I know this has probably been asked before but here goes.

My RS is generally fairly free of squeaks and rattles. When I first got the car over 14 months ago, I had a noise from a loose cable lock in the drivers door which was sorted by foam, and the rear brakelight on the back window needed tightening. That's about it with the exception of a noisy centre armrest which acts up in cold weather. Cheap plastic..so what do you expect I supposed.

The problem now is that the council have resurfaced the roads. By resurfacing I mean they threw a thin layer of tar on the road, and then a load of stone chips. Now the chips are gone from cars going up and down, but the surface of the road is very rough. I don't know of any other country that does this besides Ireland. Now the roads instead of being smooth are really rough and grainy. There is awful tyre noise, which translates into my centre console - air vents and radio vibrating, along with the passenger and drivers windows if slightly down. Very loud and irritating. The dealer says that the hard suspension is the reason for this. My friends 1.4 Octavia doesn't have this problem, so I believe the dealer on this one. The dealer reckons putting sticky pads under the dash might relieve the problem but is relucatant to try in case he makes it worse. I tend to agree, as the last dealer that went at a dash on an Alfa 156 I had made a dogs dinner of it.

Any thoughts on this ?

Stone chippings, grrr. I don't get any rattles when the council does this, but really loud chinking sounds as the pebbles shake around various parts under the car, and hopefully not on the paintwork...

I think the worst problem is UNsurfaced roads which when hit, I get real loud BANG noises from the wheels, which I don't think can be good in the long run. Down where my Mum lives, I end up going down a road near her like a bloody slalom to avoid all the lumps and troughs!

Is it possible your dashboard rattle is a mount squeak, like on the Fabia...? I don't know how similar the two types of dash are secured. I stopped mine with a folded up inner tube wedged under the dash mount with a chisel... some tools have more than one use, ya know.

Originally posted by Flanno in this post

The dealer says that the hard suspension is the reason for this. My friends 1.4 Octavia doesn't have this problem, so I believe the dealer on this one.

Yeah, sounds like a combination of hard suspension and big alloys with wide low profile tyres...only solution is to chop it in for a poverty spec or a 4x4!

Rob.

I don't think it's a mount squeak, as the whole dash sort of vibrates. This roads are really really rough. No camber at all.

Rob, my old man has a 4x4 and you would think that it would ride better on these crap 'resurfaced' roads. Last time I was in it, it felt like I was rolling around inside a blasted washing machine

Originally posted by Flanno in this post

4x4... rolling around inside a blasted washing machine

Yeah, tell me about it, they do handle like a blamanche...

Rob.

If it doesn't squeak elsewhere, then it's summit' else, I reckon. Mine even creaked during smooth driving because I think the vibration of the engine seemed enough to shake it a bit. :( - Having said that it was not the entire dash that was vibrating, just annoyingly squeaking from behind the central vents... No need to worry now though.

I got an annoying squeak off my front suspension, but its nothing to do with road surfaces, I get it when door shuts and when I hit a bump, been back to dealers, but they didnt manage to fix it, I keep debating wether to take it back to them or not, I suspect its a rubber bush on front suspension, because it only happens in dry weather