The Rattle Wagon

[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..

[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.