billschroeder5842

I have an intermittent "Squeak-ish" noises coming from the driver side instrument cluster/dash pad area of my 91.

I admit to having World Class OCD so this, of course, is driving me wild (Yes, a rolled down window, AC on or louder radio DO mask the noise but I just KNOW it is there!).

I have taken the side panels, vents, headlight cluster and surrounding areas off countless times. I've got foam rubber squeezed into areas and used double sided foam tape to cushion the plastic.

Now, I'm thinking I need to pull the dash pad. I have messed around enough to think that the front "tab" of the dash pad may not be seated firmly and the vibration effects other items. I have pushed foam underneath the pad and it seems to make a difference----temporarily.

I've read the FSM a couple of times, but it confuses me; there is only 6 or seven "steps" but most of it is "refer to removal procedure mentioned earlier". There is nothing on-line that I can look at.

Can anyone give me a quick tutorial on how to do this without (what it seems) to be taking half the car apart? Logic dictates (c4s are logical arn't they??) that there pad screws in all three of the vents, two on the defrost vent and one near the fuse panel? Does anything else need to pop off?

Thanks Bill (Lord of OCD)

hcbph

Being no one has responded yet, here's what I remember on my 86 from a couple of years ago.

Unscrew the tilt wheel lever - drop the wheel down as much as you can.
Unscrew the instrument cluster bezel including on the door side. I was able to get it out with carefully working it free.
Remove the bezel over the DIC.
There are several screws going into the bottom of the dashpad, take them out. I don't remember if there were any on the ends but I think there was.
There are a couple of screws going in through the defroster vents, remove them
I do not have speakers in the dash, so just lift the dashpad a little and carefully pull it towards you, lift it carefully and pull steady. There's a couple of clips on the front of the pad that need to unsnap from the dash frame.

To put it back together, just reverse the process.

That's all I can remember off the top of my head. Good luck and hope it helped.

-=Jeff=-

I think I have the same or similar squeak. It does not always happen, but is annoying. If you find it share your results. I too thought it was the clips at the windshield for the dash pad but even with heat shrink tubing on them. The squeak remains

billschroeder5842

Funny, I went out today and tapped, pushed, pulled on the dash--- zip, nada, nothing; rock solid.

I supposed that road vibration "set it off."

Deepa

I have the same squeak in my 91. Fml.

part of me thinks targa. Part of me slams the dash in frustration when it happens. It's a very rapid squeak squeak squeak. It's brutal.

Buick350X

Its real obvious, your radio volume is to low...

ajd3rd

If I remember correctly there are a few screws and then you just pull it away from the windshield. I've found that the coating on the tabs near the windshield wears off. I've added electrical tape around the tab and that reduced the noise near the windshield on a 140k mile 96.

Railroadman

It's more than that on a '92. FSM lists 9 steps, the 3rd and 5th steps each have 3 sub-steps, and step 5-1 has 3 sub-steps to THAT.

Maybe it's possible to skip something by not following the FSM exactly, but it's still a PITA.

WVZR-1

There's a "NOISE REDUCTION" section in the FSM with images! For a '90+ car I think you use the "newest" FSM available for information. I'm trying to attach the '96 to this post but don't know that it will work. This section in a '92 is just a very few pages. I compared no others. You would think that as they learned from field issues they might have included aids in the next FSM. No revisions but just new learning experiences.


96 Chevrolet Corvette SM(1510-1521)_1.pdf


The file seems to work fine.

billschroeder5842

Thanks- This section is perfect!

Notice how the engineers call the noise an "itch"

Yeah, they can scratch MY itch....

billschroeder5842

Thanks WVZR-1, this helped ALOT. The chart made me think of a few extra possibilities.

I took a look at the charts and drover around my neighborhood slowly (confirming all neighbors suspicions of me) listening, tapping, and pushing. I pretty much narrowed it down to to something "around" the headlight switch.

I took that side of the panel and did the following:
1) crazy glued some lose panels on the headlight assembly. No noise when I "shook" the assembly.
2) taped the connections of the plugs on the harness. They seemed loose at the ends.
3) Taped together the two wires on the harness.
4) Stuffed a bunch of foam in the cavity around wires and especially around the metal support brace (my hunch is that the wire harness was tapping on the metal support brace.

So, I took the car around the neighborhood for a couple of laps and didn't hear anything.

I probably went a bit overboard (who me??) but it seemed to work- for the moment.

Tomorrow will be the "shake down" run and see if it takes.

Railroadman

Put every last part back together, breathe a sigh of relief, sit back and say "There, THAT'S fixed!"

Then start driving, and you will hear the noise again!

billschroeder5842

Now, ain't that the truth! I need to roll the windows down and turn the radio up!