Hi, I have a 1.4 Octavia (2001) and have recently heard a loud juddering noise coming from underneath the car when driving reasonably hard to the left (over 30mph, quite tight bend) -intermittent but happening more and more. there is no noise going at any speed straight ahead, or to the right that i have noticed.

I took it into the dealer today, and they couldn't really find the problem. they suggested that it might be the nearside front discs, which are apparently worn so might be causing the noise(?), and suggested replacing them, OR, it might be the differential, which they thought was a bit loose, and so i might want to have the gearbox reconditioned. either of these sound pretty expensive given they dont actually know the cause and cant guarrantee fixing either will solve the problem.

So they suggested i go away and wait for the problem to get worse so that it's more obvious what it is! So does anybody have any suggestions on which is the more likely cause, or any other possible causes, or a test i could do to tell which of the above might be the problem (they couldn't think of anything, apart from fix one, and see if it works).

They couldnt find any problems with the wheels themselves, all of the tyres are pretty much new.

Any help very much appreciated, cheers, rob

Could be a cv joint??? find yourself a nice big space (car park etc) and drive in a circle on full lock (both ways) You should feel/hear the crunching if it's bad enough (if indeed thats what the problem is)???

funny you should say about a noise/vibration i have just recently bought a vrs and it happens to me around right hand bends found out to be the exhaust vibrating up through the chassis feels like there is something loose on one of the wheels when it does it. i was really worried till i got underneath and found the exhaust loose through the tunnel.

Im thinking a CV joint or a drive shaft.

Is the car lowered? my octy was lowered so much the driveshaft was hitting the ARB on left turns.

Ours did that 6 months back. I took things apart, put them back together and it hasnt done it since

Thanks for the replies everyone- i did more testing today with people in the car, and we pinpointed the noise to be between the front seats, vaguely under the gear lever... so i guess this counts out the wheels/brakes. also i noticed that the noise only really happens when *accelerating* round to the left, that is, with the throttle down- if you just drive round a bend with no throttle there is hardly any noise.

i'm not clear what this could be, does that rule out cv joints, leaving the drive shaft, or?? could it possibly be inner cv joints?

I'm aware it probably sounds like i don't know what i'm talking about, which is basically true!

many thanks, rob

sounds like the bracket has gone on the exhaust its a common problem

I asked them to check the exhaust, and the mounting bracket was indeed broken. All fixed now, so many thanks for the suggestion!

Rob

the same happened to me