I had a 2012 and now have 2016 And don't notice a sloshing noise. Have a family member sit in the back seat and listen to try to confirm it's under the rear floor. Take out any mats that are in the rear. It's possible the rocker panels under the doors may have water in them.

 

2012 TDi, have had since new, 111,000 km, no sloshing noise noticed ever.
Water trapped in your rear doors?

 

Thanks for your response. The rear doors are empty, so are the rocker panels - I pulled the drain plugs. I'll try sitting in the cargo area while somebody else drives. In the meantime...

Any other ideas?

VW dealers here in Denver are so difficult to work with on PAID repairs, I dread having to ask them for help with this issue. That I believe should have been noticed during CPO inspection. Like, when the spare tire area was filled with water.

 

2015 TDI Sport, never ever heard sloshing in the rear. I live in the Denver area, and I've experienced service with Larry Miller in Lakewood and Gebhardts in Boulder. I live closer to Gebhardts but prefer LH Miller in Lakewood. The mechanics there almost all own the same Tourage that I drive as they all bought one within a month of when I purchased mine because of the great deal that was offered at the time. I find them to be very competent and the prices for service seemed to be reasonable. I notice the oil service package is typically 40% lower than what you see others posting here. The ONLY issue I've had with them as one time a service manager tried to charge me for Ad-Blue fillup when I pointed out it was part of the settlement, he argued against me, but ultimately gave in to keep my business.

 

I noticed same problem after my car "fixed". No really bother me but I assume that might be diesel fixed related.

 

Ok, interesting. Hope to hear from a few more people...

 

Nothing heard from my 2012 TDI Exec.

 

I hear it on mine occasionally, its the adblue tank. Don't feel bad if you get roasted it comes with the territory on this forum.

 

Thanks. Likely it’s the Adblue tank. Hope to hear from and few more people. Paranoid I have a car full of water...

 

Neighbor just had same sound...it was on a 2006...but sounds like same issue. It turned out to be water coming in at roof rails...but drain holes lower in body were plugged. It really was a loud sloshing sound.

 

Drain holes in lower body - can you be more specific as to which drain holes? And where in the body was the water trapped?

My spare tire well is dry, so are the door sills, and there is no water in the doors.

 

It did it on my first one a 012 exec. German engineering

 

Not sure as neighbor's mechanic found it...will ask again. We had a 2011 tdi ( bought back ) with ad blue and never heard anything like this. I listened to this one before they took it in...it was an amazing amount of water sloshing around !

 

Just asked about drain hole locations...along bottom edge of car...I guess you can poke a wire etc back up to clear the holes ? Don't have one here now to look at. Guess they can fill up with debris ?

 

This one is 2006 so slightly different body...the water went in the depression at roof rails and collected in lower body panel...seems strange...but we shook the doors...not there...guess it collected in low edge of body ?...but gone now...its really hard to imagine that much water getting in that way...it's not like we have had that much rain here in Ca...it does sit out all the time though.

 

Interesting. Was the headliner or interior wet or water damaged?

 

It jus† makes sense u got a 1/2 filled adblue tank on the rear of SUV its gonna splash.

 

Agreed...however in this case the tank isn’t half full. AdBlue and diesel filled to overflowing - still hear sloshing.

 

Water in the lower rocker panels?

How Does Water Enter The Rocker Panels?

Does anyone here no how water is entering the rocker panels to begin with? Pulling out one or all the the plugs that are located on the bottom on each side of the vehicle sounds like an excellent band aid solution that works, but offers no peace of mind at all as to how the water is entering in...

www.clubtouareg.com

 

No. I should have put in the subject “it’s not the rocker panels!” ;-) Anyhow, do you ever hear sloshing in your Touareg?

 

What the heck kind of SUV is this that water gets into rocker panels wheel wells etc. Drains from sunroof? Cripes

 

This one is 2006 so slightly different body...the water went in the depression at roof rails and collected in lower body panel...seems strange...but we shook the doors...not there...guess it collected in low edge of body ?...but gone now...its really hard to imagine that much water getting in that way...it's not like we have had that much rain here in Ca...it does sit out all the time though.

ok...I figured out what happened on the 2006 T It was in the shop ( not VW ) for replacement of the struts that hold the rear hatch open. It was raining for the days they had it. The depression for the roof rails lines up with the opening in the body where the hinge is for the hatch. If it was hanging out side and the rear end down the channel could drain into that hole if the hatch was up. There are no holes in roof rack depression ( thankfully ) ...so I think this is how the water got in on this one. This would not be a common thing...but I think this is what happed. The sound coming from the ad blue tank would be minor...this was a very loud sloshing sound, but gone now.
Hope this helps for some.

 

Should of bought a highlander damn

 

I test drove a couple. They all smelled like animal crackers and milf.

Now back on topic - has anybody heard sloshing in their Touareg? Was it fuel? AdBlue? Or was there water? Where was the water? How did you drain it?

 

Google Search

www.google.com

 

2011 TDI LUX :
Yes,It was water in the rear spare tire well,in my case,
It took two trips to the dealer. A splice ? in the sunroof drain tube supposedly came loose,so the tech zipped it the second time??

 

2011 TDI LUX :
Yes,It was water in the rear spare tire well,in my case,
It took two trips to the dealer. A splice ? in the sunroof drain tube supposedly came loose,so the tech zipped it the second time??

Yes, I had that same leak. Repaired the sunroof drain line, and emptied out spare tire well. Still hear sloshing. Do you know if you had water accumulate somewhere other than the spare tire well, from that leak?

 

I used to hear the same thing in my 2014 all the time. I was 99% certain it was the fuel in the fuel tank. It was most noticable with the tank was about 3/4 full of fuel. I would hear it backing out of my garage all the time. I attributed it to the very large fuel tank (26 gallons) that likely doesn't have baffles (or enough baffles) to keep the fuel from sloshing around. Totally harmless.

 

Appreciate your response, however I question "totally harmless" because...

-many 2011+ Touareg owners never hear fuel sloshing
-if it were tank design or size, everybody would hear it
-this vehicle is know to collect water

I initially dismissed the sloshing as fuel tank. However the sound is identical whether overfilled, almost empty, or anywhere in between. Thoughts?

 

I have to amend my previous answer as I had not noticed the sloshing from the back until I had to stop short in an intersection and then pull forward quickly. At that point with about 1/2 tank and nearly full AdBlue tank I did hear sloshing.
Hopefully the rocker panels are not sloshing too!

 

It takes 3 mins to pull the plugs and see if water comes out...let us know?

 

The two most likely times to hear sloshing is water in the sills (you only need to pull one grommet on each side) or the spare wheel well.

Other leaks into the car tend to soak into the carpets/soundproofing so normally there is no noise with these.

There is one other rare case that was known on the Generation 1 cars.

The big suitcase silencer/muffler at the rear of the car could fill with exhaust condensate on vehicles that did lots of short journeys in cold weather such that the exhaust components did not get hot enough to dry out internally.

The volume of the condensate could build up such that in very cold weather it could freeze and therefore expand sufficiently to.prevent the car actually starting.

The cure was/is to drill a small weep hole in the silencer/muffler at its lowest point.

I doubt any VW techie would know about this these days!

 

Ok. So are 2011+ TDI known to have sloshing fuel and adblue tanks? Assume the noise is heard regardless of what level the tanks are filled to. And the spare tire well and door sills are dry.

BTW muffler diagnosis...old school!

 

I bought a 2011 TDI a few months ago. I noticed the slight sloshing also. I did not find any water in the spare tire well and assumed it was the ad blue. I put dynamat over the adblue tank and the entire trunk. Haven't heard a thing since. But now I am going to check the rocker panels just in case.

 

Final Resolution?

Happy New Year! As stated in the initial posting - I did the drain plugs, door sills, etc, etc, to try to find the sloshing. Finally went to a dealer here in Denver. They "looked it over" and "test drove it" and "found nothing." Their position is that all Touaregs have noisy fuel tanks - some responses here suggest the same thing.

I asked if they had another 2011+ TDI we could test drive - reason being, if it's an issue with Touaregs, they should all slosh. If the tester doesn't slosh we can assume their might still be water somewhere in mine. While waiting for them to get a test car, service manager came by and gave me his PhD dissertation on Touaregs and noisy fuel tanks.

I was satisfied with the service manager's explanation - tank design, placement in car. So I left with out bothering to drive the tester. (haha) Study in human behavior told me it was unlikely these people were lying. The car is still sloshing, music is playing a little louder than before.

Resolved? You tell me.