Hello,

 

I own a 2015 Fabia Mk3 1.2L TSI 90HP.

There's a weird noise coming from the engine. I'm attaching a sound sample recorded from inside the car while the doors are closed and the AC is off.

 

At first I thought it was coming from the belt or one of the pulleys. I removed the belt so no pulleys were spinning and noise was still there.

A friend mechanic who helped me with recognising the source of the noise said it's most likely the timing belt or components that are making the noise, and recommended to replace the timing kit including the water pump.

The guys at Skoda service centre think that it's the AC compressor and insist that the noise stopped after they removed the belt. I insist that it didn't (I wasn't there when they checked the car).

 

I red about a different common noise in Fabia cars similar to mine which source is the AC pump. I listened to their sound sample and it's not what I'm hearing.

 

Would appreciate any ideas.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Assaf

 

 

20180712-165436.m4a

Edited 16 July, 20188 yr by assafs

Mine sounds similar. Can you hear it when sat in the car with the door closed and the fans and radio switched off?

Hey Skinneroo,

 

Of course. The attached sound sample was recorded while sitting in the car with windows closed, AC off and radio off. Did you take it to a professional?

Yes, took it to a main dealer, mainly about a rattling when starting from cold .I also asked the head tech to have a listen to the sound that you describe while I was there, He said it was nothing to worry about.

It still bothers me but not as much.

Get it checked out if you are not happy.

Keep us posted.

 

Has the car done a lot of kilometres (or miles) and serviced properly? I think the sound may be caused by the engine not firing smoothly causing rythmic engine 'shaking' on the mountings. Has the entire ignition system and all spark plugs been checked? I think there are other posts on this forum about engine mount issues?

Hey wiganken1,

 

The car has done 44k km. Was services properly in the main dealer. The ignition system was checked and spark plugs were replaced two weeks ago by main dealer.

I haven't seen other posts about this issue.

Hi assaf mine sounds the same, צור איתי קשר יש לי רכב דומה לשלח עם אותו כמות קילומטרים וגם אצלי צצים כל מיני רעשים וובירציות שונות לאחרונה שכל מוסך אומר שזה נורמלי אשמח אם נשווה.

UPDATE

------------

I removed the belt again to listen if the noise was still there without the belt. The noise was still there even without the belt, which means that it's not the AC or any other pully that's spinning by the belt.

Next step was to determine if the noise was coming from the timing or the water pump. Opening the engine discovered that the water pump is on the left side of the engine, and the noise was coming from the right side, where the belt and the timing is.

So that excluded the water pump from being the source of the noise.

Timing was replaced, not an easy process at all.

The noise is finally gone.

Now it easier to hear the noise that's coming from the AC compressor, maybe the Skoda guys were referring to that noise, which is not as loud as the noise that was coming from the timing.

But, and that's the important thing to remember: faulty timing can break the engine, faulty AC compressor can only make, well, noise.

 

Mine sounds exact same and it runs very well no power loss, very responsive and economical.

When I first bought my car it had a strange rattle straight away on cold start up which my dealer said is normal, they also said that these engines don't have a timing belt they have a timing chain which is what caused this noise until oil had circulated round to it.

I have another sound from a cold start up too which I don't know if it's to do with the DSG but when setting off on a cold start the engine sounds like it has a massive induction kit and its sucking a lot of air, after a minute this then disappears.

It's a great car and engine which is due for renewal soon and I will be sad to see it go and be quite sceptical about owning the new 1.0 tsi engine.

1 hour ago, James777 said:

Mine sounds exact same and it runs very well no power loss, very responsive and economical.

When I first bought my car it had a strange rattle straight away on cold start up which my dealer said is normal, they also said that these engines don't have a timing belt they have a timing chain which is what caused this noise until oil had circulated round to it.

I have another sound from a cold start up too which I don't know if it's to do with the DSG but when setting off on a cold start the engine sounds like it has a massive induction kit and its sucking a lot of air, after a minute this then disappears.

It's a great car and engine which is due for renewal soon and I will be sad to see it go and be quite sceptical about owning the new 1.0 tsi engine.

 

Maybe your engine has a chain if it is the earlier 85PS or 105PS with the turbo mounted at the front and having 8 valves, all the 90PS and 110PS engines with the turbo mounted at the rear and having 16 valves are belt driven engines - that is the 1.2TSI engines that you referred to.

3 hours ago, rum4mo said:

 

Maybe your engine has a chain if it is the earlier 85PS or 105PS with the turbo mounted at the front and having 8 valves, all the 90PS and 110PS engines with the turbo mounted at the rear and having 16 valves are belt driven engines - that is the 1.2TSI engines that you referred to.

No it's a 65 reg 110PS, I just checked it now and it definitely has a belt which goes round the alternator and two other pulleys. Never thought to question it before.

33 minutes ago, James777 said:

No it's a 65 reg 110PS, I just checked it now and it definitely has a belt which goes round the alternator and two other pulleys. Never thought to question it before.

 

No, that is just the auxiliary belt, the cam belt is under the black plastic cover behind that, definitely a belt and not a chain.

2 hours ago, rum4mo said:

 

No, that is just the auxiliary belt, the cam belt is under the black plastic cover behind that, definitely a belt and not a chain.

Oh I see  I am glad one of us knows there way round an engine.

Assafs, I just hope that you or your mechanic carefully examined the inlet cam shaft variable timing pulley as they have been known to be the source of some of these noises and a UK national newspaper, The Guardian has reported that a 2015 VW Polo with a 1.2TSI engine, ended up with getting its cam belt replaced at about 22K miles, then not too much later after that ended up with a wrecked engine due to “timing failure” - which sounds a bit like the VW dealer did not check that variable timing pulley well enough as some of the early ones suffered from screws/bolts coming loose etc!

Edited 11 August, 20187 yr by rum4mo

@rum4mo we replaced the pulleys as well, one of them was the source of the noise. 

The new timing belt was fitted using a special device that connects to the engine. 

 

That is exactly what I would have expected, so the inlet cam shaft’s variable timing pulley failed or its screws or bolts came slack? 

Now that problem was supposed to have been sorted out by VW Group over 3.5 years ago, and now as your engine would have been built with the revised pulley like all others of that age, this “fixed” pulley is again causing some people a problem - worse still after the warranty has expired, not good!

Well said. And the worse thing is that it could break the engine if not addressed and replaced. 

When I asked the guys at Skoda regarding the life of the timing kit (belt or pulleys) they said the estimated life is 90k km but it may need to be replaced soon. They wouldn’t give any kind of discount or be responsible for it in any way. Such a shame. 

Ah Ha, things have moved on a bit over the article in The Guardian newspaper about failure of VW Group 1.2TSI 16V belt driven engines, someone claiming to be an Engineering manager has replied to that shameful article and suggested it was probably down to the garage not sorting that Polo out correctly, and nothing to do with the design error that lead to that failure, and the owner of that car has now joined the Polo forum, he is still facing a £860 bill to get his 22K 2.5 months out of warranty Polo, that had been in earlier in its life to get an oil leak fixed, cam shaft oil seal, then just before the warranty was up it was back in for another oil seal change and also the cam belt as it was now smothered in engine oil - then about 3 months later engine goes bang - and he has to take it as it is just down to bad luck!  Prior to The Guardian involvement and publishing of that article, zero help from dealership and no interest from VWUK, now things have changed and he gets a new engine for £860, which I'd reckon he has a right to expect he does not need to pay as that engine should have lasted a lot longer than 38.5 months and 22K miles.