A7 Cabin Noises

[soofsayer]

I thought I should post these issues I am having with my new A7 with 900 miles on the clock:

Had a drivers side door rattle / buzz - Audi had it for a day and said it was the door card, said it was resolved.

Couple of days later found I had a very loud buzzing noise from the HUD unit when the cabin was cold (v loud). It went away after about 20 minutes driving. Seemed to be coming from the plastic screen and housing area.

Car has also got the drivers side door rattle / buzz back when the cabin warms up.

Its back in Audi today. Engineer said the HUD is a sealed unit so if it is the HUD making the noise then it s a 3 day job plus ordering the part - yikes!

I have been told by a number of sources that Audi interiors are excellent, am I just having a bad experience or do any other forum members have similar experiences?

I hate rattles and buzzes in my cars, the door buzz is right next to my ear / shoulder so I cannot tune it out - the HUD buzz is so loud the stereo can't drown it out - makes the car undriveable IMHO.

It is ruining my Audi experience, car has been back now twice in as many weeks, I only hope the dealer gets it all sorted by tomorrow.

Any feedback most welcome....

[SuperCharger28]

Audi should sort you out.

On another note can I have some pics of your A7? I absolutely LOVE them!

[aurora7]

Well, funny you should mention it....

Yes, I have had cabin noises that have driven me completely NUTS. Fortunately my local Audi dealer and service department have been great, and have diligently worked away at addressing them, but in the first 3 months of having the A7 it was at the dealer for over 12 days in total (at one point for 8 days consecutively).

My worst noise (knocking, vibration) was from the passenger door trim, and unfortunately it only happened at temps below 19 deg c, so took ages to properly diagnose (because it was height of summer, and by the time the mechanic took it for a test drive the cabin had warmed up and the noise wouldn't replicate. The noise (at night) when the cabin was cool was so bad that I - like you - couldn't drown it out with the stereo. It was completely ruining my enjoyment of the car and I was ready to hand it back and even took legal advice on where I stood with a luxury car that (imho) wasn't fit for purpose due to its non luxury noises. However, the diagnosis of the temperature and (finally) the location meant they managed to fix it. (It actually sounded like it was coming from within the dash, so took a while to realise it was the door).

I haven't had the HUD noise yet, but I'm waiting for it, since one of the loan A7s I drove whilst they had my car in for a long time had a very bad and irritating HUD rattle.

I've also had a buzzing noise above my right ear (fixed), and several other trim vibrations (all fixed). Also a noisy & vibrating parcel shelf (fixed).

I also had horrendous wind noise on the left hand side of the car; at its worst it sounded as though someone had wound the window partly down and was blowing a hair dryer into the left hand cabin. That was fixed when they replaced all the seals on the left hand side of the car.

The relief when I finally got a noise free A7 was unbelievable. I have always loved every bit about the drive, the handling and the technology of the A7, but I have very serious concerns about whatever is happening on the manufacturing/quality control front to create an interior that is so prone to rattles and vibrations. I did hope that it was just my car, but the loan A7 (and actually the loan A6 that I also drove) did make me suspect that this is a wider issue. I just hope that Audi are noting these concerns and making appropriate adjustments regarding the quality of the trim and fittings etc. The problem is that it all *looks* perfect and solid, but it isn't.

I've had a relatively trouble free months, but am just beginning to notice a few new trim vibrations creep in (centre console mainly) so I hope that I'm not in for round 2.

I would be very interested to hear of anyone else's experiences.

[shabazmo]

I have had mine for 7 months and 9000 miles and no such problems yet. By the way, the windscreen has to come off to get at the HUD.

[soofsayer]

Thanks for the posts chaps (I am assuming chaps?) or will germaine greer have something to say...

Update:

Called the dealer a little earlier. The service rep said the door noise has been diagnosed to a 'poor' plastic weld on one of the plastic layers in the door panel which has now been fixed.

The HUD noise has apparently been caused by the plastic housing above the HUD screen and the trim on the dash vibrating against each other - which is not far off what I thought when it was happening both in terms of location of the sound and the noise itself. This has also apparently been fixed.

I should be picking it up again this afternoon when they have given the car another road test from cold. Fingers crossed.

I am doing a 300 mile round trip over Wed & Thurs so will post an update soon thereafter.


Thanks again for your posts, I will update in due course.

[soofsayer]

So my audi dealer has fixed the noises from the drivers door and the HUD.

I now have a lesser, vibrating noise from the front passenger door area. It's not enough to bother about for now if I turn up the music.

Other than that I have now done 1700 miles in a month and love the car.

The service staff keep telling me that with new models they always get teething issues but I am going to speak to Audi UK about the issues to see what can be done.

[Architex_mA8tey]

did they say what they actually did to fix each of those issues? Im hoping they dont say that they stuffed a bit of foam into the gaps but actually fixed it properly!
Mine is on 5500 miles after 6 or 7 weeks and im getting the same 2 noises so will have to get it looked at.

[soofsayer]

Hi Architex,

Good question, here goes:

The HUD was 'fixed' by the engineer attaching a strip of foam between the HUD housing and the dashboard. It is almost not noticeable, and aesthetically doesn't bother me as you would need to peer into the driver's dash area from the outside and scrutinize carefully to notice it. Having said that, it is concerning that something like the vibration between the HUD housing and the dashboard has not been picked up in the factory. It has resolved the problem (which only occurred during the first 10 minutes of driving the car before the cabin warmed up).

The door fix I can't tell without removing the side panels. The noise stopped when I put a little pressure on the panel area where the noise was coming from so it was clearly a vibration between two objects that were no longer stuck together, so the diagnosis of a plastic weld needing replacing made complete sense. This has not reoccurred (kiss of death!).

The latest noise from the front passenger door area is getting worse by the day and I suspect it will a similar problem to the driver's door.

It seems to me that on my car the panel fittings have lasted only a short time before failing, as there was no noise whatsoever in the car when I first got it, and the passenger side has developed from nothing over the last few hundred miles.

Will keep all updated.

[soofsayer]

Latest update:

Car went in on Wednesday for passenger side buzz and rear knocking noise (new).

Went to collect the car yesterday afternoon (friday). Test drive with engineer found another noise! So far:

Passenger side buzz fixed - caused by loose chrome door trim on outside of car. Also found that the centre console above (where the reading lights are) driver and passenger was buzzing - fixed.

Knocking noise in back turned out to be a bolt (or two?) in the lock mechanism that had come loose and were rolling about in the back of the car somewhere.

The engineer agreed that it was rubbish that this sort of thing could happen. Everything was now fixed except......

On test drive found a creaking / knocking noise coming from the drivers A pillar where it meets the centre trim - happens going over bumps / cats eyes. So I decided Audi should keep the car to fix that one also.

Hopefully get it back Monday fixed. I'm kinda hoping there aren't many more panels that could need attention!

I've also asked the service bloke to put together a report of all the work on the car since I have had it, 2500 miles and three returns to the dealer for interior noise fixes is not good, so I will be getting on to Audi HQ once the car is sorted. Anyone had any luck with Audi customer care? LR gave me a free service after the RR had to go back 6 times in as many weeks, saved me £500!

Interesting note: Engineer told me that he had another A7 in the previous week with exactly the same drivers side door panel noise that I had originally and it was the same fault (plastic rivet failed), so he sent an advisory to Audi. If any A7 owners out there get a buzzing / ticking noise from the drivers door trim right next to your shoulder it will probably be the same thing!

[Architex_mA8tey]

Thanks for the update - mine is going in next week for -
> HUD buzzing/vibration when cold
> Nearside B Pillar trim around the the anchor to the seatbelt has fallen off twice when people pull on the seatbelt
> Sat nav screen sometimes judders on the way back in
> I have the DAB digital radio issue where it intermittently loses sound and comes on again several times in a minute and also it sometimes resets the whole MMI - there is a software update fix for this
> They tell me there is also a further software update they also need to do but I will find out more on Tuesday
> Sat nav voice has the oddest pronunciation I have ever seen on a sat nav and sometimes appears to be a lady from the north east (way-yay mon) - it says "Leen" instead of "Lane" and so on.

I have heard a door vibration once but it may have been something in the door pocket so I will monitor and see. I do agree with you though that its simply not good enough on a £50k car!