Anyone have a rattle coming from........

Originally Posted by shesha

What trips me out, is at first I thought it was coming from the back, then I realized it sounds more like passenger side rear. I don't know man. I almost killed myself trying to figure it out on the freeway this morning.


It sounds like 100 drops of water are hitting a tin can all in sucsession.

Originally Posted by LunaZ

After four visits under the headliner, I finally cured my rattling, vibrating noises.
Through this process, I got really fast at disassembling the interior of my car, but I hope to not need this skill in the future.

What I found to be rattling and vibrating was above me, at about 4:00 relative to my position in the driver's seat. I could make the vibrating stop by pressing up on the headliner, so I knew that this was where I needed to look.

On a previous visit under the headliner, I had secured the clips that hold the headliner up by adding double-sided foam tape to the tab that protrudes from the clip, sandwiching the tab so that the clip couldn't move in its holder. I also put duct tape over the clip to isolate it from the metal of the body.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the source of the rattle.

I also duct taped down the wire that is visible when you pull the headliner down.
Refer to the images in schrute's album
Unfortunately, that wasn't the culprit either.

Having pinpointed where the noises were coming from, I slid my hand further under the headliner towards the front of the car where the inside of the roof curves upward. Just ahead of this curve, I found another wiring bundle coming out of the satellite/navigation antenna. I wedged foam insulation under this plastic covered wiring bundle and taped it securely to prevent movement.
I can't show you a picture of this because there is no way to get the camera in there. Just slide your hand in there and you'll find it just to the right of the antenna!
While I was under the headliner (again), I re-insulated the wire closer to the hatch, securing the plastic clips with double-sided foam tape, wedging foam insulation between the wire and the metal roof, and duct taping the whole thing down.

I can proudly say that my car no longer rattles over bumps, no longer vibrates to the beat like a $500 hooptie with a $5000 stereo, and most importantly, I can drive down the road without constantly looking up at the headliner.

Hope this info helps those of you who have rattles over your heads!

Originally Posted by wh!plash

Sorry to bump a zombie thread, but this thread lead me to discover the cause of my rattle, so I wanted to add.

I had a particularly loud buzz that was persistent all the time, no matter the speed or road surface. Sounded 100% like the rear hatch, so I took all the panels off that surround the rear glass, and I used felt tape (1" wide x 1mm thick) everywhere there was plastic-on-metal contact. Much to my dismay, that didn't solve it.

It really sounded like it was the rear glass buzzing, and I discovered that while stopped, I could tap/knock on the inside of the rear glass to make the buzz happen. Sure enough, pressing on the headliner solved the buzz.

Pulling the headliner down in the back is really not as bad a job as I thought. I just popped the top two tabs on the plastic panels surrounding the tiny rear side window, and that gave enough clearance to get a screwdriver in and pop off the clips pictured. The protruding end of the male clip actually sits on that really wide flat base which is glued to the headliner board, but the clip actually has quite a bit of play since its held on by a type of rail system. I used felt tape to stop the clip from sliding in its rail, and I then used a square of felt on the metal roof where the hole is also. Cut a square, fold in half, and cut the edge off to make a hole the shape of the clip. Did this to all four clips on my headliner, and its definitely seemed to solve my issue so far.

Originally Posted by ZCarGo

Yes, I was the one who identified the rattling gas cover locking mechanism.

Well it turns out there are more rattles. Nothing drives me more freaking nuts than these freaking rattles!!!

Alright, so I took care of the locking mechanism. More rattles started. Back to my original suspicion that it was something in the hatch. It had quieted down during the cold weather, but now that it's warmed up again, the rattles have come back with a vengeance. Here's what I've been able to identify.

1. Hatch..as others have described, remove the hatch covers. You have to pop open the covers on the hooks where the retractable cover attaches to gain access to the 10mm bolts holding these clips in place. You must remove the clips before you can pop off the plastic covers. Near the back (near the brake light) of the hatch, you will find two square boxes..one on each side. Both are different sizes, but attached the same way to the hatch (10mm bolt). I have no idea what they do, but my guess is something to do with the defroster. Unscrew the bastards and put a piece of foam tape (I used double sided heat resistant foam tape and only removed on side. I stuck this to the hatch, so the metal box rests on top of the non-sticky cover.

2. Next, the wiring throughout the hatch has the plastic sleeve that can rattle if squashed at all. I retaped and secured it to the hatch in a few more places than what the manufacturer did. All of the wiring under the spare and throughout the car are in the same plastic sleeve.

3. Headliner directly behind the dome light controls. I haven't tackled this one yet as I'm still trying to figure out what the best approach for insulating it would be. I was thinking of using filter floss and tucking between the liner and roof panel. As long as there's no electrical wiring, I think this will work.

So after reassembling, the noise coming from the hatch was greatly reduced. (almost tollerable) I believe the remaining noise must be coming from the plastic sleeve surrounding the wiring in the hatch or the clips which hold the wiring to the car. I will work on this over the weekend.

When I filled out the JD Powers survey, I reamed them on the rattles. My comments were exactly what was said in an earlier post. A nearly $40K car shouldn't rattle.

The thing that really burns me is I bought my wife an EX35. The damn thing has a rattle that's been driving her crazy. She usually doesn't even notice rattles. I drive down the road slamming the dashboard or hitting the glove box and she thinks I'm nuts. Infiniti has an add showing these idiots with stethoscopes listening for rattles so they can eliminate them. Clearly the guys with the stethoscopes are deaf. I'm beginning to wonder if Nissan/Infiniti are just prone to rattles.

This has been so significant for me that I'm considering never buying a Nissan/Infiniti product again, which is a shame because every other aspect of both cars are excellent.

-ZCarGo-