I own a Fabia Mk 111 SE-L estate DSG, now eight and a half years old and with just over 89,000 miles on the clock and have been very pleased with it, better than the VWs, Skodas, Toyota and Merc I have owned in the past.

 

In June last year, the MOT was due and I took the car into D M Keith’s of York who have serviced it most of its life after the dealer I originally bought it from new lost the dealership. As expected, the car passed, but a couple of items needing attention in the future were flagged up – the rear suspension bump stops were starting to split and the front discs were “lipped”. I was told that as the bump stops split further a banging would develop.

 

Driving home, I noticed that there was an intermittent noise from behind me, difficult to describe but sometimes a metallic banging noise, at others, sounding more like wood or suchlike, certainly not resonating like metal would.

 

In the past with other cars knocking/banging/vibrations had appeared after the MOT and were solved simply by pulling the rear seat belts out fully and letting them wind back in. Presumably this was because the rear seat belts were hardly ever used as our cars rarely had more than two people in them and so the rear belts were not reseating properly after being tested.

 

However, this time this didn’t work, and so I assumed that maybe the rear bump stops had split sooner than expected and decided I would take the car in at a convenient time in the near future, but in the meantime have a check round the car to see if there was some other cause.

 

Despite much searching inside the car for loose items and taking things out of the back of the car and driving round, I failed to find the cause of the problem and so had the rear suspension bump stops replaced, but to no result, the intermittent banging was still there.

 

When I took the car in to have the front discs dealt with, I mentioned the noise and D M Keith’s had a good check round underneath the car at the rear but could find nothing loose and suggested that it might be something loose inside the back of the car. They also drove the car around for some time and said they thought that they had heard the noise, and this is part of the problem: the noise comes and goes.

 

I can drive down a stretch of road one day and the noise isn’t there. Driving down the same stretch of road the next day, same time, same speed, same conditions, and it is there.

 

I can start a journey, and the noise isn’t there, but by the end of the journey it is. The reverse can happen – the noise is there at the start, but disappears during the course of the journey.

 

It can vanish for days at a time, particularly, it seems, if it is wet weather, but then returns.

 

I’ve had everything out of the back except the spare wheel (I’ve injured my back recently and can’t get the spare out, but it is firmly secured) but this makes no difference to the noise.

 

Banging on the boot floor on one occasion did produce a light metallic noise and getting under the car I spotted a small corner of silver metal touching part of the underside and carefully bent it clear, and the light metallic noise disappeared when I banged the floor inside again, but the other noise remained.

 

Apart from the spare wheel, the only other thing not taken out of the back is the MDF(?) lift-up floor over the spare wheel and tool kit, and in some ways the noise does resemble the noise I get when I bang on this, but I can find no way of removing the floor to try driving with it out.

The noise has become more persistent and, insofar as it can be placed, appears to come from the nearside rear corner of the car.

The car is going in to D M Keith’s this coming Wednesday for further investigation. Meanwhile, if anyone has had this problem or has any thoughts on what it might be, I’d be glad to hear from them.

1 hour ago, Seasider said:

I own a Fabia Mk 111 SE-L estate DSG, now eight and a half years old

 

Is the noise, temperature related?

 

Try the Fabia MK II section with your car post.

 

Thanks AG Falco

29 minutes ago, AGFalco said:

 

Is the noise, temperature related?

 

Try the Fabia MK II section with your car post.

 

Thanks AG Falco

Thanks for the suggestion.  I have sometimes thought it is so.  I'll post there too.