Loud noise from drivers 1/4 panel
05-21-2015, 06:09 PM
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Staging Lane
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Loud noise from drivers 1/4 panel Looking for thoughts or suggestions. 2002 Trans Am. There has been a loud noise that sounds like something is loose or broken coming from the drivers 1/4 panel for a while. I'm about to jack up the rear of the car and pull the wheel right now. I've been under the car once before, yanked on everything, couldn't find anything loose. Also verified it's not anything in the door. Opened door while puttin around the neighborhood and could still clearly hear it. Also removed the 1/4 plastic in the back on the drivers side and put a lot down in the 1/4 and didn't see anything. Also pulled the plastic out in the rear hatch area to inspect that part of the 1/4 and didn't see anything.
Local f-body club member suggested pulling the rear seat and checking the top shock mount. That's likely what I will check first. Any other ideas?
Local f-body club member suggested pulling the rear seat and checking the top shock mount. That's likely what I will check first. Any other ideas?
05-21-2015, 08:30 PM
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Staging Lane
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Not the upper shock mount. Rubber bushing is good and solid. Tore the whole interior out on that side. Guessing custom exhaust, loose gas tank or broken shock. Not really sure. Inspected everything underneath. Everything's solid. Frustrating.
05-22-2015, 01:18 PM
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98% sure I figured it out. Directly below the outer seat belt mounting point for the rear passenger on the drivers side is a bundle of hard lines for fuel, brakes etc... Not directly beneath but very close. There is also a canister that I believe is the fuel filter in the same bundle connected to one of the hard lines. This canister is held in place by a mounting bracket that has two tabs that match up to a mounting point on the body that has two slits. There are no bolts or screws, it's like a resistance clamp you'd have to squeeze together to remove.
The hard lines have two points before and after the area where the fuel filter canister sits where they are held in place with two rubber mounts bolted to the body. Problem is there is a big distance between these two mounts. Although the hard lines felt pretty snug when grabbing them by hand they were rattling around a lot when the car was going down the road. Also the resistance clamp holding the fuel filter is a bare metal on bare metal assembly and moved around a lot when moved by hand. Between the hard lines vibrating and the filter vibrating around inside the clamp this was causing all the noise. Still unbelievable it was as loud as it was.
Just to test and verify I used three or four plastic tie straps to tighten up the cluster of hard lines. I also used one to pull the filter canister tight to the hard lines to limit how much it moves around. I also sprayed some WD between the canister and the resistance clamp holding it to help quiet the noise between the canister and clamp and the clamp vibrating inside the body mount.
Took it for a test drive and eliminated 98% of the noise I was hearing. Anyone else experience this? Have to figure out a better way to tighten everything up now for a more perm solution.
I can post pics if anyone needs them.
The hard lines have two points before and after the area where the fuel filter canister sits where they are held in place with two rubber mounts bolted to the body. Problem is there is a big distance between these two mounts. Although the hard lines felt pretty snug when grabbing them by hand they were rattling around a lot when the car was going down the road. Also the resistance clamp holding the fuel filter is a bare metal on bare metal assembly and moved around a lot when moved by hand. Between the hard lines vibrating and the filter vibrating around inside the clamp this was causing all the noise. Still unbelievable it was as loud as it was.
Just to test and verify I used three or four plastic tie straps to tighten up the cluster of hard lines. I also used one to pull the filter canister tight to the hard lines to limit how much it moves around. I also sprayed some WD between the canister and the resistance clamp holding it to help quiet the noise between the canister and clamp and the clamp vibrating inside the body mount.
Took it for a test drive and eliminated 98% of the noise I was hearing. Anyone else experience this? Have to figure out a better way to tighten everything up now for a more perm solution.
I can post pics if anyone needs them.
