Technical Chasing miscellaneous noises, squeaks and rattles

Does anyone have a systematic method for isolating all of the unwanted noises that seem to be baked into our rides.
Is it body panels? Suspension? Interference with some other part that makes a racket on the road but is impossible to duplicate in the driveway?

I’ve been driving my hot rod for 12 years now and some of the sounds are original to the build, some gave up the ghost and stopped annoying me on their own and I swear some of them are a new crop every season.

I would love to hear how you guys have nailed some of these audio menaces in your own rides.

 

Don't have a problem with rattles and squeaks. It's wind noise in my roadster that bugs me with a really aloying loud whistling sound I can't track down. Never used to do it.

 

Just like my wife, she says I can hear well but just don’t listen.

 

I just turn the radio up louder and wait for the part to stop working or fall off. I have had a couple of cars which had strange rattles when I bought them, could not duplicate the sounds in the workshop, triple checked components in that system , and kept looking for them until the car was sold on.

 

Find a quiet place to work. Turn off radios, stereos, fans, air compressors, etc. With the car on the ground, press the body down and lift it up, loading it against the suspension, like you were checking for bad shock absorbers. Listen for pops, clunks groans and squeaks. Do the same thing pushing the body sideways against the chassis. Sometimes it might just be easier to spray silicone lube on any rubber suspension bits like bushings and sway bar mounts, shock bushings and rubber body mountings. It may help to have a second set of ears to listen for noises on the opposite side of the vehicle.

With the doors fully closed and latched, push the doors further into their closed position and listen. Do the same thing with the hood an deck lid. Check the fitment and condition of any weather stripping between the panels and the body. They will occasionally make some odd moaning and creaking noises.

When I worked at a GM dealership, for a few years we heard some complaints of a popping or squawking noise that seemed to come from the dash area on some late 70s Malibus and Monte Carlos. There was a small rubber bumper in the center of the cowl area that rode against the underside of the hood, probably to keep the trailing edge of the hood from vibrating at speed. On some cars it developed a point of "stiction" and caused a noise when the hood panel moved over the top of the bumper and the sound got transmitted back into the dash area. A small dab of lithium or silicone grease quieted things right down.

Under the car look for any witness marks where two metal parts are making contact where they shouldn't. Look for clean, bare metal surfaces as well as signs of fresh, bright reddish-orange rust. You'll sometimes see this on u-joints that have lost their lube and are starting to wear themselves out.

As far as wind noises go, keep in mind that raising or lowering the front and/or back of a vehicle may disturb air flow just enough to create new noises around moldings and loosely fitted sheet metal panels. Wind noises may be the most difficult to pinpoint and correct.

 

Ear plugs….

 

I find it hard to believe that a sixty+ year old car, that has been taken apart, abused, modified and reassembled a few times, would have any rattles and squeaks...

 

Do like I do , wear earplugs , save your hearing while you have some left to save .

 

Rubber or whatever they are made out of , are not supposed to turn in their mounts , they twist , like a torsion bar , they stay attached to their sleeves & the sleeves don't rotate either .

 

I spray a shit ton of Gibbs oil in the vicinity of the noise & hope it stops.

 

What is noise and when does it happen? This is the basis for any diagnostics.

I don't like a lot of the things designers do to modern stuff to cut NVH, but there is a science to it.
Here is one article about it, with tools. I'd imagine there are a hundred others.
https://www.vehicleservicepros.com/...d-drivability/article/21093831/diagnosing-nvh

 

I go around smacking suspect areas and listen for the rattle. Also a good idea to have someone else drive while you scoot around the passenger area and listen for what’s bugging ya. The last dealership I worked at had an electronic device with multiple sensors and a screen that told you which one was closest to the noise. Good luck

 

Have your wife ride with you and listen. I think they have an innate ability for that sort of thing. My wife can always hear things that I don’t want her to hear.

 

I do nothing on my personal rides. I dig the noises
On customers rides I’d check every bolt and screw to make sure they tightened.
The interior was insulated with hush mat.
All new weatherstrips, door stops and windlacing
New body bushings and or welting
Proper engine and trans mounts.
Spring bushings replaced
Every thing greased properly
Anti rattlers on door handle rods

 

I thought that WAS the reason for building these old cars! So that we could experience them the way they were way back when they originally had all those squeeks and rattles!

 

Squeaks and rattles are as traditional as it gets...

 

Character noises

 

Yep.
I am exhibiting more of those myself as I get older....

 

Squeaks, rattles and wind whistles are indeed traditional.
But, sometimes they can be overwhelming and even irritating. Those kinds can take away some of the fun of these old rides.
There is no real "every time fix" with most of those fun noises, but there are some general things that can cause some of them.

Squeaks are generally where there are two pieces held together that are supposed to be tight, but are not. The squeaks are the two pieces moving against each other. Sometimes simply tightening nuts, bolts or screws solves the squeaks, sometimes adding washers under the bolt or screw heads helps, and sometimes adding something between the two objects solves the problem. Sometimes, a squeak can be two things that should not be together, but are rubbing together (I've had small pebbles get in between two pieces of sheet metal, those squeaks drove my crazy until I found it).

Rattles are usually two items that are not suppose to be together, coming together. Sometimes, tightening fasteners on one or both pieces solves the problem. Sometimes adding more clearance (a slight bending of one or both pieces) solves the problem, and sometimes adding something between the two pieces helps. Parts with worn or missing rubber can rattle too.

Whistling is usually caused be air passing through, between, around, or over closely placed things. Often times, aging weatherstripping shrinks and doesn't fill the gap it used to and is allowing air to now pass between places it didn't used to get through. Wind whistles are the hardest to find, and a "fix" might just change the pitch of the whistle and not stop it. Sometimes, if you believe you know where the whistle is coming from, a piece of duct tape over two panels may stop, or change the pitch. Fixing it could require new, more, or bigger weatherstripping. Sometimes, eliminating, or reducing the size or amount of weatherstripping can create a large enough gap the noise goes away (now you have an air draft). Closing up gaps usually helps, but not always. Whistles can also be dry (not lubricated) or or rusty metal rubbing together.

Finding the location of the squeaks, rattles, and whistles can be a challenge, by having an idea of what generally causes them may be helpful.
Searching for squeaks, rattles and whistles are as traditional as the squeaks, rattles, and whistles themselves are. I suggest you only search for the ones that really bother you.

 

Not with a combined 1,600W in audio gear.

 

My mom never learned how to drive, although she could drive a car, she never got a license. So we would truck her back and forth to work, go shopping, etc.

There was a rattle on the windshield frame on my '64 Olds that drove her nuts. She goes inside the house, comes out with the top of a cereal box, proceeds to fold it up and jams it between the garnish and glass... no more rattle/squeak. This was great until someone riding shotgun says... what is this... and pulls it out .

 

Time to visit mom!

 

Steelman chassis ear for the noises that transmit from outside the cab. A buddy to drive and a slow, bumpy road for the interior.

 

Plastic panels used for interior trim like door panels, gauge cluster trim. dash trim panels, HVAC ducts and window surround molding are often held in place with molded-in tabs and slots. And the are often assembled dry which can make for various clicks, pops, squeaks and moans.

If you can disassemble these items without breaking the mounting tabs, try smearing a little bit of dielectric grease around the tabs and slots and other contact surfaces to keep things quieter and make the panels easier to disassemble in the future. The dielectric grease won't harm the plastic.

 

Yay!
Early on in the thread, someone suggested moving the body around I went into the garage and started to bounce the body…nothing. But then I lifted the truck bed and let go of it. THUD THUD THUD!
on a bump of sufficient force, the bed was bouncing off the frame due to faulty fasteners.
I immediately checked the same location on the opposite side of the truck only to find I had already fixed that side with new bolts( although I didn’t remember doing it)

I fixed the offending side the same way and the noise is gone… only to reveal a few smaller, less annoying rattles, oh well, thanks for the help guys!

 

I picked up an annoying squeak on the Willys coming back from Lloydfest last year. Took a while to figure out. The right front body mount cracked from the pounding it encountered on I-75. The floor was rubbing on the frame in that corner. Jacked it up, welded it up, problem solved!

 

I had a wind whistle on an off topic car. I found it by going around the car with masking tape, and taping all the chrome trim to the body. Then with the whistle gone started to remove it a piece at a time until it came back. Turned out a piece of chrome trim on the rear fender had moved back 1/8". It left a gap between the trim on the rear door which caused a whistle. Moved it back into position, problem solved.

 

That's all my car is, squeaks, groans, rattles, whistles. Makes it feel like it is going faster than it is!!

 

Squeaks, rattles, groans, whistles or not, that thing is awesome! There's just not enough Willys 77's in the world.

 

Forgot about taping over door and body panel gaps to isolate wind noises. Also taping over the edges of windshield and backlight exterior moldings can help find wind noises as well as mysterious water leaks.

Drag racers used to put masking tape over door and window frame gaps and other body panel seams to check for body and frame flexing. After doing a couple of hard launches an observer outside the vehicle would check for any splits or tears in the tape indicating excess movement between the panels, before the driver opened any doors or windows. Might also help to locate some hard to find squeaks and squawks due to body flexing.