New Car - Wind Noise

[peachers]

Hi,

Been lurking on here for a couple of months but this is my first post so please be gentle with me. Recently bought a brand new Octavia VRS Diesel in Anthracite metallic after deciding to take advantage of the no VAT details that Skoda had on recently. Had the car about 4 weeks and the first impressions are good, seems better built than my previous VW, has some nice toys and is pretty quick.

Unfortunately after about 2 weeks of ownership I noticed that there was a whistling wind noise at certain speeds on the motorway (normally between 75 - 80mph) so went back to the supplying dealer who agreed to look at it. Went out with a Skoda mechanic who confirmed the noise was not normal so the car was booked in to be checked over last week (I was expecting the door seals to be changed or some adjustment required for one of the doors as per other threads I have read on here). The car was at the dealers for the whole week and to cut a long story short, they had to take the dash out and consult Skoda Technical support but are still no further forward in tracing the noise. I now have the car back and still have the noise (seems to be coming from the centre of the dash at the bottom of the windscreen) and the dealer have advised that they are waiting on an update from Skoda technical support with suggestions on what else they can check now.

Just looking for some advice to see if this is a common problem or something that has been encountered before? Also how long should it take for Skoda technical support to investigate this issue or does it sound like I am being fobbed off? Was also wondering if the problem can't be fixed would I have grounds to reject the car as it is only about 5 weeks old with 1500 miles on it (would prefer not do this as it was my preferred colour and had the options I wanted on it)?

Cheers,

Peter

[Binzie]

I think you should give them a chance, sounds a strange fault they may have not encountered previously

if they give you the run around then I would consider the "fit for purpose" rejection route, up until then keep sending it back, a strongly worded complaint to the dealer principal or manager often speeds parts searches

[TsvRS]

Mine whistles at that exact speed in some conditions but I understood it to be the door mirrors. I imagine yours must be something different if they have taken the dash apart and you say yourself that it sounds like it is coming from the centre of the screen. Easy to check with masking tape so you might as well try anyway - just run the tape around the gap between the door mirror and the door.and see if it makes a difference. Hope it helps.

[stever750]

The rear quarterlight seals are a source of noise, but not sure if this is also the case with the FL version. I used some judicious strips of black electrical tape to fix mine.

[andyoctavia]

The rear quarterlight seals are a source of noise, but not sure if this is also the case with the FL version. I used some judicious strips of black electrical tape to fix mine.

As in all good pantomimes - altogether

"its behind you"

Yes I think that you may be right, as mine does the same thing and I think it is the rear quarterlights as well, thought it my be rear discs at first.

[stever750]

I initially thought it was the rear spoiler deflecting so much air......

There a couple of threads about the quarterlight noise.

[peachers]

Thank for all the replies. Binzie - totally agree with you that they should be given a chance as my experience of the dealership has been great so far apart from this issue with the car (which is not their fault). I have also read a few of the posts about quarterlight noise but don't think this is the issue with my car as the noise is definitely coming from the front although the mechanic who I went out in the car with thought it was coming from the front passenger side (although my wife thinks this incorrect). I did think it could be the wing mirrors at fault originally (as they are quite big) but will persevere with the dealer and in the meantime try putting some masking tape on between the door mirror and the door and see if it makes a difference. If all else fails then the "fix" could be to turn up the stereo and drown the noise out!!

[firstborn]

Be interested to know what the outcome is. I have a vRS estate, took delivery in January..... I have a noise that kicks in around the 75-80mph. It's fairly high pitched, seems to come from left/centre of the area described by the OP. The only thing I can liken it to is a marble being spun around in the bottom of a glass, if that makes sense to anyone. Drop below 75mph this and it's gone, instantly.

I also have a rattle in the roof linning that stops if you push lightly up on the roof lining near the sunglasses holder, I'm assuming this one should be an easy fix compared to the above... need to get it back to the dealer.

Edited 8 May, 2012 by firstborn

[OCScene]

The simple soloution here is not to break the national speed limit! Problem solved instantly! My diagnostic invoice is in the post

[kalpat]

Take look at the below forum entry. I had same problem and I thought the noise was coming from somewhere around the dash, but eventually traced to the driver's door and after trying other fixes they replaced the door seal and that cured the problem. When I heard the noise whilst driving I touched the door seal inside about level with the wing mirror and not only could you hear it you could feel it. By pushing slightly on the seal you could stop it. Worth a try as it is a known problem at Skoda.

http://www.briskoda....%20seal__st__30

[peachers]

Thanks Kalpat for the useful link. Will print this off and take it along to my dealer to give them some ideas

[firstborn]

Any closer to a solution?

[billywhiz040480]

It happens on mine also, it's a common fault apparently coz I know a few other people with the same fault but they also have pre-facelift Octavia's. It was the seal on the rear passenger quarterlight so as it was £65 for a new seal I bought some black car plan sealer which has done the job!

[peachers]

Any closer to a solution?

Not yet I am afraid so going to pop back in to the dealers again this weekend.

[stever750]

Double post

[RS939]

Be interested to know what the outcome is. I have a vRS estate, took delivery in January..... I have a noise that kicks in around the 75-80mph. It's fairly high pitched, seems to come from left/centre of the area described by the OP. The only thing I can liken it to is a marble being spun around in the bottom of a glass, if that makes sense to anyone. Drop below 75mph this and it's gone, instantly.

I have had ours a month and have the same issue with a whistle type noise at 80 it goes if you go below or above that its quite faint and it sounded like to me it was the airflow through the engine bay hitting something. This thread has got me thinking now its defiantly from the front.

[Rockatansky]

It sounds like wind noise coming from your windscreen ! believe me factory fresh screens are not installed great on some occasions from my experience so if you are no closer to a solution you could try the replacement windscreen route ?

[vinj14]

I had this problem 2 months after buying my car. Was an air leak from the drivers door side. The skoda rectified it promptly and noise promptly recurred within a week. They did a better job second time around and its been 6 months now without any issues..

[peachers]

OK, haven't updated this post for a while so thought I would now. Car was in the dealers for the whole week a couple of weeks ago and the upshot is they have been unable to fix or trace the source of the wind noise. Apparently they have had the windscreen independently checked, taped up the whole car, blocked all the the air from entering the cabin and even used some ultrasonic diagnostic equipment to try and trace the noise.In total they have spent 40 hours working on it with Skoda technical support but as the noise only starts above 70 mph they have had limited success in fixing it (Skoda technical support will not condone mechanics breaking the speed limit!)

Obviously this is disappointing from my perspective so spoke to the dealership manager who advised that there isn't a defect with the car as such but they will continue to work with Skoda technical support to find a resolution and keep me informed. Not a great start to my Skoda ownership as I have a car with 3K miles on it that whistles like a kettle. This was possibly made worse by the manager saying he currently runs a new Rallye Green Octavia that has some wind noise as well - not really a great advert for the brand!

[Grizzle]

If this dealer is Newmarket then your wasting yer fecking time mate, bunch of A-holes is the best way i could describe them!

Typical example they admit they can hear a noise from my clutch/gearbox area i told them its a definite dual mass flywheel issue and needs replaced, they remove my gearbox give me some rubbish about replacing needles and bearings and didnt even look at the clutch or flywheel stick it back in and when i complained again that the noise is still there they say its a characteristic of the car!!!

Wallopers.

[peachers]

Didn't want to name names but you are right Grizzle. Not good to hear your experience of them as I had always thought they were pretty decent and are very local to me. Maybe my next course of action is to speak to Skoda UK and see what they say!

[Grizzle]

Best of luck on that front too mate.

If there is one thing that lets Skoda down its customer service.

[Black_Sheep]

New car delivered last week and extremely pleased with it. However, I too have this high pitched noise circa 80 - 90 mph (and no it wasn't the wife telling me to slow down!) - it was quite frustrating on a 550 mile round trip to Southern Germany yesterday.

Just to confuse matters further, I did notice that there is a gap between the wing and the rhs front light unit when swapping UK to continental lights (i.e. rubber seal not in contact with wing to prevnt ingress of air / water) - I didn't notice this gap with the UK lights fitted and the noise wasn't present on my drive over from UK. The Skoda tech here in Germany has agreed that the headlight mounting plate requires adjustment - just a thought?

[mjvalentine]

I am experiencing this exact same whistling noise on my 2 week old VRS also. Starts at motorway speeds and is worse if there are crosswinds. Its back at the dealer next weekend for them to have a look but they weren't optimistic about finding the issue. Did manage to demo it to a mechanic the other day though. Reading around, many people seem to suggest door seals, so I may suggest that to them. I found this video which is the exact same problem:

Anybody who has had this problem, did you manage to find a solution? Don't want to have to try and reject the car over this, but 90% of my time is dual carriageway driving and I cannot live with this noise.

[Stormchaser]

Blimey that sounds like a jet turbine mjvalentine. Extremely annoying for sure.

I have read on here a long time ago that some guys have adjusted the front door strikers in by about a few mm to stop water ingress and also cures wind noise through the seals too. Makes the front doors sit in tighter against the seals hence stopping noise and leaks.

Hope this helps. I couldn't live with that noise.