Creaking/Popping noise from behind back seat on left side

[Q451990]

I have a popping noise coming from behind the back seat on the left side. As best I can tell it has something to do with the sheet metal crossmembers from behind the seat. I can sort of feel it if I ride back there and reach through the pass-through hole into the trunk and then put my hand on that area. The noise seems to happen mostly when the car tilts from side to side (e.g. going around a curve or turning a corner) but I can sometimes hear it driving over bumps too.

Has anyone dealt with this before?

Heath

[adren77]

I remember somebody had this problem and they found that a tack weld back there broke off.

[Q451990]

Funny... that's exactly what it sounds like! I guess I still have squeak and rattle coverage under the original warranty... I'm at 36K on the odometer. I hate to take it to my dealership though... they seem to mess two new things up every time they try to fix something!

Heath

[foncerrada1]

i have the same problem! its driving me crazy... did you find out what it was? is it fixed?

[Q451990]

We finally took it in today for this noise, as well as the rear p/w regulator bolt TSB and Radio faceplate TSB. I will post here as soon as I find out about how they repaired it.

Heath

[Tampa G35 Sedan 6MT]

yep that is what it sounds like! Keep us posted!

[SteveTheTech]

Hey there,

It sounds like the X brace in the back of your car.I am guessing you have the adjustable rear seats? For some reason the support bar over time makes a little noise. I will try to find the exact diagram of this today.

To resolve this:

1.Remove the rear seat

2.Remove the inner trunk liner

3.From the inside you will notice a large X brace, there are ~10 10mm bolts that need to be removed.

4.Once the bolts are removed apply red lock-tite to them and reinstall. Applying sufficient torque to secure them.

5.Reinstall all related trim pieces.

You should be straight once this is complete. This seems to match the incident you are describing.

Good Luck Steve

[Q451990]

We have a winner! At least the dealership just called and said that they have the noise fixed, using that method. For anyone who is out of warranty and wants to fix this on your own, here's a link to the TSB:

http://www.q45.org/gallery2/d/...a.pdf

The TSB number in case the link goes dead is ITB03-046a

I didn't find it because techinically it's for 03-04 G35s, but I can now vouch that it was still an issue on some '05 models as well. Interesting that they revised the TSB in June of 2005. I suspect the old method was just to tighten the bolts, and then they had some back out again, so they added the locktite?

Oh and Steve, you're right... we do have the reclining seatbacks.

Thanks!

Heath

[SteveTheTech]

Is it AWD too?

I will be adding that to the Infiniti Articles section. We are working tirelessly to add more usefull information on a daily basis. Any suggestions or links would be greatly appreciated.

[Q451990]

No AWD. Do you see more instances of it with AWD cars and cars with adjustable back seats?

Heath

[joe603]

Steve...you da man!

[SteveTheTech]

Yeah for some reason the AWD tends to do it more. You also have an 05 which the noise is not that common in. Oh well I am glad you got it fixed.

[Jacko3]

Steve:

You are the man! Well done!

[Q451990]

We got the car back today and it's so quiet! Given my experiences with this dealership, I figured they would mess up more than they fixed - but other than having to snap my rear power window switches back in place (regulator bolt TSB done at the same time) and straignten out the back trim in the trunk, everything looked good! The even managed to replace the radio faceplate (another TSB) without gouging anything!

Heath

[G_whizz]

Sweet! Glad it worked out!

[Zoomie56]

I'm having a similar problem, though the popping sounds seem to be coming from the right side in my case. I have a 2006 G35 Coupe, BTW. I pried away the plastic molding behind the rear seat and found several very loose bolts (presumably the standard 10 mm bolts) in the sheet metal behind the seat, nearly level with the trunk floor, which I tightened. There were just two bolts on the right side, while there are 4 on the left. However, I can see two additional holes on the right side and I suspect two of the bolts might have loosened up and fallen out. So here's my question: should there be four bolts on each side?

The popping noise seemed to lessen with the tightened bolts, but I still here it now and then. Do I need to remove the rear seat and rear shelf trim to get to additional bolts?

Thanks very much, and Happy New Year!

Steve