Evening All,

Obviously everyone is aware of the octy wheel alignment issue causing sawtoothing and road noise etc. My tyres wore unevenly, then i had a geo check done and some changes made. Put up with the tyre noise as damage was already done on new tyres before the changed settings. Now i have just had enough and stuck 4 new tyres on it to get rid of the uneven dunlops.

I could cry as the noise is still there! what the hell could this be. I had the car geo done, took off 4 uneven dunlop sports (maxx and 9000's) put on a set of vred ultracs and it still sounds like a bearing has gone. Yet the wheel bearings have been checked twice by the dealer.

Any suggestions on what may be causing this issue as i have run out of ideas. I have booked the car in on thursday and i will take the technician out in it just so i know they get the message and acknowledge the problem.

Any suggestions welcome, i only have 6 months warranty left and if it doesn't get sorted i can't put up with it any longer so its being chopped in. I love the car but can't deal with the drone in the cabin. I thought about taking another pd vrs out for a test drive just to make sure they are not all like that but surely they can't be.

This has cost a small fortune in tyres, had the noise with bridgestones, dunlops and now vreds. I have 5 fully legal spares in the shed. This is getting expensive.

Thanks

Stu

Assuming your hearing road noise, not any other issue, have you tried any noise damping products? I put in noisekiller (apart from wheel arches and doors). It's helped a bit, although not quite as much as I would like. Although I'm running on continentals which are known to be noisy (have to expect some more noise running on low profile tyres anyway). When things get warmer I'm thinking of adding some second skin damping.

From what I've been told (do a search, your see) the boot and underneath the rear bench makes the biggest difference to noise.

Take out another vrs to see if it is as noisy as yours for peace of mind first though.

I have an 08 vRS PD and can safely say that there is no noise that I wouldn't expect. A little noisy at higher speeds, but I tend to stick at 65-70 on the motorways anyway, so not much of an issue for me.

Sorry, can't offer any advice :(

Edit - where are you? You are more than welcome to pop over to Warrington if you wanna listen to mine and see what its like? No sure where you are tho

Edited 13 February, 201016 yr by Rincey

Well its to the point where some passengers say "you got a wheel bearing going?"

I did think about going down the route of sound deadening but at the moment i don't want to lay out any more cash. clutching at straws but a wheel may be out of shape some how although that would surely show itself when they are being balanced. I will wait and see what happens on thursday. Probably get told all is ok.

Thanks for the offer for the test in a different car, i am in sittingbourne in kent so easier to book a drive from a dealer. Its just ruined the car for the past year so would rather like to get it sorted. Its not the tyres as its noisy and they were new yesterday!

Fingers crossed someone may have had a similar issue! and managed to get it sorted of course.

Im new to Octys so bear with me, is this "known problem" just with the vRS? had my Scout about 10 weeks and Im actually very impressed with the sound proofing, this is quietest diesel iv owned.

if its not a bearing, it could be a problem inside the gearbox or the differential. when you are driving and can here the noise does it go away if you depress the clutch pedal?

Cant say i have tried pressing the clutch down at speed to see if the noise goes. I will give that a go later.

Its just one of those noises thats impossible to locate. i find myself driving leaning all over the car to try and see where its coming from. If it was the gearbox etc then that would explain a few things.

Thanks fingers crossed.

What did they set your rear camber to after the geo check?

I took it to summers motores an approved vw accident repair centre. I gave them the new settings found on here. Since that was done the uneven wear has stopped, before it was done i wore through the inside edge of a set of potenzas in weeks. I just hoped that spending the money on a full set of new boots would sort it but that woud have been too easy i guess.

If the noise is coming from the back axle I think it can only be the bearings or the tyres. If it is coming from the front it could also be the diff or gearbox as mannyo mentioned above.

Does the noise change or disappear if you go round a corner?

Not sure on where the noise is coming from. I need someone to sit in and listen in all the different corners etc, cant see the mrs doing that though.

Its only at crusing speed on the the mway etc and although its still there you can hardly notice at lower speeds. Not sure about going round bends etc as you tend to take them a lot slower. It just gets beyond the joke at 40mph upwards, as i drive up and down the motorway all week for week this isn't too clever!

Still going to take it out later and see if pressing the clutch stops it. Would this rule out gearbox or differential?

Were the bearings checked twice by the same dealer? If so were all 4 checked out or just the fronts?

If so have you considered taking it to another dealer for a second opinion?

I can most likely say that this problem is not with all vrs models,if it were mine would of been back to the dealer right away,i was touching 80mph along the motorway yesterday and was comfortably quiet inside the car,obviously if you get a bad bit of road surface your gonna get road noise..Not experienced anything like this on the vrs,but i had a subaru that used to make a noise and turned out to be the drive shaft..do you fancy selling any of them tyres you got...

I can most likely say that this problem is not with all vrs models,if it were mine would of been back to the dealer right away,i was touching 80mph along the motorway yesterday and was comfortably quiet inside the car,obviously if you get a bad bit of road surface your gonna get road noise..Not experienced anything like this on the vrs,but i had a subaru that used to make a noise and turned out to be the drive shaft..do you fancy selling any of them tyres you got...

I have a 57 plate VRS diesel and the drone in mine is loud as well ! I had the bearings checked as you did and all ok i'm told then went on to the rear geometric problem and sawtooth tyres etc etc.

I havent changed the rear rubber yet as still 5mm on but drivin me mad too!

may have to get a set of Falken FK452's as they were great on my previous car for a cheaper brand tyre.

I have an 07 plate L&K and the rear geometry was totally out of whack, it used to cane the rear tyres something rotten until I had the rear camber adjusted, it wasn't even near the old figures let alone the revised set!

Before and after the adjustment I never had any problems with excessive road and tyre noise. My wife's 07 diesel vRS hatch is obviously quieter than my estate but both cars are not what you would consider excessively loud even at 'decent' motorway speeds.

The only time I ever had any road noise related problems was when my rear tyres wore out properly as in across the whole tread width - then I was getting a noise very similar to worn out wheel bearings.

It would be interesting to note if the noise changes when accelerating, overrunning or coasting at the speed where the noise is at its worst. Also try different gears at that speed to see if there is any change.

Its unlikely to be an aerodynamic related noise like a loose belly pan or heat shield but its worth considering as a long shot.

Between the two cars we have used:-

Falken FK452

Conti Sport SP3

Bridgestone RE050

OE Dunlops - can't recall the model

Avon ZV5

Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD3

None of the above tyres caused any significant amount of road noise like what you are describing.

Have you considered the noise from a badly fitting rear quarter light window? I had this noise recently after a body shop visit and it was a horrid droning noise over 40mph. Try taping up around the window glass with some masking tape to rule out this possibility. Wont cost you a bean and might pin point the problem.

HTH

Thanks for all the replies, i am wililng to give anything a go so i will take on board the real quarter suggestion.

I took it for a spin at about 70 ish and pressed the clutch in as suggested, no change i am afraid.

Dolla, at the rate i am wasting money on this thing i will have no choice but to start selling my tyre stock from the shed. I have 2 dunlops sport maxx with 5mm tread, 2 dunlops sport 9000 with 5mm tread, 1 bridgestone potenza with 3-4 mm but uneven wear.

I will be ok if i ever need a tyre quick!

Golf-Fiend - I will give this a try, did it really make a bad droning noise then? Where exactly did you tape it? all around the rubber?

The mystery continues!

Yes, a really bad droning. Try tape all around the fixed glass where it meets the rubber. Also the edge where the winding window meets the channel to the rear of the door. I believe at speed the wind drag opens up a gap between glass and rubber and it causes a terrible noise. Try it all over and remove bits until you can pinpoint the area affected. Also, if you tape the whole up and the noise is still present then it is not the problem. This is info I have gleened from previos posts on this site.

CV joints/driveshafts ?

Any suggestions welcome, i only have 6 months warranty left and if it doesn't get sorted i can't put up with it any longer so its being chopped in. I love the car but can't deal with the drone in the cabin. I thought about taking another pd vrs out for a test drive just to make sure they are not all like that but surely they can't be.

If the noise is constant, irrespective of the road surface, I'd suspect it's more than just the tyres. Mine's fairly noisy on the very coarse top road surfaces but on the finer surfaces it's ok. I know where the good and bad bits are on my local journeys now, so I can double check that it's not a bearing etc.

Well i am at the point where i can rule out tyres as i have now had 3 different sets. I get the noise constant on all surfaces although its worse on harsher roads but that is probably due to the increase in cabin noise that you would normally get.

I am certain its a wheel bearing but what do skoda do to check them, probably jack it up a couple of inches, stick a bar under it and check for play. This doesn't rule out the fact it may be not 100% jsut as there is no movement in it i wouldn't have thought. Not a lot else it can be.

Will keep you updated. Can't wait to get it in the garage with some hope of the issue being sorted once and for all .

I am fed up to the eye teeth with the amount of road noise on my VRS and once it warms up out there I'm going to spend a weekend removing seats and carpets and attack the floorpan with some damping. Personally I think Skoda have scrimped a bit too much on the soundproofing but I suppose Audi have to have something to use to justify the price difference. - Four rings on the bonnet, four grand on the price!

Seriously though, your problem >could< be a bent wheel. I had a similar issue a while back on another vehicle and my tyre fitter laughed his arse off when he was changing a tyre - the wheel had a noticible "hop" and took a load of weight to balance. Prior to this it sounded like a sour bearing - not "graunchy" or rought but a definate whooommmmmm tyre noise. Worth getting it checked and don't think its a rear wheel just because the sound >appears< to be coming from the rear - as you've found out this type of noise is difficult to pin down in a car.

Hope you get it sorted soon.

Edited 15 February, 201016 yr by wardth

If i can get this other issue sorted i would be happy to spend some cash on sound deadening just to make it even more pleasent. But at the moment i need to get this fixed. Its cost me a fortune and i won't be pleased if they change a wheel bearing to fix it after they told me twice before they are ok.

Its annoying that its so difficult to judge where exactly the noise is coming from.

I am fed up to the eye teeth with the amount of road noise on my VRS and once it warms up out there I'm going to spend a weekend removing seats and carpets and attack the floorpan with some damping. Personally I think Skoda have scrimped a bit too much on the soundproofing but I suppose Audi have to have something to use to justify the price difference. - Four rings on the bonnet, four grand on the price!

Seriously though, your problem >could< be a bent wheel. I had a similar issue a while back on another vehicle and my tyre fitter laughed his arse off when he was changing a tyre - the wheel had a noticible "hop" and took a load of weight to balance. Prior to this it sounded like a sour bearing - not "graunchy" or rought but a definate whooommmmmm tyre noise. Worth getting it checked and don't think its a rear wheel just because the sound >appears< to be coming from the rear - as you've found out this type of noise is difficult to pin down in a car.

Hope you get it sorted soon.

Thats a good thought I had the same problem on a Mk 1 Octy, the alloy was out of shape, looked fine when you span it when viewed from the outside but when you got under the car ON A RAMP you could see the inside of 2 wheels on one side were out of shape. The dealer should check this I would have thought, We had originally sent our car in with suspected wheel bearings.

Well this was also my other train of thought. Ask the guys to perhaps try it with another set of rims from any other octy they have laying around. Seeing as its a main dealer they should be spoilt for choice.

Do you think they actually will though?