[skeatsc]

I have been lurking as a guest since September when I ordered my new Ateca ( Excellence 190Bhp DSG 4x4 with excellence pack and comfort pack). I picked the car up on the 23rd December (my Birthday) and was very impressed for the first few days.
Then after about a week I started to get issues with the pick ip feeling sluggish. I went into the sales after Xmas and when I pulled up in the car park there was a horrible burning smell and the fan was going ballistic. I spoke with my local dealer in Swindon and they said if it does it again bring it in, I started back to work on the 3rd Jan which is in London so I have a 65 mile commute.
The first couple of days no issues then last Thursday going home the drive up the M4 was horrible with the car over revving on every gear change. I drove back up to London the following day which was not as bad but there was certainly an issue then coming home Friday it was losing power over revving before finally the Gear Box Fault warning light came up :x .
I contacted the dealer and took the car in on Saturday only to be told they did not have any courtesy cars so could I drive it home and call Seat Assistance. The roadside engineer turned up and plugged the computer in where he found 2 things

• 1) That "transportation mode" had not been switched off when the car arrived in the UK, apparently this turns off all sorts of things when the car is shipped
  2) the secondary clutch has failed . So to my dismay the car was taken away on a transporter Saturday afternoon, then to compound issues I have a call from Skoda Swindon on Monday morning asking why is your Seat Ateca sitting outside our workshop!!! .

I then had to ring Seat assistance again to arrange for it to be moved from Skoda Swindon to Seat Swindon which is where it is now and I have heard nothing more since!!! :x

 

[PaulT00]

Did the roadside engineer mention any possible connection between the failure to disable transportation mode and the subsequent failure of the secondary clutch? I understand that cars being transported prior to delivery to the customer are restricted to 25mph, clearly you would have noticed if you couldn't drive normally but what else does transportation mode do? If it affects normal functioning of the car (and gearbox) then the two could well be connected I would have thought!

 

[Tell]

That's not a good story. On first part it starts to read as if it's regenerating with the high revs and smell. That is every 200 miles, so 65 mile journey there and back you can expect it to regenerate every two days or so but normally you wouldn't notice it although as I understand it the car can be revving high for this process so drops gear. If stationary and it's doing it you know. The fan goes mad and you get a smell.

I wonder if lack of switching it out of transportation mode did your clutch in ?. Obviously the DSG is automatic so nothing you can do will burn the clutch out. It's not been prepared correctly for you if it was in transportation mode. Could be that the systems don't interact correctly when it's like this.

I see there are fair few threads around the net on transportation mode... see whether anybody has any disasters when this isn't switched off. I'll post up again if I find anything.

I can recommend the ODBEleven for reading the diagnostics - haven't mastered the other stuff yet. But it's nice to know what error codes are being thrown up.

Transportation Mode

http://www.ross-tech.com/vcds/tour/transport-mode.html

The [Transport Mode] function found in the Applications Screen is used in some vehicles using CAN for diagnostics, to Activate or De-activate a special Transport Mode that is used by the factory to put the cars into a "sleep" mode to conserve battery charge during long periods of inactivity.

Mind you it could be that the dealer did prepare the car, but didn't clear the previous logged events so your pick up guy read a previous report which wasn't current. I suspect if it was current there should have been a counter against which would be the number of times it had been started with this error.

Or it can be driven in transport mode but half the systems aren't working and it did your clutch in or there is a genuine problem that they missed during PDI.

I've driven a DSG for 12 years now and I've never had a problem.

 

[Montala]

I am very sorry to hear of your problems 'skeatsc' and it hardly seems right to say 'welcome to the forum' as I think this is the first major problem of this magnitude we have heard about on here!

Surely the dealer should have plugged it into their computer (or whatever they do!) to realise that "transportation mode" had not been switched off?

Although you have probably just been very unlucky, I am sure that this is not the sort of thing which SEAT want publicised just at the moment.

Under the circumstances, I would have thought that some form of compensation would not be out of place here, and I assume that you have already made their Customer Services department aware of the incident?

As the car is so new, I would have thought that you might even be justified in asking for a replacement vehicle... what do others think?

 

[PaulT00]

I don't know what the legislation is like, but I'd have thought a catastrophic failure like that on a just-delivered car - particularly as it appears likely to have been due to an oversight during preparation - would quite justifiably result in rejection of the vehicle on grounds of complete loss of confidence. The vehicle as delivered clearly wasn't of merchantable quality. Obviously, making good the damage would be covered under warranty, but would you want to drive a car which had a gearbox failure like that afterward? If the engine was over-revving as a result of the gearbox issue during the running-in period there's no telling what the longterm effects could be. There is also the safety issue, inconvenience, potential loss of earnings if it's primary transport to work and no courtesy car was made available etc...

 

[Tell]

Under the circumstances, I would have thought that some form of compensation would not be out of place here, and I assume that you have already made their Customer Services department aware of the incident?

They are very caring with me so I'd give them a ring if your dealer is messing you about or as Paul says you feel it's a wreck now. The head of the department liaises backwards and forwards between you and the garage until the issue is sorted.

 

[Saggy]

Terrible !

 

[Leon]

http://www.carbuyer.co.uk/tips-and-advice/your-new-car-rights

 

[skeatsc]

I don't know what the legislation is like, but I'd have thought a catastrophic failure like that on a just-delivered car - particularly as it appears likely to have been due to an oversight during preparation - would quite justifiably result in rejection of the vehicle on grounds of complete loss of confidence. The vehicle as delivered clearly wasn't of merchantable quality. Obviously, making good the damage would be covered under warranty, but would you want to drive a car which had a gearbox failure like that afterward? If the engine was over-revving as a result of the gearbox issue during the running-in period there's no telling what the longterm effects could be. There is also the safety issue, inconvenience, potential loss of earnings if it's primary transport to work and no courtesy car was made available etc...

Hi I am thinking over what my next course of action is once I hear back from the garage which should be tomorrow. The customer mobility were great on Monday and got an A4 auto out to me by lunchtime i had to miss work on Monday but with M4 issues and tube strike it was probably for the best.
The roadside guy said that the clutch was the only fault being logged so fingers crossed, he showed me the fault log and the transportation mode had logged about 6 times since I had it the only other entry was walking away from the vehicle with the keys while the ignition was on.

 

[Tell]

Looking at my log which runs since the end of November I'm never had the transportation one shown and if it's not on permanently it may not be the issue. Your beloved dealer might not have checked the fluid in the clutch or you are just unlucky and it's a DSG failure.

 

[Hullujussi]

Hi all. My Ateca's gearbox went broken last Friday (mileage: 49tkm). I drove 370 km and 10 km before destination there were two big bangs. Then stopped into lights and GB started to shuffle through gears (random). Lights went green, car not moving, long line of cars behind me, finally there was "some gear" in, got it moving, warning light came up, "Stop U, stop now" (do not remember the exact wording, anyway red warning). I stopped and car was not able to get any gear on anymore. It was taken to service (by Seat assistant or what ever). Today I called them, whazz up, they said clutch 1 and 2 has error code on them. They have ordered some pump which should come on Thu. We'll see then if that helps (I doubt) :shock:

 

[foz]

Which GB your car has? DQ250?

 

[Hullujussi]

I have no idea Version "Monday" I guess

 

[Hullujussi]

As I did guess, service just called, new gearbox has been ordered. Should arrive in two weeks