I bought Skoda Superb Combi Elegance 2.0 TDI CR (170 HP, manual gearbox) at the end of 2010. At the moment some 18.000 km passed, no problems so far to speak of.

Except one little annoyance: recently I have discovered weird rattling sound emitting from the engine. Could be it was there before, maybe from the start and I only noticed it when driving slowly with open co-driver window.

Details:

- it sounds like a piece of plastic or metal is in resonance with engine. Not loud, it can't be heard in the cabin, but can be heard when standing at the car

- it's frequency is depending on engine rpm. When engine is idling it's not there. When slowly increasing engine rpm, sound becomes audible at some 1000 - 1100 rpm with starting frequency of some 10 - 20 Hz (rattling, higher pitch than normal engine sound). When engine rotates faster, so does the frequency of rattle increase. When engine returns to idle, so does the rattle stop.

- timing of appearance is peculiar: immediately after engine start it's NOT present, only kicks in after 4 or 5 seconds, as if some valve opened in fuel delivery system.

- it's present with cold or warm engine

- standing in front of the engine (car) it's emitting from LEFT side of the block.

I went to a dealer to have it checked. Mechanic couldn't find anything unusual. Luckily there was the same car in their parking lot, brand new (had some 250 km on it), same engine. We started it, and it emitted the same sound (!). So the guy said it's normal and that was it.

I'm still not completely convinced though. Does any of you have similar observations with their car? It's a little annoying to hear that rattling through otherwise nice humming of the engine.

Thank you for your posts in advance and all the best.

G

Mine has a resonance which I thought was a loose muffler shield or something similar in the exhaust that occurs in the 1200 to 1500 rpm region or threabouts. I don't notice it unless I am deliberately driving slowly, let's say looking for a parking spot. From investigations and talking to others it seems to be in all cars.

I think what you are hearing is the exhaust resonance, it will die down once the car has put some carbon inside it, it's literally the sound bouncing off the inner walls of the pipe.

Check the air intake box front nearside of engine. It rattles at low revs (1500-2000).

Octavia Tour 2.0 TDI CR 81kW (10/2011) - exactly the same noise. I checked at local dealer, brand new Skoda, same engine with 0 km has identical noise. So this is quite normal.

I bought a superb 170 diesel, I picked it up on the 26th of April. Last week I noticed that noise you describe quite accurately and I got quite concerned about it, I was thinking of going back to the dealers this week. That is until I stumbled in to this thread! Thanks guys for all the info, it seems that this is a characteristic of this otherwise wonderful engine!

Liebel

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If this is the air box, it is a (very) quick fix by the dealer.

I had an irritating rattle from my 170 CR engine at about 1200 rpm. The problem was the cover on the battery compartment. Easy to fix with some adhesive foam.