The Rattle Wagon

[Iwishtheyweremorereliable]

Yep ...that's what my kids have nicknamed my 2yr old 56,000 km superb V6 Wagon. "The rattle wagon". Don't get me wrong I really like driving the car - but it creaks, groans and rattles like no other car I have EVER had.

1. Rattle in / near glovebox

2. Front passenger seat squeaks terribly when passengers travel in it.

3. Air Con vent underseat rattles

4. Door pillars groan every time I go around a bend

5. Rattle in steering wheel column

6. Rattle somewhere in dash

7. Rattle somewhere near gear lever.

My wife has a 9 yr old lexus - not a whisper.

I hired a rental Camry last week whilst on holidays with 36000k on the clock - **** to drive, but no rattles.

I'm really frustrated. I will sell the car. Very disappointed.

[Bob51]

Did you ask for them to be fixed under warranty and if so what was the outcome? I've had an Octavia with similar k's - no rattles.

[Jake02]

That's appalling, especially on such a new (and expensive) car. It intrigues me as I've only ever had one rattle in my RS in 70,000kms and almost five years. As Bob51 asked, have you tried to have them fixed?

[woofy]

Door pillar groans will be the rubber, you need to get it treated with a lubricant every few months...I can't remember the name of the stuff I have but haven't had any noise for years now when it used to be regular going up driveways etc. The rest you should get the dealer to look at some time back, they will arc up now its past the first year but worth mentioning how annoying all those noises are to them.

[Yao]

Only "noise" from mine (Superb Elegance wagon) so far (12k) is intermittent creaks and groans from somewhere near the tailgate when I'm turning a corner. It's as if it's saying "I'm just too long and can't take all the stress palced on me from making turns". Otherwise, not a peek. I'm sure I can fix that with a bit of lurication, but can't be fussed. Really doesn't worry me much :).

[VAG newbie]

No rattle in my Superb as well. Mine is a diesel which suppose to have more rattle.

As many have said, get it fixed under warranty although there is no guarantee it can be fixed.

As to your reference to Lexus/Camry. My parents got a Camry. It's 5 years old but they rarely drive it so it only has done just over 10,000km. Almost new. But the sunroof is leaking. They hate it when it rains as the water just drips down. They asked the dealer to fix it, but still leaking. Now they have their eyes on my Superb. They will buy it from me to replace their Camry when my lease ends.

[Iwishtheyweremorereliable]

Not - yet. To be fair to them. I suppose there are just so many. My wife commented the other day that whenever see get in my car, there just seem to be more and more rattles. I mumbled about getting them looked at and as she said 'Where would they start?' The car is always garaged, however I do live directly on the coast, so lubrication generally might be an issue. Although the car is only 23 months old. The glovebox rattle seems to be a common known problem on Biskoda, but reading about the complexity of various fixes - it just seems to be a pain.
I've had a zillion cars over the years - but none with rattles like this one. It's like getting into an old taxi with 500,000 k on the clock. In saying all that, I can't really find a great viable alternative to the Superb Wagon. It ticks all the right boxes in every department.

[Iwishtheyweremorereliable]

I have not had any real rattle issues for the first 18months or thereabouts, but lots have popped up in the last 15,000k. The glovebox has rattled since before the last service - I mentioned it but they forgot to look at it.

[shramma]

The only reason I would ever buy a new car is for the warranty. Take advantage of it and get it looked at. What's the harm in asking?

[BluChris]

Well, you're not alone. My (now ex) Octavia had that many at least at various times. I got the run around from the dealer and ended up fixing the majority myself. Never chased all of them out before I sold the car, and I sold because of constant minor issues plus poor and expensive dealer servicing. And I did try more than 1 dealer for the record.

By all means try for warranty fixes, though you'll find on all new cars rattles are only covered for a short time so you're looking at a 'goodwill' fix. You may well need to involve head office, ensuring they understand the extent of your issues.

I would certainly lube the seals as a start - get some rubber friendly silicone spray (not all are so check), spray a small amount on a rag and wipe the seals. Fixed my tailgate creak instantly and took maybe 2 minutes to do. Dealer couldn't fix in 2 years of trying...

My passenger side seat creaked going around corners if occupied. Not sure if this is the same as your issue, but in my case getting the dealer to lube the seat runners and tighten the mounts would silence it for months on end. Also found running the seat back and forth in the runners once or twice worked for several weeks. Manual seats, cloth trim. If yours are leather maybe the leather rubbing against trim sonewhere?

TBH things like the aircon vent you probably need to DIY by trial and error padding/taping etc.

I see you are thinking of selling, and I totally understand why. You may not be saved by doing so - my new car (non-VW) has 1 persistent rattle at the moment, though that's way better than the Skoda ever managed. Still, if you can't get the car at least reasonably quiet who could blame you. It must be hard to live with. Good luck with it all.

[woofy]

For the record my 4yr/60k service had specifically listed as one of the items to be done was lubing all door seals with a certain lubricant. It wasn't done, but they obviously built it into the servicing here.

[BluChris]

Yep, rubber friendly silicone spray I'd think. Richmond did that once (at my request) on my PS front door. I bought a can from Supercheap (not very costly - $10 or so? - too long ago to recall) and it was like magic on my tailgate. I hear lots of good things about Gummi Pflege too though you have to order that rather than buy off the shelf.

[woofy]

Thats the one, I have Gummi pfledge, got it online from Final inspection, although noticed recently that i drive past them quite a bit for work...so could have saved myself the postage...oh well.

[PassatB6]

I imagine the OP is regretting his member name now..:facepalm:

[Shakey]

I've just completed 5,000 and no rattles so far. I actually find the car as being quite solid and rattle & hum free which is a dam sight better than my previous Australian made vehicles. I remember taking my VN Commodore back for it's first service and I pointed out a rattle and the service manager said...."This is Australian built....it's not a Toyota , Mercedes or BMW so get over it" (End quote)

And that I did....I never purchased another Australian built car. I do feel for those with rattles. One must ask a question...Did you purchase it new? and has it been involved in a bingle? Panel beaters are not panel beaters these days and I'm yet to find one with pride!

[2009fsi]

I must say I'm a bit astounded at so many rattle problems. Are you sure your kids aren't planting something in hard to get at spaces, just drive the old bloke potty! My Superb FSI sedan is now 3 years old & there is not one single noise eminating from the car, that shouldn't be there. That's even though I've driven it on some pretty rough gravel roads. The absence of squeaks,groans, rattle etc, is one of the things which has impressed me about the car.

I'm left wondering about the maintenance schedules owners are adopting for their cars. I know it's popular for lease companies to only do those services scheduled in the owner's manual. One good reason not to buy a used lease or fleet vehicle. Scheduled servicing 10k kms to a ridiculous 50k kms apart are just a recipe for ensuring you're back in the showroom looking for a other one far too often. Long services intervals is just a low cost sop for fleet buyers who don't even hold onto vehicles as long as warranty anyway.

I know Skoda have 15k kms intervals, but I could never leave a car that long. Despite all the advertising claims, oil simply doesn't deliver for that long. One only has to look & feel the oil out of any late model BMW, which run their engines now at very high internal temperature, for performance & emissions reason, to know you'd never want to buy one second hand, unless you can afford the big repair bills.

5k really is the limit if you value the engine & DSG in a car you own & want to keep longer. One can add regular Haldex diff fluid changes too for that matter, if it is a 4x4. I don't know what others do, but I service my car for fluids every 5k & do a whip around of all those little things, like rubber & latch lubes which most local garages don't really do anyway.

I'd be very interested to know how many only service a vehicle they own themselves, at the intervals in the book.

[anthony]

Rattles deive me INSANE,my previous Jetta had a few,and it took ages to get them all sorted out,with 2 dealerships being involved,VW who could not care less,and much blood,sweat,and tears.

I now have an Accord Euro,and the best thing about it is NO rattles,zero,ziltch.Superb build quality and finish,which gives me the ompression its going to last me a LONG time...

[zei20t]

don't be too sure about your euro.

Japanese made ones were fantastic, build quality went down after production moved to Thailand.

yes, I owned one, my wife had one and a friend of mine has had 3 now. great car, but TBH the skoda (Octavia) is miles ahead

[Twin_Dad]

Any car from any manufacturer can rattle. You can have two cars go down the same vehicle assembly line on the same day and one with be silent and the next will have a squeak or rattle. Most manufacturers test each and every car post assembly, so squeaks and rattles from new are rare however, as plastic wears and everyday stresses apply (basically) random forces on parts, noises can occur. Prior to a vehicle beginning production numourous pilot builds will be run with each of these vehicles being run for 10's or 100's of thousands of km to simulate our everyday driving.

Manufacturing is an art form, tolerances exist, and can be caused by anything, even variations in season / temp / time of day can influence parts.

However, how a marque deals with the rattles once the customer has taken delivery of the car makes all the difference (which is really what this thread is about) and on that I have zero experience with the VAG group.

And before anyone thinks I'm just ranting, I was a Production Engineer for an Australian car manufacturer and was able to see both local and overseas manufacturing first hand (and hopfully helped to improve it if even ever so slightly).

[brad]

I know Skoda have 15k kms intervals, but I could never leave a car that long. Despite all the advertising claims, oil simply doesn't deliver for that long. One only has to look & feel the oil out of any late model BMW, which run their engines now at very high internal temperature, for performance & emissions reason, to know you'd never want to buy one second hand, unless you can afford the big repair bills.

Surprisingly, the 504/507 really hangs in there. I had my 15,000km oil tested just before the 60k service as I was somewhat dubious & the level of degradation was negligible. Despite the good results, I'm doing 7500km changes at the moment because I had 20 litres of 502.00 sitting on the shelf that I wanted to use up. The car has 108,000km on it & I intend keeping it until it becomes uneconomical to repair.

[Jake02]

don't be too sure about your euro.

Japanese made ones were fantastic, build quality went down after production moved to Thailand.

Euro is still Jap-made, with the normal Accord being Thai.

[zei20t]

wow I stand corrected. good news for Honda fans, there might be an accord coupe.

I thought they shipped off all their production to Thailand.

[anthony]

don't be too sure about your euro.

Japanese made ones were fantastic, build quality went down after production moved to Thailand.

yes, I owned one, my wife had one and a friend of mine has had 3 now. great car, but TBH the skoda (Octavia) is miles ahead

All Accord Euros are built in Japan for all global markets,except China,where they are made locally.

Its the daggy Accord which is built in Thailand.
Sorry,just noticed Jake02s reply...I am confirming whay he said them...

[zei20t]

its ok im married, Im used to being told multiple times when im wrong :P