OctyMax98

After a few months and a couple thousand miles with my Bilstein B4 dampers, I decided I was still not happy with the car’s general floaty/wallowyness. Though the ride quality from them was excellent, my car still had numb steering and lots of body roll, and on the motorway the wind blew it all over the place, with it being a hatch with the 1.4 engine and 205 width tyres. I decided it was time to put some lowering springs on it as well. I was an idiot and should have done this at the same time as the dampers, which would have saved me another £270 labour. Oh well. I did lots of research – people complaining about the Pro Kit being poorly matched with the Bilstein B4’s, people getting a bouncy ride, a crashy ride, problems over speed bumps etc. It was hard to find a good review of them outside of these forums where people praised the combination. Bilstein state that you can pair lowering springs with B4’s, and Eibach state that their springs can be used with any shocks in good condition. When I sat back in my car after having them fitted, the first thing I noticed was how much lower the car felt. I’ve not measured the arch gaps, but it states that the car drops around 30mm at the front and 35mm at the back. I think the back has dropped more than the front as it no longer has the bum in the air look about it. I then had to drive down a single track lane filled with nasty ruts, bumps and potholes – I noticed immediately how much less crashy the car was over these bumps. It felt firmer, but soaked them up with ease and it no longer made any cracking or knocking sounds come into the cabin. After driving at 5-10mph down the lane, I turned out onto a 30mph road. The change in steering and stability was immediately apparent. The steering felt firmer around the centre, it felt like I wasn’t going as fast as before, and the feeling of composure and stability was great. Again, the way the car soaked up bumps vs before was significant – the usual drains and small ripples that it was previously rubbish at dealing with were basically gone. Now onto national speed limit roads and motorways – this is where the difference is very noticeable. Strong winds affect the car much less, there is a good amount of steering feel at high speed and it feels extremely solid and stable. The ride quality at higher speeds is amazing – it feels so smooth particularly as little bumps no longer make the car jiggle around. At 70mph, it feels like I am barely moving. For more spirited driving – the harder you push the car around a corner, the more steering feel you get. When going quickly around a bend, the body remains very flat and the steering sharpens up. It’s just on the initial turn in where there is less feel and some body roll. The progressive nature of the springs becomes very clear under this kind of driving. In summary, I really wish I’d had these fitted at the same time as the dampers. I think it made even more significant an impact than the shocks did. I can’t really think of a reason as to why anyone shouldn’t buy them. It cost me a £13 admin fee to get the change made on my insurance, plus £35 for alignment after a week/100 miles – definitely do this as it’s made the steering feel even better. Pros - Looks fantastic - Brakes feel more effective due to less forward lean - Much less nose lift under acceleration - Far less body roll - Ride quality significantly better, particularly over rippled surfaces and drains - More stable and planted feel – it feels like driving a bigger car such as a Passat - Ride isn’t jiggly anymore Cons - The car still feels quite soft and there is some body roll in corners – only a con if you want the car to have a set up that always feels firm - Less ground clearance – the mud flaps underneath the front bumper may scrape on things - Steering still feels a bit numb and artificial – that’s just how VAG cars seem to be - “Normal” steering mode is still far too light and twitchy - The suspension feels stiffer which makes big bumps more noticeable (by a pretty negligible amount) Before: After (and needs a good clean)

I'm yet to check under my bonnet though the sound has been very intermittent. I've been trying to keep an eye on what conditions it does it under. It seems that it is only doing it on a cold start, when the temperature is above 15C and when it is dry. If it's a bit damp but the temperature is higher, it does it a little bit. When I leave for work and it's about 11C outside and condensation everywhere, it doesn't make any noise. This all explains why I heard it much more over the summer and now only in the afternoons. Here's another audio from today. This was a cold start this afternoon in very dry conditions and about 16-17 degrees. The noise seems to get louder and higher in pitch either as I go up the revs or if I mash the throttle harder. Hard to tell. AC and vents off, warm dry day.m4a

My car is a 2016 Octavia 1.4 tsi DSG. Each time I cold start it then drive off, the car starts producing a whining sound that increases in volume as I speed up and go through the gears. The sound peaks and then starts dropping off again as I get to speed. I can hear it over the radio but it doesn't drown it out. The noise is also very noticeable from the outside of the car, my parents have informed me. Seems to be coming from under the bonnet. For the sound to happen, I have to be using the gas pedal. It does it either reversing or going forwards. The whine seems to decrease in pitch then stops when I lift off the gas. I've tried running the car for longer before I drive off and it's made no difference. The noise gets quieter over the course of about 30 seconds then stops. In the attached audio file, I drive off Cold start, vents on, no AC.m4a from my work car park after a cold start. I accelerate up to about 30mph then pull over again. The noise continued for about a minute after this (only when accelerating), but progressively got much quieter. I've tried all combinations of fans on/off, AC on/off in case that might be the cause and I don't think this is making any difference. In this recording I had the fan running on its lowest setting but switched the AC off. I'm sure it's started doing this since I had it mapped in August, or at least around that time. It seems to be getting worse now and lasting for longer. May be entirely unrelated, but my car has always made an extremely similar sound between 25-27mph, only when coasting. For example, lift off the gas at 30mph and it starts to whine at 27 mph then stops as it slows down past 25mph. Weirdly specific I know. Thoughts?

Pun intended. Last October, I bought a 2016 Octavia hatchback, 1.4 TSI DSG (SE-L trim level). It was on just 28000 miles and is a fantastic car. Lovely torquey engine, smooth gearbox, lots of space, comfy seats and good speakers. The ride/handling compromise was never exactly how I wanted it though, but it was better than my previous Astra J SRI estate. The first thing I did was get new tyres fitted. Michelin Primacy 4’s all around. Improved grip, handling and road noise. Nice. Set the pressure at 32 psi in the back and 34 in the front for good handling feel without being too firm. Suspension I was never that keen on how the rear suspension dealt with bumps. It was a bit crashy and jiggly, particularly at higher speeds. From a bit of research, it sounded like Golf shocks were a good way to fix this. I fitted a pair of Sachs 1.6 tdi Golf shocks to the back. This removed all crashiness but it still felt a bit wallowy. I wasn’t satisfied with this, so I bought Bilstein B4’s for all 4 corners and had them fitted. Wow! So much better than the Sachs ones. I decided against changing the springs to avoid any potential negative impact on ride quality. The Bilstein shocks were slightly stiffer than OEM/Sachs but barely noticeable. The ride is completely transformed and feels like that of a larger car. It feels very planted and stable, especially at high speed. There is noticeably less body roll and the steering feels nice and sharp. They made an incredible difference to the car and I would highly recommend them. The ride no longer causes me any bother and feels like a car should out of the factory. Worth every penny of the £500 or so to buy them plus get them fitted. Alignment I was always convinced that the alignment job on my car when the new tyres were fitted made the car feel less stable at high speed than it previously did. Always seemed a bit fidgety. 20 minutes at Wheel Alignment Solutions in Southampton and my steering feels back to normal and the car settled at speed – it had too far much positive toe. Now it’s great at motorway speed, but the wind still blows it around a bit due to it being a light car. Remap In 2021, I had my Astra mapped at Mapro in Portsmouth. They took the 2.0 CDTi up to 205hp and about 450nm. The relentless torque and power delivery from that engine was quite something, especially at full chat in 2nd or 3rd. I’ll always miss the way that car drove but commuting and driving in traffic often made me decide on an auto petrol as the next car. I knew the effects of a map would be less extreme on a 1.4 petrol, but still worth doing. Mapro took it up to 183hp and 294NM. The characteristics of it are much the same – it revs out fantastically and has a huge surge of low end torque. It’s very happy to get to the national speed limit without any fuss. The effects of the map are less prominent than with a 2.0 diesel but it’s still great fun now. Insulation and cosmetic purchases: My car was never especially noisy as it’s a hatch and on 205/55/16 tyres – I understand people with estates and larger wheels get more noise. But I figured I’d also give some sound deadening a go. A 30 pack of 180mm x 250mm silent coat covered the entire boot/spare wheel well and a large area below the rear seat bench. This cost £30 and a couple of hours time and has made a small difference to the noise, not that it was much bother to begin with. I also replaced the wheel bolt covers as they were manky looking and am about to install some plastic Skoda branded door sill protectors which were £40. In summary, the Octavia is a great car to start with and the average person probably wouldn’t have any qualms with it. But I’m an enormous perfectionist and now the car is even better! I don’t really want to dwell on how much I have invested on all of this but it’s about £1250. I hope this helps anyone who is looking to make their Octavia a little nicer. Please fire away any questions!

Just for clarification, based on some replies on Reddit: I am NOT looking for a car that handles like it is on rails. I am looking for the ride to be a bit more stable and planted whilst taking bumps better. I also want to improve the vague, twitchy initial steering input (see my other post from may). It has also been suggested my car shouldn't be like this and I may need to get my alignment properly checked again...

Hi All For reference - driving a 2016 1.4 TSI hatch on 32k miles. It's wearing 205/55/16 tyres. Back in May I replaced my rear shock absorbers with Sachs ones from a Mk7 Golf, as others on this forum had suggested. This actually made the rear suspension a little firmer but made a night and day difference to the ride quality at any speed. It made the car a bit more composed and settled at speed as well. Overall it's so much better. I'm reluctant to put Golf shocks on the front though, as I worry the cars general wallowy/vagueness will remain - as it's so light it feels very twitchy and vague to steer. What I want to do is change the front shocks in a way that improves the steering feel but does not compromise the ride - the stock shocks ride well but I would like to get something that feels a bit more sophisticated and like a more expensive car. It's looking like Bilstein B4 is a good choice. I can't find many definitive answers as to if this is worth doing because people generally put lowering springs on as well. I don't feel a need to do this and I'm not interested in stiff B6's either - I'm just after a small improvement in steering and the car feeling a bit more planted. it's a great car and even a 10% better ride/handling compromise would be good. If I'm changing front shocks, should I get some Bilstein B4's for the rear as well, or leave the Sachs Golf ones I put on? Not concerned about cost, I'm happy to shell out more money to get the car right.

Thanks for the advice. I tried your idea of "thinking" the steering and it worked well. I think I'm still used to 2 years of driving my Astra which did have a dead zone and required a bit of over-correction to keep it steady. The hot weather at the moment is also helping the car feel more grippy and planted. I'm currently running the backs at 31 psi (Skoda's recommended pressure) and the fronts at 33. I've had the fronts up to 34-35 psi which helps things but starts to deteriorate the ride a bit, hence I'm reluctant to take the fronts or backs much higher. It's a shame Skoda seemed to do a pretty sub-par job of both handling and ride quality - there doesn't seem to be a good compromise between the two without changing the shocks as I have done for the rear of the car. Interesting point about the Michelin Primacy, I thought the ride felt much firmer for the first few hundred miles after getting them. Grip is excellent however, particularly during the frosty winter.

Hello all I drive a 2016 Octavia 1.4 TSI DSG. It’s on 32000 miles and owned since October last year. It’s wearing 205/55/16 tyres, just for reference. It's a fantastic car but I have never been very satisfied with the steering/suspension setup. Since owning the car, I’ve always found it to be very wallowy, vague and not very planted, especially on the motorway. It feels like it wants to float all over the road and doesn’t stay in lane very well. Strangely, it doesn’t seem to tramline or pull to one side, it just feels like I am floating on top of the road and it is getting blown all over the place. Th Mk5/6 Golfs I have owned didn’t do this as much, nor my previous Astra J estate, dad’s B8 Passat etc. Admittedly the latter two are vastly heavier cars with wider tyres (both on 225/17’s.). It's essentially lacking that "planted" feel a lot of other cars have. My other concern is the initial steering input about an inch either side of the centre feels incredibly light, vague and twitchy. My Astra was much like this but still felt very planted at speed. The Octavia’s steering seems to firm up and become very responsive after a few degrees of input, after which it handles pretty well. It’s not quite as bad in sport mode though still very spongy and vague. It's like the steering isn't quite sure what to do until it's been turned a few degrees which can make it feel pretty all over the place in a straight line. I feel I have to always keep two hands on the wheel or it will be too twitchy. I recently changed my rear shocks to Sachs Mk7 Golf ones (I may make a post to discuss how I did this and the difference it made), and this has helped make the car a little more planted and ride vastly better, though it still is not amazing. I’m going to look into getting the fronts changed as well. Slightly higher tyre pressures have also helped a bit. In December, I had 4 Michelin Primary 4 tyres fitted as it was still on its original Michelins. I also had the alignment done. These tyres have now done about 3000 miles. The tyre fitter said to me something within the steering rack/suspension had a small knock to it, as if the car had hit a big pothole/been in a minor accident. He said he had adjusted the tracking to account for this but the car may pull slightly to the left (it thankfully doesn’t). He then said whatever the issue was would cost hundreds to fix but should not ever need doing. I annoyingly can’t remember the exact bit he said was slightly damaged. Here is my alignment check. Does this look as it should? People seem to suggest that cars should have a slight toe-in for straight line stability. I’ve always thought the car didn’t feel quite as good after changing the tyres and having the alignment done. I’m pretty used to how it drives and it doesn’t always bother me – is the Octavia just a very wallowy car, or does mine need looking at? I definitely am going to get the damage looked at by an alignment specialist again. Thoughts?