tmswift

I have a turbo 3.6 that did years of duty as a DE car. I'm now restoring it to street trim. It's Anthracite and I dearly love it and I'm going crazy trying to find the source of a rattle. It occurs nearly continuously when traveling over rough roads, which here in NJ is most of the time. It sounds like a washer being shaken in a can. It seems to come from behind the driver seat, and it sounds like it is inside the car. I've spent hours on it, and I've had my mechanic and a restoration shop try to find it. The latter thought it might be the left heater control flapper valve gone mad. Nope.

My theory is that at some point in installing track belts/seats, a nut/washer got loose and has worked itself into a body cavity, like a frame rail. There is an opening in the body structure near the shoulder harness - some kind of interior vent. This leads to the cavity in which the heater duct runs. We've put inspection scopes in it; I've tried to vacuum it; I've inserted a magnet and routed around - no joy. I've tried to access this cavity via the rear, where the heater valve is attached - put you can't get far without removing the heater duct. I'm contemplating that, but haven't looked at the front of the duct in the driver footwell to see how hard that is. I'm not optimistic...

I should also note that when viewing into this cavity, there appears to be fiberglass insulation pieces, suggesting a mice habitat at some time.

Can anyone think of where this noise might be coming from? Has anyone had to remove the LHS heating duct and, if so, what's involved? Is there any magic way to get into this space, other than at either end (and short of a plasma cutter)? How does one conduct a full body cavity search? Take it to Newark Airport?

This has become a multiple bourbon problem. Please help!

jimq

heater flapper door?

Rocket Rob

Have you looked inside the rocker panels? Could you have something loose inside?

Marc Shaw

Are you sure it is not a heat shield around the cat?

Marc

BIG'UN

Something else to try.
Sit in the rear of the car and unzip the headlining to expose 2 screws, one either side, give those a turn.
Drove me made for ages!

Andy.

AOW162435

Possibly a coin or coins under one of the seats? When I purchased my '95, I pulled both seats just to give a nice cleaning, and found all sorts of change under the seat, and under the aluminum DME brackets, etc.


Andreas

ghhally

Protection shield brake disc left rear.
Came loose on mine. Rattle, rattle....

tmswift

Thanks, guys, I appreciate the suggestions. Not the roof screws, no brake shields to rattle, not a heat shield, already took out the loose coins under the driver seat...I just took another ride in the back and I'm convinced is in in the body cavity where the heat ducting goes from back to front (just above the plastic rocker panels). Has anybody replaced this? My mechanic tells me he's seen it done once, and it required cutting open the body and then welding it back up. Ugghhh. If I could pull it out the ducting, I might be able to fish out whatever is in there...

hamah

Before I'd cut open the body I'd explore using some sort of expanding foam insulation around the duct inside that cavity.

Babalouie

Or maybe a squirt of cavity wax? That stuff protects against rust, and is sticky and (well...wax-like).

I use this stuff: http://www.wurth.co.uk/catalogue/pdfs/UK-CD_08_0556.pdf

You can also get this long spray hose with it, so you could feed it until the cavity, go nuts with spraying, and possibly it'll be sticky enough to hold down the coin in the sticky goo. (and protect against rust too!)

Laker

Acorns would be stashed by critters and invisible to a magnet.....

just a guess

sml

Get someone to sit in the back to try to pinpoint the noise as you drive.

Careful listening in the right position is a good start.

tmswift

Hmmm, acorns...Interesting thought. To my ear, this sounds like metal to metal, but you may be right. And I've gone for about half a dozen rides ink the back - passenger seat and rear trim removed, with my stethoscope. As for expanding foam, that is a clever idea. Upside: might work. Downside: might not work, and then make subsequent work more difficult (if we have to remove the heating duct). However, at that point, we may be talking surgical extraction anyway.

Metal Guru

Wow! I just solved this issue on my Turbo only last night.
The rattle that you are describing is exactly what I was hearing; like washers in a tin can. I could hear mine only when the window was down and I was driving next to a curb of wall.
Turned out to be the left rear center cap on the wheel. The steel spring ring is staked to the decorative casting. The assembly was very loose. I took a punch and mallet and re-staked the ring to the cap.
Go around your car and "knock" on your center caps. If one is loose you will hear it.

911Jetta

^^^^^^^
That would be awesome if that fixes tmswift's problem!
Go Rennlist!