New Owner - Does my 3 Cyl sound right to you?

[barki]

Hi all,

 

Just bought a Fabia III 110 TSI.

 

Great car, i'm surprised how enjoyable it is to drive having come from much more powerful cars in the past.

 

Anyway, I bought it from CINCH just last week and have a few days remaining to return the car without quibble if something isn't right. I was feeling happy to keep it, but now I've noticed that it makes the below sound when hot.

 

It's a background warbling which is constantly audible at idle once the car gets up to temperature. 

 

I am not talking about the various tapping/clicking noises of the injection system.  It's quite hard to pick up in the video but it's definitely there. I also notice that the engine shakes a lot at around 1100rpm and that acceleration from low revs really makes a rumbling sound audible in the cabin (which I quite like). 

 

Video here:

 

https://youtu.be/MQMU1YgFLMw?feature=shared

 

Mine is on barely 13k miles (although it is 6 years old) and it has decent service history including a timing belt change at Skoda about 1500 miles ago, could they have forgotten to tighten something?

 

I'd be really grateful anyone could confirm that this sound is normal or not...it doesn't sound normal to me (even for a tiny 3 Cyl!).

 

If this is a nasty issue then I think CINCH can have it back!

 

Cheers in advance :)

[nta16]

Hi, welcome.

 

Sorry I couldn't hear any warbling only hiss which could be just the recording/equipment.  Someone with the same engine would perhaps know better.

 

I obviously have no idea of how much you know about car and what experience of driving various cars you have but your surprise that a smaller (relatively light by modern standards) lighter less powerful car can be enjoyable to drive may mean you've been with heavier more powerful cars for a long time or your age and driving experience isn't as old as mine and a couple of other regulars here so please don't get upset if I now put stuff you already know.

 

13k-miles in 6 years may mean the car just needs a proper (not Dealership/some garages) full (whole) car servicing and maintenance (and driver maintenance) and a good (or few) proper "blow-out" runs once the car is confirmed to be suitable for such (not CINCH or any other list of "checks") and of course fully engine (oil, and other) warmed up.

 

A low mileage car can often be more niggly than an average or high mileage car and because of the low mileage possibly not even get the scant annual servicing (of engine oil and filter change and little more else) or not timely servicing let alone maintenance, when in fact the car is in more need of servicing and maintenance check rather than less need.

 

At 6 years old it should have had a minimum of 6 oil & filter changes, engine air filter change and that's just on the relatively unimportant part of the car which is the engine.  A couple of brake fluid changes and checks on brakes, including the often forgotten brake component of tyres, which are also important to the steering and suspension systems.

 

The car battery if it has been replaced might need the attention of an appropriate battery charger maintainer, if the particularly if the previous owner didn't use one, despite the fact the engine always starts and lights seem bright enough.  At least a check of the state of charge of the battery on its terminal posts a good few hours after the car was last run.     

 

I am unusual here in not being a VW fan and have always thought there engines to be a bit on the rough side but now the VW computer programs have them giving all sorts of sounds as the computer programs do their stuff.  The 1100 revs could be part of this or it might be a fault of some kind, doing a search on the engine on here or Google will cover this.

 

I have no experience of VW's 3 cylinder car engines but have in the past had a couple of 660cc 3-cylinder turbo engines that were sweet as a nut, one particularly bulletproof, but both were Japanese, another was 699cc, 3-cylinder turbo excellent engine , surprisingly made by a different German marque used them as standard cars and for car club tours and car club in the UK and in France/ Germany.  Others may be old enough to know of and use 250cc and 350cc engines and know how very little hp you need once moving on a level road and relatively little to go up hills and overtake at legal motorway speed, let alone the fun you can have on good unclassified, B and A roads..

 

Sorry that was more background info than a specific answer to your question.

 

Plugging in an appropriate, for VW, good level of scan tool will show you anc error codes, current and perhaps any historic that the Dealership/garages have been too lazy to remove.  This is a list of Briskoda members with the likes of VCDS scanners who may be near you and able to give you a report for free or beer token plus others proffesional with perhaps other rates. - Briskoda VCDS Owners Map (click me)

 

HTH.

[barki]

Hi, thanks for taking the time. 

 

Admittedly the noise is hard to make out in the video but it's there. 

 

I hope it's just the 3 cylinder rumble/growl, but I am just amazed at how pronounced it sounds, especially when driving at low rpms (anything below 2.2krpm), you can constantly hear the thud-thud-thud like a cement mixer (inside). Wind the window down, and it sounds very farty, and I keep stopping to check the exhaust expecting to find it badly blowing but it appears not to be.

 

I think my kids are surprised by the shocking lack of refinement lol.

 

I need a quick go in another 1.0 TSI just to satisfy myself really. 

 

 

 

Edited 22 March by barki

[barki]

Hi,

 

I found another video which shows the noise better. Mine sounds like this one:

 

 

I note that person says it was timing belt related....and coincidentally mine had the belt done by Skoda recently. Reading online about this belt change, apparently it's particularly tricky on this engine which has non-round pulleys which is easy to miss for a tech who isn't familiar. 

 

Hmmm....wish I could be sure. The noise mine makes is just like the above although quieter.

 

 

 

 

I note that

[nta16]

The second video does sound a lot worse - and to add insult to injury last July VWSkoda UK finally admitted, and got in line with Europe, that the rubber belts didn't need changing at 5yrs/60K-miles but at 15yrs/150k-miles IIRC.

 

If it's a timing issue then some "fully-trained" VWSkoda Dealership/garage mechanic/technician might have ballsed it up but obviously I don't know and hope not and I don't know if for some reason the 3-pots might be an exception to the 'new' belt changing schedule (but I doubt it) and anyway it been done now, at least you didn't have to pay about £420 for it like we were conned into, so look on the bright side.

 

Belt driven things, alternator or other driven pump(s) can give squeak noises and thumps (another reason to prevent the battery from constant low state of charge to help the alternator out).

 

 

2 hours ago, barki said:

Wind the window down, and it sounds very farty, and I keep stopping to check the exhaust expecting to find it badly blowing but it appears not to be.

As you're one pot short of a set of four spark plugs and coils and leads/wires condition take on 33/25% more importance but I've no idea of particular relevance to (if) any to 1.0 110 engines (what's the (four letter?) engine code?).

 

Rooted assures me these VW 3-pots are fine and OK which they may well be for 21st-century VW and relative to late 20th-century VW 4-pots which always sounded badger's bottom to my very limited experience of them.  @Rooted will give a more balance view and greater info on the VW 3-pots (though he will say the same on proper servicing of the engine and car).

 

 

2 hours ago, barki said:

I need a quick go in another 1.0 TSI just to satisfy myself really. 

This is something I recommend when considering a car and before purchase, best if possible with a real life and average mileage/use owner of the same model spec, engine, bearbox and age that is honest enough to tell you warts and all (not an all out marque fan and that's for any marque shopping trolly to hypercar) and also to read the Owner's Manual for the car so you know a bit about how it operates and its needs (a lot less marketing billhooks in that publication than others as it's expected to be very occasionally if ever, glanced at by captured purchasers).

 

Do bear in mind this is a relatively (by modern standards) car with a downsized engine belatedly put in by outside force rather than VW choice and that Skoda isn't the label or halo brand of the group.  

 

Personally I'd pass the problem back to CINCH if they can't sort it to my full satisfaction in a reasonable time then the deal would be off, they will always use any agreement that is to their favour but usually (depends on what staff member you get) not want to lose a delivered sale.  Again others will know better than my poor memory (imagination?) but I think CINCH are with just checked yeap, CINCH, British Car Auctions (and WeBuyAnyCar) are all part of the same lot so the cars come from many sources so not always bad but also not always good.

 

A few years back I was at Rockingham Speedway when it was closed and a storing ground for loads of various vehicles and the next year or two after that when a stand had CINCH in the seating and one of the chaps their told me the place had basically been bought as a play place of three of the high ups but I guess things must have got "tight" (relatively) for them as they were having to put it to some (little) commercial use - obviously only internet talk and any resemblance to any living person is unintended coincidence.  We never saw them and they let us use the track so I've no personal axe to grind, I'm sure they must be the salt of the earth despite my own personal many bad experience with those in the English motor trade. 

 

Edited 22 March by nta16
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