Hi everyone, long time reader, only just signed up. I've got a nice Mk2 diesel vRS estate (in the correct colour - blue) 2012 year. Its 130k on the clock but otherwise tight as a drum abs been faultless. It developed a strange clunking noise, that stopped, and came back.  Car has been on a ramp for an examination, a different garage for a broken front then a rear spring, and a clean MOT before xmas. The noise is still there, nobody has identified it and its DRIVING ME BONKERS. Its not there in a bounce test, but is when rocking the car hard left to right.  Here's a video - about 35 seconds in and throughout you can hear it. It changes speed like something loose is vibrating up and down against the chassis or something.  Beer for whoever solves my mystery!  

 

Exhaust or exhaust shield rattling ?

Maybe? It wasnt spotted on the MOT, and garage that I took it to had it on the ramps and wiggled about and identified a broken spring. I've slid under it on the drive and any shielding I can see is intact. It's driving me nuts. It feels heavy - like a bar on a spring bouncing up and down so I checked the roll bars and there is no play there either

Long shot but have you checked the spare isn't rattling in its bay?

 

It wasn't quite the same noise as yours but my noise was the stone protection cover (tube) over the shock absorber shaft at the rear.  Sometimes this tube is part of the shock absorber but on the Octavia it is hangs down from the bump stop. If the bump stop fails (made of rubber) the tube drops down and rattles. Just a thought and easily checked.

 

Tube is part 14 and bump stop part 2 on this drawing:-

 

Edited 6 January, 20242 yr by pikpilot
spelling corrected

Thanks - mine are both hanging, bumpstops have long since perished. It's far too loud to be them I think. I'm fairly sure I can 'feel' thr noise wirh my feet, I convinced myself it was the exhaust, but im pretty sure it's coming from under the pedals, but its.nothing thet I csn see or recharge using axle stands and a trolley jack. I even wondered if I had dropped a spanner down there and it was now banging around!

On 05/01/2024 at 11:58, MikeTheThinker said:

Long shot but have you checked the spare isn't rattling in its bay?

 

Yep, done that mate, had the boot emptied and no difference. I think I've tried everything I can apart from taking it all apart. Surely anything serious would have been spotted on an MOT though. Surely?

The process by which we identified a ratling spare wheel as a problem in our daughter's car some while ago was thus:

1) find a quiet stretch of road / car park etc. where the rattle can be reproduced reliably.
2) establish a known and repeatable set of conditions under which the rattle occurs.

3) have a volunteer listen in various positions in the car - ear to the ground, as it were - to localise the source of the rattle.

4) investigate the identified source.

 

If you can find somewhere off-highway very much better and in that case can have your "volunteer" ride in the boot as well as lying on the back seats and in the footwells as necessary.

Our solution was a Costco car park with drainage runs that caused our culprit to rattle when driven over.

 

do you have a longer video?

 

from that 4 second clip, it sounds like creaking wishbone / roll bar bearings to my ear and past creaks and rattles..

 

U csn inly upload 10mb - which is about 5 seconds. Hold on https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YEknWYRw2BEgwW97fgt6QCOPYWG7XjW5/view?usp=drivesdk

I have exactly the same noise on my 2012 Octavia Estate.
Did you every ID the cause?

I have today discovered the cause. The front bush on the left Wishbone / Suspension Arm is knackered. I've ordered a replacement. Febi 39489 Wishbone / Suspension Arm. £34 +VAT from PartsinMotion.
https://www.partsinmotion.co.uk/car-parts/steering-suspension/wishbonesuspensionarm/febi-wishbone-suspension-arm-front-lower-left-39489-detail?

I post this just in case anyone else lands here after searching Google for rattle under car or similar.

On the 1.6 TDI 105bhp it's a steel sheet part. NOT a cast iron part. I order the entire wishbone, complete with bushes to avoid me having to fight with pressing out the old bush. Life's too short. And I order new bolt too £6. Stay Safe!🙂

If your unsure whether its a faulty bush, try this test. If your wheel moves this much the bushes are knackered.

Replaced my front bushings with the Powerflex ones.

Lifetime warranty so there should be problems never again.

I can strongly recommend.