Anyone had a service at Skoda Wollongong or Rockdale?

[tones]

Hi drc13, just wondering - did you get your squeak in the dashboard sorted out? My problem sounds very similar to yours. It's more of a squeaking and rubbing noise which goes away when the dashboard on the passenger side is 'lifted up'. Unfortunately, just when it's time for a service (and hence for a visit to the dealer), the noise seems to have gone away.

Also, how did you go with your 15,000km service?

I rang around for some prices, and got a pretty large range. Rockdale quoted me $295, while Northshore Skoda quoted me $420! This is for a 2010 Octavia RS petrol DSG by the way.

[tones]

Sorry, I meant to ask in my post above - has anyone had any experience with the Rockdale dealer for servicing?

Their quote was the lowest, but I'm not sure whether to trust them. When I rang up, the guy on the phone asked "what car do you have? The Octavia RF?"

[brad]

Sorry, I meant to ask in my post above - has anyone had any experience with the Rockdale dealer for servicing?

Their quote was the lowest, but I'm not sure whether to trust them. When I rang up, the guy on the phone asked "what car do you have? The Octavia RF?"

That wouldn't concern me. I could never remember all the model nomenclature when I was a service advisor. Best you ask some specific questions such as "what oil do you use in the Skoda?" That will tell more as most of the Asian cars use generic 10w-30 semisynth.

[drc13]

Hi drc13, just wondering - did you get your squeak in the dashboard sorted out? My problem sounds very similar to yours. It's more of a squeaking and rubbing noise which goes away when the dashboard on the passenger side is 'lifted up'. Unfortunately, just when it's time for a service (and hence for a visit to the dealer), the noise seems to have gone away.

Also, how did you go with your 15,000km service?

I rang around for some prices, and got a pretty large range. Rockdale quoted me $295, while Northshore Skoda quoted me $420! This is for a 2010 Octavia RS petrol DSG by the way.

Unfortunately no I haven't been for my service yet, been busy with work and nobody services on the weekend so I will need to wait until the school holidays. Your squeak/rattle sounds awfully similar to mine, I just wish mine would vanish like your's as it's very distracting. I have to say it was slightly less squeaky a few days back during the warmer weather but other than that it's pretty relentless.

[tones]

With respect to my dashboard squeaking, I actually kind of banged on it in frustration once, and it seemed to do the trick. No more noises since then. Not sure how much of a long term fix that is though.

Now an update on my servicing. I had actually decided to give Rockdale a go. But they only had availability next week, whereas Northshore could take my car today (Friday), and I was in a bit of a rush. Eventually I got Northshore down to $330, so I went with them.

All was good, and I picked up my car earlier today at 530pm. However, just as I got to 15 meters away from home, suddenly I heard a loud metal grinding noise. I slowed right down, driving at 10km/h or so. The noise persisted, and I thought maybe the exhaust had fallen off and was dragging on the road, or something calamitous like that. I got home, but couldn't see anything wrong in the poor light. So I got back in the car and drove round the block. Strangely, the noise disappeared. Does anyone have any clue what this could be? I was cursing the dealer for having obviously stuffed something up. I'll try and take the car back tomorrow to have it checked out.

Oh and by the way, the dealer used Havoline Ultra V 5w30.

[brad]

debris between the disk & stone shield? or a stick caught in the chassis somewhere?

Can vouch that both sound pretty bad.

[onyertod]

My car is still under warranty, was due for a service and, having crossed Northshore off my list, I was prepared to go down to Wollongong. Then I thought I should at least get a quote from Rockdale cos I live close by.

So the salesman at the Skoda showroom sent me up to the Stewart Toyota service place.

Yes they said, we can service your Skoda.

Except they could not give me a price because my car, a 2009 FL Octavia 1.8tsi was not on their list. ???

They said they would call me the next day which they did but I missed the call.

By this time I had been looking thru this forum and had decided to go out to Campbelltown to Camden Gti where I had the car serviced this morning.

Nice people. Personal service. And cheaper than any Skoda dealer. Camden Gti. My Skoda mechanics from now on.

[Alex_K]

Hey onyertod, why did you cross Northshore off your list? Had problems?

I've got a new Octavia 118TSI and haven't needed a service yet, but was considering Northshore. Anybody had any experience with servicing at northshore? Camden is so far away....

And the warranty isn't jeopardised by going to a non-Skoda service centre?

[dodgey]

Bought my car from Northshore Skoda and appreciate the service the salesmen working there gave me. (BTW, Skoda sales will be moving up to where Mitsubishi is, and Mitsubishi will be moving across to where Holden is, so it'll give them more roadside coverage now. They decided not to renew the Holden franchise for that area)

I've had my car serviced there too because it is easy for me to get to, and the sales people still look after me very well. If not for that, I probably wouldn't service my car there either. Nothing I can put my finger on, but I feel that their service department isn't as experienced or as good as it can be. I had a rear window seal replaced because the original stuffed up, but was not too impressed with the installation of the new one, and they wont fix it up again, because they would need to redo the whole thing and reorder all the parts. I am not too bothered about getting them to fix it up as they'll probably just do a similar job. It works and that's good enough for them. I'd expect similar from most Skoda dealers though (I got the same from VW up the road when I had the GTI). Servicing was on par with everywhere else I called pricewise, and I don't believe they take as much care of my car as I would like them to.

I'm expecting to sell the car back to them when the 3 years are up, so I might as well give it back to them at the same state they gave it to me

[drc13]

Forgot to update on what I ended up doing.

I got my 15k service (with about 18k on the clock.... oops) at camdenGTI. It meant I had to make a day trip of it but I was very impressed with the service I received. They spent extra time looking into a couple of what I thought were innocent problems and gave me a detailed rundown of what they discovered. They also mentioned they were impressed with the skoda vRS which was nice. Overall I'd have no problems recommending camdenGTI

Having said that it looks like I'm going to have to go to a skoda dealer after all. Along with the annoying squeak (which I've now discovered can be stopped by pushing left on the glovebox) I may also have a problem with the coolant system. I mentioned to camdenGTI that I'd had to top up the coolant a couple of months back so they ran a pressure test on the system 3 times and it failed each one but with no visible signs of leakage (suspect it could be internal) They also mentioned the DSG didn't feel right during the test drive.

So when I get around to it I'll have to book the car in for a bunch of warranty fixes so will report back (once again leaning towards taking it to Wollongong)