1.0 Ecoboost Surprisingly Noisy

[mjt]

I've had the car for a few days now and the first impression is that the engine is a lot noisier than I expected. When pulling away and accelerating there's quite a loud burble from under the bonnet and it's even noisier inside the cabin at idle than either the old 1.8TDCi or our Mk2.5 1.8HE petrol.

After a few days of ownership I find I always notice things that I didn't notice on the test drive (and we had quite a long drive) and I didn't really notice the engine noise that much but driving through town yesterday I really did notice it. I got the impression from test reports that it was surprisingly refined for a 3-cylinder engine so I wonder if this is normal.

[H8XME]

I'd try and compare with another side by side as they should be very quite inside, I often forget to turn mine off when refuelling, the face-lift version is slightly quieter then pre face-lift, with much less waste gate noise :( less Road noise :)

[Gmaster]

I've had mine for about a month now , find the engine from inside the car very quite, I wouldn't call it noisy .

There is a nice deep noise when acclerting which I think sounds great but not overly noisy .

When just cruising around it's very quiet .

[alexp999]

If it gets too gruff your aren't giving it enough gas when pulling away.

It does burble though. I think it sounds great.

[mjt]

Sounds like it's normal, then. I don't object to the burble and as long as it's reasonably quiet in the cruise I won't be too bothered. I was just interested to know if it is normal.

There is another thing that I've noticed, and that's the handling. The steering doesn't have a very strong self-centring action and this seems to make it very sensitive to the road surface and crosswinds. I get the feeling that if I take my hands off the wheel it will just veer off. Again this is much more pronounced than with the Mk2.5 and the old Mk1.5. I know the reviews have said that the light engine makes it very responsive to the steering and I have found it very easy to flick through traffic calming chicanes etc, whereas the old Mk1.5 with the heavy diesel lump always seemed a bit reluctant to change direction. I just wonder, though, whether I need to get a 4-wheel alignment check done.

If this doesn't sound normal to you guys I might try to get the stealer to do it while it's under warranty.

[alexp999]

What size wheels you got?

[mjt]

16" and your question turned up something I hadn't noticed. I just went out to check and discovered that the front tyres are mismatched. Three tyres are ContiPremium Contact 2, which I take to be original, the fourth is a Goodyear Efficientgrip. I imagine this was replaced due to a puncture but if it were me I would have replaced like for like or else replaced them as an axle set. The tyre size is 215/55R16 speed rating 93H.

[alexp999]

I think the tyres are wider than on the mk2.5 so that will contribute to tramlining.

The weight of the engine might a bit too as it is quite light.

If you have missed matched tyres I would expect that to have the biggest influence though as they will each follow the road differently.

[mjt]

Yes, the tyres on the Mk2.5 are 205/55R16. For the time being it might help a bit to swap the Goodyear onto the back.

[Gmaster]

Yeah I love the burble the 3 pot makes!!

Mine seems fine on 18" alloys only thing id say is turning circle is not great.

[iantt]

mine is quiet, as for your steering, as you noted tyre makes best on the front the same. mine doesnt veer off. but i know my wheel alignment is spot on.