SOS fault repair quote - fair or a rip off?

[Mayberley]

A few months ago I got the dreaded SOS Fault with the message to take to workshop, plus a permanent amber fault light on the dashboard and warning on start-up.

Garage has quoted £130 to get it fixed with it being a known fault and some kind of replacement part fitted. I politely declined as it's not causing any issues other than just being annoying.

Anyone else got this fixed and what did you pay for it? I'm out of warranty now but still annoyed its a known fault that was not caused by me - paying £130 to get it fixed feels a bit off.

 

[Mayberley]

I've left this for a year or so and just asked the garage to look at it again with an updated quote....they are now saying £400...!

Before I go back to them, can I ask if anyone else has had this fixed at a more reasonable price??

 

[James_R]

Do you know what the fault code is?

 

[Bahnstormer_vRS]

I had something similar, a couple of years ago, on my first Ateca MY21 (70 reg).

Dealership dealt with it under warranty with a software update.

Guy

Sent from my Galaxy S23 Ultra using Tapatalk

 

[trucker0werner]

If car is out of waranty it is out of waranty.
Only a recall will be done for free.
If something big happens, for example engine needs to be replaced. They can sort out some deal to make is cheaper for you.
But only if the car had every maintenance done on time by a certified dealer.

Small things after waranty are never covered anymore.
That the price is 2x more expensive is depending if the part is no longer that cheap as it was in the past

 

[Tell]

That SOS fault could be the one they were "all" falling over with in early 2020s on, in high numbers anyway. Needed a firmware / comms hardware update. Probably why @James_R was asking what the fault code was to determine which category it fell into.

Those people who didnt get it sorted out under the original free warranty lived with it / passed the car on, the ugly head can reappear and the costs change . I'd put it down to that. The SOS box caused a lot of hassle with faulty hardware / firmware. Common across Vag threads.

Buying a secondhand car you might pickup one where the previous owner lived with it. One issue was it always went off for some people on certain stretches of road. Formentor thread use to be full of these complaints. Leon 4 shares the same platform of systems. Splattered across all MQB Evo platforms of Vag. Seat were originally slow to sort it out.

 

[Bahnstormer_vRS]

@Tell

That makes sense to me. Mine always went off in the vicinity of J20 (A41) on the M25 near Watford.

As you say; firmware / software update on the Infotainment.

Guy

Sent from my Galaxy S23 Ultra using Tapatalk

 

[Tell]

Multistory car parks, motorway slip roads etc . Probably swapping bands got into trouble so the SOS went off as it lost communications.

 

[spembo]

I thought I might have read somewhere on hereabout resouldering some joints in the unit resolved for some. I had mine done under warranty, but can make occasional appearance in winter months.

 

[Tell]

& the skip for the old one. Probably some electronic parts recycling . There was a day when dealers use to give the broken parts back to you. Not happened for a while now.

 

[Mayberley]

Thanks for responses everyone. I don't know what the fault code is but could find out. The part they are saying needs replacing is 5H0 959 561 B.

I went back and politely complained that I thought the price was too high. Garage came back and revised the quote down from £400 to £250, so I think I'll get it done for that. I've lived with it for a year, but want to sell / trade in the car next year and don't want it to impact potential value at that point. I've always kept up with the service schedule via official dealers so service record in that regard should put me in good stead hopefully!

 

[Tell]

Let's see whether it fixes it. That code appears to be a roof assemble up there. Not sure whether that is what you would expect. @East Yorkshire Retrofits they would know. Rub the gene.

 

[James_R]

An interior light unit to fix an SOS fault? Not something I've seen before...

 

[Mayberley]

An interior light unit to fix an SOS fault? Not something I've seen before...

Doesn’t that unit house the sos button and hardware that makes the call though?

 

[James_R]

Doesn’t that unit house the sos button and hardware that makes the call though?

It houses the button but the SOS module is a seperate control unit located elsewhere.

 

[Mayberley]

See what you mean. The quote doc lists this hardware requirement next to a TPI note which I understand mean it’s an official factory note saying “if this error happens, replace this hardware with this part”.

I did push them to confirm it was needed and they said they had seen this happen before so I just have to take them at face value I guess.

 

[James_R]

Was your vehicle randomly calling the SOS helpline or the interior lights working randomly?

 

[Mayberley]

No. I did have interior lights working randomly before (rear passenger) but they fixed that under warranty.

The issue I have here is a warning light on the dash and a message saying SOS error, contact garage.

 

[James_R]

The only TPI I'm aware of that requires the replacement of the interior light unit is for random emergency calls and interior light issues.

 

[Tell]

It wasnt what I was expecting to see. They will probably keep replacing parts till they fix it.... .

Like fathers Grundig Colour TV that got expensive to repair. The dealer replaced large circuit boards and it got rather pricy (£300 at a time, 30+ years ago). Old days you'd swap the valves or solder another capacitor on when they went leaky. Repeat... repeat. He passed and mother started off on it again. I said just get rid of it and buy a new TV. The curse of the integrated TV circuit boards. Now we dont repair, just out it. Something to be said for TV screens now just being monitors rather than cathode ray based. Just need modern day TV reliability in cars....

Anyhow it's where that error code is important, perhaps they never cleared them down and reading another code for a previous fault. Assuming it threw up an error code. It should do.