How do you chase down squeaks and rattles?

[Trimble Epic]

I'm reaching the point where my engine is running smoothly, and other critical systems are ok, so now I'm getting ready to start chasing down the squeaks and rattles that my car has built up over it's 21 years of life.. (93 NA)

What do you guys do when you're trying to eliminate squeaks and rattles? where do you usually find them? What do you do to alleviate them?

I'll be pulling all the plastic off in the trunk area to clean up my rear speakers soon, so I figure while all the plastic is off, I should go for a drive and listen for squeaks and rattles with the plastic off, and recheck as I replace it piece by piece, but I'm not sure the best way to kill a squeak if I find one.

Who wants to chime in?

[ThisIsSparTTa]

This is related to some of the work I do: So, the study of Bumps Squeaks and Rattles (BSR) is actually a big research area in automobile manufacturing right now. Traditionally there haven't been good tools to identify these noise sources, and they were mostly addressed by finding the general area, and then trial and error. They do all kind of things like put the cars on tables that will move each wheel independently, etc. However, they are going more high tech now, and there's been a combination of acoustic beamforming arrays which can locate the source of noise(s). Basically if you arrange a bunch of microphones in a certain way and do some maths, you can figure out the location of a noise. Then, they can put a camera in the middle and identify pretty precisely the source of the noise. Unfortunately for you, a non-industrial buyer, these "sound camera" technologies are still pretty pioneering, and thus prohibitively expensive.

So, all that to say, you're likely going to need to go old school on finding these. Tightening down everything will help. Removing covers like you're doing will help. Isolating things by temporarily jamming something into them, etc will help. Finding ways to move the car around without driving it will also help. This could just be you or a friend rocking it, or for some suspension work, you may be able to push a wheel up and let it down down with the jack while the car is on stands.

[Trimble Epic]

Interesting I just watched an epsiode of How it's Made: Dream Cars: Corvette,and I noticed that one of the things they do is drive over a short "squeaks and rattles" course to entice any noise to reveal itself at the factory...

I feel like most of the noise problems I'm having are from interior plastic parts squeaking on bumpy roads, so my thinking is that if I remove all the plastic and go for a drive, I can start at the baseline and hunt for noises from be bare metal... (understanding that road noise will be louder without the interior plastic)... then start adding the plastic back bit by bit and go drive again. if any noises crop up, I can back out the plastic, add some foam or other dampening material, and keep going until it's all back in.

The squeaks and rattles make me cringe... but mostly because my wife "let me" buy an older car instead of a cheaper newer one.. and every squeak sounds like my wife saying "I told you so" ... therefore, they MUST be eliminated

[RED_DET]

The door trim around seat belt anchor is a problem area. I pulled them off and used foam adhesive to tighten up the contact points. The seals around the t-tops are another problem area and use of seal conditioner will be of great help. I also noticed the 2 plastic contact points on the t bar where the t-tops slide into will make noise because of the contact points. Use of silicone will help in those 4 areas of contact. Door handles on door panels another area of squeaking. Seems these areas make more noise during colder months....

[RubyRed300ZX]

Mine is a convertible; so not sure it applies to the coupes (convertibles having been built by ASC). Anyway, the convertibles have tons of foam tape on mating plastic pieces. Worked great for the first 20 years I owned mine. However, the foam has started to deteriorate. It seems to actually be disintegrating. And, that is where most of the squeaks and rattles are starting.

[wingunder]

Had a rather loud clunk coming from the door panels of my 32. After removing the speaker grills, I found after-market speakers attached to 1/2" plywood boards that were then just left loose to slop around in the door cavities. People continue to amaze me???

[Trimble Epic]

LOL I had the same thing... 1/4" plywood "plates" for the speakers to mount into... complete warped, delaminating, and "sealed" with some kind of clay-like compount that was obviously squeeze out of a tube, but after all these years it's still a soft clay... still not sure WTF it is... but I completely re-did my two door panels using the popular aftermarket plastic mounting plates, customized to my speakers and sealed properly with insulating foam and deadening material all over the doors. They sound pretty good.

Though, I'm still plagued by little squeaks and rattles from all over. I feel like I need to tear all the plastic ount (i.e. the trunk liners, around the back seats, etc), and drive around with a keen ear listening for any squeak... then put each panel back one by one, go for a drive, and add anti-squeek foam as needed until I get it all back together... sigh. This is why I started this thread.

[BenWP]

I also have a 93 convert. The hood latch was the one I noticed as soon as I bought the car, but it wasn't easy to track down. I've lubed the rubber gaskets and plastic pieces around the doors, but stuff makes lots of noises going over our crappy MI roads. Squeaks in my Honda Odysseys turned out to be a bad transmission mount on one, and a bad front strut cap on another: I thought they were both rubber or plastic related. Did I mention my bad hearing…

[Ikon_1911]

Track down any creaks and rattles..? Keep us posted