I've just bought a 2022 Karoq SE L, 1.5l DSG, with 15k miles on the clock. In the first couple of days driving it, there's a very noticeable 'resonance' - a feeling of low-frequency vibration that's unsettling and annoying. 

 

When idling, it comes on precisely at 1250 revs, disappearing below that. It's more noticeable in the front than the back. When driving, it's been present pretty much throughout, but is especially pronounced on rougher road surfaces and bumps. It's like a low-level 'whoomping' that feels as if it comes up through the road.

 

Has anyone had anything similar? And ideas what might be causing it?

Never had anything like that and my Karoq is 6 years old.

@JHH20 Welcome. 

Is that when the car is maybe going from 2 cylinder mode to 4 cylinder or just the turbo coming in? 

 

Maybe nothing to do with it, but.

What tyre / wheel size is on your car and have you experimented with the tyre pressures?

Try putting the front wheels to the rear and rear to front. 

Edited 10 November, 20241 yr by Ootohere

1 hour ago, Ootohere said:

@JHH20 Welcome. 

Is that when the car is maybe going from 2 cylinder mode to 4 cylinder or just the turbo coming in? 

 

Maybe nothing to do with it, but.

What tyre / wheel size is on your car and have you experimented with the tyre pressures?

Try putting the front wheels to the rear and rear to front. 

Thanks for your reply, much appreciated. I have 18" wheels, tyre size 215/50 R18. Tyres are Pirelli Powergy (front) and Michelin Primacy 3 (back). About 4.5mm tread on all.

 

I found the front tyres had been a little overinflated at 2.4 bar, so I took them down to the recommended to 2.1 bar. But that has made no difference.

 

I'll hopefully get it back into the dealership for them to investigate as I've only just bought it.

Skoda dealership likely to be the last people to know about anything.  They all do that. It is a characteristic.  Never seen or heard of that before.    Best go test drive another vehicle and engine and gearbox. 

I have the same in my older 2018 plate, 1.6 TDI manual at around 1300 RPM. Gets worse when the car is going uphill around said RPM, but almost nothing when the engine is not under load. Had it since I got the car, usually I just work around it.

It's similar to the sound what you would have if you're in too low gear for your speed but just the vibration part, the car is not shaking. No vibration between 800-1200, present around 1200-1300, and nothing again over 1300.

 

I don't know much about cars, but I also noticed a quite noticeable jolt when starting the engine, as it cranks, which makes me think something might be up with the engine mounts.

People say the Pirelli Powergy is a noisy tyre.  As Ootohere suggests, I'd be swopping front to rear. It might not solve the problem but if the noise moves mainly to the rear, you'll know the issue is with those tyres.

Highly doubt it's tyres, as I swapped mine and the noise is still there. Tyres don't care about RPM, but speed. You can do 50mph with 1300, and also 10mph with 1300.

@MrSecretPotato Your 2018  1.6 TDI Manual is about as different a Karoq as you can get from a 1.5 TSI with Active Cylinder Technology and a 7 speed twin clutch DSG. 

I'm aware, just sharing my experience with my model, which might be relevant to his issue.

2 hours ago, MrSecretPotato said:

I have the same in my older 2018 plate, 1.6 TDI manual at around 1300 RPM. Gets worse when the car is going uphill around said RPM, but almost nothing when the engine is not under load. Had it since I got the car, usually I just work around it.

It's similar to the sound what you would have if you're in too low gear for your speed but just the vibration part, the car is not shaking. No vibration between 800-1200, present around 1200-1300, and nothing again over 1300.

 

I don't know much about cars, but I also noticed a quite noticeable jolt when starting the engine, as it cranks, which makes me think something might be up with the engine mounts.

Thank you. This sounds pretty similar to my experience. I've also noticed it being worse uphill. Whatever the issue is, it also seems to amplify rougher road surfaces and minor bumps. It just makes for quite an annoying ride all round.

 

It seems particularly odd as the car will only have just been through its inspection before the dealer sold it to me. But I'll see if they're willing to take a look at it, and if they find anything.

@MrSecretPotato have you ever taken it to a garage to have your issue checked? I'd be interested to hear what they said if so.

Possibly a Dual Mass Flywheel issue?

Mine's the smoothest car I've owned 1.5TSi DSG 2023.

14 minutes ago, logiclee said:

Mine's the smoothest car I've owned 1.5TSi DSG 2023.

Thanks for this. That's helpful to know, because with it being the first one I've owned, part of me was doubting myself - but there's no way I'd describe mine as smooth at the moment, so something must be up. I was driving an 88k-mile 2014 Rapid Spaceback before this and definitely didn't have this level of resonance/noise.

The SEL presumably has the lift out seats with the roll top boot cover.  This does not do as good an acoustic isolation job from rear noises as the lower market fixed seat SE version, which has a more solid shelf/boot separator.  My 2019 1.0 3cyl DSG has a slight LF drone between 1500 & 2000 rpm when the engine is working hard going uphill.  It isn't very prominent at all really, but I still change the DSG into Sport mode to raise the revs a bit.

 

I'm fussy about noise like this, but road noise in particular.  When I got the car I noticed that the car exhaust terminated under the boot, rather than sticking out slightly at the rear and as well as worrying about noise, I wondered if there might be a danger of fumes getting into the car - presumably totally unfounded as Skoda's development of the car would have no doubt checked for this.  Anyhow, I bought a short boy racer SS exhaust extension and clamped that onto the rear exhaust, just to try it.  Whether it actually reduced that slight boom I can't really confirm, as I undertook various other panel damping measures to reduce noise from the rear, road noise being my primary concern.

 

The exhaust extension might be worth a try as it didn't cost much and doesn't seem to have affected emissions, as the car flies through MOTs.

 

The 1.0 Karoq installation results in a particularly quiet engine, being inaudible on the move in many situations, particularly on motorways.  My noise abatement mods + changing to 16" wheels with All Weather tyres (these seemingly inherently quieter) have made a substantial reduction in road noise levels and this is now the quietest car I've ever owned, past cars including a BMW E39 6cyl 523i with that super smooth engine.

 

 

My 2018 1.5 SEL manual is still running 19"  Bridgestone Turanza in the summer and has always suffered from what I would describe as drumming due to tyre noise, noticably worse on some road surfaces. Annoying but I have learned to live with it. Changing in the winter months to Kumho 18" tyres does reduce the drummimg somewhat. Strange that my other half does not seem to notice the noise at all. Being of advanced years my hearing has deteriorated at the higher frequencies maybe that is a factor.

I found that once I start noticing road noise, many years ago, I began to listen out for it and so got increasingly sensitised to it.  I still notice it in my 1.0 Karoq, generally the most prominent noise source in my car, but it is significantly reduced.

 

Another factor I seem to find - the ears have a sort of volume control - with louder noises the ear turns the sound down a bit, but as things get quieter you still become aware of the various noises.  It might seem you can never win, but a quieter car is definitely less tiring to travel in.  I notice I'm less tired in the Karoq after a fairly long journey than for any of my previous cars.