Hi All, I've been meaning to join for a while but I'm now at the end of my tether & need your help/advice.

I'm the proud owner of an Octavia VRS 2006 (mark 1) I've only had it for 5 months and have been over the moon with it. Recently I noticed a droning noise from the front end after putting different tyres on. I thought it was the tracking so went to Skoda to have that done (that was after having it done at 2 different tyre centres before) That still didn't fix it so I've just had the wheen bearings done and the noise is till there!! The garage think it might be the gearbox - after they milked me out of hundreds for the wheel bearings!!

The car has only done 63,000 miles so I'm not sure its the gearbox

Any ideas guys? Would really appreciate your advice as I'm going out of my mind!!

What tyre's have you got on there? Make and size? Different makes really can make a massive difference to road noise!

I has P6000 on an escort years ago and they really droned at speed!

P.s. Welcome to Briskoda

Thanks for the quick reply & thanks for the welcome!

When I brought the car it had 4 continentals contact 2's on it. I then put some infinity (cheap!) tyres on the front, got the drone, then I changed them to the back & the drone is still there. So currently I have 2 continentals on the front and 2 infinitys on the back, surely it can't be as simple as that.?????????

It's certainly possible, which would raise some interesting questions for your garage...

It's probably worth avoiding cheap tyres on the VRS in the future if possible, because it needs all the grip it can get. You have to be hefty with the steering and it will understeer badly in the wet if the grip isn't right at the front. If you have cheap tyres on the back and go into a corner a little too hot then you can unstick the rear end too. My personal feeling is that neither condition feels particularly controllable with this chassis, so it's better not to go there

It's certainly possible, which would raise some interesting questions for your garage...

It's probably worth avoiding cheap tyres on the VRS in the future if possible, because it needs all the grip it can get. You have to be hefty with the steering and it will understeer badly in the wet if the grip isn't right at the front. If you have cheap tyres on the back and go into a corner a little too hot then you can unstick the rear end too. My personal feeling is that neither condition feels particularly controllable with this chassis, so it's better not to go there

Ditto. Some good advice there. Scrimping on tyres is a false economy.

Edited 22 January, 201115 yr by Liverpool-Lad

Ditto. Some good advice there. Scrimping on tyres is a false economy.

Unless you happen to be a landscape gardener

sounds like your gearbox diff is starting to collapse

ps welcome

Mate dont spend hundreds on wheel bearings unless you know thats the problem I would be raging at the garage who did that if I was you wheel bearing is an easy fault to diagnose and they would have known there was nothing wrong and just thrown the parts on anyway.

Whether it your tyres or your gearbox dont go to that garage again ask some of the people on here who know what there talking about (not me!)

Mate dont spend hundreds on wheel bearings unless you know thats the problem I would be raging at the garage who did that if I was you wheel bearing is an easy fault to diagnose and they would have known there was nothing wrong and just thrown the parts on anyway.

Whether it your tyres or your gearbox dont go to that garage again ask some of the people on here who know what there talking about (not me!)

Hi I had a company vauxhall astra. That had a noise like a wheelbearing sound. car went to garage , they said nothing wrong with bearing. TO cut along story short!! turned out to be tyres!!! when even swoping to back would not sort problem out!! when tyres were replaced, car was quiet!!

My vrs has had some cheap tyres fitted by garage before I bought it! there not noisy but in the wet put foot down just over powers traction control and spin!! lol

Hi guys, thanks for all the postings - feel part of the family already

Think I'm gonna replace the tyres tomorrow - continentals all round and see if that makes the difference...if not looks like its the gearbox. BUT can't get my head around that even though i moved the cheap tyres to the back the sound seems to come from the front - although I must say the sound got worse since the tyres were changed anyway?! Weird.

Really appreciate all your comments, will keep you posted :p