Hey all,

Car was in overnight yesterday to get a mysterious rattle fixed. Initially I thought engine, but turned out not to be. The garage ripped out the dash, located a missing screw, put it back together and wasn't fixed.

They then foam-wrapped the brake lines, again to little avail. The noise is still there, predominantly in second under medium to heavy throttle, especially when warm.

Was told by the service manager that short of repeatedly taking the dash off and back on, there's not a huge amount that can be done until it becomes permanent. So my question is, has anyone experienced anything like this? They reckon it's coming from brake pipe area, and the noise has gone away a little. However it is still there. It's a rattling sort of noise, not particularly metallic.

It's a 1.2TSi and been told they've never had anything like it. They've send a dis (?) report to Skoda HQ to see if any like cases have been noted, but meantime I reckon I am going to try and negotiate money off my contract as currently I am being asked to pay full for a defective car.

However, if there is a fix, I'd prefer that before I start asking for discounts.

Cheers.

This sort of rattle problem can be one of the hardest to find and sort. It often takes a specialist technician with lots of experience to find the problem and solve it. May sound daft, but it does. The problem could well be something such as a pipe, clip or bracket, or cable coming into contact with the engine/gearbox/body/exhaust unit, under actual driving load, and transferring noise into the car and it manifests itself behind the dash somewhere. Noise will travel around the car easily, giving the impression it's at the front of the car, when in fact it can actually be a problem at the rear. I've found you cannot take anything for granted when rattle/noise searching and you can often end up going to extreme lengths to diagnose and fix. The only thing I would say is make sure all the exhaust brackets and hangers are in place and the exhaust cannot touch anything as you drive. No...don't cling to the undeside of the car while someone drives it, just make assumptions after checking it or getting it checked. Don't take for granted that your garage technicians have checked it either. If the noise persists, mention it to them, or get underneath yourself with all four wheels on the ground or drive onto block. Do not get underneath a jacked car, it's unsafe without axle stands and that will give you a false view of things anyway as you want to see what it looks like while it stands on it's wheels straight and level. Good luck!

Nearly every new VAG group car ive had in the past 5 years has rattled to some degree; have in the past had rattles looked at by a dealer to have either not had them fixed or sometimes made worse.

My 2011 Fabia vRS had alsorts of interesting rattles, most temperature related (rattled like a bag of spanners in v cold weather) sometimes I think its just better to accept the fact its a relatively cheap car and that even MK6 Golfs, Passats and Audi A3's and A4s suffer much the same.

For instance, my 2013 Octavia vRS estate developed a really annoying rattle, seemed temperature related again and sounded like it was coming from behind the Head unit; by chance traced it to the climate control temp dials, at a certain RPM the resonance was right to make them buzz.......cant do much about that :-)

I'd say admit defeat as the dealer repeatedly taking your dash apart will do the car no good and will probably introduce new noises that will never be fixed....my solution turn up the stereo a bit more :-)

Thanks for the replies. I agree with both the above; I want no one putting themselves in any kind of danger for the sake of a rattle, and the more the dash comes out, the more problems will be caused.

Guess it's just massively irritating since it's a brand new car not even six months ago, and there seems to be no easy or known fix, since it seems to just be mines that is doing this specific rattle.

This thread could be related? Mine is doing it at the moment and it is driving me crazy. It only happens at idle but if I shift into S at lights the noise goes away.

Cheers for the link. From what they said, they wrapped brake lines in foam so it may very well be related but not the exact issue it doesn't seem.

Bump. Issue resolved; was the turbo wastegate actuator pin that wasn't moving as it should, and was just rattling around. Turbo replaced and seems to be all sorted

I have to say the fabia is a bit of a 'pig' for rattles. On mine each doors rattles, theres a rattle in the boot and 2 rattles from the dash which for a 2 year old car is poor. My 11yr old subaru only 1 rattle from the dash

Worth adjusting the doors/latches correctly,

& finding what the rattle is in the boot, wheel kit, or similar. Maybe something in side pockets.

Both things are rather basic and easily fixed.

 

The dash does take a bit of finding, but often giving it a bit of a bang with the flat of the hand can sort it,

emptying the glove compartment and tracing the source is worth it though IMO

 

george

Slightly off topic but, I test drove a new Audi A1 last year, centre console was vibrating like nobody's business. Salesman looked stunned when I told him!

Worth adjusting the doors/latches correctly,

& finding what the rattle is in the boot, wheel kit, or similar. Maybe something in side pockets.

Both things are rather basic and easily fixed.

 

The dash does take a bit of finding, but often giving it a bit of a bang with the flat of the hand can sort it,

emptying the glove compartment and tracing the source is worth it though IMO

 

george

Bickertons supposedly adjusted the doors to stop it and tried all the obvious things in the boot (hooks, wheel kit restraint, pockets in boot) Im beginning to wonder if its something behind the trim

If this helps anyone, I have just cured a persistent rattle/sizzle from the passengers door.

It was the window switch housing slightly loose.

My cure was to put a piece of black insulating tape at the front lip of the switch housing.

Not a very pretty fix, but I may wedge a piece of tape under the lip, which will be invisible.

Tony

If this helps anyone, I have just cured a persistent rattle/sizzle from the passengers door.

It was the window switch housing slightly loose.

My cure was to put a piece of black insulating tape at the front lip of the switch housing.

Not a very pretty fix, but I may wedge a piece of tape under the lip, which will be invisible.

Tony

Could you verify and stop the rattle coming from the door without removing the door card?

I also have a rattle coming from the back of the car (estate). I hear it almost everytime I drive on a rough road, and I THINK I have narrowed it down to eminating from the boot lid. The front passenger seat also creaks a lot. Sound familiar to anyone?

Arise thread.

After many trips to the dealer and an overnight stay this problem was fixed - we thought. The turbo was replaced as there was a wastegate actuator pin flapping around in the wind being generally useless. The problem was fixed for most the year and I thought no more of it.

HOWEVER, it is back. This time they are replacing the timing chain to see if that's the issue. At the moment the noise is being generated initially whilst steering left under moderate acceleration, but can be heard under light throttle continuously after a while of driving. There is also a strange but brief rattle at start up occasionally.

I'm going to head out tomorrow and see if I can record the noise for future reference, so I will post videos if I can get a decent sound recording from HTC's finest.