Hi guys,

 

Im from Singapore, driving a Skoda Octavia 1.4 2010 model.

 

I bought the car 3 months ago and since the last month i have had vibrations on the steering wheel, floorboards. My front passengers can feel them too.

 

I have been to 2 workshops and both have failed to identify the issue.

 

So, when the problem first started i thought it was the tyres so i switched to brand new 4 goodyear eagle assymetric 3 tyres but that didnt stop
then i was told my absorbers were leaking and i changed all 4 to bilstein b4 but same
then the engine mounts and gearbox mount was changed
high speed balancing done,on wheel balancing done, wheel alignment done
lower arm bushings changed as they were torn

driveshaft was sent to a specialty facility to be checked and no problems were found

i dont know whats going on, i have swapped a friend's rims too but didnt make any difference. Im going crazy spending so much money and my workshop right now says that perhaps its the inner portion of the driveshaft that has the problem but they mentioned they are not certain about it.

Skoda here closed so its under VW but they charge crazy prices so i would prefer to wait before heading there. No other problems

 

Hope you guys can offer your thoughts

 

 

Thank you

 

 

Can you explain a bit further as to when it occurs?

I'd be looking at your engine mounts personally. Especially the lower one.

I had an issue with my astravan a while back with unexplained vibration noticeable when accelerating. The rest of the time it was fine.

 

It turned out to be the driveshaft inner CV joints. Replaced both driveshafts and been fine since.

Can you explain a bit further as to when it occurs?

 on extremely smooth newly surfaced roads, you can feel it at like 70-80km/h onwards. The vibrations continue even when i release the accelerator.

Engine mounts changed along with gearbox mounts.

CV joints checked, driveshaft was sent to a specialist facility as mentioned where they found nothing wrong with it. Car has 50,000km mileage on it, 5 years old car.

It doesnt get worst with acceleration, its more consistent with the speed. the faster i go the more i feel.

just to add on, no vibrations at low speeds.

Yesterday, the workshop mentioned one tyre was faulty which i had replaced under warranty today but today just now they told me that the other 3 are faulty as well. I find that very hard to believe to be honest. I doubt Goodyear will screw up so badly on their new Assymetric series

Strange, what did they say was wrong with the tyres?

 

Does the vibration still happen with the clutch depressed?

 

I presume the steering gear has been checked for play and is aligned properly?

4 faulty tyres? Sounds like a cop out to me, more likely faulty fitting. Maybe they hadn't set the bead correctly, although it sounds more like they didn't balance them properly to me

Is it not something like the engine undertray or something vibrating in the wind as the wind speed increases?

Strange, what did they say was wrong with the tyres?

 

Does the vibration still happen with the clutch depressed?

 

I presume the steering gear has been checked for play and is aligned properly?

They mentioned that the tyres were given out "unusual readings" when they did the onwheel balancing and off wheel balancing. The tyres were remounted and yet the same numbers came about.

Im going to another tyre place soon to get that verified

yes vibration happens without any relation to any pedals depressed. we even tried putting the car into N at a speed of 120km/h

 

 

4 faulty tyres? Sounds like a cop out to me, more likely faulty fitting. Maybe they hadn't set the bead correctly, although it sounds more like they didn't balance them properly to me

 exactly! but even after remounting the tyres, the issues continue. Though i have to add that balancing temporarily reduces the vibrations for like 30km or so. thus im going to another tyre place to get a second opinion

 

 

Is it not something like the engine undertray or something vibrating in the wind as the wind speed increases?

it was checked out too but everything seems good

will post updates to this after going to the other tyre place

just to add on, no vibrations at low speeds.

Yesterday, the workshop mentioned one tyre was faulty which i had replaced under warranty today but today just now they told me that the other 3 are faulty as well. I find that very hard to believe to be honest. I doubt Goodyear will screw up so badly on their new Assymetric series

As an ex goodyear employee, I have no doubt that they could screw up badly.  They've made some monumental stuff-ups in the past.

 

Pay airfares and accom and I'll come up and have a look. :-)

As an ex goodyear employee, I have no doubt that they could screw up badly.  They've made some monumental stuff-ups in the past.

 

Pay airfares and accom and I'll come up and have a look. :-)

i love goodyears and i was on assymetric 2 and loved those tyres! thus i switched to the assymetric 3s when the 2s had to say goodbye.

ha ha i wish i could!

will be swapping tyres later in the night as another tyre place has confirmed that the tyres do wobble abit but they do not think its enough to cause the vibrations.

Edited 1 September, 20169 yr by manpreettoor

Have you checked all the wishbone bushes, not just the large rubber ones.

What about all the other bushes, the tie rod ends, probably worth just taking the wheels off and checking they're not rotten.

Do you have a leak in the rear quarter window seals? Put some insulating tape over the seals and try to go for a drive.

Ditto for the rear wheels, is the camber correct on them, as that can cause a nasty noise.

Also you have tried different wheels, but did they have different tyres (an in different make/model)?

If rebalancing reduces the vibration, I'd certainly be asking a reputable tyre place to check the balancing without redoing the job (So you can keep on at the previous place if needed)

The garage where I recently had 2 new Goodyear tyres fitted informed me that he has had a problem with Goodyear tyres causing high speed vibration before. Why did I ask him, well my new Goodyears vibrate the steering wheel at 80mph straight after they were fitted. He has balanced them twice and still the same. He is going to put some small weight beads straight into the tyre next, which are meant to find the imbalanced section and with centrifugal force, settle there and stop it. Will find out after Wednesday next week whether it worked. It's in for some preventative maintenance anyway, as I am having a new timing chain kit fitted. 

The garage where I recently had 2 new Goodyear tyres fitted informed me that he has had a problem with Goodyear tyres causing high speed vibration before. Why did I ask him, well my new Goodyears vibrate the steering wheel at 80mph straight after they were fitted. He has balanced them twice and still the same. He is going to put some small weight beads straight into the tyre next, which are meant to find the imbalanced section and with centrifugal force, settle there and stop it. Will find out after Wednesday next week whether it worked. It's in for some preventative maintenance anyway, as I am having a new timing chain kit fitted. 

 

 

ah, you mean dynabeads - very popular with off roaders (with remoulded chunky tyres) as they dynamically balance the tyre throughout it's life span and don't require them to be rebalanced.

Yes octyal, that's what I meant, could not remember what they were called. The manager at the garage where I have all the work done on my car that I can't manage myself, says he has used them before and they usually work. Have to wait and see.

I liked my F1 AS2 in 17" on the golf. Are Goodyear really that bad? I thought they were darn good and the GY excellence before that were really ... well..... excellent compared to some other choices in the past I've made. I was thinking of putting F1 AS3s on the front of the vRS as the fronts will barely make MOT in October....

I liked my F1 AS2 in 17" on the golf. Are Goodyear really that bad? I thought they were darn good and the GY excellence before that were really ... well..... excellent compared to some other choices in the past I've made. I was thinking of putting F1 AS3s on the front of the vRS as the fronts will barely make MOT in October....

Don't get me wrong, even the garage manager said Goodyears are good tyres, it's just he has encountered a few Goodyears with balance problems. Apart from the imbalance, I find my Goodyears are giving me far better grip in the wet than my previous tyres and good wet weather grip is my main priority. 

Hi everyone,

 

Im sorry for the late response. So it was the wheels! Brand new ATS wheels that i was using. I found out after i went over a patched up part of the road at a speed of like 70kmh and it bent the bloody wheels! The whole car started wobbling badly!

 

Im shocked as the wheels were original ATS wheels and i guess they came in warped from the box.

 

I tried going back to my wheels dealer but they are insisting i hit a pothole and ATS is saying the same thing but when i tried to tell my dealer to have VW check for any so called pothole damage, they refused.

 

To add on, the centre part of the wheels was badly scratched and that is the part where the tyre is mounted on. Dealer and ATS are making pathetic excuses saying its just bad paintwork. I mean those were scratches!

 

And the road had just 1 squarish patch and nothing else and thousands of cars pass over it. NO impact or whatever.

 

Shocking really

Difficult situation there.

 

If you bought brand new wheels and they were buckled when you got them then the tyre fitter should've noticed and you'd have had a stronger case for sending them back at that point.

 

If the buckle happened after fitting then it's going to be difficult to prove either way whether it's a manufacturing fault/poor quality or sod's law.

Are you saying all the wheels are warped or just one?

I can't be bothered re-reading the thread...

 

Were the centres on the hubs bored to 57.1mm (to fit over the 57mm hub spigot) or did the use hub centric rings or did they rely on the wheel bolts to centre the wheels?

Hi everyone,

 

Im sorry for the late response. So it was the wheels! Brand new ATS wheels that i was using. I found out after i went over a patched up part of the road at a speed of like 70kmh and it bent the bloody wheels! The whole car started wobbling badly!

 

Im shocked as the wheels were original ATS wheels and i guess they came in warped from the box.

 

I tried going back to my wheels dealer but they are insisting i hit a pothole and ATS is saying the same thing but when i tried to tell my dealer to have VW check for any so called pothole damage, they refused.

 

To add on, the centre part of the wheels was badly scratched and that is the part where the tyre is mounted on. Dealer and ATS are making pathetic excuses saying its just bad paintwork. I mean those were scratches!

 

And the road had just 1 squarish patch and nothing else and thousands of cars pass over it. NO impact or whatever.

 

Shocking really

I'm a touch confused. Is it one wheel that's warped/bent or all 4?

I can't be bothered re-reading the thread...

 

Were the centres on the hubs bored to 57.1mm (to fit over the 57mm hub spigot) or did the use hub centric rings or did they rely on the wheel bolts to centre the wheels?

they used the rings

 

 

ok so this is what happened in summary:

- my original wheels were warped so i changed to the ATS

-ATS wheels had vibrations when i hit 110kmh

-vibrations persistent

-2 out of 4 wheels get bent after going over a patched road

so i went back to the dealer and they insisted i had an accident or something. And i was worried that something had gone wrong in the wheel assembly area that knocked 2 of the wheels out.

 

So a friend recommended me a workshop and i went there and guess what? The nuts/screws/bolts that were used to screw on the wheels were wrong. They were like a straight cut (i dont know what the exact term is) whereas

the octy uses ones that are like a little curved? So the wrong nuts were causing the wheels to wobble and they were loose,so a slight impact coupled with the loose and unstable wheels caused them to get bent.

 

The dealer is denying all responsibility and are insisting they just used the ones that came with the wheels.

 

So it was actually the wheels which were at fault all along - first being the stock wheels, then the ATS wheels cos of a stupid mistake by the tyre place.

 

And i wasted so much money. My god

That's not necessarily correct; standard Octavia wheels use bolts with a conical land, but that doesn't mean that your ATS wheels use conical lands rather than hemispherical or flat lands.