Intermittent rolling gravel sound from suspension or drivetrain

bizzle

Veteran Member
Joined
May 21, 2013
Location
Southern California
TDI
2015 GSW SEL (totaled), 2013 Touareg Executive
2015 Golf w/ DSG experiencing periodic gravel-ish sound.

Buddy was driving up a mountain about 6 months ago and called me to tell me he thought something was wrong with his wheel. He got off the freeway and checked the tire pressure, made sure nothing was rubbing, but that was the extent of his capabilities and he kept driving another hour. The sound went away on his own during that time and it sounds like he never followed it up with anyone.

I'm backing his car out of his driveway this evening and for a brief moment I hear some weird sound. I check if I hit a palm frond, but it sounded more metallic than that. I go inside and ask him if he's heard it before or what has been going on with his car. He says nothing has happened. I hop back in and drive it all over town for an hour and eventually this sound starts back up:
https://youtu.be/GS_jQUFK6Jk

I wasn't doing anything differently than I was doing earlier other than laying into the pedal a bit to listen how everything was working like I thought it should, but no pattern that I could figure that would make the sound happen again and I couldn't do anything to force it after it went away. What did seem to make it go away was putting it in reverse for a second and then going forward, but I didn't hear or feel anything in park or reverse. DSG is shifting smoothly and car is accelerating and braking normally.

After I texted the video to him he said that sounded like the sound he heard about 6 months ago. He though it was coming from the front passenger wheel, whereas it seemed to be coming straight up through the center console...but that was just from sitting in the driver's seat so sound could be traveling anywhere.

Any ideas of where to start looking? I completely forgot to check for codes, but I do have a VCDS.
 

bizzle

Veteran Member
Joined
May 21, 2013
Location
Southern California
TDI
2015 GSW SEL (totaled), 2013 Touareg Executive
No codes.

Does anyone agree the sound is pointing to the DMF?
But does a DMF starting to go out rattle for like a minute or two and then not make any sound for months?

I have no idea the conditions he first heard it, but when I heard it today it was just a quick *crunch* sound and I hopped out right away to see what had happened. I saw nothing and then drove through town trying to induce the symptom. When it finally happened again, I shot that video. It didn't do it in neutral or park, just forward and seemed like it would have kept doing it until I finally shifted into R for one second and then back forward again (fully stopped, not a rolling R to D :D) and it stopped immediately upon backing up.
 

bmwM5power

Veteran Member
Joined
May 3, 2007
Location
Rochester NY
TDI
15 GSW TDI S 6MT / 02 JETTA TDI GLS 5MT 15 GOLF TDI 6MT
were u not applying any throttle moving forward? does it go away when you press the accelerator?
 

bizzle

Veteran Member
Joined
May 21, 2013
Location
Southern California
TDI
2015 GSW SEL (totaled), 2013 Touareg Executive
That video is me in the parking lot in D with my foot on the brake.
I then apply throttle up to slow parking lot speed and take my foot off the throttle.
You can kinda hear the crescendo as I do that but the sound signature doesn't really change (just the tempo and possibly intensity).

I didn't get a real good sense of much else because I don't like fiddling with my phone while driving, but I turned into the nearest parking lot and was focused on getting as much of it recorded for the owner and the forum before it went away as safely as possible.
 

Mythdoc

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2017
Location
Tennessee
TDI
2011 Touareg, 2015 Q5, 2015 Golf
I’d pull the wheel and check. It costs nothing and who knows? I’ve had debris/gravel in the wheel and it makes noise that goes away at speed.
 

The Tortoise

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2017
Location
Ottawa
TDI
2015 GSW Trendline - White
My first thought was a rock was stuck in the brake shield. It happened to me and it made a hell of a noise. It took prying against the shield with a screwdriver to break it free.
 

bmwM5power

Veteran Member
Joined
May 3, 2007
Location
Rochester NY
TDI
15 GSW TDI S 6MT / 02 JETTA TDI GLS 5MT 15 GOLF TDI 6MT
I dont think this is wheel related as mentioned above. I remember having a 2012 VW Golf with DSG that has this issue from new. When I was pulling into my driveway and going slightly uphill slowly I would not touch the accelerator and it would start rattling like that, I touch the throttle and it would go away. I could also induce this on the parking lot by pretty much doing the same, let the car drive slowly on idle, no throttle, or sometimes Id touch the brake slightly and it would start to rattle. Went to the dealer 5-6 times they obviously said there was nothing wrong with it, no codes, shifts fine. One of their foremans even listened with the stethoscope and said it sounds like its coming from the differential, but they did nothing because it was performing fine other that occasional rattle. I got sick of listening to this, traded the car in with only 4000 mi on it, for the manual transmission, that was the end of the story.
 

bizzle

Veteran Member
Joined
May 21, 2013
Location
Southern California
TDI
2015 GSW SEL (totaled), 2013 Touareg Executive
Oh man that's not reassuring!

I'll check for foreign objects but it doesn't feel like that's it if you know what I mean.
 

bizzle

Veteran Member
Joined
May 21, 2013
Location
Southern California
TDI
2015 GSW SEL (totaled), 2013 Touareg Executive
I had my buddy drive around his block a few times, so he drove for about 20 minutes I guess at pretty much idle speed then whipped it up and down a desolate street at 100mph but wasn't able to reproduce the sound again.
 

bmwM5power

Veteran Member
Joined
May 3, 2007
Location
Rochester NY
TDI
15 GSW TDI S 6MT / 02 JETTA TDI GLS 5MT 15 GOLF TDI 6MT
I had my buddy drive around his block a few times, so he drove for about 20 minutes I guess at pretty much idle speed then whipped it up and down a desolate street at 100mph but wasn't able to reproduce the sound again.
try to go slightly uphill from stop at idle rpm ( 1st gear no throttle), like on the driveway
 
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