jy7347
Passed Driver's Ed
so since dec 2021, i've been hearing this ticking/clicking noise from the rear of my car whenever im going over small bumps or uneven ground and it was driving me NUTS!
the noise sounded like someone was dropping small pebbles over the rear left side of the roof.
i was very determined to find out what the problem was. i will be telling you guys what attempts i did but if you want the solution just skip to the last few paragraphs.
so what i started off was removing alot of the plastic panels, i removed all the plastic panels along the c pillar, including the cover over the spare wheel, the foam pieces for spare wheel, all the plastic over the hatch.
NOTHING HELPED, still tick away without the panels on.
i then thought maybe the glue that sticks the insulation onto the metalsheet roof (sits between the roof lining and the metal sheet roof) is loose, causing some vibration, so i stuffed a bunch of old towels between the roof lining and insulation.
DID NOT HELP.
i then desperately start looking at the bottom of the car, thinking maybe some heatshield rattle making it sound like its from the roof (yes i know, i was desperate ok?), ziptie and tighten everything up.
NOPE, TICK STILL THERE.
i then checked the stock spoiler, thinking maybe its from there, wiggled it, messed with the 3rd brake light.
STILL TICKS AWAY
i even replace the latch and hook on the hatch and trunk, still didnt help.
but you basically get what i was going on about by now.
PROBLEM FOUND STARTING HERE:
so i took the car to my frds garage few days ago finally and my frd, the mechanic, sat in the back with all the panels removed while i drove, we finally realized what caused the noise.
the cars METALSHEET itself was creaking against each other since my car is about 11 years old, some spot welds near C pillar are little bit rusted and came slightly loose, check video
so whenever im going over bumps, or bend the chassis, the metalsheet would make this creak noise that translate into a ticking noise due to the amplification of the huge roof metalsheet.
you can even replicate the creak/tick by pulling onto the sheet hard by hand, check video
i hit the metalsheets with a mallet pretty hard, try to loosen up any "about to creak" welds.... then made it worse LOL the noise came out more frequently.
SOLUTION HERE:
but at least by now i understand what the problem is and i went ahead with different methods.
At the end what fixed it was heating up the weld bead and the slightly rusted weld spots with a heatgun carefully without melting any surroudning plastic until it was water boiling hot, (it steamed up a bit when i put a wet towel up against the heated panel). and this seemed to work! my thinking is that because it melted the paint between panels slightly, so the paint wont tack against each other making noise, as well as it slightly relaxed the built up stress along the welds since i heated it up quite a bit.
but before i took it for a spin, i went a little extra and tape 2 sound deadening sheets (around 5 by 15 cm strip) onto the metal panels.
point being, after heating up the welds as well as adding sound deadening sheet, it eliminated the noise!
sorry i got too excited at the end and i didnt take any photos. but i think its quite self explanatory!
i hope i helped anyone who has this problem!
P.S. as i was doing my research on this problem, some people seemed to solved it by tightening up the hatch latch and/or the stoppers on either side of the hatch. my thinking is that what that does is using the tightness of the closed hatch to compress these loose metalsheets together, fixing the problem that way. this obviously didnt work for me so i had to go the extra steps to do what i did.
HAPPY DIY!!
the noise sounded like someone was dropping small pebbles over the rear left side of the roof.
i was very determined to find out what the problem was. i will be telling you guys what attempts i did but if you want the solution just skip to the last few paragraphs.
so what i started off was removing alot of the plastic panels, i removed all the plastic panels along the c pillar, including the cover over the spare wheel, the foam pieces for spare wheel, all the plastic over the hatch.
NOTHING HELPED, still tick away without the panels on.
i then thought maybe the glue that sticks the insulation onto the metalsheet roof (sits between the roof lining and the metal sheet roof) is loose, causing some vibration, so i stuffed a bunch of old towels between the roof lining and insulation.
DID NOT HELP.
i then desperately start looking at the bottom of the car, thinking maybe some heatshield rattle making it sound like its from the roof (yes i know, i was desperate ok?), ziptie and tighten everything up.
NOPE, TICK STILL THERE.
i then checked the stock spoiler, thinking maybe its from there, wiggled it, messed with the 3rd brake light.
STILL TICKS AWAY
i even replace the latch and hook on the hatch and trunk, still didnt help.
but you basically get what i was going on about by now.
PROBLEM FOUND STARTING HERE:
so i took the car to my frds garage few days ago finally and my frd, the mechanic, sat in the back with all the panels removed while i drove, we finally realized what caused the noise.
the cars METALSHEET itself was creaking against each other since my car is about 11 years old, some spot welds near C pillar are little bit rusted and came slightly loose, check video
you can even replicate the creak/tick by pulling onto the sheet hard by hand, check video
SOLUTION HERE:
but at least by now i understand what the problem is and i went ahead with different methods.
At the end what fixed it was heating up the weld bead and the slightly rusted weld spots with a heatgun carefully without melting any surroudning plastic until it was water boiling hot, (it steamed up a bit when i put a wet towel up against the heated panel). and this seemed to work! my thinking is that because it melted the paint between panels slightly, so the paint wont tack against each other making noise, as well as it slightly relaxed the built up stress along the welds since i heated it up quite a bit.
but before i took it for a spin, i went a little extra and tape 2 sound deadening sheets (around 5 by 15 cm strip) onto the metal panels.
point being, after heating up the welds as well as adding sound deadening sheet, it eliminated the noise!
sorry i got too excited at the end and i didnt take any photos. but i think its quite self explanatory!
i hope i helped anyone who has this problem!
P.S. as i was doing my research on this problem, some people seemed to solved it by tightening up the hatch latch and/or the stoppers on either side of the hatch. my thinking is that what that does is using the tightness of the closed hatch to compress these loose metalsheets together, fixing the problem that way. this obviously didnt work for me so i had to go the extra steps to do what i did.
HAPPY DIY!!
Last edited: