A bunch of rattling in my trunk dont know what it is...

281CI96Coupe · Jan 11, 2009

I went to the bank to deposit some money on Friday, and after that I get these weird phantom noises in my trunk, almost sounds like a hurt rear shock absorber. How I got to this point was that driveway on the side of the bank was slightly raised while going to right, almost like going over a speed bump diagionally instead of straight over scraping. I am afraid that I blew out my right tokico high performance blue rear shock, or maybe it could be something esle.

When I go over bumps it sounds like I have a lot of things moving in my rear trunk, and I keep nothing in my trunk. It only happens over bumps, but on smooth surfaces its totally quiet. What do you guys think?

joshjwc9 · Jan 12, 2009

Have you tried pushing down on your car to see if the shock was blown in comparison to the other side? Tokico's are pretty firm, so if the car takes two or more bounces to rebound from you pushing down on that part of the car I would say you blew that shock out.

What springs do you have? Any isolators?

squeak93 · Jan 12, 2009

+1 on the "push" test. Should give u an idea on which side. Maybe have someone drive it slowly with u outside trying to pin point it before actually getting under the car wrenching on chit.

281CI96Coupe · Jan 12, 2009

I've pushed on the car, and it is really firm. It didn't bounce at all, so that is what confusing me. I have Ford C-Springs and I have bottom iso's but not top.

IIGood · Jan 12, 2009

I'm having a similar issue. It's just the passenger side for me though...I think the top of the shock isn't tightened down enough or something (even though the retaining nuts won't possibly turn any further).

I just took the one side panel out today to pinpoint the knocking/clunking further. It's definitely the top of the shock clunking against the interior sheet metal.

When I push down on the car to make it bounce, I can see the top of that shock stay stationary. And there ends up being a gap between the mount point and the bushing for the shock. Whereas, on the other side, the shock moves with the car. Is that understandable?

So...I dunno. My car does have 96K miles on it...could the control arm bushings be causing that?? What's going on here? It's a friggin' annoying clunking going on.

BTW...I've got Tokico D-Specs on mine and Ford C-Springs. The springs have been on there for almost 4 years...the shocks went on a little over a year ago; this development has cropped up over the past 3 months.

281CI96Coupe · Jan 12, 2009

Hey, atleast I am not the only one, its just happening in the rear for me on close to full tank of gas when problem started.

Chili · Jan 12, 2009

I know this is going to sound too simple, but double check your lug nuts are tight. I had a noise I couldn't figure out for days and one day it clicked. Sure enough one wheel was really loose. I was incredibly lucky the bolts didn't give.

trinity_gt · Jan 13, 2009

Might want to get under the car and check the upper control arm backets. They're spot welded to the floorboards and frame rail metal and it's not unheard of to see these pull away or crack, resulting in nasty sounds from the rear...

'03GTinFLA · Jan 13, 2009

I feel like a broken record because anytime someone says somethign about a trunk noise I bring this up, but check the tabs where the back seat bracket meets the wheel well area. Mine was making a clunking/squeaking noise when I went over bumps. All you need to do is stick a screwdriver between the tabs and bend one back.
Hope this helps.

281CI96Coupe · Jan 13, 2009

I'm taking it down to the performance shop, I will post up what it is forever who has the same problem as me...

IIGood · Jan 13, 2009

'03GTinFLA said:
I feel like a broken record because anytime someone says somethign about a trunk noise I bring this up, but check the tabs where the back seat bracket meets the wheel well area. Mine was making a clunking/squeaking noise when I went over bumps. All you need to do is stick a screwdriver between the tabs and bend one back.
Hope this helps.

Interesting...I'll give that a look too. I've got the trunk torn apart right now, so that would certainly be worth a look.

I'll double check the lugs too, but seeing that I've had a couple tire rotations since this started happening I doubt that'll have any effect.

Upper control arm...that sounds ominous if that is the case. I'll have that checked too (maybe that'd be causing the shock not to "bounce" with the car...)

Thanks for the tips.

GettinThere · Jan 13, 2009

trinity_gt said:
Might want to get under the car and check the upper control arm backets. They're spot welded to the floorboards and frame rail metal and it's not unheard of to see these pull away or crack, resulting in nasty sounds from the rear...

^

And while you're under there, check the bolts that attach the upper control arms to make sure they're tight. Awhile back I had loud banging sounds coming from the rear. I found a loose bolt on the uca, tightened it, sound gone.

281CI96Coupe · Jan 13, 2009

The problem is solved! The rear shock absorber bolt that connects to the lower control arm I believe was loose enough to make the shock not secure, but not loose enough to tighten by hand. So now its extrememly tight and rides even better then before, we did this for both! Thanks for all the suggestions...

-Nathan

LI98GTStang · Jan 15, 2009

Good deal. Most of the time the "rattling" is some kind of loose bolt, the tab issue that '03GTinFLA brought up or there have been some cases of the rear sway bar breaking near the mount points. Nothing like solving a nagging problem.

IIGood · Jan 16, 2009

I surrendered and took mine into the shop. They said the shock was installed improperly. How the heck did I do that????

281CI96Coupe · Jan 16, 2009

IIGood said:
I surrendered and took mine into the shop. They said the shock was installed improperly. How the heck did I do that????

wow thats kind of impossible to do! Is it fixed yet?

IIGood · Jan 17, 2009

Yeah, they fixed it yesterday. Apparently I had the two nuts on top of the shock reversed. Whatever...it's not clunking anymore.

A bunch of rattling in my trunk dont know what it is...

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