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Rattling
- Thread starter Suprawill1
- Start date
OP
Thread Starter
#5
I had a rattle on rear passenger's side that only occurs on the highway I have been trying to hunt down.
I found the rear passenger bolt threaded on by 3 turns. The plastic trim on the chair pulls up the bolt to prevent it from going in all the way and as a result the plastic cover for the spring is lose and so is the trim for the chair. I used a drill to shave it down, utilize an impact driver with torx bit to monkey it on. Now its tight and secured, need to road test sometime this week.
I found the rear passenger bolt threaded on by 3 turns. The plastic trim on the chair pulls up the bolt to prevent it from going in all the way and as a result the plastic cover for the spring is lose and so is the trim for the chair. I used a drill to shave it down, utilize an impact driver with torx bit to monkey it on. Now its tight and secured, need to road test sometime this week.
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Continuing to hunt it down now that my baby car seat is no longer in the suv and I want to figure it out. the right black bolts were also lose and I tightened them and I taped the covers, will do a road test later. I also discovered something flappy in the spring bottom thats lose but couldn’t get to it today, will take a photo next time
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Tried that already, also tried it in different positions. Rattle continues after tightening. It's definitely coming from the center, interior, rear passenger side where the metal rail meets the plastic. I have kids, there's even a possibility they dropped stuff in between. The rattle only occurs above 60mph, not any city driving/hills/etc. And it is a plastic tapping against metal
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Unscrewed the plastic trim on center rail rear passenger where I tighten previously and rear screw in the back that not pictured. I popped off the front plastic cover halfway and lined it with some double sided sticky but did not peel one side until I am sure it is the fix. I prefer double sided sticky because it has a foam center and stops movement for rattles and works better in heat. there was a screw in the center of the plastic trim rail cover that connected the rear to the front, I couldn't take off because the clip wasnt unclipping and I didn’t want to break it.
What I found was clear indication the metal rail and plastic trim were tapping and rubbing due to marks on the metal rail. I circled the contact points.
In the front I lined the metal to plastic contact points with double sided and where the trim met the metal. On the rail it’s a 6 inch piece. In the rear, its two half inch pieces I wedged in there, one on each side but the photo only shows one side because I wedged it in later.
Fingers crossed that this fixes it.
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Also found a spring loaded thing under each chair and lined it with 3m foam for the contact points where metal meets metal. Did not solve the problem.
Also thought maybe the all season 3rd row mat was hitting the chair rail, so I took that out as well to test. Did not solve the problem.
What I found was clear indication the metal rail and plastic trim were tapping and rubbing due to marks on the metal rail. I circled the contact points.
In the front I lined the metal to plastic contact points with double sided and where the trim met the metal. On the rail it’s a 6 inch piece. In the rear, its two half inch pieces I wedged in there, one on each side but the photo only shows one side because I wedged it in later.
Fingers crossed that this fixes it.
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Also found a spring loaded thing under each chair and lined it with 3m foam for the contact points where metal meets metal. Did not solve the problem.
Also thought maybe the all season 3rd row mat was hitting the chair rail, so I took that out as well to test. Did not solve the problem.
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Adding all the foam did not work for the high speed rattle, but the car is now as quiet as a mouse over the 1000 city bumps I go over on a daily. This is definitely an engineering design issue, theses parts should've been lined with foam to stop rattles and the plastic screw caps same thing, should be lined with foam (electric tape does the same). So I started exploring rattle forums under the body of the vehicle as @Cdubya suggested and jacked up one side of the vehicle on stands. I found the following:
1. passenger side under body cover (covered in multiple threads) had a bolt that was threaded 2 times near the rear wheel, took about 16 turns to bolt it down, I'll take photos later. This lose bolt would have cause the body cover to flap at high speeds and hit the the mid pipe muffler but was not necessarily the sound that was bothering me. This is the second bolt I have found just literally hanging by a thread, the quality control group and the assemblers are lazy turds or pissed at the vehicle because they can't afford it. I did not have any of these issues in my 2020 Ford Edge ST.
2. The passenger side under body cover cover bolts were also unusually lose, contributing to a flapping under body, about 2 turns to tighten each one.
3. The passenger side clip (just one), was also popped off, I will take off and replace with metal bolt when I have time. I pushed it back in for now.
4. All the heat shield bolts were not hand tight, each one could take 1.5 turns until it was torqued on to hand tight, which could contribute to rattling at speed.
5. There is another heat shield on top of the muffler, same thing, those bolts took another 1.5 turns until it was torqued on to hand tight.
6. Most importantly.... There are two overlapping pieces of heat shield in the center of the vehicle (where the rear chairs are) that are not bolted to the body, but at high speeds would definitely tap and occurred "exactly" where the noise was coming from in the cabin. These overlapping pieces have a slight gap between the body to the shield and to the overlapping shield. I utilizes 3m high heat, waterproof all weather double sided sticky to solve it. Since the gap was slightly larger, I double stacked each 3m sticky between the heat shields and where the shield meets the body.
I will take photos of everything and upload later.
Took the vehicle on a road test thing morning, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, noise solved!
I spent a total of 20 mins tightening bolts and adding the 3m foam under the vehicle.
The Explorer ST is definitely not a starter car if you can't hunt down rattles or issues with some basic tools.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BU7038A/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
These work on mounting auto parts such as HIDs and work for years,e.g. even after 8 years of mounting through summer heat, snow, you still have to pull and clean it off for it not to stick.
1. passenger side under body cover (covered in multiple threads) had a bolt that was threaded 2 times near the rear wheel, took about 16 turns to bolt it down, I'll take photos later. This lose bolt would have cause the body cover to flap at high speeds and hit the the mid pipe muffler but was not necessarily the sound that was bothering me. This is the second bolt I have found just literally hanging by a thread, the quality control group and the assemblers are lazy turds or pissed at the vehicle because they can't afford it. I did not have any of these issues in my 2020 Ford Edge ST.
2. The passenger side under body cover cover bolts were also unusually lose, contributing to a flapping under body, about 2 turns to tighten each one.
3. The passenger side clip (just one), was also popped off, I will take off and replace with metal bolt when I have time. I pushed it back in for now.
4. All the heat shield bolts were not hand tight, each one could take 1.5 turns until it was torqued on to hand tight, which could contribute to rattling at speed.
5. There is another heat shield on top of the muffler, same thing, those bolts took another 1.5 turns until it was torqued on to hand tight.
6. Most importantly.... There are two overlapping pieces of heat shield in the center of the vehicle (where the rear chairs are) that are not bolted to the body, but at high speeds would definitely tap and occurred "exactly" where the noise was coming from in the cabin. These overlapping pieces have a slight gap between the body to the shield and to the overlapping shield. I utilizes 3m high heat, waterproof all weather double sided sticky to solve it. Since the gap was slightly larger, I double stacked each 3m sticky between the heat shields and where the shield meets the body.
I will take photos of everything and upload later.
Took the vehicle on a road test thing morning, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, noise solved!
I spent a total of 20 mins tightening bolts and adding the 3m foam under the vehicle.
The Explorer ST is definitely not a starter car if you can't hunt down rattles or issues with some basic tools.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BU7038A/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
These work on mounting auto parts such as HIDs and work for years,e.g. even after 8 years of mounting through summer heat, snow, you still have to pull and clean it off for it not to stick.
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Triangle piece is the overlapping heat shield that contacts the body if vibrating at high speeds.I am pointing to the clip that was basically off and the bolt near the rear wheel threaded on by two turns. I am also pointing to a location behind mid pipe where bolts were also could be tightened, the pictures are not all inclusive. I suggest you hunt around with a wrench and start tightening everything.
I also examined control arm, sway links, on front right side, nothing appears to be obviously wrong to create a low speed clunk in the passenger front. Even poked around the battery bay, nothing obviously lose.
I also examined control arm, sway links, on front right side, nothing appears to be obviously wrong to create a low speed clunk in the passenger front. Even poked around the battery bay, nothing obviously lose.
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