Octavia Cabin/Road Noise

[Mr Grump]

Hi, now on vrs mk3 number 2, and can say in a back to back test against a demo 3 series with only 500 miles on it, the octy is no noisier.

my first had continental tyres which aren't the quietest, the current one has bridgestones which still not great but a little better.

Some of the noise others mention may be down to the sound generator which doesnt help, both mine have had it disabled in vcds, and much improved for it.

[Iamholam]

Have to say think my vRS on bad tarmac (the "extra grippy" stuff they have on sections of motorway) there is quite a lot of tyre roar. It's on Bridgestone. When on smooth tarmac is very quiet but on bad tarmac the tyre roar is pretty loud. Hopefully it will get better over some time (or I can buy some better tyres)

[pipsyp]

I fitted Hancook Ventus V12 Evo 2's on the front of my 2.0 TDI Elegance on the advice of my best mate who is a top notch car mechanic and also fits tyres.

Said for the money you wont find a better tyre and hes not wrong. About 30 quid/tyre cheaper than the frankly crap wearing dunlops it had on it before....better grip, much less road noise and so far excellent wear.

If the car had come with them Id now be v happy indeed.

[kiwiboy]

I've got a 1.8TSI 4x4 O3 wagon with Michelin Premacy tyres.   I have never noticed any noise issues with the Octavia - either booming or road noise and we mostly have noisy coarse chip highways here in New Zealand.

 

Before that I had an Audi A3 (can't remember the tyres) and the Octavia is no noisier and a better drive - once I set the steering to the sports setting.

 

Somewhere I read that some countries have better noise insulation that others - I think the comment was about Scandinavian cars. I wonder whether New Zealand cars also have that extra insulation?

[johnrowley]

I fitted Hancook Ventus V12 Evo 2's on the front of my 2.0 TDI Elegance on the advice of my best mate who is a top notch car mechanic and also fits tyres.

Said for the money you wont find a better tyre and hes not wrong. About 30 quid/tyre cheaper than the frankly crap wearing dunlops it had on it before....better grip, much less road noise and so far excellent wear.

If the car had come with them Id now be v happy indeed.

 

+1

[pipsyp]

+1

Bloody brilliant tyre... was initially sceptical but need not have been. Fitted OEM to some Mercedes-Benz and BMW cars now so I understand so speaks volumes :-)

[CumbrianYeti]

19K later, I have no complaints with mine at all. However, there was an improvement going from the Conti Sport 2's to Good Year EfficientGrip Performance tyres.

[Jollyroger]

I think the road noise is on the harsh side, this being confirmed today after returning from hols in Italy where I had a Peugeot 308 estate for 2 weeks and it was much quieter. Not only the general road noise but also the HDi engine was far quieter on start up and when warm in comparison to the VRS diesel which does sound like a bag of spanners when cold.

Saying that I was very pleased to be back in the VRS and it is a far superior car to the Pug and based on other people's comments it sounds like switching away from the Bridgestones will help which I will do when they wear out.

[Genoa1893]

Just back from a >600Km trip back home, the odometer @13000Km

 

Main noises were - as usual - from the external mirrors, from road on "coarse" tamrac and sometimes the buzzing noise at B pillar(s).

 

Found the engine surpisingly quiet even if with the oil from the factory.

[tdiplayer]

Had my new Octavia now for a couple of days. The road/tyre noise is very high and drives me round the bend. Car has 17" rims fitted with Dunlop tyres. Otherwise the car is good and smooth to drive. However if I had known about the noise from road and tyres I would not have bought it. So if you are considering one, a proper road test over all sorts of roads should be essential.

[JD52]

After getting fed up with the tyre noise and facing a 12 day road trip through Holland, Germany and the Czech Republic, I bit the bullet and bought a new set of Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3 tyres, even though the factory fit Bridgstones were only half worn.

 

I noticed an immediate reduction in tyre noise after fitting. Not totally gone but much better.

 

As for the road trip, I needn't have worried. It's a totally different road surface over there and there is virtually no road noise on the motorways and Autobahns, even at speeds in excess of 140 MPH.

 

Did I waste my money but the tyres - possibly, but life is much quieter now.

Edited 21 October, 2016 by JD52

[Ferdinand01]

Had my new Octavia now for a couple of days. The road/tyre noise is very high and drives me round the bend. Car has 17" rims fitted with Dunlop tyres. Otherwise the car is good and smooth to drive. However if I had known about the noise from road and tyres I would not have bought it. So if you are considering one, a proper road test over all sorts of roads should be essential.

I have also 17" with Dunlop. In my opinion noise is coming from tire.

[Gerrycan]

Had my new Octavia now for a couple of days. The road/tyre noise is very high and drives me round the bend. Car has 17" rims fitted with Dunlop tyres. Otherwise the car is good and smooth to drive. However if I had known about the noise from road and tyres I would not have bought it. So if you are considering one, a proper road test over all sorts of roads should be essential.

My Dunlops are reasonably quiet but it does depend on the road surface. One section of highway with new smooth Tarmac is eerily quiet at 110 kph.

Check your tyre pressures, they can be well out either way from the showroom and that does make a difference

[srservice]

I wonder how it is with  Skoda glasses

http://www.autospeed.com/cms/article.html?&title=Glass-and-a-Half&A=1133

[gullyg]

I think you get used to the noise tbh.  I've had almost every passenger complain about the noise in the car but never really noticed it (came from a mk1 fabia vrs) on Conti SP2 and 5s and Goodyear Ultragrip 8s (winters).

 

However I really noticed it after test driving the Volvo XC60 R-Design and BMW X3 MSport - both were whisper quiet compared, but then they're different cars and significantly more expensive. 

Edited 21 October, 2016 by gullyg

[Alpha2110]

I agree this is a noisy car, realy only the main thing thats wrong with it. Other faults i can live with. There are many reasons the car is noisy, the fact that its light materials and thin guage steel make the car tinny does not help. To be honest i have test driven a new 3 series and it wasent much better at all for noise. I guess the noise is a symtom of most new fuel efficent cars.

[norsko]

My 2016 1.8TSI L&K was transformed when I changed from 18" Bridgestone to 16" Goodyear wintertires.

The ride was good and the noise wasnt awful, but now its just so comfortable and relaxing!

[bytterga]

i have the hankook v12 evo on my car for summer time and think they are a bit noisy, not driven it on other tyres so dont got anything to campare to but i think i will try the goodyear eagle asymmetric next time.

as for noise... i have the pirelli ice zero with studs for winter time and if it aint 5 inches of snow it sounds like the car is going to fall a part 

[Alpha2110]

My 2016 1.8TSI L&K was transformed when I changed from 18" Bridgestone to 16" Goodyear wintertires.

The ride was good and the noise wasnt awful, but now its just so comfortable and relaxing!

Interesting, mine has 16s ecocontact, there horrible tyres, i did think about crossclimates but some of the revies mentioned they fling stones up and i had visions of damaged paint work

[BrynMawr]

I have had my 2013 elegance 1.6 diesel a few weeks and covered 1000+ miles, the road noise is more a drone and is a little bit like ear-popping noise???? if that makes sense, am getting used to it and hopefully it will become less annoying. Compared to the over run on the DPF  (or whatever it is) it is a lot less annoying, such a shame that a really nice car is spoilt by silly little niggles.

[GBHam]

I have just swapped cars with the wife, she had the 1.2 tsi and I had an Astra 1.6. I have recently started to do quite a bit of autobahn driving thus the reason for the swap, much quieter and more relaxing to drive at 150 KMH, so I would think a vrs would have no problems.

[Gerrycan]

I have just swapped cars with the wife, she had the 1.2 tsi and I had an Astra 1.6. I have recently started to do quite a bit of autobahn driving thus the reason for the swap, much quieter and more relaxing to drive at 150 KMH, so I would think a vrs would have no problems.

But what size wheels and tyre brand/type is fitted to the 1.2tsi?

[glosrich]

But what size wheels and tyre brand/type is fitted to the 1.2tsi?

Standard is 16" with 205/55/16 tyres.

Mine has Michelin energy.

[ExSEAT]

I have driven a 1.4tsi Leon FR and a VRS 220 back to back with the same tyres fitted and in my honest opinion the leon was the louder car. I did 14k in the leon and 5k so far in the VRS. The tyres were the bridgestones, absolutely hateful tyre and I need to get them swapped out.

[GainfulShrimp]

It's all relative, for sure.  My new Octavia is *much* quieter and more refined in the cabin than my previous mk2 SEAT Leon was.  They both had/have Michelin Energy (or Energy+) in 205/55 R16 size, so I can rule out tyre differences in this particular comparison.  My winter tyres are noisier than my summers and there's a different characteristic to the tyre noise - again, I think that's to be expected.

 

Tyres do make a big difference and my pre-facelift Leon FR (two cars ago) was noisier still while it still had factory (Bridgestone perhaps?) tyres on it.

 

I'm really enjoying the Octavia (MY16 I think) as a place to drive.  If anything, it feels like a less-wallowy-but-still-comfy version of my missus' old Audi A4 Avant - and the Octavia has far more comfortable seats for longer journeys (the A4 didn't even have lumbar support as standard, from memory... rubbish!).