schrute's journal

schrute

I've had a buzz/rattle that's been bothering me pretty much since the car was new. At first I thought it was coming from the crossbar in the rear, but to find out for sure I asked the wife to ride back there in the hatch (just for a mile or so, lol) and she found that is was coming from the headliner, just in front of the hatch and just a little to the right of the centerline of the car. She's a good sport, isn't she? No pics of her riding back there, I know my limits.

Today I finally got around to pulling out all the trim to get under the headliner. There's a couple threads already with pics on how to remove all the rear trim so I won't post those pics unless someone asks.

Pulling down the headliner.



This is what it looks like above the headliner at the back rear of the car (just in front of the hatch). A little piece of Dynamt was already here, but it's not doing its job - there's still a rattle up here somewhere.



A little tapping in the area and the rattle is found. This little wire just to the right of the centerline of the car at the rear of the headliner sounds like the culprit. The fastener that attaches it to the roof buzzed pretty good when I tapped on the roof. It was a surpise that the source of the noise that's been bugging me for a while pretty much every time I drove the car was coming from a little wire.



A little Dynamat should solve this problem.



Covered the wire/fastener with the Dynamat.



While I was at it I decided to cover the rest of this wire above the headliner with some Dynamat.



While I was tapping to find the rattle source these fasteners that hold the headliner to the roof were a little buzzy too.



A little electrical tape should make sure these don't rattle either.



While I had the hatch area all apart I did some more tapping and found a rattle in the area below the crossbar. On the left is the amp for the bose system, on the right is the bluetooth module on top with the XM module right below it. The little black thing on top of the BT module is the BT antenna.



The rattle in this area was coming from each side of the bluetooth module where it attaches to its bracket. A little Dynamat to dampen the rattle was applied to each side bracket.



A little more tapping and another rattle was found at the back of the car. There are two of these brackets on the back wall of the hatch area (just behind the spare tire).



Some more Dynamat applied where these brackets attach to the car.



More tapping after the Dynamat was applied and no more rattle.

That was all the rattles I could find in the back of the car by just tapping on stuff. The real test would come on the road. I'm very happy to say that my first drive with everything back together was pretty much rattle free. I still had a faint rattle from somewhere in the back of the car but it's nowhere near as loud as the one that seems to be eliminated above the headliner. It's a relief to have the loud rattle, the one I could hear above the radio, gone. The faint rattle I still have could only be heard with the radio off and me listening intently. I amost always drive with music playing so I doubt the faint rattle I heard will bother me anywhere near as bad. We'll see!

UPDATE: I'm 99% sure that the wire I found in the headlined goes to the XM antenna on the roof. So, if you don't have the Touring package, my rattle is not your rattle and this post won't help you. Don't want to waste anyone's time.

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schrute

I don't like the "egg yolk" look from the stock turn signal bulbs in the tail lights so I got these bulbs from Amazon. Finally got around to putting them in tonight.



Stock bulb



No more egg yolk

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schrute

The tail lights look better without the egg yolks, now they need some tint! I ordered some spray tint and clear coat from Amazon.



Nissan didn't make it easy to get to the taillights!



First step, clean the lenses with alcohol.



I chose to leave the clear part of the lens untinted. I used some pinstripe tape to outline the clear part of the lens.



Then some painters tape to finish masking the clear part.



Some more painters tape and newspaper to protect the back part of the tail light from overspray.



First coat.



Almost forgot the third brake light, lol. This thing was rediculous to remove. I don't want to do that again. First coat.



Second coat on the tail lights. This pic was taken with a flash so the red shows through the tint more in the pic than it does in person.



One coat of clear coat then.... Oh yeah!



You can still see the brake lights just fine (I didn't want to reduce visibility from the rear so I only used two coats).



LED reverse lights from v-leds.com.



The chrome coated turn signal bulbs seem plenty bright.



I'll get some better pics in the daylight.

The headlights are screaming to get blacked out now. It never ends!

UPDATE: a couple days later I was checking out the lights up close for the first time and realized that the edge of the tint where the clear part was masked has kind of an edge to it. Down the road that edge can catch on something maybe and start peeling the tint. So I added another two coats of clear just to give some peace of mind about that edge. If I had it to do over I would remove the masking after spraying the tint then add two coats of clear, sealing that edge right away.

UPDATE #2: the finish was a little rough so I used a small amount of rubbing compound to smooth things out. The look of the lights didn't change but they're now a bit smoother which should attract less dirt and clean off easier.

I also got a better pic

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schrute

Replaced differential oil with Redline 75W90 synthetic GL-5 gear oil at 4737 miles. Spearfish25's DYI was a huge help. Thanks Spearfish, Rep added!

Check out the junk the magnetic drain bolt was hanging onto





From what I understand the Diff sheds its excess material at a much faster rate early, as in the first 1-2k miles. It's nice to have it out of there, and fresh clean oil in its place (not to mention the benefit of high-end Redline fluids). I expect the next Diff fluid change will have much less of this junk to clean out.

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schrute

Replaced manual transmission oil with 50/50 mix of Redline MTL and Redline MT-90 at 4737 miles using Spearfish25's DIY - Thanks again man!

The shifter action is noticeably improved, the shifter slips into gear just a little smoother. Feels great. I like it. Worth the effort.

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schrute

Switched to the winter wheelset @ 5401 miles.

Blizzak LM-25's in the stock 18" sizes (225/50, 245/45) on OEM 18" wheels powdercoated flat black.

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Jquad

are these pair when you buy them? or each?