High Pitch Resonating Noise

[Mitchy]

My 2015 2.0 TDI has made an annoying high pitch resonating sound since I bought it 4 months. It's sound like it comes from the rear of the car, it doesn't sound mechanical and doesn't affect the drive. It's get louder the less fuel is in the tank and is louder when going round corners. It's driving me nuts now.. I turn the radio up to drown it out but shouldn't have to. VW drove and could clearly hear the sound but said it due to 'air flow' whilst the car is moving.. Anyone had a similar noise, it sounds liking a tuning fork almost a harmonic whirling sound but it actually hurts my ears.. Could it be the fuel pump?? Only 8k on the clock ..

[blower]

Sounds like the PWM high pitched tonal sound you can get from the in tank fuel pump.

Some are noisier than others due to variations in the pump motor. Sometimes the squeak is coming from the coils in the controller that's housed on top of the pump rather than the actual pump motor.

To confirm I would remove the back bench seat and it should become a lot louder.

[bowen159]

I sure mine is making the same noise. Took it to VW Redditch who replaced the fuel pump but still makes the exact noise. They are saying it's a "characteristic" of the vehicle. Mine too is a 2015 TDi.

[Mitchy]

Bowen159... You are pretty local to me, I'm booking mine into VW Stourbridge as have had dealings with VW Redditch previously with my Golf (I found them particularly useless) .. I did test drive another 15 plate ROC (before I bought mine) which again was almost out of fuel which made exactly the same noise - this time VW said it was because the radio wasn't wired in !! I was going to push for a new fuel tank but obviously this didn't fix yours... I find it hard to believe that a £26k car should be making this really annoying noise and for VW to say it's a characteristic of the car ... are you going to push for further examination?

[bowen159]

Hi Mitchy,

I will contact VW Solihull instead as Redditch are useless. They wouldn't even look at it at first. Had to really push for them to swap the fuel pump. It's currently off the road as a pothole has written off 2 Lugano alloys and VW what £800+ each!!! plus tyres!!!

It's due a service next month so I will get them to look at it then and report back my findings.

[Roy_01]

Is the noise louder in corners in both directions? Maybe they can locate the sound with ultrasonic microphone.
Can you make a recording of it?

[Mitchy]

OUCH.. Surely the council should be picking up that bill!
As you say keep me posted if you get any closer to finding out what is it.. I have read that some fuel pumps are louder than others. The Ultrasound microphone sounds like a good idea, when I took mine to VW Worcester they couldn't help but here because it was so loud. It actually gives me a headache when it's at it's loudest .. I guess the easy answer is to keep the fuel tank full because the noise goes away when it's full.

[Roy_01]

That would also declare that the sound is getting worse in both cornering directions as the fuel level will shift to one side.
If the sound is so loud a ultrasound microphone is maybe overkill.
You can also remove the rear seat cushion to localize the sound better. You can just pull it straight off in vertical direction.
Is the sound present when you don't drive the car and on idle rpm?

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[Mitchy]

Yes it's still there when stationary albeit much quieter, it's almost like a harmonic sound which goes from loud to soft, loud to soft. You can hear it if you stand outside of the car whilst it's running - seems loudest at rear drivers side. I'll get booked into VW see what excuse they can fob me off with.
It kind of resembles the noise in the video but not exactly. Just seems odd that the other one that I test drive made EXACTLY the same noise with very low fuel in...