Hi All,

 

I'm hoping someone out there can help me diagnose a problem I've been having with the Superb for the last 3 weeks or so.

 

Every so often, at low speeds, I'm experiencing severe vibration / judder through the car when accelerating. It is intermittent, but is most likely to happen when exiting a roundabout or accelerating out of a sharp bend. It's hard to describe the exact sensation, but it's akin to a wheel or wheels spinning off-centre, or the sensation that a wheel might be about to come off an axle. I have checked that all the wheels are securely attached to the car! When it happens, it's not something that you think might be your imagination - it is extreme and is apparent to everyone in the car at the time. The only problem is that it doesn't happen constantly. It's not noticable at higher speeds or gears at all. Basically, 2nd gear up to 4th when asking the car to rev from low down.

 

A couple of months ago, the turbo acctuator failed and had to be replaced, and the problem started after this. The garage did a service at the time and replaced the brake pads at my prompting. They noted on the service invoice (but didn't actually bother to inform me when I picked the car up) that the front left CV boot needed replacing, and the front left caliper was "hard to push back". Now, the caliper gave problems (started sticking) last year and I got a local garage to clean the piston and free it up a little. Since then it's been okay, but I've been waiting for it to fail ever since (the front right caliper was replaced 12 months ago). So when this problem (with the vibration) started happening, I just thought the caliper was failing at last and would have to be replaced. Odd thing is, when the vibration happens, no matter how long I drive for, the calipers / wheels aren't getting hot. When I've had failing calipers before, the wheels always heat up or there's lots of noise. Right now, neither of those things are happening. Yesterday and today, I've noticed very low noise levels at times and, more noticeably, a few times I've gone to lightly touch the brakes (while the car is coasting to a stop) and it's been like I stood on the brakes and tried to perform an emergency stop - engine immediately drops 2 gears and the car slows much, much quicker than it should. But I've no way of knowing if this is due to one or more calipers or which ones it would be.

 

So anyways, I took the car to a local garage last week for diagnosis and repair. I explained the problem and asked them to balance the wheels, dissasemble the front calipers and inspect them and then let me know if they found a problem. What they did was balance the wheels, drive the arse out of the car (judging by the fuel consumption figures) and reported back that they couldn't find a fault. Basically, unless they could feel the problem when driving the car, they didn't know where to start. But, they did assure me that the calipers were fine. I wasn't overly impressed, but I am getting them to fit a new front CV boot tomorrow (it's just easier to take the car there and I figure they can't go too far wrong with that job...). I am also contemplating asking them to replace the front left caliper, but I don't know if I'm throwing money away doing that (I could do with not spending the money right now if it doesn't absolutely need doing!).

 

So, can anyone suggest other problems that could be causing the above? Or should I just get the caliper changed and go from there? I'm assuming whatever the problem is, it's something mechanical rather than electronic, but am I wrong in that assumption? I'm so fecked off with garages at the minute that I considered trying to replace the caliper myself, but I don't have all the tools I need (never mind the knowledge) and by the time I buy them I probably wouldn't save much money-wise and might not even be able to do the job. Could the problem be brake discs or bearings, or where is the best place to start?

 

Thanks in advance for any help - I know the above is a bit meandering in places!

If diesel and by garage you mean dealer - have they applied "fix" - with or without your approval ?

sounds like a sticking caliper to me you can buy new sliders for the body thats most probably the issue vauxhall used to have major issues with the same thing, takes 10 minutes and an allen/torx bit with the wheels off remove sliders clean housing with brake cleaner grease the new sliders and install rebolt jobs done 

 

https://brakeparts.co.uk/shop/Skoda/Superb/08-16/Superb 1.9 & 2.0 TDI Diesel/Front - Brake Calipers and Wheel Cylinders/BCK5472

2 hours ago, jafo said:

If diesel and by garage you mean dealer - have they applied "fix" - with or without your approval ?

No, I refuse to take the car to the local Skoda dealer for a variety of reasons. So definitely not an EA189 issue, but thanks for the reply.

52 minutes ago, cssuk said:

sounds like a sticking caliper to me you can buy new sliders for the body thats most probably the issue vauxhall used to have major issues with the same thing, takes 10 minutes and an allen/torx bit with the wheels off remove sliders clean housing with brake cleaner grease the new sliders and install rebolt jobs done 

 

https://brakeparts.co.uk/shop/Skoda/Superb/08-16/Superb 1.9 & 2.0 TDI Diesel/Front - Brake Calipers and Wheel Cylinders/BCK5472

Thanks for that. I'm not entirely sure how that kit works, but I'll see if I can find some videos or something online.

 

I had the wheel off today and tried to undo the bolts at the back of the caliper. Couldn't get them to loosen at all, so decided to leave well alone before I broke something. Should they loosen with a torx by hand (I think I was using a T45 t-handle) or are they normally tighter and need an impact wrench?

The bolts on the back of the caliper are probably XZN M14 so a T45 won't do the trick. They can be undone by hand but you might need a breaker bar to get them started.

 

Are there any particular circumstances it happens under? Hard acceleration or braking? Tight turns? Turning left or right?

 

The slide pins are what allows the caliper move as the slave cylinder is pushed: the caliper floats on the slide pins to allow the pads contact both sides of the disk. If it can't float, the contact between pads and disk will be poor and might cause juddering. Often caused by the boot on the slide pin being dislodged or damaged and road muck getting in there.

 

It could be worth checking if XDS is enabled too: if it was misbehaving a bit you could get strange behaviour, especially in tighter turns.

@chimaera

It happens mostly when the steering wheel is turned to the left and accelerating from low gear, speed and revs. Doesn't seem to happen when accelerating at higher speeds and gears.

 

The car doesn't have xds as far as I know.

Hmm. Could be the left CV joint rattling? You mentioned in the OP that the boot was in need of replacement a few months ago. A few months of winter driving without protection from the boot would be enough to finish off the CV joint. Rather than have the boot changed, I'd have the full CV joint replaced at this point. Depending on what part of Limerick you're in I can recommend someone pretty sound for the job - PM me if you want his details.

@chimaera
Thanks. The garage that is supposed to do the boot tomorrow did say that they would likely have to do the joint as well, but wouldn't know until they had the boot off and take a look. Estimated that it would cost about €100 worst case scenario, which didn't sound too bad!

 

Sounds very much like our Passat when the DMF was on its way out.

Wear in the springs or whatever it is that holds the thing together allows it to go off centre causing lots of vibration.

Then it seems to centre itself up again & works fine until the next time.

Ours was brought on by going around a corner.

3 hours ago, PipH said:

Sounds very much like our Passat when the DMF was on its way out.

Wear in the springs or whatever it is that holds the thing together allows it to go off centre causing lots of vibration.

Then it seems to centre itself up again & works fine until the next time.

Ours was brought on by going around a corner.

 

Looking at the cost of buying and replacing the DMF, I hope that's not the problem! Knowing my luck, that is the problem. Any idea if it would be easy enough for a garage to diagnose, or is it more a case of just sucking it up and deciding to have it replaced for peace of mind?

I wouldn't want you spending out a lot of dosh only to find out it's something else, but it does sound like the DMF.

If it is the DMF the vibration will be associated with the engine revs, not road speed.

So next time it happens try operating the clutch & rev the engine a bit, see if the vibrations change with revs.

Operating the clutch may clear the problem by alowing the DMF to centre itself.

But try these checks first.

A garage will need to be able to reproduce the problem before they can diagnose.

Perhaps you can get a recording of the noise for them which might help.

Thanks for that. I'll see if anything has improved by having the cv boot and joint replaced when I pick the car up in a while. It was supposed to be ready for 2pm: needless to say, it's not. I also asked them to take a proper look at the calipers, but they probably won't!

 

I've been reading about the DMF and watched some videos. I haven't really had any problems with thudding noise or loud noise or jerky DSG gear changes, but I'll keep an ear open for a few days and see if I can pick up on anything like that. When it was serviced in February, the mechanic said on a couple of occasions that he thought he could feel the clutch "slipping" on the motorway. He didn't seem too concerned and I've never noticed it myself (not sure what it would even feel like). Normally the DSG changes are smooth, sometimes a little quick for my liking, but never really jerky and I've never noticed it changing down when it didn't need to (or shouldn't have to). Sometimes if I'm on cruise control at 50kph-ish it can "hunt" for the right gear, but that normally only happens when there is slight inclines / declines on the road. Never happens at higher speeds.

just been re reading your opening post and am still convinced its Brake related, a failing DMF wouldn't cause brake issues, the vibration noise etc could well be the ABS attempting to activate the electronic LSD and finding the going tough as the calliper is sticky especially as you say it occurs coming out of corners at lower speeds and in lower gears, is it a DSG box?

when the diff kicks in you can feel a slight vibration as the brakes are applied side to side to control wheelspin, no ones asked but how are your shocks and tyres, a tramping shock is pretty savage on a high torque FWD car

3 hours ago, cssuk said:

just been re reading your opening post and am still convinced its Brake related, a failing DMF wouldn't cause brake issues, the vibration noise etc could well be the ABS attempting to activate the electronic LSD and finding the going tough as the calliper is sticky especially as you say it occurs coming out of corners at lower speeds and in lower gears, is it a DSG box?

when the diff kicks in you can feel a slight vibration as the brakes are applied side to side to control wheelspin, no ones asked but how are your shocks and tyres, a tramping shock is pretty savage on a high torque FWD car

 

I've no idea what state the shocks are in, but none of the mechanics who have looked at the car recently have mentioned anything about them. I did have the suspension checked out last year, but that came back with no problems reported.

 

The tyres are only 4 months old and good quality (Hankook). So they're not the problem.

 

Yeah, it's a 6-speed DSG alright.

 

Anyways, got the CV boot replaced and they also replaced the lower ball joint. Somehow, in the process, they managed to throw the alignment way out. Way, way out. The steering wheel is now pointing about 15-20 degrees to the right. I can coax the car around left-hand bends without touching the steering wheel if I get the approach right! No idea how they managed to upset the alignment so much, but they obviously didn't drive the car afterwards or they would have spotted it straight away. I'm going to ring them in the morning and see if they offer to do a 4-wheel alignment for free. If they want me to pay for it, they can shove it. Maybe it's normal to need to get the alignment done after this job, but I doubt it. If it is normal, they should have bloody warned me.

 

On the upside, no incidences of vibration on the way home. But it's too early to tell if the problem is fixed or not - I need to do a couple of long runs on routes I know well to see if any problems occur.

 

It's all fun and games...

They should do the front wheel alignment as it is or should have been part of their price. That is very poor checking of their own work.

Just now, Danny 57 said:

They should do the front wheel alignment as it is or should have been part of their price. That is very poor checking of their own work.

 

That would be my feeling. But they won't be seeing much more of me, one way or t'other!

yes sounds like one to steer (scuse pun) well clear of tbh

I have experienced the same issue. This occurs for my 2019 Skoda Superb which has been looked after and only has 7000 miles on it. I don't believe is due to a mechanical fault - instead am convinced that it is due to the car being front wheel drive. I had a pervious FWD Rover and exactly the same thing happened. Before that I had a RWD Jaguar and it never happened in that. It happens when pulling onto an A road and is, I believe, something that a FWD set up is prone to when there is a combination of prompt acceleration and the turning left to join the road. It is unpleasant but I doubt if it does any damage to the car. May be due to the near side wheel starting to spin and being locked by the car's driving assist systems (perhaps in some kind of resonance with your foot on the pedal if the effect is severe). Have found that the best way to avoid this is to make as much of the turn left as possible before actually pulling off - thereby reducing the amount of turning under hard acceleration and thereby reducing the chances of the juddering.

Hi All

i have owned my 2012 Superb Elegance 170 tdi for 18 months, and during the past six months have vibration through the steering wheel and whole car, it can be felt sitting in the drivers seat. It occurs at all speeds particular 40 to 50 mph but can be felt as low as 10mph through the steering. Front tyres, discs and pads have been replaced, bushes and front bearings checked for play, all feel tight. No nasty knocking noises while driving, I thought the wheels might be buckled but National Tyres checked these when the tyres were fitted approx 1 month ago. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

10 minutes ago, Mardecconor said:

Hi All

i have owned my 2012 Superb Elegance 170 tdi for 18 months, and during the past six months have vibration through the steering wheel and whole car, it can be felt sitting in the drivers seat. It occurs at all speeds particular 40 to 50 mph but can be felt as low as 10mph through the steering. Front tyres, discs and pads have been replaced, bushes and front bearings checked for play, all feel tight. No nasty knocking noises while driving, I thought the wheels might be buckled but National Tyres checked these when the tyres were fitted approx 1 month ago. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Were the wheels balanced when the tyres were changed?

 

Does the vibration change with road speed or engine speed?

yes both wheels were balanced when the tyres were changed, replacing the tyres improved the vibration slightly due to the old tyres being badly worn and one having a bulge.

vibration is more noticeable at 40 to 50 and is noticeable at high speed as well, at low speed say 10mph you can feel as if the front wheels are sort of trying to go left to right, still present if clutch is pressed at speeds. No vibration felt through gear lever or while car is stationary. the car is fitted with the 18 inch low profile tyres

Does it change with engine speed e.g. if you changed from 6th to 3rd at 50 mph is the vibration still there, and if so is it the same or different?

I would get the wheel checked for trueness as most tyre fitters bang the wheels on without looking at the state of the wheel they are balancing as a cover comes down over the wheel.

18" are very susceptible to pot hole damage 

Have 3 wheels on my car straightened over ownership

Personally I think it’s the wheels as I ( probably like most of us) have hit some truly amazing pot holes. Would a normal tyre garage be able to check a wheel for trueness or do I need to find a specialist.