to maintain engine performance. I had to haggle for eight straight hours to get a "goodwill" claim on the parts costing about 25K, and I blamed Skoda itself, cos they have changed numerous parts under extended warranty without confirmation that the said part was indeed the final solution. Hence there is a typical bias of the extended warranty team in approving the parts on my particular car ever since.

Skoda did not honour the warranty/extended warranty on engine and suspension mounts even though there is clear mention in the extended warranty certificate about all of them being covered.

I had already paid for a lot of parts and did not find it worth fighting.

Skoda does not believe me when I tell them, the process of "rectifying" an issue, the workshop makes sure to mess up something else at the same time. But it has been a reality for me almost every single time I have had an issue with the car. The most recent being a stuck fuel cap lock, which refused to open, was covered under warranty but I decided to pay out of the pocket as they wanted to keep the car for claim process for two more days.

After fitting the new lock, I went off only to realise next morning after washing the car, that they somehow messed up the drain pipe what allows for easy draining of any excess fuel or water that is trapped in the fuel filler compartment. Now I have to manually remove any excess water or fuel that spilled out because I always top up the fuel, and in no mood to take it to the dealership which is 120 kms away.

So yes, your relationship with Skoda can be a good one in the future, I had no issues with my Laura for three years, and the last four years of my Octy ownership has been nothing but a ride to hell and back. Numerous close shaves every time on a highway at night and unfavourable conditions means that I have never taken this car out of the state borders, just fearing that something will go wrong when I am with my family and friends.

[GTO]

Thanks for sharing, Nikhil! Moving your post to a new thread so that other Octavia vRS owners don't miss it.

Just when you think Skoda's dealerships hit rock bottom, they dig deeper . Only yesterday, this thread went live.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Oh god! The horror stories just don't seem to end with Skoda and it's dealers. I was starting to believe recently that they have made good efforts to improve these days - but October 2017 has proved otherwise.

This thread went online just yesterday, a deliberate fraud as against a big mistake compared to your case - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...lar-rapid.html

It's the effect of very poor workmanship by whoever was in charge of the dealer PDI.

That said - I remember reading that you were surprised (and not in a good way) by the extremely firm suspension on the vRS. Has that improved now that the suspension blocks have been removed?

[Rehaan]

Sharing this screenshot I came across on Facebook (I believe from one of Nikhil's friends, via Jaggu):

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Sharing this screenshot I came across on Facebook (I believe from one of Nikhil's friends, via Jaggu):

Attachment 1682755

The strut dust cover/bellow should not be pulled down instead it should be pushed up to remove the blue buffers. Some jiggling and even the top one should fall down. Patience is the key. Reason is the rubber dust cover is held on tight at the top and not secured at the bottom. When its pulled down from its seat there is a very good chance that the cover won't fit properly and eventually falls down exposing the top part. When assembling the strut the cover is put after the bumpstop and cover put after it. Here the dude has pulled it down right over the bump stops and taking the buffer out through the top enlarging or maybe tearing the hole on top of dust cover.

What a bunch of idiots! When at Skoda

This is the order it goes on and comes apart*.
Buffer/spacer should be removed from below the cover. 3 shouldn't slide down 2!



1) Strut
2) bump stop
3) Dust cover


*Image just for reference. Install order is the same for parts 1 to 3 in almost all mcpherson struts

Edit: Haha just read whats written in the pic above. Ok so its not Skoda.

[esma1981]

After lifting the strut boot about halfway from the bottom and also doing a bit of poking/feeling the strut thru the boot, I'm about 95% sure there aren't any spacers in my car. Do you guys think I should still take it to the A.S.S. to get it checked?