Mikes25thAnnTA

I'd say the answer is obvious. It's a tried and true lounge method that has been in use at least as long as I've been a member here...

Sell it. No 4th gen, then no 4th gen rattle/squeak/clunk/vibration/resonation problems.

JakeRobb

I had a rattle coming from the center console -- turns out the bolts holding the shifter stick to the actual shifter were coming loose. Some loctite fixed that.

The car as a whole started making more squeaks in general over time -- it became really noticeable after 75k miles. Subframe connectors fixed that!

The plastic inserts on my door sills used to resonate when I turned up the music. I popped off the inserts and put down a couple of 1" square pieces of dynamat; fixed!

Good thread. Let's hear some more! I've been thinking about doing some spray-on sound insulation on the underside of the car, with particular focus on the rear half of the car. I think it'll make it a lot more pleasant to drive.

T/A-Bob

Earplugs.


.


.

@OP, thanks for the tip on the rear seats. Mine don't clunk but they do squeak. Makes me crazy. I'll give your suggestion a shot.

I used to have my console moving and shaking around, and I found if I clipped it (under the dash) to something solid (using those large springy clips you get at office max to hold a pile of papers together) that made it quite solid.

Threxx

Ummm... I think the words "lost cause" could be defined by the phrase "4th gen rattles."

Seriously... other than masking it, you might as well be fighting a house fire with a squirt gun.

JakeRobb

Oh, another thing to add: if you're still running the stock shocks, get rid of them! There are a number of options out there that will reduce harshness without any sacrifice in handling (and most of them will improve handling).

I can't speak for the others, but I'm not going for Lexus-level quiet here. I would, however, like it to be at least as good as it was when it's new, maybe a little better.

Rising Phoenix

Seems really hit or miss with these cars. My old 95 Firebird Formy with ~100k miles had some squeaks and rattles and it was a hard top, but my 143k mile 95 t-top Z28 was pretty damn quiet (before I modded it up anyway.) No major squeaks, rattles, or bangs except on extraordinarily large potholes and the like (pretty hard to avoid that with a live rear axle car and low profile tires.) I'm sure it would have been even better with new OEM style shocks.

Now my 02 Z hardtop is super quiet and tight. The ONE thing it has is a slight squeak from what sounds like the front left suspension, but I am running aftermarket stuff so that will happen.

The one thing that really does bug me about these cars, in EVERY ONE I have been in (I've ridden in like at least 12 different 4th gens) is all the damn wind noise from the side windows! We have those looooong windows without frames so we have nothing to rely on except PERFECTLY adjusted window alignment, fresh and "fat" weatherstripping, and healthy door hinge pins and door strikers. Every one I've been in has a pretty healthy roar at highway speeds SOMEWHERE along the side windows. My 02 is silent on the passenger side but has a lot of wind roar coming from the top front of the driver side window, even though the glass looks tight up against the weatherstripping.

Need4Camaro

Mine doesn't rattle / squeak at all... ...course due to a blown head gasket it doesn't run at all either

Drive XR7

+1

Sell the old GM. Buy new.

canbaufo

Exactly. If I can just cut my noises in half it will be worthwhile to me. I'm not going to kid myself though, this will never be a quiet/refined car like the 5th gens ...it's just inherent in the design. I just look forward to being able to have a conversation a little easier (when the Borla is closed), that's all....

dtp

Plenty of squeaks and rattles here, I think they started kicking in at around 20k. 98z with the t-tops, the wind noise is the most annoying part.

canbaufo

btw wind noise is usually kinda easy to fix in my experience. You may want to shim the hinges of the doors if they sag ...or like they say adjust the windows. But also use plenty of silicone meant for weatherstripping. I have also (on other cars anyway) used layers of tape on the edges of the windows where the wind leaks and found that to be a nice temporary rig that holds up for a few months.

For center T-top rattles and wind leaks I am considering adding layers of the soft/fuzzy part of velcro stripping to the center divider on the underside of the top of it where the tops contact the divider.

One more fix I've used on other cars (I don't really have wind leaks that bother me on this one) is to stuff vacuum tubing under weather stripping to bolster it out. You can use clear RTV or similar to hold the vacuum tubing under the weather strip.

canbaufo

Did you check the hatch shocks? If not see my fix in the first post of this thread. Gently hammer fist them with the hatch half closed and see if you hear a familiar sound. Make sure where they connect in the hatch that the tack welds have not failed (they'll still hang on but will rattle).

canbaufo

Well I basically tore the whole car apart last night lol, some pieces of dash and all. BTW for those wondering how to take the dash apart just start from the bottom with the easiest panels and work your way up and forward. You will have to pop off the A/B pillars to get the flimsy top panel off (easy really, take your time and be patient so as to not break anything and be wearing a miner's type flashlight on your head). I am sound deadening the underside of the flimsy dash pieces and putting some rubber with silicone grease here and there to reduce rattling. The thick/heavy pieces I'm leaving alone because I doubt it would be of any help.

It's pretty easy to remove all interior panels, pull carpet forward from rear to expose top of rear shocks and tinny metal back there in the hatch/trunk area. Mask and use some spray on sound deadener ...much lighter than Dynamat (albeit I'm sure less effective....but you can use it inside and out so maybe not).

Will update other finds later.

soul strife

Little rubber hose pieces can help some of that. My exhaust would bang until I put rubber hoses between it and the body.

canbaufo

Update for the non-believers (that these cars can be hushed up):

I put my dash and A-B pillars back together (albeit tediously) and managed to get it 90+% rattle/clunk free. As one member suggested, some strategically placed rubber under the large panel near the center vent really helped. I also used thick silicone grease at all interface/connection points of reassembly and used vacuum hose or random chunks of rubber wedges to tighten things up here and there (example ...between windshield and bottom of A-B Pillars put rubber wedges (like door stops but smaller) in and the pillars hold the dash top down firmly). Get creative and just bang on things as you reassumble and you can figure out how to reduce the noise. I also used sound deadening type undercoat on the underside of the flimsy pieces of dash (be sure to mask the front where needed).

What a difference! This dash feels like a BMW's when you hammer fist it, very little to no vibrations left. I noted during re-assembly how lazy the design is in general (no wonder these cars were affordable) and how many "loose ends" the factory leaves untied.

I've done various other things and sound deadened the whole rear half of the car (body and inside of plastic panels. I used old rubber floor mats in the hatch/trunk area under the carpet as well to really hush it up. I probably used 1 full can of sound deadener on the upper rear shock mount areas inside the car. As previously mentioned I found the hatch shocks to be major offenders that were relatively easy to rig to shut up.

15 cans of sound deadener and probably 15 lbs of rubber added so far, so the weight increase isn't terrible. The rear suspension, driveshaft, M6 tail/bushing/torque arm has all been sprayed with sound deadener.

Just pecking on everything you can tell a major difference. In a few days I'll have the car back on the road and provide more updates.