My Yeti made a rather worrying noise when starting from cold this morning. It was a sort of rythmic "tock" at around two beats per second. It went away when I started to drive away, but returned as I slowed for a right turn about 50 yards down the road, and again intermittently as I drove in to town (about 4 miles). It seemed to be worst when I was slowing down using just the engine. It wasn't apparent when driving with the engine under load, or sitting in neutral with the clutch out, but come back as I started to let the clutch out.

It was still doing it after having been parked up for about 30 minutes. I drove home and managed to record some audio of it, here (from about 11s in) and here (from about 9s in). (Apologies for the slightly confused commentary in the second one. Oh, and the short hum/buzz that occurs two or three times during the second clip is the phone's camera re-focusing - I recorded it as a movie then extracted just the audio.)

No warning lights were displayed at any time while this was going on.

About an hour later I needed to go out again, and it didn't do it at all.

Come to think, I believe it might have done it a few times in the past immediately on starting the engine. When it did do it before, it went away as soon as I started driving so I forgot about it. This time, though, it hung around for quite a while - but then disappeared altogether after a short rest.

I imagine I'll have to take it to the dealer to get them to check it out, but I suspect there's a strong chance it will choose not to do it when they're checking the car. I've got about six months of the warranty to run so I must get it looked at before that deadline gets much closer.

Anyone got any ideas what it might be? It doesn't sound very healthy :(

You're not allowed to say oo er on here, it will start a carry on

Sorry I have no idea whats causing the noise, hopefully someone else will know.

Exhaust banging?

Exhaust banging?

That's just deliberate provocation and I am not going to dignify it with a smutty response.

:rofl:

The dual mass flywheel went on mine after 2.5 years, replaced under warranty.

clonking noise at low speed which went away on speeding up, (ooh err missus as ken dodd might say!)

or may just be an exhaust fixing bracket come loose causing the exhaust to knock against the engine.

Take it into the dealer they will often send out a mechanic to have a listen while you wait, saves having to leave it there all day.

Guys, this is all most amusing but...there's a sick Yeti here :'( If the nurses* could keep their jokes in the staff room rather than at the patient's bed side, that would be nice. I don't want to have to make a complaint to matron.

And no, I don't think it's loose exhaust: the symptoms don't seem to fit. It seems much more likely to be something to do directly with the transmission - which is worrying.

EDIT: Sorry, hadn't seen fuzzybunny's post: yes, the DMF was what came immediately to my mind. I'll speak to the dealer tomorrow and make sure that they can send someone out to hear the symptoms - assuming, of course, that the problem does actually choose to manifest itself when they're in the car.

* Ding dong.

Edited 19 May, 201313 yr by ejstubbs

The dual mass flywheel went on mine after 2.5 years, replaced under warranty.

clonking noise at low speed which went away on speeding up, (ooh err missus as ken dodd might say!)

or may just be an exhaust fixing bracket come loose causing the exhaust to knock against the engine.

Take it into the dealer they will often send out a mechanic to have a listen while you wait, saves having to leave it there all day.

I tend to agree with this, the d.m. flywheel can make this sort of noise and then go away on load. I would get it around to the dealers asap and also save those sound bites for them to listen to if the noise is not there during test

Does the sound disappear when depressing the clutch? Could be a clutch release bearing if it does. DMF if not?

Does the sound disappear when depressing the clutch? Could be a clutch release bearing if it does. DMF if not?

Annoyingly, it hasn't done it since Saturday morning. However, when it was doing it the sound actually went away when I let the clutch up.

It's beginning to look like there's a consensus building around the DMF. But it was so intrusive for two short journeys, then was completely gone the next time I started the car, and hasn't returned since. Would (could?) a failing DMF behave like that?

Yes they can. My Octavia one went at around 90,000 miles. It came and went. My local independent dicnt know what it was (not going there again!) but I took it to Skoda and the tech notion was 95% sure it was the DMF. Logan's behold it was. Luckily I was with warranty direct and they paid out about £800 of the £1300 bill. Better than a kick in the teeth :lol: they dont pay for diagnostics or stripping it down and finding out what is wrong with it. Only parts and labour. And when car is over a certain mileage it is reduced as well.

Back to the noise, I've not listened to the sound, I'm on he iPhone but it sounds like something is loose and is intermittent to start with. Over time it gets worse but may last many miles before it fails.

Some manual cars can be converted to a single mass flywheel. Not sure about the Yeti. Visit the Octavia forum, as they have a great deal more experience of DMF failure- there are just a few more Octavia's out there than Yeti.

Note Yeti used here is the plural (:lol:)

Bother, sounds like I'm definitely going to have to take it to the dealer and ask them to diagnose a problem that's not actually manifesting itself

We've got a longish fortnight away coming up later in the summer and I don't want to be stuck in the middle of that with a u/s Yeti. Especially not when part of the trip involves transporting my 92-old Dad 130-odd miles.

Update: the car was at the local Skoda dealer's today and they diagnosed and replaced a faulty exhaust bracket. So it looks like looby and fuzzybunny win this month's "diagnose the fault over the internet" prize (it's a bit like "spot the ball" except you don't have to cut a picture of some footballers out of the local newspaper and send it off with a postal order for 2/6d*).

* Younger forum members will be excused for not knowing what a postal order is, what 2/6d is - or even what a newspaper is.

Update: the car was at the local Skoda dealer's today and they diagnosed and replaced a faulty exhaust bracket. So it looks like looby and fuzzybunny win this month's "diagnose the fault over the internet" prize (it's a bit like "spot the ball" except you don't have to cut a picture of some footballers out of the local newspaper and send it off with a postal order for 2/6d*).

* Younger forum members will be excused for not knowing what a postal order is, what 2/6d is - or even what a newspaper is.

Glad its sorted.

Spot the ball ay! My dad used to let me put half the crosses on the picture while he did the rest.

Never won anything though, I reckon they used to chuck the pictures and cash the postal orders!!

Update: the car was at the local Skoda dealer's today and they diagnosed and replaced a faulty exhaust bracket. So it looks like looby and fuzzybunny win this month's "diagnose the fault over the internet" prize (it's a bit like "spot the ball" except you don't have to cut a picture of some footballers out of the local newspaper and send it off with a postal order for 2/6d*).

* Younger forum members will be excused for not knowing what a postal order is, what 2/6d is - or even what a newspaper is.

The bit about this that bothers me is that i'm not that old and i know what you meant.

Likewise my old man let me have a line on the pools.

I shall now have a good cry. :(

Edited 29 May, 201313 yr by AlleyCat`

Oh, and a final note along the lines of Bobdog's "what's this they've given me?" threads: they loaned me a Superb Greenline Estate as a courtesy car. It seemed hugely long compared to the Yeti, but my old bones certainly noticed the lower seating position when I got in and out! I found it fairly refined, quieter than the Yeti - impressive for a car with such a big load space, which could have been prone to resonance - and easy to drive despite the unfamiliar dimensions (many of the controls are the same, of course). I did notice the lack of oomph compared to the Yeti. Not that I regard myself as a habitual boy racer but the 1.6 diesel in the Superb just didn't give the "heft" that you get from the 2.0 TDCi 140. The stop-start worked well, though, and I soon stopped being aware of it. Strangely, for a car that sits a lot lower than the Yeti, I did think that the Superb wallowed a bit - when I got it back I noticed the Yeti felt distinctly more precise, more point-and-go, a bit more go kart-like. (OK, maybe I'm more of a boy racer than I like to admit...) Maybe something to do with the front end having to work harder to persuade all that additional real estate at the back end to follow along. All in all I reckon it would be a perfectly nice car if you want a big load space, a bit of refinement and you're prepared to compromise a bit on performance for the sake of economy.

Update: the car was at the local Skoda dealer's today and they diagnosed and replaced a faulty exhaust bracket. So it looks like looby and fuzzybunny win this month's "diagnose the fault over the internet" prize (it's a bit like "spot the ball" except you don't have to cut a picture of some footballers out of the local newspaper and send it off with a postal order for 2/6d*).

* Younger forum members will be excused for not knowing what a postal order is, what 2/6d is - or even what a newspaper is.

Great news and what a relief. Goes to show that we part time mechanics always seem to err on the worse possible causes and once again the Yeti shows it's reliability on the mechanical side. Well done to the ones who predicted correctly