Rattling noise
 

I just started noticed a rattling noise from the driver's side rear on my 92. It seems to happen between 45 - 55 mph. I can feel it in my left foot when it's resting flat on the floor of the car. Any ideas? Is it maybe a wheel bearing?

could be a number of things, loose brake caliper, bearing would be while turning you would hear it better, exhaust is loose, spare tire ect..

It actually seems to go away around turns. I'll check those other things. Thanks for the reply.

swaybar link bushing.

Thanks for the response. Is that something I can tackle on my own or does the car need to be up on a lift?

Agree, had the same problem where either the road was bumpy enough to make the car bounce around a little, or the speed was enough where slight bumps made the car bounce. Sounds like a metallic tink tink, its the sway bar bushing.

Otherwise, as above a rattle could be loose exhaust, spare tire, etc...

If you want to test the sway bar, you can either remove the rear wheels, or just on the ground have someone push down on the rear of the car while you shine a flashlight through the wheel to observe the rear sway bar link and see if it moves around.

It's not a metallic tink tink. The more I think about it, the best way I can describe it is is sounds like the exhaust popping as I let off the gas. But, I don't think that's it because the noise doesn't go away when I accelerate.

OK. So I checked the exhaust, spare tire, and calipers and don't see where anything is loose. It is an intermittent noise and I can't duplicate it. This is going to drive me nuts.

Any other suggestions?

Do you have cats on the car? Maybe one is broken internally. Do they have heat sheilds on them??

I do have the cats on. Wouldn't a broken cat throw a check engine light?

Don't know about the heat shields. What are you thinking there?

any bushing can be bad,first to go is the dogbone bushings. easy visual check. pull the back wheel. if the mounting bolt does not appear dead center in dogbone your bushing are shot.. you can also use a small pry bar to move them around to check. easy fix. good luck

Will check that. Thanks,

Nope they sure won't set a code unless it takes out the O2 sensor. Heat sheilds can come loose/break welds and have a very annoying rattle.

loose lower shock nut.

Will check that. Thanks.

did cha find the problem?

Nope. Sure didn't. The exhaust, cats, heat shields, etc. look fine. Calipers are tight and so is the spare tire. I didn't have a chance to check bushings yet.

Here's the kicker. I drove the car about 20 miles last Friday and it didn't make the noise at all.

I had a rattle in the left rear also. Took it to my mechanic and we narrowed it down to a loose baffle in the muffler. Replaced the muffler and the rattle went away.

Drove 10 miles to work this morning. Again, no rattle. WTF???????

Okay, so imma tell my story now.... I replaced the optispark on my vette, and i forgot a socket that somehow managed to get into the area driver side between the engine bracket/chasis thing and the fender well... rattled constantly for about 3 weeks until i gave up and noticed it being shiny one afternoon when i was changing the oil.

Moral of the story....

not all noises are problems, some come and go and i attribute them to the mechanic gnomes