Author Topic: Dealer fix for Soundaktor vibration/rattle?  (Read 13639 times)

Offline JeffPoe

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Re: Dealer fix for Soundaktor vibration/rattle?
« Reply #10 on: 12 March 2018, 18:03 »
It's a crap fake sound which is why a lot of people either turn it off or disconnect it.

Agree.

OBD11 turn off. I can hear a decent burble and dsg farts. I don't understand the silence you are saying. Unless its a 7/7.5 thing.

Maybe the 7.5 is more silent. Mine certainly is without the actuator enabled.

And I also test drove a 7, then was not happy that the 7.5 I got was a lot quieter (in general). So there is some evidence there to say your right.

Offline GTI_Ant

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Re: Dealer fix for Soundaktor vibration/rattle?
« Reply #11 on: 12 March 2018, 19:53 »
Its not crap at all. I have had all sorts of cars ranging from high revving S2000s to an E39 V8 M5 and do not feel short changed by the noise. Yeah its fake and not exactly amazing... but would you rather have borderline silence?  :rolleyes:

Anyway....

Would fitting this foam void a warranty claim? I don't know, but its a 5 min job to remove if needed. My thought process for not going to the dealer is based on the following negative view I have on the world:

I take my car in, say it has a vibration under full throttle and when in sport mode.

The job sheet says "blah blah FULL THROTTLE blah vibration blah blah SPORT MODE"

Jimmy, the 21 year old borderline minimum wage 'technician' who drives a 2004 Peugeot 206, hates his job, has no respect for the job or customer cars gets the sheet. He sees this as a perfect opportunity to get out of the boredom for a bit, so goes on a test drive. Totally abuses the car, probably does not even notice the vibration. Somebody he works with says its probably the sound actuator, so they have a play with that. Test drive again to see if its fixed. Jimmy thinks its fine. I get the car back, minus about 2mm of tread from the front tyres and there is still the vibration. Back to the dealer and the cycle starts again.

I'm sure some dealers are great. But realistically there are also some where my fantasy is actually a reality. So for something like this I prefer to just fix it myself.

I agree with you there.  By the time they get round to your car the engine will be cold.  At £100+ an hour they won't drive it for 15 minutes before testing this.  It will be thrashed within an inch of its life and bounced off the rev limiter from cold.  You might get told the noise is just the rev limiter cutting in, which is normal.
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Offline BlinGTIes

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Re: Dealer fix for Soundaktor vibration/rattle?
« Reply #12 on: 12 March 2018, 22:44 »
Its not crap at all. I have had all sorts of cars ranging from high revving S2000s to an E39 V8 M5 and do not feel short changed by the noise. Yeah its fake and not exactly amazing... but would you rather have borderline silence?  :rolleyes:

Anyway....

Would fitting this foam void a warranty claim? I don't know, but its a 5 min job to remove if needed. My thought process for not going to the dealer is based on the following negative view I have on the world:

I take my car in, say it has a vibration under full throttle and when in sport mode.

The job sheet says "blah blah FULL THROTTLE blah vibration blah blah SPORT MODE"

Jimmy, the 21 year old borderline minimum wage 'technician' who drives a 2004 Peugeot 206, hates his job, has no respect for the job or customer cars gets the sheet. He sees this as a perfect opportunity to get out of the boredom for a bit, so goes on a test drive. Totally abuses the car, probably does not even notice the vibration. Somebody he works with says its probably the sound actuator, so they have a play with that. Test drive again to see if its fixed. Jimmy thinks its fine. I get the car back, minus about 2mm of tread from the front tyres and there is still the vibration. Back to the dealer and the cycle starts again.

I'm sure some dealers are great. But realistically there are also some where my fantasy is actually a reality. So for something like this I prefer to just fix it myself.

This is exactly my concern too. The local VW dealer is absolutely rubbish, I had a bad experience with them before with my mk6 so would be really reluctant to take my new 7.5 to them. I may give this a go myself.  Quite annoying that I listen out for it now when I put my foot down.

I do have to say I don’t like it on or off, at a push I’d prob rather it be on. In normal mode it’s just a bit lacking.

Offline JeffPoe

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Re: Dealer fix for Soundaktor vibration/rattle?
« Reply #13 on: 14 March 2018, 22:22 »
Update....

Drove the car today and the vibration was back at low revs/high load/sport mode  :angry:

It was perfect after the 'fix' as well.

Turned sport mode on and off a few times, got angry and all of a sudden it was fine again!!!

A little part of me wonders if they are prone to many failures of the unit and I have a faulty unit as the cherry on top.

Tomorrow I will ring the dealer and ask if its a know issue. They should of course say "yes and the fix is..." and if not I will just keep calling different ones.

Offline BlinGTIes

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Re: Dealer fix for Soundaktor vibration/rattle?
« Reply #14 on: 14 March 2018, 23:03 »
Update....

Drove the car today and the vibration was back at low revs/high load/sport mode  :angry:

It was perfect after the 'fix' as well.

Turned sport mode on and off a few times, got angry and all of a sudden it was fine again!!!

A little part of me wonders if they are prone to many failures of the unit and I have a faulty unit as the cherry on top.

Tomorrow I will ring the dealer and ask if its a know issue. They should of course say "yes and the fix is..." and if not I will just keep calling different ones.

That’s annoying. I’ll try getting angry too and see if it goes away  :grin:

The fact it’s vibrating means there’s movement there so whatever we use to dampen it needs to fit perfectly, otherwise it will eventually fail over time.

Let us know how you get on at the dealer. I assume the device is the same both both mk7 and mk7.5?

Offline JeffPoe

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Re: Dealer fix for Soundaktor vibration/rattle?
« Reply #15 on: 14 March 2018, 23:11 »
It looks the same on pictures, but I can't be 100% sure its the same.

This seems to have been an issue for years now, so there must be a fundamental issue they decided not to resolve on the 7.5.

Rest assured I will get to the bottom of it though. This sort of thing annoys me so badly, to the point where I once bought an endoscope to find a rattle on another car!


Offline BlinGTIes

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Re: Dealer fix for Soundaktor vibration/rattle?
« Reply #16 on: 14 March 2018, 23:14 »
It looks the same on pictures, but I can't be 100% sure its the same.

This seems to have been an issue for years now, so there must be a fundamental issue they decided not to resolve on the 7.5.

Rest assured I will get to the bottom of it though. This sort of thing annoys me so badly, to the point where I once bought an endoscope to find a rattle on another car!

It annoys me too, not to the same level as you obviously! It’s my only gripe with the car at the moment otherwise it would be perfect.

Offline JHWP

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Re: Dealer fix for Soundaktor vibration/rattle?
« Reply #17 on: 15 March 2018, 10:50 »
It's hard to believe that in this day an age that a company like Volkswagen that puts out very good, market leading vehicles fall down on this sort of basic stuff which results in annoyed customers (some who have just shelled out 30/40k plus for a brand new car) and them resorting to messing around jamming in bits of rubber and foam to fix the issue. The concept and how the soundakator works is very simple, why can't they just get it right? I have an 02 Nissan Micra as a little run around/additional car when needed. It's a total heap of a yoke yet there is not a rattle or squeak to be heard. The same can't be said about my MK7 GTD or my MK5 GTI before that  :rolleyes:  My MK2 GTI had plenty of rattles and squeaks but I would expect that on a thirty year old car.
It's also very disappointing to hear the distrust and bad experiences Volkswagen owners have with Volkswagen dealers. I have experienced this first hand myself unfortunately. It seems that it is common that the last place Volkswagen owners want to bring their Volkswagen cars is to a Volkswagen dealer. It should be the opposite of this.   

Offline I wanted a GTi

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Re: Dealer fix for Soundaktor vibration/rattle?
« Reply #18 on: 15 March 2018, 13:29 »
When I had it turned on in my car it caused a vibration at about 4k revs but it was the cover that covers the camera behind mirror.
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Offline canalmike

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Re: Dealer fix for Soundaktor vibration/rattle?
« Reply #19 on: 18 March 2018, 19:07 »
I left it plugged in. As long as its not vibrating I think its perfectly acceptable and without it the car would be basically silent.

........... Literally no idea why people remove it, ......
I'd reverse that comment - literally no idea why VW install it!

It's how a car feels & drives that matters. Creating artificial noise pollution just to impress annoy yourself or the neighbours is pointless.