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whistling tdi

Crackers

J400CBS
Sep 21, 2008
67
0
Hull
Had the same problem, i listened to to many people saying it was normal, it got worse and eventually lost a lot of power. Turns out it was my turbo which was on its way out. Had a new turbo fitted and the noise has gone. Get it looked at mate. Catch it before it blows compleatly and costs even more to replace
 

ross27

Mazda 3 MPS
Mar 22, 2009
363
0
Glasgow
Had the same problem, i listened to to many people saying it was normal, it got worse and eventually lost a lot of power. Turns out it was my turbo which was on its way out. Had a new turbo fitted and the noise has gone. Get it looked at mate. Catch it before it blows compleatly and costs even more to replace

Agree ^^

Seat will tell you its fine, but its not. If you get a owl/siren/woooing noise when under 2k rpm, then it isnt normall. There is a thread somewhere that says it is because of worn out impellar bearings in the turbo.

Seen as a new turbo is about £1k for a dealer to supply and fit, they try to find a way out of fixing it. Some garages have been known to repair under waranty, although most will tell you its nothing.


If your whistle is when you are putting your foot down, then yeah thats normal!
 

Pheo

Active Member
Sep 11, 2009
275
0
Agree ^^

Seat will tell you its fine, but its not. If you get a owl/siren/woooing noise when under 2k rpm, then it isnt normall. There is a thread somewhere that says it is because of worn out impellar bearings in the turbo.

Seen as a new turbo is about £1k for a dealer to supply and fit, they try to find a way out of fixing it. Some garages have been known to repair under waranty, although most will tell you its nothing.


If your whistle is when you are putting your foot down, then yeah thats normal!

Would you expect it to get louder as you progress up the rev range?

Mine only does this at a specific amount of revolutions (Definately sounds like something spooling up), not present at idle and not present at revs above ~2.5k...
 

Nath.

The Gentlemans Express
Jan 1, 2006
8,620
16
EASTLEIGH, HAMPSHIRE
I test drove about 5 FR TDI's and they all sounded exactly like that.

I would fully expect a TDI with 140-170HP to sound like that.

They were all 58-09 reg with under 5k miles on the clock. Are you saying that they all had faulty turbos?

A turbo blows air and IMO that is the sound of air moving. :shrug:

Your dealer does not pay £1k to replace a faulty turbo, They do the work and Seat pay them, that is how they make their money. All they need to do is be sure that the parts they replace under warrenty are actually faulty as if they are not they don't get paid.
 
Last edited:
Feb 12, 2006
625
0
North Lincolnshire.
All I will say is that my turbo only makes a very very slight background noise.Hardly anything and I would bet its not on its way out.More convincing than a very noticeable whistling noise anyway.
Although it does sound good.
 
Last edited:

ross27

Mazda 3 MPS
Mar 22, 2009
363
0
Glasgow
I test drove about 5 FR TDI's and they all sounded exactly like that.

I would fully expect a TDI with 140-170HP to sound like that.

They were all 58-09 reg with under 5k miles on the clock. Are you saying that they all had faulty turbos?

A turbo blows air and IMO that is the sound of air moving. :shrug:

Your dealer does not pay £1k to replace a faulty turbo, They do the work and Seat pay them, that is how they make their money. All they need to do is be sure that the parts they replace under warrenty are actually faulty as if they are not they don't get paid.

Its not so much a fault, but if you read the thread i linked you will see an explaination as to how it is caused.

I know they dont pay money to fix things, im saying that the full charge for someone out of warranty is around £1k. I ve been in another 140tdi since owning mine, and it is silent and only whistles on throttle.

Explain why some garages replace, and some do not then?


And the thing that worries me is that my sound has got louder and alot more noticeable over the last 6 months i have owned it!
 

Crackers

J400CBS
Sep 21, 2008
67
0
Hull
Mine started quiet but gradually got louder. It did it at high and low revs but only at low revs to start with. SEAT were useless. Will never use them again.

As for getting it replaced, cost £900 from a garage i trust.

If yours is starting to make the sound id advice get it looked at but NOT by SEAT. Go to a garage that knows there stuff. I was told buy a so called "VAG Expert Garage" that it was air passing through the front exhaust bracket. Must have had my "stupid, pull the wool over my eyes" face on that day.
 

Nath.

The Gentlemans Express
Jan 1, 2006
8,620
16
EASTLEIGH, HAMPSHIRE
Explain why some garages replace, and some do not thenQUOTE]

Maybe some dealers have an employee that is capable of replacing a turbo and some only have employees capable of replacing sensors one after the other as per a computer readout of a fault repair procedure.

Also there may be a man hours available problem at some dealers.
 

Crackers

J400CBS
Sep 21, 2008
67
0
Hull
Explain why some garages replace, and some do not thenQUOTE]

Maybe some dealers have an employee that is capable of replacing a turbo and some only have employees capable of replacing sensors one after the other as per a computer readout of a fault repair procedure.

Also there may be a man hours available problem at some dealers.

Surely they have a duty of care to a customer?
 

Pheo

Active Member
Sep 11, 2009
275
0
Mine whistles as per the video. No idea if its a problem.

Still within the period where I can go back to the 2nd hand dealer and say it was faulty from the get go... thoughts? Seems to me the conclusion is rather vague!
 

Nath.

The Gentlemans Express
Jan 1, 2006
8,620
16
EASTLEIGH, HAMPSHIRE
I admit that some are louder than others with the whistle/siren sound. I put this down to acoustics, IMO it's a perfectly reasonable sound for a TDI to make.

If you cover the end of your hoover with your hand whilst it is running and move your hand in different ways, you can get it to make all manor of whistle/squeek/buzz noises, none of them are from faulty bearings in the motor.

The air intake on these cars is made from all different thickness pipes and it goes round all sorts of different twists and bends as the hoses are flexible, they will all make slightly different noises.

I wouldn't mind betting that some of the people on here that have had turbos replaced under warrenty have had their noise reduced by manipulation of the intake pipes rather than the alleged replacement turbo.
 
Aug 11, 2008
487
0
Liverpool
Mine does it as well. Funny when new people get into the car....they think we are getting followed by the police!!! :cartman:

My sister kept asking where the sirens were coming from when she was in my car at the weekend!


Been there:lol:,nearly as funny as people trying to get into back seats via front doors,!!!!!!

Thats a great one.. Always makes me laugh when people struggle with the handles! :D
 
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