Mine was noticed by Skoda at the first service and they arent interested in sorting it. the response i had was that its common especially in the VRS range and usually down to the way the car is driven. I got a specialist to sort it out in the end.

Thats not what we need to hear from them.

There obviously something fundamentaly wrong with the setup.

My advice:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/gotastory/

Edited 12 December, 201015 yr by prolfe

Having read all the comments regarding this issue and having suffered the same problem myself, I decided to see what response I got from a local Skoda dealer. I have to say I was expecting a battle and the usual responses as mentioned in this thread.

Took it in yesterday and as soon as I mentioned the symptoms the staff confirmed what we all think, problem with the settings. They did however want to check the wheel bearings first just to be sure there wasn't an isuue there. When I heard the words "Whatever it is,it will be sorted out under warranty" I became a little more optomistic

Took it back this morning and a technician test drove it , got it up on the ramps checked tyre tread and depths etc etc and confirmed problem with geometry settings which needs realigning.

This particular dealer does not have the equipment needed to do it so they booked the car in with a local VW dealership who they have a contract with.

Due to be done next Tuesday at same time as 1st service, UNDER WARRANTY, NO QUESTIONS ASKED[/b].

Can't fault the response which, considering I didn't get the car from them, has been excellent.

As an aside I was also offered the 2 year service deal for £299.00 with £100 pounds worth of Skoda vouchers back. No brainer as 1st service is £179.00

I think there are several issues...

The geometry is set up 'approximately' at the factory, but a full geometry check is not part of the PDI. Once the car starts being driven the geometry naturally alters a little as the bushes, springs etc settle. I had my geometry checked after about 3k miles and it was out a bit at the back. I don't think any car manufacturer officially covers wheel alignment under warranty.

Modern low profile tyres, with wide tread and short, rigid, sidewall mean that with -ve camber the inside of the tyre is going to be slightly more loaded than the outside, so I think some degree of uneven wear is inevitable.

For the record, my late 2008 TFSI is wearing all of its tyres pretty evenly. The inside of the rears is perhaps wearing just a little more, but barely noticable. I run the revised settings, checked at least yearly on a Jim Bean 3D aligner. I am also a believer in rotating tyres to even out the wear.

Any chance of posting this?

Ta!

How do I add a picture?

Cheers

Dave

Didn't realise thread was still running.

Email to skoda services got no response at all. Email to local dealer complaining about this and asking for their help also got no reply. Finally a third email copying in manager got response that they will carry out alignment under warranty at first service next week. I've also asked them to swap the wheels front to back so I'll wait wait with interest to see what difference this makes. They've also asked to keep thecar for two days as the alignment needs to be carried out off site in Swavesy Cambs.

There are so many threads about this on here and on my own car the saw tooth noise began at about 15,000 miles, it seems most annoying at around 25 to 30 mph so most of the time I drive through that and can ignore it.... I find it very odd that so many owners report back that their geometry is way out, is it regularly set badly in the factory or is it an effect of our rubbish roads full of lumps bumps and uneven ironwork ? I have also read that whilst one can do a number of things to help the problem, it is actually a characteristic of the chassis design which exaggerates this type of wear on some types of tyres and affects all VW group cars using this basic chassis (a quick google for the same issue on Golf's will come up with the same thing.) Clearly this design is sensitive to geometry tolerances and no self respecting dealer would dare try to say that they had never heard of this issue.

So having thought I might get the geometry checked I am now faced with almost as many difffering reports of the accuracy and skill with which that is carried out and, since the car is handling well and otherwise behaving I am reluctant to mess it up by taking it to an incompetant alignment checking place.....

rambling a bit but I finally reach my question for your advice..... can anybody endorse the skill of a place in my area to carry out an alignment check..... Guildford Tyres ? Pro-Tyre at Slough? I think I will be getting to the new tyre stage in a fairly short time and would like to deal with this issue at the same time to optimise the like of the new set.

I take some comfort in the fact that many other vrs drivers have the same "grumble" but I did find it tedious having to explain it all to my passenger who wondered what all the noise was about on a recent journey where we had to keep to 20 mph and it set up a resonance in the dog cage......

Well my car has started to develop a rumble which I thought a wheel bearing. Car has done 13000 miles and I changed the tyres front to back at 10000 miles.

Took it to my dealer for a check and the lead technician came out with me and immediately said it was tyre 'sawtothing'. No way was it a wheel bearing. He did say it was a common problem and not much could be done to cure, a full 4 wheel alignment might help but not worth doing until tyres replaced.

3 tyres have about 5mm and one is on 3mm.

Looking back the rumble or roar only became apparent after I moved the tyres round.

Anyway back at the dealers the service manager denied that there was any inherent problem with the Octavia and it was not covered under warranty but I could ring SUK if I wanted

I then reminded him that they had already carried out a full alignment check 2 weeks after I got the car but he said this was a dealer goodwill gesture and not a a Skoda warranty. ( I was worried about damage after hitting a big pothole in the February snow) and that they would not do another check FOC.

So I am stuck with noise until I change tyres in about 5000 miles time

Has anybody worked out if the tyre rotation direction is changed will it help, i.e. swap rear tyres left to right and right to left.

Like another poster I've noticed the rumble noise is worst at 20 to 30mph

My tyres are Dunlop Sport Maxx GT

Is this the dealer you purchased the car from? Did you get it on finance?

Is this the dealer you purchased the car from? Did you get it on finance?

Yes Progress Skoda Bedford. Yes on the 0% finance deal for the VRS

Ok if you feel its a fault with the car and not wear and tear, then claim under SOGA not the warranty, its between you and the dealer not Skoda. Otherwise contact VW Finance as the car belongs to them and they are jointly liable. When I had an alarm prob, things changed somewhat when I changed tact. As soon as they fob you off with Skoda, inform them you purchased the car from them and the purchase contract (supply of goods) is with them.

I would also suggest you take the car to a tyre specialist to get a written diagnosis and also print off some evidence from the web and present this to the supplying dealer. Deal direct with the dealer and not Skoda. Keep us informed

Ok if you feel its a fault with the car and not wear and tear, then claim under SOGA not the warranty, its between you and the dealer not Skoda. Otherwise contact VW Finance as the car belongs to them and they are jointly liable. When I had an alarm prob, things changed somewhat when I changed tact. As soon as they fob you off with Skoda, inform them you purchased the car from them and the purchase contract (supply of goods) is with them.

I would also suggest you take the car to a tyre specialist to get a written diagnosis and also print off some evidence from the web and present this to the supplying dealer. Deal direct with the dealer and not Skoda. Keep us informed

James, thanks for those two suggestions.

I had not thought of these routes. I will have a 'think' and work out which way to go

Spoke to skoda 3 weeks ago, and have emailed twice since. I have done over 1200 miles since I first reported it. If no response next week I am going to get the tracking done and send then the bill, along with a demand to change all tyres fox.

Will let you know how I get on.

Just re-visited this and I am still amazed that some dealers and services managers seem to treat customers as if we live in a vacuum of non-communication - it is clearly a known "issue" with this chassis and whether or not it is treated as wear and tear or as a fault, or that some dealers seems to exercise decency and goodwill - how on earth do some of them have the brass neck to just pretend this doesn't happen and that it is not a peculiarity which seems to afflict this design.... In my many years of owning cars of all sizes, ages and prices I have never come across this sawtoothing nonsense before even on the cheapest "banger" with bargain tyres - perhaps the engine noise and other vibration covered it up. You would think that after many thousands of years since the origin of the wheel and with the knowledge and might of the VW empire they could at least get the flippin' wheels to go round properly. I notice that other manufacturers have adopted a different view to "problems" and instead of pretending nothing is wrong they actually boast of the speed and efficiency with which they deal with them.... having got that off my chest I still say that the Vrs is a brilliant motor for the money and mostly I can ignore the saw-toothing noise and concentrate on the enthusiastic gruff from the exhaust

Dealer had my car for two days before Christmas. They realigned wheels to revised settings and swapped tyres front to back. Done at same time as 10k service which cost me £107 for basic oil change service.

Since then I've travelled about 600 miles visiting family over Christmas. The noise is worse than ever and passengers now ask me what's wrong with the car! Some think it's wheel bearings and others the engine. No one seems to believe me when I tell them it's the tyres. On long journeys it is so bad I've ended up with a headache from the constant background rumble. For a 10 month old £20k car this is unacceptable.

Went back to dealer yesterday and they are going to look at it again in a couple of weeks when I get back from another trip down to Devon. Truth is that it's now got to the point where I am seriously thinking of selling the car. As previous poster says, I've run various cars over thousands of miles in the last 20 years and never experienced this even in cheap bangers.

The noise will be worse, because the tyres have been swapped front to back. It should settle down over a hundred miles or so, as the uneven tyre wear evens out. I bought some brand new tyres which droned like a gudden for 600 miles and now they are quieter than the original tyres.

I thought that. Problem is I've done six hundred miles in the last 10 days and still no sign of it improving.

Selling the car sounds more expensive than new tyres and a realignment!

a quick update from me.

having first emailed on the 10th December, followed up a couple of weeks later and heard nothing, I have jsut spoken to customer service.

I have now been told that the issue 'is a characteristic of the Bridgestone tyres' this was said by one of the customer service people who was talking to a technicain. I asked why I was sold a 20k car that has this characteristic to which there was no answer. I then went on to say that according to the dealer, this is not hte issue, and as the geomatry is out, it must be that.

At first, the response was either buy new tyres, or swap them round, to whcih I have told them that this is NOT an option.

After saying that I was going to write to Bridgestone and advise them that Skoda are saying that there is an issue with the tyre, they have agreed at their cost to have the geometry sorted.

I have emailed them to put into writing that I want a copy of the recording where they have made the comment about Bridgestone to ensure that if they come back and say it is the tyre, that they will pay for them to be changed.

I hope to get the tracking done in the next few days, and then see what happens.

i will be calling them as well

I suspect that this is a very widespread problem, if you "google" saw tooth tyres there are many many threads, it is a phenomenon that has been known for some time and is usually discussed in terms of geometry. Sometimes it seems than particular tread patterns are more susceptible and I saw one which reported that Michelin PS3 were not so susceptible. I am sure that the tyre industry and motor manufacturers must be aware of the possibility of this annoying wear pattern. With general feedback from drivers and accumulated experiences you would hope that they would select a choice of tyre which was less prone to this problem, on the other hand it seems to be so common that perhaps they hope a "silent majority" will just change their tyres more often.

I recently went with a friend for a test drive in a 1 year old Golf Estate, under 10,000 miles and it was kicking up a hideous droning noise from the rear tyres, the salesman was completely "unaware" that this was a problem. So if anybody had to actually put their hands up and admit that this was a "peculiarity" of the chassis in combination with the tyres they chose to use wouldn't the VW group be stuck with a very large problem when countless drivers realised they have the same problem and all wanted it sorted.

Have to confess that I am putting up with it for a bit longer then will give the Michelin tyres a go

Had four wheel laser tracking done. Don't know how to read the results, but they are being sent to skoda, and then I will see how well I get on pushing then for two new tyres.

Left car with dealer today. Back story is alignment reset just before Christmas and wheels swapped front to back as fronts were naturally more worn than rears. Problem is that the droning is now worse than ever.

They rang at lunch time to say tyres out of shape and I should get all four replaced to cure the problem (rears that were on the front are now down to 3mm). Pointed out that car is 10 months old, retails at £20k and has only done 11000 miles (the last 4k with this problem gradually getting worse). They pointed out this was not covered under warranty so I arranged to speak to the service manager when I picked the car up tonight.

I told him that this had been a problem for the past couple of months with the noise now so bad I've been getting headaches on long journeys and suffered the embarrassment of passengers asking me what's wrong with my new car (engine, wheel bearing, etc). He agreed that this is not a good advert for Skoda and accepted that this is a well known issue that they have received a lot of complaints about recently (FL Octavias). No attempt to blame me and he was very polite.

We agreed that the way forward is to replace the two tyres affected, which have minimal wear apart from the damage caused by the misalignment as they have spent nearly all of their lives on the undriven wheels. Dealer has agreed to go back to Skoda to press case for contribution to new tyres. Given all the hassle I've had with it and putting up with the racket for several months now I won't let it lie unless they agree a generous contribution.

Car came with a leaflet offering arbitration of any warranty issues through the industry code of practice. There is no way Skoda could successfully argue legally that selling a car with a known faulty suspension/tyre set up that damaged tyres in under 10k and 12 months was defendable under the Sale of Goods Act. If they don't start accepting some liability for this problem then I would suggest we start to look at joining up our individual complaints into some kind of class action. Should be reasonably easy to coordinate through a forum such as this.

I am Also not going to let it lie.

Skoda uk are waiting for the results from the laser allignement, and then I will be pushing for the full price of two new tyres (I did not get the tyres swapped as I did not want the fronts ruined as well)

Well let me know how you get on. It's easier for them to fob off individual complaints.

You only have redress from the supplying dealer under SOGA, its nothing to do with Skoda.