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View Full Version : Question Gt tdi wheel noise HELP (long story)



Buzzoff
28-04-2010, 10:18 PM
Hello people,

I have a issue with my golf gt tdi (91K on the clock).

I have owned the car since Feb this year and since owning it there has been a slight noise present when driving with the window down it sounded like a rubbing noise (a bit like what you would expect with a sticking caliper).
Anyway now it's window down driving weather it seem that the noise has got worse. It seemed to develop a cv joint type clicking noise when driving in a straight line and when turning.

I took it for a blip around my local supermarket carpark and did the usual lock to lock turn, hay presto it clicked even more with the full right lock on (it still clicked with it in a straight line too).

I also jacked up the car and looked to see if there was any play on the wheel bearing, it was fine no play atall.

We fitted a new cv joint (gkn jobbie), drove the car a mile home from the mechanic friends house with no noise atall. When we removed the drive shaft we did notice that the gearbox end of the drive shaft seemed a little stiff.

Next day I drove a couple of miles and hay presto the noise returned:aargh4:

I had a chat with my friend who thought it may pay to replace the complete drive shaft. We did so and again the car drove fine on my way home however when driving to vw to return the drive shaft the noise returned, it sounds just like a cv joint click grinding noise. When driving slowley in traffic you can hear the noise come and go as the wheel rotates:(

I bit the bullet and took it to another friend who rus his own garage, he had a look stripped the brakes to double check them which were fine so all he could surgest trying was to replace the wheel bearing. He did so and suprise suprise it did not cure it.:aargh4: The strange thig is that after working on the car the first mile or so the noise is not there however the noise soon comes back:aargh4:

What he did next was to remove the front wheel and put the space saver wheel on, he took it for another run and hay presto the noise was not present after a good run.

He called me to tell me the news regarding the wheel issue, I surgested that he investigated the split rim wheel bolts(the wheels are genuine vw 17" splitrim jobbies),what he found was that some of the bolts were not tight and could not be tightened down and othere seemed tight but did not look like they were down as much as some of the other bolts.

The thing is that back in Jan this year the previous owner had this wheel refurbished via his local VW dealer because the tyre kept loosing pressure.

I called the dealer (at 5.15pm) who did this work on the car and informed them of my issue (they first said that they would want to see it first hand but I informed them that they are 130 miles away)they took my number and told me I would be called back tomorrow by the service chap. At 5.50pm he called me back and I told him this long drawn out story (hope you are all still with me). He said he that he could not do anything about what it had cost me so far ( lots and lots:aargh4:) however he did say he would contact the company who did do the refurb on the wheel tomorrow and talk further in the morning.

I am expecting they old chestnut that they did not touch the bolts and they refurbed the wheel without splitting it however I cant see how this could be done concidering all of the split rim bolts look like they would need to re removed to paint the inner wheel and as for the outside lip I cant see how the wheel could be repolished with the inner wheel in place.

Anyway it's going to be a tough one trying to prove who has stripped some of these splitrim bolts however I hope this work/workmanship is covered.

Fingers crossed they can get this issue sorted (a new wheel would be good as I don't like the ides of helicoining these threads). At the end of the day someone at the vw dealership should be responsible for this issue seeing the bill issued for this referb was VW and not the wheel refurb company.

Has anyone else heard of this issue before or is it just me?

I'll keep everyone posted

Cheers,

Dan

Buzzoff
06-05-2010, 06:02 PM
Up date:

The Vw dealers were not very helpful, thet did use that "old chestnut" that I was not the paying customer / owner of the car at the time of when the work was done.

I did remind the service manager that the problem I had was with vw and not the refurb company seeing the invoice for the work was from VW.

All they were prepaired to do was to have a look at the wheel and see about possibly passing the problem on to the company who did the job for them.

That ment either doing a 260mile round trip to let them see the wheel and then pass the wheel on to the refurb company or post the wheel to them more expence to me. The service manager said I would have to use my space saver until the wheel could be looked at. I did remind him that a space saver was to be used to get you home/garage and was not suitable to us for any thing else.

I declined this offer seeing I can not drive my car about on a space saver and to be honest the jokers who did do the original refurb I did not trust the workmanship seeing they caused all of this problems in the first place.

In the end I went to very well respected & local wheel refurb company in Swindon who were happy to invistigate the problem. They even gave me a alloy wheel to use while they worked on my wheel.

It turned out that the wheel had not been torqued up correctly and at least one of the threads had been stripped (that bolt had ptfe tape wrapped around the bolt to hole it in) NOT GOOD:aargh4:.

Fingers crossed I'll collect the wheel tomorrow, I'm going to forward the report and the bill to the VW dealers to highlight how unsafe the wheel was when it left them. I'm not expecting anything back from them however with a safety issue such as a wheel not being re assembled back together correctly should be highlighted as a safety issue, after all its worth a stamp.

Cheers,

Dan

Buzzoff
06-05-2010, 06:07 PM
Oh I forgot to say my local well respected wheel refurbishing company have had other split rim wheels in from customers who have had simular problems of poorly reassembled split rims by the same company who originally refurbed my wheel.

Buzzoff
06-05-2010, 06:11 PM
I'm not sure if I should name and shame the company who did the original wheel refurb, I'll wait and see what the original VW dealers has to say once I present them with the investigation report of the wheel.

Buzzoff
19-05-2010, 01:49 PM
Update

I got the wheel repaired, it turned out that 4 of the threads needed to be heli coiled and it was also found that all of the other bolts had not been torqued up correctly.

My local wheel refurbers did a good job and all in all I am happy and noise free:D

Cheers

Dan

charley.basket
04-10-2013, 07:38 AM
I am having similar issues and was wondering if you can help me I have a 2012 Jetta TDI (6 Speed Manual) I am also having trouble when I am turning my car is making weird noises especially at slow speeds, before it just used to be on the road, hearing wobbling noises, knew it couldn't be the tire being that it was new, then it started to pick up when I started turning left and right mainly at slower speeds, I have taken it to the the dealership over and over and they couldn't find nothing, at least 5 different times tell just recently they said its cause my tires are feathered and I have taken it to them repeatably and never have they told me this before. I know tires don't make a rubbing kind of noise when I am turning into my drive way at 25 mph or when I am parking it at 5, it really seems they don't wanna help me and think I am hearing sounds, on manager at the worst dealership in California (VW Kearny Mesa) told me to buy $2000 tires and maybe the sound might go away, customer service right. I also notice weird noises coming from the brakes when I am putting pressure on it, also loud skreeking noises like metal on metal noise coming every mourning, also a new noise when I turn my steering wheel all the way left and reverse, I hear this weird noise, like my car was never ran in 100 years and just straight rusty loud noise. I have taken it on multiple drives with multiple technicians, one VW place tells me one thing, and the others tell me other wise, and now they are all saying my tires after one dealership finally just didn't want to deal with me. I bought this car only 6 months ago so if anyone knows whats going on with my car can you please help me I wanna take advantage of my warranty and don't want to pay out of pocket.

Buzzoff
06-10-2013, 06:14 AM
If you have only owned the car for 6 months and the vehicle is a 2012 model then all could advise you is that you still have a warrantee on the car, contact VW customer services and discuss the issues you have, I'm sure VW Customer Services will help.
Cheers dude,
Buzz