Anyone had a service at Skoda Wollongong or Rockdale?

[drc13]

Hi Guys

Well I've quickly hit the 15000km mark on my RS which means it's first service time. I bought the car as an ex-demo at a VW dealership so don't have a home Skoda dealer.

I live in Cronulla NSW and Rockdale is probably my closest dealer followed by Wollongong. I won't necessarily be taking the car to Skoda for services all the time but there are a couple of warranty things I would like looked at

* Really loud/annoying rattle and squeak coming from Passenger side dash
* Had a low coolant warning and topped it up with water so need to get the system checked
* Got the infamous Wastegate rattle that has just been resolved on golf gti's with a simple clip

I just want to confirm if these two dealerships services will be decent. I know rockdale is only new and when I google street viewed the address it looked like a toyota dealership which I'd presume are quite different cars to work on.

Cheers.

[pologti18t]

Wow, never knew there was a Skoda dealership in Rockdale.

[woofy]

I had the coolant was well, it happened last winter when the car was 18mths old, sometimes when its colder it contracts and an air bubble that has been trapped since new comes out causing that. I topped with water and no issues since. The coolant is very strong so no issues with dilution.

[brad]

So are the Skodas mixed in with the Toyotas I wonder?

I drove past there a couple of weeks back thinking the new dealership would be in the old Audi showroom (on the western side closer to the city near the Ford & Mazda dealers). I didn't even think to look at the Rockdale / Stewart Toyota site.

I can't see how they could fit 2 brands in there as it was always too crowded for just Toyotas & the workshops are overcrowded. The RH workshop can only take 3 or 4 hoists. The LH one is slightly better & has room for 6 cars but there is no room for long term projects. The roof has room for about 20-25 vehicles if you tandem them.

I worked there in 1987/88 when they were a Toyota / Lotus dealer.

[drc13]

I had the coolant was well, it happened last winter when the car was 18mths old, sometimes when its colder it contracts and an air bubble that has been trapped since new comes out causing that. I topped with water and no issues since. The coolant is very strong so no issues with dilution.

Yeah it just happened out of nowhere at about 14000km when I started the car. I have to say the level was pretty low when I checked it probably a full cm under the minimum marking. Good to hear the dilution will be fine, just hoping it's more a case of they underfilled out of factory rather than a slow leak.

So are the Skodas mixed in with the Toyotas I wonder?

Gday Brad, hope you ended up getting all your warranty issues sorted out! There's a good chance I'm wrong about the Toyota bit. I was speculating based on loading google maps and being greeted with a photo of a toyota dealer. I've not actually been to Rockdale yet and may end up calling them and finding out what the story is. I'd sure feel better if it was the Audi dealer at least they share some similar tech.

I don't think anything I'm looking to get fixed is particularly tricky and the 15k service looks very basic but I'd much rather have a mech who could say "oh yeah that squeak/rattle is an easy fix I've seen it before" rather than someone taking a guess and getting trigger happy with the WD40

[brad]

Gday Brad, hope you ended up getting all your warranty issues sorted out! There's a good chance I'm wrong about the Toyota bit. I was speculating based on loading google maps and being greeted with a photo of a toyota dealer. I've not actually been to Rockdale yet and may end up calling them and finding out what the story is. I'd sure feel better if it was the Audi dealer at least they share some similar tech.

The Audi dealer has dissapeared.

If you look at the Skoda website, it gives an @stewarttoyota email address & Stewart Toyota own the site AFAIK (I'm not sure who owns Stewart Toyota these days - I thought Laurie Stewart sold out to Toyota or associated parties about 10 years back when he was doing it tough). Toyota moved to the other end of Rockdale to the much more appropriate Holden site last year (??).

Warranty has been approved but I'm not sure if they will refund the diagnostic fee they charged me. I've beeen flat out & haven't booked the car in yet. Got to the point where the time invested in fighting them exceeded the value of the warranty claim.

[ausspace87]

We have 2 Octavia's: a 90TSI & a RS, which both have the rattle in the dash on the passenger side. The problem is a single torx-screw that secures the dash. Sometimes tightening the screw works, but in my case it was too tight and slightly loosening it fixed the issue. You can even replicate the noise by pressing on or around the screw, just to make sure that is the problem.

Below is a link to a photo showing the problem screw (courtesy of Briskoda):

http://www.samahill.co.uk/img40.jpg

[drc13]

We have 2 Octavia's: a 90TSI & a RS, which both have the rattle in the dash on the passenger side. The problem is a single torx-screw that secures the dash. Sometimes tightening the screw works, but in my case it was too tight and slightly loosening it fixed the issue. You can even replicate the noise by pressing on or around the screw, just to make sure that is the problem.

Below is a link to a photo showing the problem screw (courtesy of Briskoda):

Thanks for the info Ausspace. Unfortunately i found that same thread a couple of months back and have probably tested every possible rotation of the screw as well as stuffing all sorts of foam and padding in that general area, with no luck.

My sound is probably more of a squeaking/rubbing noise with a healthy dose of rattle/click (like the plastic is being stressed) the only way I can seem to stop it is by having the passenger "lift" the whole dash area, unfortunately I haven't had much luck convincing someone to do this on a permanent basis.

It's the main thing I disklike about this great car so really want it fixed

[onyertod]

Wollongong and Rockdale

I bought our Octavia from a nice guy calle Ralph at the Wollongong Skoda dealership, Southern Classic cars.

It went back there for its 15,000 service. No problems, except it means a drive down the 'Gong.

They are a big VW dealer so should know Skoda mechanicals.

The Rockdale dealership looks like an afterthought, squeezed into a corner of the Kia yard. I went lookin for it and drove straight past it once. They had a couple of Superbs in a showroom. I live close by but service wise I will be staying away fro Rockdale until they establish themselves.

[drc13]

Excellent thanks for your post. I'm pretty much convinced and will book it into Wollongong now and hope like hell they can fix my few little issues.

Cheers

[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.