I have a 9 month old Octavia Estate, which I have had from new. It has always suffered from a rattling or creaking noise which I believe comes from the rubber door seals.
I am interested to see if any other Skoda owners have suffered from the same problem, and if so have they managed to get the problem fixed?
My dealer doesn?t seem interested in helping, and Skoda Customer Services are only marginally better.
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look on www.briskoda.net . I think it seems to be a common problem. Try spraying seal with silicone spray.
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The Citroen Picasso can suffer with this problem too, i found that aerosol furniture polish worked better than silicone spray.
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It is strange how it seems to be a fairly common problem, yet the dealer and Skoda Customer Care are unaware of it.
The history is that I took the car to me local dealer three times and they were unable to find anything wrong, I contacted Skoda and arranged for me to take someone from the dealer for a test drive to demonstrate the problem. They agreed there was a problem , and said that they would change the seals on one side to see if that was the cause. When I returned to get the new seals fitted I explained that I was now sure it was the problem, as I had tried putting some silicon on them (dashboard cleaner stuff) and they were a lot better. The dealer then said that if I had put silicon on them they may not be covered by the warranty! They fitted the drivers side which cured half the problem, but are now reluctant to do the other side because of the silicone.
What they don?t seem to accept is that they had three failed attempts to diagnose and correct the problem, before eventually deciding to take the corrective action, before I used the silicone. I?m also not convinced that the use of silicone should have a negative effect of the seals anyway.
I think I may take up the trading standards route, it will make me feel better anyway.
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I?m also not convinced that the use of silicone should have a negative effect of the seals anyway.
I've just re-read your post and had more thoughts.
Putting silicone spray on the door seals will reduce the amount of friction between the seal and the metal face onto which it should seal ~ body or door as appropriate. (I'm not familiar with which part the seal is attached to on your car.) Reducing the friction will encourage movement between the face of the seal and the metal face when the body flexes, which is exactly the opposite of what you need. What you need is for there to be no relative movement where the seal touches the metal, or at least for it to be suppressed. Ideally, you need any flexing of the car body to be totally absorbed within the seal. You dealer may well be correct in saying that you have made the matter worse.
Clean off the silicone (on both the seal and the mating metal face), and see if it gives an improvement. The fact that fitting a new seal on the other side gave an improvement suggests that it probably will help. I'm not sure what substance to suggest to do this with except possibly Sticky Stuff Remover which is readily available from household goods stores such as Wilkinsons. Alternatively, see if there are any instructions on the tin regarding removal. If removing the silicone doesn't effect a cure, then you can go back to the dealer again knowing that you haven't done anything to exacerbate the problem.
Don't forget my suggestion that adjusting the door catch to pull the door in tighter to the body ought to help.
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Hey, if I had shelled out on a new car and found the dealers unhelpful I'd be somewhat annoyed. You could try another dealer or send a letter to the dealer and CC it to your local trading standing standards. Have they looked at it yet? Any more details?
Try the Consumers Direct website and speak to your local council.
James
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It's basically caused by movement of the doors relative to the body resulting from the inevitable small amount of flexing of the body which occurs when you drive it. Perhaps it might help if the door catches were adjusted to pull the doors tighter to the body. It also might help if you cleaned off the silicone spray and rubbed talcum powder onto the seals.
Edited by L'escargot on 23/04/2009 at 07:33
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I had an octavia estate and one of the tailgate dampers used to work loose. It was the drivers side one. I used to screw it back in, dont ever know why it always worked loose. should have got it looked at under warranty i suppose but the dealer long way away. regarding door seals. A good tip is to use auto glym bumper care. apply bumper care with a small piece of sponge. This helps impregnate it. When you have finished doing bumpers , simply wipe the sponge over the door seals and it prevents sticking and preserves the rubber seal. Hope you get sorted out. I found skoda dealer ok.
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Various modern cars seem to suffer from noisy door seals. One cause is polish or wax on the door frame in which the seal sits when the door is closed. Try cleaning the areas of the door frames which come into contact with the seals with water to remove any polish whenever the car has been through a carwash.
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Think its to do with the way they are built these days, Bagpuss, the designers seem to like the "flush" doors which give a smoother shape to the vehicle that the old doors which closed "into" the bodywork... the downside is that the car has to rely more heavily on the seals to keep out the noise and weather than it did...
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The aim has always been to have the outside face of the door flush with the surrounding bodywork.
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But there was, until 20 or so years ago, a gutter over the top of most mass production cars, when that went and the doors were "overlapped" over the roof we started to see problems with water/noise ingress... the other thing is that load of water down your neck when you opened the door! Bring back gutters!!
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I?m trying to cover a few of the replies at once here. The noise was there before I put the silicone on to the seals ? I only tried it on the recommendation of other people with the same issue (on the briskoda forum), and it does make it better for a few days. I like to keep my car clean, but I don?t think normal drivers often go to the extent of polishing the door seals without a reason for doing so!
On the Skoda it is rubber to rubber rather than rubber to metal, which is why I think the noise is worse than other cars.
I?ve mentioned adjusting the catch to the dealer but they are reluctant to try that.
I?m trying out a different dealer on Friday, so hopefully I?ll get a more sympathetic hearing, especially as I?ve now traced two more rattles, one in the headlining and another in the dashboard near the glovebox. It sounds as if I?m being over fussy, but that is not the case. My previous car was a Nissan Primera which I owned for 10 years, and it only ever had one rattle which was caused by a loose bolt in the sunroof and fixed under warranty. I had a Cavalier for 9 years before that, and I don?t recall any rattles on that either.
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As the owner of a Focus cabriolet, I've got more seals than most.
Some were a bit squeaky and silicone spray did the trick for me.
I think L'escargot's reasoning might apply in a laboratory or on the Space Shuttle, where they can spend millions dollars designing a door catch, but for a £15k car, it's squirty, squirty, every time.
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I think L'escargot's reasoning might apply in a laboratory or on the Space Shuttle ..........
As far as I know, adjustment of door catches always has been (and probably always will be) a standard procedure to cure problems associated with badly fitting doors. In any case, no manufacturer could build any car without having to adjust the door catches before the car left the factory.
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I like to keep my car clean but I don?t think normal drivers often go to the extent of polishing the door seals without a reason for doing so!
Bagpuss was referring to the possibility of there being polish on a metal part up to which the door seal abuts, without knowing (as I didn't) that the sealing arrangement on your car is rubber to rubber. Incidentally, when I polish my car, if a part is body colour then it's liable to end up with polish on it unless it's under the bonnet!
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...As far as I know, adjustment of door catches always has been (and probably always will be) a standard procedure to cure problems associated with badly fitting doors...
I thought that until I tried to tinker with my last Focus.
Far as I could tell both the latch mechanism and the anchor were secured by bolts through round, rather than slotted or oval. holes.
There appeared to be no adjustment possible, unless I missed something.
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The door seals on the Skoda are rubber. Thats why i say use that auto glym bumper care. It preserves the rubber stops it drying out and stops the noise and sticking. you can also use the auto glym vinyl &rubber spray then wipe it does the trick. All you need do is use a piece of sponge that has had the bumper care on after you have done the bumpers. alternately use the vinyl & rubber stuff applied with a cloth.
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Whenever I had the problem of ill fitting door seals quite a few years ago (with a number of cars), I used to carefully coat the main surface of the seals with Waxoyl (I had a 5l can) - this cured the noise problem without having side effects, as the Waxoyl allowed the doors to be opened and shut normally without affecting the sealing effect each time the door was shut.
Tacky rather than permanent and without causing problems if the driver or passengers' clothes came into contact with the Waxoyl seal...:-)
Waxoyl also proved a superb waterproof coating for ignition systems ( I used the aerosol version in this case).
Edited by Stuartli on 01/05/2009 at 01:25
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I ook the Octavia to a different Dealer today, Griffin Mill in pontypridd, rather than Crapital Skoda in Newport.
I was delighted with the attitude of the technician at Griffin Mill. He acknowledged the noise within the first 50 yards of the test drive, and confirmed that the noise was coming from the rear door seal within 3 minutes. I had only arranged to take the car in to demonstrate the noise , but the technician was helpful enough to try and rectify the problem. Within 10 minutes he had applied some sort of grease, I presume silicone, to the door seal and the noise was completely eliminated. he said the grease was used on Peugeots, and cost £50 a tub. For the hastle I've been thrugh I'd gladly pay the £50 and buy my own tub!
The technician said that he has noticed the noise on other Octavia estates, but never hatchbacks. I'm amazed that the dealers can say this, yet customer services deny any knowledge.
It's just a waiting game now to see how long before the grease wears off.
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