Hi guys I hope you can help me. I have a 88 convertible. I love her but she makes a lot of noises while driving it. it helps some to have the top down. What are some of the most common places to check for missing or loosed screws or what can I do to stop the rattle. She is a beautiful 88 triple black but it gets embarassing to drive a car that turns more heads for the noises than for the looks.

 

The doors are notorious for "noises". Remove the door panels and wrap foam around hard connedtors. Adjust/replace window foam guides.
Check all the interior plastic trim for missing/loose screws.
Check the outside pieces for loosness.
Check the cross brace for loose bolts.

 

Thanks for the reply. I did the doors already, I am going to try the body panels and the cross member. any other ideas, tricky spots?
LJ

 

Hmmm, maybe check the air dam; the center section has that metal bracket involved.

 

Hi i don't have a convertable but my 93 corvette is full of noises. Two places I see noise is from rear of hood, [I think from hood bumpers rubbing] and rear hatch area. [I know this one is because I'm missing bumpers under rear of hatch]. I'd like to hear more of where and how you fixed your noises. Thanks Tim

 

One other spot to check would be your exhaust system. Check to see if all of the rubber is still intact in the hangers. Also check to see if the hanger just aft of the catalytic converter is tight. And finally check to see if the shield for the C/C is loose. Mine is and it drives me nutz. I haven't been able to tighten it.

 

My 87 was noisy also. Mostly inside. Especially at rear plastic trim, all the screws were loose. Also the doors. I replaced the door main weatherstrip and the windlace strips. Really made a big difference, doors fit nice and tight now. As for out side, the front lower spoiler was loose and rattling like crazy. Tightened them up and.....gone! Still have one squeak/rattle in dash at front left corner. Driving me nuts! Some day I will remove the dash pad and look for it.

 

E86 coupe,
1. my cruise control engage button is worn out, and the plastic piece you push on rattles on big bumps.
2. the plastic dash rattles plastic on plastic till the weather warms up, and the plastic all expands.
3. the cargo shade rattles a little
4. I wrapped the antenna relay with foam, and it stops rattling
5. I too have a connector? behind the digital dash that sometimes rattles whenever it wants to, and for 6 months, it doesn't, then out of the blue, it goes to town.
6. the back of the hood rattles over rough roads
7. check your shock brackets. the bolts can loosen up and the shocks make a tune of their own.
8. the windows make a noise when they are down. The felt dampeners wear, and have to be adjusted sometimes.
9. the connectors in the door panels are held in with little plastic buttons that sometimes break off when the panel is removed.
10. the door pull rods in the door go through plastic slides that get brittle and fracture. then the rods rattle.
11. the springs on the gas door sometimes break and the gas door rattles.
12. the license plate sometimes oscillates at the muffler's frequency, and creates a buzzzzzzz
13. the fuel lines under the gas door boot sometimes rub or clank on the tank if they are not positioned correctly.
14. if the pulsator is really loose, it can rotate to where it touches the other tube and rattles inside the tank depending on the year.
15. the fuel lines on athe right side of the car make a buzz to a rattle when cold.
16. Loose muffler bolts just above the tail pipes can cause a rattle that will make you commit suicide.
That's all I have dealt with.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions and ideas about what the noises might be in my car. You have given me a bunch of ideas about what's going on and what to look for. One frustrating thing is that I've taken the car to 4 different body shops and no one has been able to figure out what's wrong. One guy said "there are too many noises to look at each one of them." So my newest project is to look into all the things you guys mentioned and figure it out on my own. I'll keep you updated.

LJ

 

Verts make noise anyway but check all advise given. Ensure the hood is properly adjusted; this one will give you the most annoying rattle of all listed above. You can upgrade by using pading, clear silicone, foam etc.

At one point I tought the airbag was loose... it was the hood, 1/8 of a turn fixed the problem

 

I have a 93 that did this. Also my dash squeeked bad coming from the radio area. I pulled it out and put some rubber pieces between the console and the steel box (looks like some type of computor?) under where the radio goes. Nice and solid now. It took a year to find this by the way.

 

I laughed myself into tears reading his last item, mine a 92 C4 135k miles.

"16. Loose muffler bolts just above the tail pipes can cause a rattle that will make you commit suicide." -> Whew, that hit home, still laughing. Drives me NUTS.

17. I actually found a bolt sitting on a frame member, just lying there. Some mechanic lost it or maybe it bounced up off the road, but look for loose odd parts, odd as it sounds, especially given...
18. I had a bolt on the exhaust manifold completely loose, it would have fallen out but was blocked just enough by another piece to keep it in place. Removed, cleaned, greased, replaced VOILA a huge source of ringing clanging disappeared. Don't assume, check every connector you can see.
19. For ones you can't see, and if you can't conveniently get under the car to look, take your digital camera and reach under with it and just take some pics, might get lucky.
20. Heavy emphasis on the hood, keep it's landing adjusted and greased, huge source of noises.
21. My Cruise Control diaphragm (?) that sits above battery makes an awful ringing noise when I hit bumps, trying to find a fix for that myself.

Good luck, great post.

 

My '95 Coupe had terrible squeaks and thumps. Found a section near the back of the FSM regarding noise elimination. Spent months chasing loose radio ground loop, loose PKE antenna (above & behind the gas tank), fuel hose tie straps broken that permitted the hose to slap about, and even nuts that may have been inadvertently dropped into the frame during factory assembly (yep, says so in the FSM). No improvement at all.
Eventually discovered the rear sway bar end bushings were shot.
New ones eliminated 99% of every noise in the car!
Hope you find your noises.
PS Later C4's had the fuzzy side of Velcro between most of the plastic interfaces in the interior. Tucked in nicely so it doesn't show (mostly).

 

My 86 roadster is pretty tight with no serious rattles or noises, so when I hear one, its a big deal. However, I spent many hours getting the convertible top storage deck lid to close and latch properly. You will need patience and a good Allen wrench set to get this done.

Just yesterday I was out in the car and the deck lid was rattling. When I stopped I pushed the right side deck lid down forcefully until it finally caught and latched - no more rattles. The adjustment of the deck lid is a fine balance between getting it to close snugly, too loose and rattling or not latching at all. You just have to take your time and fiddle with it. GOOD LUCK.

 

Yeah, my 89 coupe has it's share of rattles too but I found the perfect cure for all of it...a new (LOUD) exhaust! All anyone hears now is the rumble as I go by.

 

I did find a bolt just sitting in the frame up near driver side exhaust manifold, but also a bolt from the manifold totally had come loose or during some work, never tightened at all, just trapped there.

Today found another source of my occasional thunk noise, one muffler core had broken loose. '92 C4 with 135k so that's acceptable life but I'd poked all over around the exhaust, forgot to rattle the actual muffler, very obvious once done.

Never assume.

 

There is hope. Don't give up. I FINALLY got my 86 pretty tight. I pretty much started with the weels and worked my way up a bit to the exhaust system, the shocks, the doors, body panels (even the wheel well housing was losse) and finally the convertible top. I like it now. It feels pretty good and tight unless I hit a big bump otherwise I really finally tamed it :-) Remember these cars are 15- 25 years old by now and almost everything can get loose. Good luck!

 

TTT keep it coming

 

my 85 drives me crazy with rattles that I have never had the time to chase. the doors and some crazy dash rattle are the worst. I did find that the gas filler door would get airborne over large bumps and thump. i replaced the springs but that didnt do it so i put a couple of pieces of vecro under to hold the lid down. the other thing to look for is to make sure your jack is really secure in your spare tire... mine was not and was bouncing around back there. your outside rear view mirrors can also rattle a bit. there is a tech tip on this.

 

Mine was pretty quiet until a month ago, then I developed a nice, high pitched ringing sound between 1400-1600 rpms. Sounds like its coming from the drivers side around the rear. Checked exhaust, spare tire compartment, fuel door, body panels and ground effects, stuff under the hood, but got nothing. I'm starting to think it could be something to do with the supension, like the sway bar. I'll find it one day...