2016 Fabia Diesel Estate.  I have a creak that is most noticeable when crossing speed bumps.  I've jacked up the car and then moved the rear arm and the noise is apparently from the seat of the coil spring.  I can see there is a rubber cushion at the top of the spring.  Should there be one on the suspension arm as well?

No, no rubber cushion at the lower end of the rear springs, just an aluminium disc that is probably meant to be a sacrificial anode to hold back corrosion, I tend to replace these when replacing rear springs, typically lots of people do not know that they exist as they turn to white dust over time.

 

I'd very much doubt if that item would ever cause any creaking noises.

 

In very cold weather, with my wife's 2015 VW Polo 5 door hatchback, after replacing the rear dampers, springs, bump stops and these lower aluminium discs, that car now does make slight noises when driving over speed bumps just after it has been driven away from the (garage) house early cold mornings, but not at any other time. I didn't replace the top mounts.

 

Edit:- if there is a small bit broken off the end of the spring(s) then that could cause a noise.

Edited 31 January, 20251 yr by rum4mo

Hi, welcome.

 

Are you sure the creak isn't from the front?  My wife's 2015 creaks when going up and down speed humps slowly, when going down the very few potholes of our 3rd world local roads, when a leaf blows across the road, no sorry that's when the front "assist" goes into panic mode (I'm exaggerating).

 

Sounds like you might not have had your Fabia too long if this is first you have heard of the German engineering "quality" front dampers and suspension.  Yes I am biased as I'm not a VW fan.

 

On my wife's Fabia the front dampers ("shocks") were replaced over 3 years ago (and the Dealership replaced dampers started "misting" within 11 months) but we still have creaks and bumps from the underside of the car.  Recently when it was very cold one morning and I hadn't been in the car for weeks the creaking was very loud but my wife was used to it and has country music radio on when I'm not in the car.

 

Up to you what you do and obviously your creak could be different to ours but when the MoT was done, at that increasingly rare thing of a decent garage we finally found, he knew all about the VW quality dampers and it passed with just notes on the "misting".  I think the issue might be the pad things that sit above the dampers which the Dealership didn't replace or perhaps didn't want to push their luck adding it to the £415 for the front dampers.

 

I have looked at lots of threads and posts here about suspension noises and some owners have had of bits replaced one after another to try and find the source without success, so as long as my wife's car remains roadworthy we put up with the noise(s).  The morning I noted above the creak got less noisy as the car and weather warmed up and back to its usual volume.  I've had 20, 30, and 50 year old cars with a lot less suspension and under car noise.

 

On the good side the suspension creak takes my mind off all the noises from under the bonnet from the VW engine and ancillaries.

 

If you are new to the Mk3 Fabia I can give you useful info without moaning about it (well not too much) top priorities being state of battery charge not being low so as to upset the computer programs and reading and referring to the car's 'Owner's Manual' to save you time, hassle and money and trips to Dealership, garages, mechanics and auto-electricians.

 

If you don't have the very useful paper printed 'Owner's Manual' you can get a VWŠkoda free pdf version from this VWŠkoda site. - https://manual.skoda-auto.com/004/en-com/Models

 

HTH.

 

Edited 1 February, 20251 yr by nta16
typos