How to solve unwanted noises in your car

[Columbian78]

Rattle noises are very common in many cars, even when new.

There are a thousand causes of unwanted noises in a car and I'm sure many of you had spent many frustrated hours trying to rid them.

I am very sensitive to interior cabin noises and will always spend alot of efforts trying to identify and eliminate them.

So I thought of starting this thread for everybody to share how they solve their unwanted car noises.

 

Here, I want to share one type that had been bugging me for 6 months and how to solve it. I have other cases and I will subsequently post them in this thread, with photos to guide. I drive a 2014 Sylphy.

 

This particular rattle noise is a single "tiak" sound that sounded usually when turning or small road perturbations at slower speed. It seems to come from front passenger dash area. It sounded like something loose hitting gently against plastic. Had tried to rectify it with tan chong during last 3 servicing but not successful. I was pretty sure the source is from within the cabin or dash area and not from engine bay area so I had been spending majority of my efforts internally.

 

I was wrong. It came from engine bay area. There is this cable that was not secured, at the battery side, near to the front left suspension top mount. See photo. If i manually hit it against the metal chassis, it produced a similar tiak sound. So i use a cable tie to secure it so it does not move freely. After that, that tiak sound was no longer there. I tested through 1 day of normal driving.

 

I am not sure what signal this cable carries but there is a similar one at the other side. I secured that as well. So look around your engine bay area for such unsecured cables and clamp it down!

 

 

 

[Jamesc]

Rattle noises are very common in many cars, even when new.

There are a thousand causes of unwanted noises in a car and I'm sure many of you had spent many frustrated hours trying to rid them.

I am very sensitive to interior cabin noises and will always spend alot of efforts trying to identify and eliminate them.

 

 

Oh I thought you meant MIL

 

making unwanted noises

 

in the back. Sometimes noises

 

from on end, sometimes the other end.

 

[Mercury1]

Thanks for sharing @columbian78

[F355]

I simply turn up my radio volume .

[Chivanloh]

Thanks for sharing!

[tyco_kia]

Kudos to you bro for sharing!

[Lotr]

Rattle noises are very common in many cars, even when new.

There are a thousand causes of unwanted noises in a car and I'm sure many of you had spent many frustrated hours trying to rid them.

I am very sensitive to interior cabin noises and will always spend alot of efforts trying to identify and eliminate them.

So I thought of starting this thread for everybody to share how they solve their unwanted car noises.

 

Here, I want to share one type that had been bugging me for 6 months and how to solve it. I have other cases and I will subsequently post them in this thread, with photos to guide. I drive a 2014 Sylphy.

 

This particular rattle noise is a single "tiak" sound that sounded usually when turning or small road perturbations at slower speed. It seems to come from front passenger dash area. It sounded like something loose hitting gently against plastic. Had tried to rectify it with tan chong during last 3 servicing but not successful. I was pretty sure the source is from within the cabin or dash area and not from engine bay area so I had been spending majority of my efforts internally.

 

I was wrong. It came from engine bay area. There is this cable that was not secured, at the battery side, near to the front left suspension top mount. See photo. If i manually hit it against the metal chassis, it produced a similar tiak sound. So i use a cable tie to secure it so it does not move freely. After that, that tiak sound was no longer there. I tested through 1 day of normal driving.

 

I am not sure what signal this cable carries but there is a similar one at the other side. I secured that as well. So look around your engine bay area for such unsecured cables and clamp it down!

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Thanks for sharing!!! NIce pics, your engine bay looks really new!!!

[Nissan833]

My new car leather keeps rubbing against the seats hard plastic (where you adjust seat angle, front and back etc) especially during cornering or when I am adjusting myself so I apply some vaseline, then the sound gone liao!

[Heartbreakid]

I have encountered a few rattling noise issue too. I drive an Avante. When the car was new, it was great but when wear and tear sets in, rattling sets in. Most of them, I managed to discover and resolved it myself. If you are those who DIY will perhaps do what I did, like off the radio and drive. This helps to identify the source of noise much better. Depend on workshop, they wont know where and what (because they dont spend as much time as you in your car to be able to hear it), and they might just trial and error and remove this and that and make matters worse. But if it is a known issue, usually the workshop can rectify the issue. So here are some of my unwanted noise encounters:

 

1) Whenever going over a hump or slope diagonally, the rear glass will have a cracking sound intermittently. It just sounds like someone tapped on the glass hard with knackles. Sprayed silicone spray around the glass seal area solves this "cracking" sound. This happens when the car was new too. Apparently, after reading from some websites and forums from overseas, the seal around the glass is dry and hence by spraying silicone lubricates and kill the noise. Point to note only use those spray without petrol distillation contents.

 

2) Front windscreen cowling rattling noise. From the interior, it sounded like within the dashboard emitted the soft rattling or buzzing, the noise is more apparent when going over rough road surfaces. In the end, it was the side cowlings at the base of the front windscreen causing it due to the plastic contact internally with the edges of the windscreen. Added some foam tape at the glass edge to cushion the contact solves this rattling.

 

3) Rear rattling sound when going over road strips or rough road surfaces or those carpark ramps. When brakes applied no such rattling noise. Found out the rear brake calipers and the brake pads got gap which allow the brake caliper to have some play to move about. Used foam double-sided tape to stick the brake pad to the calipers to fill the gap. Disc still allow to rotate freely without the pads rubbing the disc. (Happens only when wear and tear to brake pads set in.)

 

4) Buzzing noise within the interior. This is tricky because this buzzing noise happens only intermittently regardless of road surfaces. Found out one of the roof lining securing clip at the rear is the cause. It is not loose or broken, just that perhaps some some play in between which is good enough to cause minor buzzing. Replaced with another solved the issue.

 

 

Some say, why bother, some will say just turn on the radio's volume to mask it. But to some, getting a new car, these issues arent acceptable because it is annoying and distracting and kills the joy of owning a new car experience. Well, to each of their own. And I hope I can help abit by contributing some of my experience. Drive safe and enjoy the weekend everyone. Cheers!!

[Bezbee]

Thanks for starting this thread, I think this is very useful and gives us new insights to those "strange" sounds.

 

I am also sensitive to weird sound coming out of the car... I would definitely turn down my radio to try to identify the source.

[flashbang]

Sometimes I hear a noise but I'm unable to find the source. It's a faint squeaking sound coming from the front right side, like the sound of metal being rubbed. Not belt squeal as I know how that sounds like. The sound appears when driving only, at any speed. It can appear at 50-60km/h, or when slowing down at traffic light.

[LonG90]

Sometimes I hear a noise but I'm unable to find the source. It's a faint squeaking sound coming from the front right side, like the sound of metal being rubbed. Not belt squeal as I know how that sounds like. The sound appears when driving only, at any speed. It can appear at 50-60km/h, or when slowing down at traffic light.

 

 

I used to have this problem. Found out it came from my brake pad. The brake pad tab was grinding against my rotor, change pad and problem solved.

[flashbang]

 

 

I used to have this problem. Found out it came from my brake pad. The brake pad tab was grinding against my rotor, change pad and problem solved.

 

Did you also have a squeaking sound when braking? Mine doesn't squeak when braking.

Edited May 31, 2015 by flashbang

[Columbian78]

 

Did you also have a squeaking sound when braking? Mine doesn't squeak when braking.

If it squeaks only when braking then it is pretty clear something wrong with the front brakes. Did this started after a servicing or changing brake items like pads? For brakes, should go and have it checked by workshop. Other than item reaching end of life, it could be improper assembling causing things to hit.

 

I had this problem with my previous car, a 2007 Honda Jazz gd1. But the squeak came from the rear drum brakes, after a servicing. Can hear a continuous faint squeaking sound when braking all the way until the car stopped moving. After a few days I brought it back to the workshop to rectify. I am not sure exactly what went wrong but it was due to improper reassembly when they service one of the the rear brakes. They re assembled it and it was ok.

[ER-3682]

Wow,you got super ears..

[ER-3682]

Anyway,for Tan Chong servicing,when come to catch unwanted noise,they are very lousy,also for high performance cars like my 370z,they knew almost nothing,they blamed the car is rare,like your turbo car,they also don't know what went wrong...

[Ktglfc]

Thanks for sharing :))

 

I also experienced "unpleasant" noise when driving my new altis...

just some faint noise...

But have grown to get used to it... and when radio volume is turned on, can barely heard anything :))

[flashbang]

If it squeaks only when braking then it is pretty clear something wrong with the front brakes. Did this started after a servicing or changing brake items like pads? For brakes, should go and have it checked by workshop. Other than item reaching end of life, it could be improper assembling causing things to hit.

 

I had this problem with my previous car, a 2007 Honda Jazz gd1. But the squeak came from the rear drum brakes, after a servicing. Can hear a continuous faint squeaking sound when braking all the way until the car stopped moving. After a few days I brought it back to the workshop to rectify. I am not sure exactly what went wrong but it was due to improper reassembly when they service one of the the rear brakes. They re assembled it and it was ok.

 

Nope, the thing is that it doesn't squeak when braking. That's why wondering if it's really brake pads.