Vibration on superb estate

[andyP11]

Hi all. I have just taken my new ( to me) Superb out on the motorway and it seems to have a resonance at about 50. I would not really call it a vibration it is like when you open a window and the air resonates until you open a second window. I have checked tyre pressures and all ok but it is quite an annoying sensation. It makes your ears funny and ruins the smooth ride of the car. It seems better at 70 but you can still feel it. Any ides?

[2SkodaFamily]

I've done a lot of motorway miles and not noticed this. Could it be the road surface?

[stevehg]

First place to start is to get all four wheels balanced. Resonance at these speeds is a typical symptom of an unbalanced wheel. Start here and see if it resolves your issue.

[H2O]

Or check your tyres! . I had this problem on my current car but mainly at lower speed, but was certainly evident when on the motorway or on a smoother piece of Tarmac.

What was the cause?

Well, believe or not the rear tyre was miss shaped. A quarter of the tyre was lumpy.

The tyre had quite a lot of miles on it but with the naked eye it looked perfect. For condition and tread. I only noticed it when I changed 3 tyres for brand new tyres. Drove down the road and was like what!? Took it straight back and said there was something wrong with the tyres, they are making a noise! They checked and rebalanced, nothing wrong with it they said. They took it for a drive and returned and quickly Inspected my other tyre that I did not change. I watched the bloke run his hand over the surface of the tyre. He asked me to the same and with the Palm of my hand could physically feel the uneven surface. A bit like small hump back bridges is the only way I could describe it. Tyre changed and noise has gone...sorted!

A possibility?

[andyP11]

I have checked the tyre pressures and one of the rear tyres was overinflated by the garage I bought the car from. It was over 3 bar instead of 2.2. As soon as I corrected this the car feels much better. Thanks all for your help. It seems problem sorted although yet again a Skoda dealer has shown how poor some of them can be.

[H2O]

Jolly good.

[Supurbia]

Theres also a silly check, check anything you've added to the car in the back and in the door bins and glovebox/centre console etc, you wouldn't believe how many annoying rattles turn out to be a pen vibrating on hard plastic and noise travels through a car,

 

If it's wind it could just be the car and not much you can do about it other than fit wind deflectors to the doors, the dealers call this a characteristic,

 

Other things you could try is get the tracking checked, you may also find as they wear it will go, try this as well if it's still doing it, get some tyre trim gel, do all four tyres right up to the top of the tyre but not on the tread or as little as possible on the tread, if it goes then then it's a chamfer thing where the noise is draining off the edges, a bit of wear will sort that,

 

 

If the tyre pressure thing proves to not be it that is, also consider swapping tyre brands once you need new ones, sounds like hard compound but don't pick soft compound as they wear rapidly, look at the reviews on the web where the rating shows it's noise levels etc, these bandings are on new tyres as well, look for the one that has low db's hth.

Edited 16 June, 2014 by Supurbia