hi, just bought a 2020 1.6 diesel octavia estate, having changed from an old mk6 golf and have noticed a considerable increase in road noise in the cabin. Is this normal for an estate car, and if so how can i make this quieter, maybe tyres but anything else please? No noise problem with the golf (saloon) so i am a little disappointed. If this is only due to the size of the interior maybe i will have to live with it?...thanks.

Quieter tyres will only do so much. Less sound insulation than the Golf is the problem. 

 

You could try applying some insulation yourself around the spare wheel well and behind door cards etc...

 

What size wheels are fitted? I'm seriously considering swapping out the 19" wheels on my vRS and going for smaller ones, 18" possibly even 17" - main reason is improved ride but it may also reduce road noise slightly.

mine have the 17" wheels, with dunlop sport maxx tyres. 

You won't get much quieter than that combo! Are the wheels balanced? It's surprising how much noise out of balance wheels cause.

 

I think additional sound insulation is the way forward, but even then it's unlikely to improve on, or even match the Golf.

1 hour ago, philpwd said:

mine have the 17" wheels, with dunlop sport maxx tyres. 

How worn? Well worn tyres are noisier than new ones of the same exact model.

7000 miles. theres a lot of wear left so dont really need to change them yet.

Wheel alignment is going to be the issue.  IMHO, the Octavia's do have a habit of getting their wheel alignment out quite easily, so go and find somebody with a Hunter 4x4 wheel alignment system (maybe your Skoda dealer??) and get it checked (checking is free - alignment costs money).

thanks, just been out again and it seems some is from the suspension/tyres? and some is from the engine (worse at low revs). If i drive with the revs slightly up about 2000 or a little less its a lot better. so at 30mph it doesn't like 4th gear. 

The car is very sensitive to road surfaces. There are many threads in this forum on soundproofing. Be thankful you don't have the "booming" problem as well.

The heavy rubber mats and boot liner you can get might help. 

There are some on the for sale site on here, dont know if they are heavy ones. 

The Skoda will have a rear beam Vs independent suspension on the golf mk6, so will be inferior to the mk6 even with sound proofing.

I've got a 2014 Octavia Vrs hatch & found the interior quite "boomy" at speed, I've spent around £50 on Dodo mat sound deadening pads that I bought off eBay & completely covered under the back seat base & the entire boot floor including the spare wheel well, there's a definite improvement in noise reduction & well worth the modest outlay.

On 22/06/2021 at 10:50, philpwd said:

mine have the 17" wheels, with dunlop sport maxx tyres. 

I had sportmaxx ST os original mount on my 2014 vrs.

Changed to dunlop eagle asymetric 3, a huge difference. Much quieter. 

Also you can add dynamat in the trunk and the diesel hood insulation (fits the petrol just fine)

I made these 3 mods and the car il a lot quieter

hi and thanks for your info. I only have 7400 miles so will wait for some new tyres, but i didn't know about the 2 other options...will check them out.

The Dunlop tyres are quite bad for wearing unevenly and "saw-toothing" on the inner edges of the rear tyres. If its bad enough, it might sound like a wheel bearing gone. I don't think your's should be gone like that after so little miles but it might be worth a check. Just stick your hand into the wheel arch and feel how the blocks are worn.

Had the same issue, have tried a few things (each of them further improving the situation!)
 

- Added Noico sound deadening panels to the whole of the boot and wheel well.

- Bought a spare wheel and wheel kit (car didn't come with a space saver wheel so I think the wheel well was acting like a horn)

- Added another layer to the boot (2x5 plywood bonded with acoustic adhesive) [I did this to make the boot firmer for transporting sand and wood etc. but has a secondary benefit of acting as another layer of sound proofing. Particularly noticed a difference since I glued the two pieces together with a 'green glue' equivalent]

 

I've also bought some mass loaded vinyl but haven't actually added it yet, those steps above have definitely made a significant improvement.

 

I also swapped a worn rear tyre for a brand new Michelin PS4 which has also helped (albeit only impacting one wheel)