Fixed obnoxious rattle in trunk area on convertable
 

Hi to all at the Z28 forum, I finally tracked down and fixed a loud rattle in the rear of my 95 convertible that had been driving me nuts for months and wanted to share the info with the forum. The noise sounded like the trunk lid was loose and seemed to come from the drivers side rear trunk area. I spent hours of driving around with my daughter listening and looking in the trunk through the pass through area (with the top up), taking everything out of the trunk ( spare tire, jack, interior light, you name it!) and I still could not find it.

Turns out it was the pollution control charcoal filter canister located not inside the trunk, but under the driver side rear wheel well but above the inner plastic fender liner causing the noise. I looked through the area between the fuel filler port and the body (with the plastic seal removed) and when I wiggled the canister I heard the exact noise.

The bracket that holds the canister is fastened to the steel fender well with three spot welds all in a line. The vibration of the off center mass of the charcoal canister had torqued these fastening welds and fatigued the fender metal causing two cracks about 1/8" above and below the three spot welds running about 1 1/2" horizontally. When the car was on the road the canister would cause these cracks to rub over each adjoining face and cause noise that sounded like a rattle. The worst is the cracks are almost invisible from inside the trunk (near the top pump).

The fix I chose was to install small self drilling screws through the bracket and into the fender well sheet metal to strengthen the bracket with a wider gripping radius. I put three #6 x 1/2" self drillers above the crack and three below the crack. I then went inside the trunk area and cut back the screws shafts that were poking into the area near the hydraulic oil lines going to the top lift piston. Last I glued a little thin foam over the nubs of the screws near the hydraulic lines to protect and hide them (out of sight out of mind!).

Hope this is a help to someone!