Hi,

Ohh my first thread.. hmm thread virgin

I have a 2003 Octavia Elegance 1.9TDI and have noticed an annoying wobble from the steering wheel at about 60+ MPH.

My daily drive is about 30 miles each way with 25 of those on the Motorway, however I have tried driving on many different road (not just the M27) and the annoying wobble is there all the time.

I have had new tyres since it started, the wheels changed front to back, balancing three times at different places and alignment done twice, both times i was told it's spot on.

The wobble appears to go away if i take the car out of gear either by putting it into neutral or putting the clutch down.

After a fair bit of research, I think it is most noticeable when accelerating in 5th gear, so i guess when there is most torque.

I've take it into the dealer who have checked bushes and said ok and say they think it's just the wide tyres and all octavias probably do it.

I'm not too sure of this as i find myself backing off at 65MPH because i feel like the car isn't stable and I don't think any car should be like that at speeds below 70.

Anybody had similar problems and got a solution or any idea of what i could get checked. A dealer sales person who took me for a test drive in a new octy said if it didn't happen out of gear it was the gear box and if it did tyres/wheels. :confused:

This whole experiance is kinda ruining my opinion of an otherwise nice car.

I have driven a mkIV golf and a bora and never noticed this, and have never noticed anythign like this on any other car i have driven.

The car is standard in all respects and has just under 40k miles on it.

Many Thanks and sorry for the long post

Shouldn't get a wobble at any speed in any car really. Its def not a characteristic of a VAG car.

Do get any pull when braking?

Also, see if you can get a loan of a different set of wheels / tyres. Although you have them checked and rechecked, its always best to try a set that haven't been on the car.

Also might want to get Skoda to check driveshatfts, gearbox, suspension, etc

No no wobble when the breaks are applied.

The pads are all good and the disks are fine, checked them over myself at the dealers as they had the wheels off to try and locate the problem.

I guess i could get them to try a set of smaller tyres on the car just to see if the wobble appears with some tyres froma classic or ambiente.

I would be supprised if it is the wheels though as it was present before and after i had the wheels moved from front to rear and reballanced.

(Went to mitcheldever for the new tyres ballance etc and they seem to do a good job)

I think they checked the suspension and bushes this time (Second time they have looked at it, last time was stering they checked)

Thanks for suggestions though.

Well, it will have to be on of those things, ie something mechancial linked to tyres, wheels, suspension, bushes, wishbones, drive shafts, brakes, etc.

As its speed related and not RPM related it won't be the engine, and is being exposed due to the resonant frequency which that issue reponds to.

Engine mounts should also be checked, and any ancillary parts that are metal/bush configured which would respond in such a way if they were worn, ie liable to movement.

What about when driving at a constant 60mph, as opposed to accelerating or slowing down - how is it then ?

... or just drive at 55mph or 75mph and your problem won't reappear!

My thoughts are that it is one of the engine mounts. The rubber used in them has a shore value which deteriorates with time. Just visually looking at them wont really show much, so I would change them one at a time until the problem is solved. I would start with the one on the gearbox as that will take most punishment, especially on a tdi with a fair amount of torque.

At a constant speeed it is still there, it's just worse when accelerating(sp?).

It is only just noticeable at about 55, however at 75/80 it's dreadful and feels dangerous so there is no way i would drive at that speed for any sustained period.

If anyone has experienced this and had it fixed do shout

It's a bit annoying as the dealer keeps missing things:

eg wipers don't work on intermitent, i said i think it's the relay, they replaced motor, linkage and then the relay which finally fixed it.

radio been back twice, finally got a new one about a year and a half after the initial fault and each wait was >2 months.

rear window leaks tiny amount from around wiper, they still havn't told me whats happening after many weeks. (Second time they fixed it)

handbreak rattle, light switch disconnected somehow for passenger side and a loose armrest were fixed pretty quickly.

Once the dealer has worked it out their service is pretty good and they are friendly, but wow it gets annoying when you spend so long in a dealers.

On the plus point the car is still under warranty, which i swhy i want to locate it and fix it sooner rather than later.

Thanks again

Phoned dealer and they were not the most useful of people.

Does anyone know of a good dealer in the Hampshire/Dorset Area should this one fail to get anywhere?

Thanks

(Went to mitcheldever for the new tyres ballance etc and they seem to do a good job)

DaveU went to Micheldever twice and both times had to have his wheels rebalanced.

I on the other hand have used them many times and haven't had any problems at all.

DaveU went to Micheldever twice and both times had to have his wheels rebalanced.

I've never had a set of wheels correctly balanced at Micheldever and have now given up on them. Their tracking also left a lot to be desired! :(

I'd recommend finding a tyre dealer who will do a "finger plate" balance of the wheels which should compensate for any imbalance caused by the hubs on the car which will not be taken into account by a standard balance. Micheldever offer this service, I believe.....

More info on the differences: http://www.jax.com.au/sc05_balancing/body.asp

Chris

Does anyone know of a good dealer in the Hampshire/Dorset Area should this one fail to get anywhere?

I've been very happy with the service I got from Winchester Motor Company and Freeborn (in Southampton). After dealing with the Subaru side of Sparshatts, I would personally avoid their Fareham branch

Chris

Does anyone know of a good dealer in the Hampshire/Dorset Area should this one fail to get anywhere?

There is Westover Skoda in Corfe Mullen, but I am not overly impressed with them. although other ppl here think they are ok. I went to Loaders Skoda in Yeovil to get my turbo sorted in the end.

Westover are the ones who are saying "we think it's just the wide tyres guv".

This is annoying since if 205/55/R16 standard tyres caused problems they should never have been fitted out of the factory.

They are friendly and certainly not bad, but they seem to be very poor at actually tracing a fault.

Regarding the wheel balance, I'm not sure it is related to theh wheels as I have had it over 3 attemps and tyres.

Additionally I have found it goes away if i drop the car into neutral. It's by far more noticeable when accellerating in 5th usually around 2.7k revs, eg max torque.

Does anyone else have the issue with a TDI elegance like this or can confirm they don't so i don't get a responce of they are all like that.

Well taken the car in for them to have another look at.

I shall keep anyone updated on what happens and if they do fix it what caused it.

I think its knackered bushes in the lower arms.

What suspension arms?

They said they checked it and they were ok.

The car only has 39k miles on it so i am a bit supprised.

Also it stops wobbling the wheel when you drop the car into neutral and is by far the worse in 5th gear when accellerating or applying power ot the engine.

Hmmm it could be worth posting in the "ask a tech" forum as you may get a more definite answer there.

Called westover to see if they were ok for me to leave to collect the car and got informed there was about 7 hours of heavy work to do including testing and lifting and checking the parts.

Not sure exactly what they are doing but i have the auto petrol car for an extra day :(

I'm really hoping they can work out whats what, but otherwise it may well get a post to ask a tech

It's a shame as i like the octavia, but at the moment I am starting to loose faith a little bit in skoda as it seems their ability to find and fix faults isn't fantastic. I know modern cars are complicated beasts now but it's still a shame. Saying that i don't know if any other reasonable priced car dealer would be any better.

Still i'll let people know how it all goes.

I have been to west over a few times, and I have felt their diagnostic skills were a little lacking. With the turbo problem, they swapped the MAF, and I drove back to work, no difference, so the swapped the N75 valve (no difference) - even though a mechanic test drove and swore blind it was fine. Eventually they decided the turbo was knackered. I opted to get it fixed by my mechanic instead. They did offer to knock the price of the n75 and maf of the turbo repair. Maybe I should see if they will knock it off an MoT instead....

It's a shame as most of them are friendly enough.

If they can't fix it this time then i think i trip to winchester may be required

I'll agree there, friendly, but not overly skilled on the technical side! I went to Yeovil for a second opinion and was impressed by them. They even offered to send a mechanic down to Weymouth to test drive the car for me - but I took it to them - seem too much to ask for a freebie!

Fantastic,

Right if it isn't fixed i will definately give 'Winch' or Yovil a call

Thanks for recommending a decent dealer

Two words for the dealer...

one starts with 'f' and the other is useless.

lol.. which dealer is that?

Westover...

One service rep says they are waiting on skoda, other says he was told by first he didn't say that. They say there is no condensation in a headlamp which i mentioned to them, but it's there again this morning.

Additionally they say 5 people have tested it, and nothing odd, but if thats the case then why has it only gained a couple of miles over when i took it in!!

They are talking of getting Skoda Tech to look at the wobble as they say nothing is wrong, but I will never let the car near westover again unless it's an emergency.

To finish it off, I took the car in clean (just had it valeted) it comes out dirty and covered in bird ****.