Evening,

Currently having some issues with the rear end, I keep hearing something metallic is loose and is rattling at the back of car, I cant seem to locate exactly, but it sounds like the tyre compartment, rear arch or suspension.

Anyway, as I was taking the wheel etc out, I heard an extra flapping noise coming from the rear. I had my sub on at the time and I thought this must be the culprit!

So heres the problem! (located near where the spare tyre is):

Basically these were flapping about when the sub is high-ish. When I took them out the sound was perfect..! (I've also put some foam on the back of the number plate so no more rattling at all from the rear!)

Once taken apart:

I plan to put a layer of foam or something similar on the RHS grid to minimise the noise.

Unfortunately these were not the primary culprit of my rear knocking noise so I'm still on the hunt for that (bump stops are fine, RARB isnt hitting the exhaust, no idea where the bushes for the rear suspension are so I assume they're ok).

Silver lining is that I eliminated (or will be) another set of rattling noises!

HTH!

P.S. if you know other common rear knocking problem please let me know, I've searched already but no luck.

Edited 17 January, 201115 yr by JLneonhug

On a rattle destroying mission too. I've got an annoying rattle coming from the rear... I'll have to look in to this one. Is it inside the spare wheel hole?

I did put some foam under the front bit of boot trim (where the LED brake light strip is) which seemed to help a bit. Might have to stuff that full of foam to make sure :-)

Is it inside the spare wheel hole?

Yep ,

I also put some foam where the rear window meets plastic (bottom part), thats a bit of a mission to do though, maybe tab it as a summer job.

Edited 17 January, 201115 yr by JLneonhug

http://www.dynamat.com/

Should stop panels vibrating.

http://www.dynamat.com/

Should stop panels vibrating.

Yes.. but v heavy (and expensive). I used spare underlay as the foam, its good enough for the 'average' db level :p, doesn't trap/hold sound as good as dynamat but im not aiming for audiophile perfection. Just want to get rid of the rattle!

Edited 17 January, 201115 yr by JLneonhug

As an installer i've tried everything from Dynamat to expanding foam.

I would recommend using a product called "Brown Bread" which is similar to Dynamat - only it has a foam backing too and it looks like Brown Bread - its about half the price of Dynamat and its way better. I've done all my boot floor, boot lid & the back of the rear seats

As an installer i've tried everything from Dynamat to expanding foam.

I would recommend using a product called "Brown Bread" which is similar to Dynamat - only it has a foam backing too and it looks like Brown Bread - its about half the price of Dynamat and its way better. I've done all my boot floor, boot lid & the back of the rear seats

Thanks for that Since your an installer could you get it as trade price..? ;)

I was an installer for 2 1/2 years - but I gave up in March. Sometimes I can get good deals on some bits and pieces. But the discount is less than what i can buy it on ebay!

Install the sub up front, simples, no vibrations from the boot at all!!

I've found a few rattles recently. It's now MUCH more pleasant to drive.

Probably not good for the car at all, but I find a lot of these by sitting with the handbrake on and in reverse or 1st, gently lift the clutch. Sometimes use a bit of the go pedal too.

Rear head rests

Whilst cleaning the seats I gave them a good smack. Horrible noise! Fronts make the same noise, but far less. I keep the front ones right down.

Solution - Remove rear headrests.

Head unit CD mechanism

Not what I expected from a Pioneer P88RSII, but the tray mechanism had a bit of rattly plastic inside when there was no CD in.

Solution - Leave a CD in.

Dash removable side trim (fuse box and other side)

I'm pretty sure this was rattling. I had an annoying rattle from the front passenger side which disappeared when I opened the door. I hit the bit of plastic, like the fuse box trim on the drivers side, and the rattle disappeared.

Solution - Remove both sides and stretch out the metal trim clips a bit for a tighter fit.

Glove box hidden compartment

I had two rattles here. One was a screw inside the hidden compartment. The other seemed to be the bottom of the hidden tray rattling about as it hit the glove box.

Solution - Remove screw. Put some felt side Velcro along the tray edge to avoid plastic vs plastic.

Indicator stalk

Took me ages to find this one, but my indicator stalk rattles like mad.

Solution - None yet. I just twisted it and pressed on it tight and generally man handled it until it stopped. I want Cruise Control fitted at some point, so that should solve that one.

Some kind of plug under the glove box

Took me ages to find this one too. I came across it when I had the carpets up last week. On the passenger side on the very far middle right under the glove box, there's some kind of switch that is awfully loose and rattles about. You can only seem to get to it if you pull away the centre console plastic (it's attached to the centre console by Velcro). Possibly if you remove the glove box, I don't know.

Solution - Wedged some foam around the plug.

Instrument cluster

My speedo seemed to be rattling. Cause unknown!

Solution - Unscrew the two screws hidden below the removable plastic trim between the cluster and steering wheel, and carefully wedge a screw driver around both sides (the top of the surround is foamy, not solid plastic). With gentle force, crowbar the cluster out. I put some Draught Excluder tape all the way around, and then screwed it back in tight (whilst screwing back in, I pushed the cluster up from the bottom).

Door cards

- Brand new clips help lots. Make sure they're banged back on nice and tight.

- In the plastic clip insert of the rear drivers side door card there was a bit of old door clip plastic rattling about!

- I've wrapped all loose wires behind there with felt velcro

- I've attached a sheet of Envirolay 42oz to all of the door cards inside. May or may not want to do this as it could possibly get damp. Seems OK for me so far (and has reduced outside noise too!)

Boot trim

- Wrapped loose wires with felt velcro

- These use the metal clips, so I stretched all of those out to make a tight fit. One had come loose from the insert and was rattling about!

- Attached a sheet of Envirolay 42oz to the main bit of boot trim. My parents elegance had that sort of stuff in the boot plastics by default - mine didn't.

Passenger side "vanity mirror"

Some bass makes this rattle when it's folded up. I'm not sure why.

Solution - Leave it flipped down. It doesn't rattle when flipped down (possibly looks a bit strange to others when you have that flipped down during Winter).

Interior alarm sensor above centre lights

I solved this one about a year a go. Some bass would produce a rattle which seemed to be coming from the interior lights. My alarm sensor above there was loose, and was rattling around.

Solution - Wedged some foam above the sensor so it doesn't move any more.

All of my doors, the floor (up to underneath the seats so far) and the boot lid are now also covered in SS Damplifier Pro too which has definitely made a positive difference to sound quality. The boot inside still needs to be covered. Then it'll be Luxury Liner Pro

Can't think of any more off the top of my head, but I will try and keep it updated if / when I find more sources of rattle Hope this helps someone.

Edited 12 February, 201115 yr by mark.r.cullen

Passenger side windscreen trim

I have found and hopefully fixed another annoying noise today - a kind of clicking noise coming from the passenger side. I originally thought it was my aftermarket tweeter as this is screwed on to the OE tweeter cover, but it turned out to be the bit of wiring loom that runs up the passenger side windscreen trim wobbling about.

The trim pulls off and uses those evil metal V clips. I just pulled at it from the windscreen side and this released half of the clip, then pushed up to get it to release the other half. This does leave the metal clips still in the car unfortunately, but I just couldn't manage to pull the trim off so the clips also come out as they should - they're too tight in there. I simply used a pair of wire strippers that looked like the following to remove the clips from the car afterwards, and slotted them back in to the trim ready for refit.

You'll notice that the loom is clipped in to place as it runs up towards the roof, but not at the very bottom of the windscreen area where it disappears in to the dash. This is where you want to secure it - I used a zip tie and one of those zip tie pad things. I also pulled the wire up a bit (also had the glove box off and had hold of it the other end) so there was some slack, and pushed it down and toward the windscreen so it hopefully wouldn't rattle against the bottom of the trim. The wire is fairly stiff, and seemed to just stay in place. You'll know what I mean when you have the trim off... if it was tight as mine was, when you go to put the trim back on you'll see it pushing against the wire at the bottom. You want to avoid it doing that.

Hope this helps someone, somewhere...! I still have a boot rattle to fix, which is possibly as per the original post. I saw it when I put Damplifier in the boot, but didn't remove it. It's either that or it's the spare wheel + mini jack stuff rattling about. You can *really* hear it from outside the car with the music turned up though.

A good bit of rattling because of the subwoofer comes from the tin plate between the exhaust and the body of the car (don't know the exact word for it in English, sorry)

I've been thinking about removing it, but haven't done so yet.

Oh and my subwoofer is installed in a casted box made out of glass fibre in the spare wheel hole, with bitumen absorber in between the the box and the hole.

A good bit of rattling because of the subwoofer comes from the tin plate between the exhaust and the body of the car (don't know the exact word for it in English, sorry)

I've been thinking about removing it, but haven't done so yet.

Oh and my subwoofer is installed in a casted box made out of glass fibre in the spare wheel hole, with bitumen absorber in between the the box and the hole.

Exhaust heat shield? It sounded like it could be that, but I am not sure it is.... I put my hand on it and the rattle didn't stop at all.