Vibration in steering wheel

[Keyleth]

Hello! I have recently picked up an ex-demonstrator Cupra Born VZ First Edition which is an excellent car, but I am having a couple of issues with it.

The second issue I'm having suddenly started without any apparent cause whilst driving on the motorway. At first I thought it was the road surface but then later realised that it had been continuous over many different roads. There is now a constant vibration coming through the steering wheel which is noticeable right away when driving, even from low speeds - but it doesn't seem to change in frequency with the road speed. It's not really a judder or shake and isn't like my previous experience of having an unbalanced wheel - however I've paid to have the front tyres rebalanced and it has not made any difference. This is uncomfortable and I have found that after some time my fingers feel kind of numb, but as far as I can tell in other respects the car is still driving and handling fine. There is definitely something that has changed from how it was before as when I first drove the car I was delighted with how smooth and refined the ride was.

I've been to my local Seat dealer and while their technician agreed he could feel the vibration, they did some basic checks on the suspension, brakes etc and couldn't immediately identify a definite fault. Unfortunately they pointed out that they have very limited experience with Cupra and electric vehicles which does not fill me with confidence. Again it's not very feasible for me to travel back to the selling dealership and I feel a bit stuck as to how to tackle this.

Any advice would be very welcome.

 

[SkysTheLimit]

Between this and the other issue, just demand they either fix it or you hand the car back under consumer law... It's not fit for purpose in its current state.

 

[SRGTD]

I’m assuming local Seat dealer isn’t also a Cupra dealer, given you’ve said they have only limited experience with Cupra’s and EV’s. Therefore, you may need to suffer the inconvenience of travelling back to the selling Cupra dealer. As @SkysTheLimit has said, the car’s currently not fit for purpose and needs to be fixed by the dealer or you can hand it back for a refund.

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[Keyleth]

Thanks a lot both for your advice.
They've authorised costs with the local garage to have a full diagnostic to save me going all the way back to them - this and the communication today has reassured me a little about the situation. I understand that I will still have the fall-back recourse if we fail to sort out the issues.

 

[t4nt4lus]

Hi @Keyleth

Did you end up fixing the issue with the vibration?
I'm having the exact same problem on my TAVASCAN.

So far they've changed tires, they've tested another car's rims and tires, they've also replaced the front axels and nothing. No solution so far.

Next they're saying they want to try run the car after disabling the front electric motor.

Which sounds insane to me. The car only has 16000 kilometers of usage.

 

[Keyleth]

Hi @Keyleth

Did you end up fixing the issue with the vibration?
I'm having the exact same problem on my TAVASCAN.

So far they've changed tires, they've tested another car's rims and tires, they've also replaced the front axels and nothing. No solution so far.

Next they're saying they want to try run the car after disabling the front electric motor.

Which sounds insane to me. The car only has 16000 kilometers of usage.

Hey sorry I didn't see this until now.
Wow, it seems you've been through quite a journey. At least your local dealer seems willing to help you. Mine just refused to acknowledge that there was any issue at all. Because of this I had no recourse either to the original seller.
Unfortunately I never got any further with understanding the cause or resolving it I'm afraid! I have kind of got used to it - sometimes it feels more or less fine and I mostly forget about the issue but occasionally I think it feels awful.
I've paid for diagnostics at another dealer - they blamed it on a slightly buckled wheel but after I got that repaired it's just the same. I'd have gone back to them but they decided to close the branch a week later... The first Seat dealership I went to just washed their hands and said they won't look at it any more because they are not Cupra specialists... I think I should follow it up further but it's such a load of hassle, taking time out of work and everything.
Best of luck getting some traction at your end.

 

[t4nt4lus]

Hey @Keyleth

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it.

Sorry to hear that you haven't been able to resolve this problem.

I'm starting to see a pattern when it comes to First Edition CUPRAs. They all come with very similar problems.

So because I live in Spain, and I bought the car off of SEAT S.A through an employee portal, they sold it to me at a discount and with the warranty. This is the only reason why they're looking into it.

In short: after many many visits to the dealership, and the official workshop, they ended up doing a test without the front engine plugged in (they removed the front axels). Only then, did the vibration stop.
So to cover their asses, and because it's still under warranty, they are replacing the entire front engine.

One of their theories is that the silent blocks that hold the front engine in place, might not be doing their job properly. But they don't want to take the risk of just replacing those, and the issue reoccurring. So they're replacing the entire front engine.

Which blows my mind really. It's a brand new car, their manufacturing and quality process must be shite.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Tavascan, it's the most beautiful car I've ever owned... But this has been a terrible experience.