Hello.

My 2014 Octavia 1.8 4x4 has developed a strange issue. There is a vibration coming from the rear of the car when driving. It feels like if there was severe unbalance, or a flat spot on the tires. I have however ruled out this possibility, by first having the wheels rebalanced, and then having the tires replaced. With no change.

Symptoms:

- Heavy vibration from rear of car. (No steering wheel vibration)

- Can sometimes be felt from 20kmh. Frequency increases with wheel speed.

- Vibration of varying severity. Especially after being parked it is severe. If it was wheel imbalance, I'd say it was up to 100 grams off at its worst. But it sometimes disappears nearly completely after a few kms.

- No sounds.

- No change in vibration when braking or gently applying park break while driving. (So I suspect not brake related)

- No change in vibration when cornering at speed. (So I suspect no wheel bearing or rear differential issues)

- Shocks seem to behave normally over bumps, so they are not really suspect.

 

I used to be a mechanic 20 years ago, and by the feel I could have sworn this was a wheel balance issue. But having the problem persist even through swapping out the tires makes me rule out this possibility, and now Im at a loss.

 

 

Rubber prop shaft donut. Used to have to replace entire shaft at astronomical cost but can buy the donuts now. I’d do both front and back whilst it’s off.. unless your under warrantee in which case get it back in and they’ll replace the entire shaft. 

I'd agree with the above and would suggest it's probably just the rear rubber doughnut coupler that has gone, based on a similar experience with our mkIi TDI 4x4

 

Ours was most noticeable at about 2300rpm in 6th which was around a 75mph cruise on the motorway.  Under load when accelerating it was very loud.

Edited 4 June, 20241 yr by skomaz

27 minutes ago, Esseesse200 said:

Rubber prop shaft donut. Used to have to replace entire shaft at astronomical cost but can buy the donuts now. I’d do both front and back whilst it’s off.. unless your under warrantee in which case get it back in and they’ll replace the entire shaft. 

 

Oh, thats a possibility I should have thought about. Especially as my backup car (old range rover) is currently in the garage awaiting a new donut after the old one failed catastrophically.

 

It is a possibility for sure. 

Think the Skoda ones sieze inside the metal ring rather that explode. My 4x4 is 560nm 389hp and not had to replace yet with 110k on so I’m presuming they sorted it with later models !! 
could also be a regular use keeps them right too !! 
 

if it is that I’d be tempted whilst the shaft is off to do the front one also and check the centre bearing. 
I think you can get just enough space to just do the back ring 😳😂 without prop removal. 

Hi there my vrs 184bhp was vibrating over 80mph on Germans autobans..

and it was rear wheel bearing…

they have done 195k miles from new so it was time to do it.

Now it is smooth as before.

Rear suspension and links were  done last year.

Hello, did you find out where the problem is because I have the same symptoms on my Octavia 3 4x4 and the car always jumps from behind just like a crooked tire, but I checked mine too and it's not 100% one of them

Description of my problem. Skoda Octavia 3 2018 year 2.0 tdi 4x4 station wagon, 215000 km.

The problem started last September. At low speed 45-50 km/h a bouncing (slight shaking) starts in the rear of the car, as if you have a crooked tire and with increasing speed the amplitude of this bouncing increases. Outside the city on a flat road at 100 km/h it is still felt, but as I said more subtle. It is not felt in the steering wheel, but in the driver's seat and on the floor, but the child when he was in the back seat confirmed that he felt it under him. I have already been to 5-6 service stations, and everyone says there must be something, but they shrug and do not know what the reason is. Tires and rims, balance are excluded, because it does it with both 18 inch summer and 16 inch winter, I even took his 17 inch from a friend for a test. I took it to a Škoda service station, they suspected that the front inner bearings were a little broken and that it was transmitting vibrations, so we replaced them at another service station with SKF and also replaced the engine and gearbox mounts because they had started. There was no effect, the problem continued. Upon inspection at several service stations, as I already said - the flywheel is fine - there is no noise, no noise, the pads on the entire car are fine, the cardan bushings have been checked and they are fine. The car has been serviced from start to finish - the gearbox with original oil, the Haldex has been serviced and the strainer has been cleaned, oil filters, antifreeze, Kayaba front shock absorbers have been replaced. There is no whining from the gearbox, Haldex and so on. The interesting thing is that when the car is cold, for example, it has not been driven for 2 days and I get in the morning and start driving, the bouncing is stronger, when I drive the car for 5-10 minutes it decreases and starts to be felt more easily. Another interesting thing is that when the car is lifted on a lift, because as I said we have done this several times already and for example we change the tires, this shimmy almost disappears and after a short ride of 5-10 km it appears again. The rear axle shafts look in excellent health and have no play - they were also looked at in the service station, the only thing that I know is funny but not really necessary are the rear discs and pads in the sense that there is still life in them, it's just that when I got the car it was clearly sitting without being driven and they were rusty. I'm looking for advice from someone who has suffered with a similar nonsense because I don't know what could be the cause anymore? Thank you!

I'd still suggest it's the flexible rubber joints / donuts in the propshaft that are failing. They can look fine but the outer ring can come loose and unbalanced and the rubber will be affected by temperature and could 'soften' slightly after a drive which might tie in with your observations that things change after a short drive, or on a cold start. They are available separately from the propshaft at about £100 so would have probably been cheaper to try than everything else you've doe so far.

Do you know if the whole driveshaft has to be removed, or can only this part be replaced without removing the driveshaft?

Edited 29 April29 Apr by octavia3_4x4

My understanding is that it should be possible to replace it in-situ without removing the propshaft. Space is tight but I've seen comments that there is enough movement in the parts available to allow the coupling to be removed and refitted.

after inspection you can see this 😀 The pad is strong but the metal part moves when pressed, does it serve as balance?

In local service they told me that this joint is ok 🤨 what is you opinion?