I've been the proud owner of a brand new Octy VRS CR for about 5 weeks now, and in that time covered nearly 3000 miles. Really enjoyed it, thoroughly good car this is!

I've noticed on cold start-up there's a rattle which disappears when the clutch is depressed, but present when pedal is up.

No problems as yet with juddering on pulling away, and rattle is gone once car has warmed up a bit.

I've read a fair few of the threads here about DMF's, their notorious crapness and symptoms which brings me to this conclusion.

Sometimes I do probably accelerate around the 1500 rpm mark, but not hard and certainly avoid straining the engine.

Can the DMF really be going after 3k miles?!

If this is the beginning of the end, how long have I got before it makes mince-meat of the gearbox?

Hi there. Bad luck with your new Octavia, not good news after such a low mileage. However, having read your description, it may not be the DMF, but if I were you, I would be getting down to the dealer pronto, because a failed DMF can do serious damage. It certainly does not sound like your driving style was to blame (although I wish I had a fiver for every person who has told me that driving style x, y or z is the reason for DMF failure).

Good luck with it anyway.

Andy

I don't think it's your DMF personally.

Under the general guides, there is a DMF thread, which talks though the issue, what you can do to reduce the chances of it happening and the rest.

Noisy gearbox? I seem to remember more than one of our job cars having a noise that came from the gearbox on tickover but went away when the clutch was depressed (make sense as the gearbox would then be "disconnected"). Either way, I'd get it booked in at the dealers for them to have a look at it - it'll all be under warranty

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I'm really tempted to whack it to the dealers but I can't replicate it so I can just see them telling me to "see how it goes" or something, especially from what I've read on here too!

I'll get it up on ramps on the weekend and see if it's not something silly like a heat shield rattle.

I'm glad to hear you all suggest it may not be the DMF (yet) though.

I've already had a new spoiler, wind noise and headlight grommet on the warranty so far - I think they've had my car more time than I have lol

I have a 57 plate octavia the clutch and DMF was replaced at 183,000 miles or 4 years old, the clutch is now making a noise for about 5 minutes when cold, after that everything is fine car is now nearly 6 years old mileage is 280,000 genuine parts were used. Do i need to worry? I just think that a clutch lasted 4 years from new and a replacement has replaced less than 2 years.

The DMF is well worn on my vRS, you can hear it rattling away on tickover and if you try to accelerate fairly hard at low revs in a high gear it'll judder like a slipping clutch.

It has done it from 33,000 miles when I bought it and hasn't got any worse up to now at 75,000 miles.

A little mechanical sympathy (together with the knowledge on this forum) is helping me to preserve it!

If it is the DMF rattling at only 3,000 miles then it'll likely get worse well before the warranty expires.

Get a SMF conversion done. I have a southbend DXD 17lb solid flywheel and it shakes the cabin like mad but it drives so much better for it now.

I'm really tempted to whack it to the dealers but I can't replicate it

Strange thing to say. I can understand if the dealers were to tell you that.

When my car has been sitting in damp conditions, a little bit of clutch slip is needed to clean things up and get rid of the judder.

If a noise goes when the clutch pedal is depressed only when cold , that would suggest the maximum tolerances between components are causing the noise. When things warm up expansion of metal and reduction in gaps silences things.

That happens on my BMW boxer.

Sorry to hijack this thread but I have noticed over the last few weeks on my 12-plate octy vrs fl tdi cr that sometimes when I'm stopped on my drive as I've pulled up etc that if I depress the clutch I get a bit of a knocking sound coming from the engine. When I release the clutch this noise stops. Any ideas? By the way on my previous octy vrs tdi pd, I had a new flywheel fitted under warranty.

This all sounds a little similar to my 2007 Octavia (BKD engine) with 125k miles on the clock. But it has not got any worse in 4 years and 40k miles of ownership.

Where in the engine bay is your noise coming from? Mine is the OS / Driver's side (RHD).

Get a SMF conversion done. I have a southbend DXD 17lb solid flywheel and it shakes the cabin like mad but it drives so much better for it now.

i agree my Loba flywheel weighed 14lb hardly any rattle but immense when driving really really good.

I had BSH solid engine mounts installed at the same time so I can't really comment on how bad the rattle would be without the mounts. All I know is I have a bloody great big grin whilst driving my car now