Another with a new odd noise.
 

Hi all. While towing the inlaws' caravan around France and NW Spain my car has been absolutely flawless bar an odd sort of rumble/vibey noise in 5th around 1800 rpm under load. The autobox seems to be behaving completely normally.

It's 34°c here today so I'm waiting for a cooler day before I get it on ramps, and have a nosey. I haven't driven the car without the caravan since.

It seems like it comes from the driver's footwell area and I'm (rather optimistically) hoping it is something simple like a heat shield vibrating or an exhaust mount.

The noise is like a noise (albeit a bit louder) I had on my old A2, which was a common fault and people seemed to think was EGR related.

Does anyone have any experience of anything similar?

All the best. John

Oh well, the noise has disappeared now the caravan has been kicked aside like the horrid thing deserves!

Well there's an excuse to never tow it again!

Indeed it is!!!!

That sounds like a plan.
All horrid noises to be exported to France and left there.

+++

In my experience of towing it normally finds the weak spot in a car long before it causes trouble driving solo. Many times ive been into the stealers asking for a problem to be looked at and they cant find it without the extra stress of towing a large caravan. I have even resorted to towing our 8m long 2 ton caravan into the vw dealers so they would believe me and diagnose a turbo problem.

Dont be surprised if in 6 months the noise comes back without the caravan as the part wears a bit more.

Indeed Simon. I'm going to get it on the ramps when it's not so stinking hot out here.

Got her in the barn up on ramps, and had a proper mooch underneath. Couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary, but given the circumstances the noise is evident, I wasn’t really expecting to find anything.

Oh well, gotta be time for a cold beer. Enjoy the rest of the weekend folks.