I have been in this board for a lil while now, and I noticed that it seems like a lot of people ask questions about a funny noise their car makes. My car has two distinct "funny noises" that I can't figure out. Do a lot of other people truly have this problem? Do a lot of Subaru owners have rattles or clunks or squeaks?

-Andy

Could you be a little more vague there? What kind of rattles and squeaks.

Do you mean window rattle and brake squeaks or something else?

We'll need a little more info before we could give you our suggestions.

Tats.
:p

Haha. I guess I was kinda vague. I was just commenting that it seems like a lot of Subaru owners complain of rattling noises in their car. I wanted to get an idea of how large of a problem this is. I am feeling like writing a letter to SOA....

-Andy

My RS is very quiet. The only noises are the occasional squeeking from something in the dash, like the glovebox or the airbag cover. It's so infrequent that I never am able to locate it.

~Loki

Yeah, now that you mention it, my car rattles and squeaks a little bit. Mostly when it's cold. It comes mainly from the driver's side rear interior panel next to the back seat.. Can't quite get it to shut up. I also get a rattle in the steering column (I think?) when I make a hard turn on uneven pavement. Especially when I turn right for some reason. Does anyone else get that one?

Im about to snap my short shifter in half it rattles so much!! It rattled for 5 hours at 75mph from CT to Montreal alst weekend, I hate it! How do you fix this, im hearing it in my nightmares!
Dan Coty

No rattles, or my hearing is shot. Could be either, or both.

The GC8 cars definetly rattle. not very quiet cars but that also has to do with the fact that it is framless windows in the doors

Eric

Think Imprezas are bad, my Probe rattles over the tiniest things, be glad you can afford such awesome cars. I will some day!:):) :devil: :lol:

It's the Subaru way! I named my rattle (George).

Heh.

Well, for the money, you get a lot of performance out of an Impreza... there has to be a sacrifice somewhere. Fit and finish is imperfect on both my WRX and my old Outback. Best thing you can do is track down little noises as you find them and correct.

There will be a bit of wind noise from the windows due to the frameless nature... if THAT bothers you, you're in trouble. I've got an electrochromatic rearview mirror and it developed a rattle last week... I just kept putting my finger on bits of it until I discovered it was the plastic cowl that covered the wire. Pulled that off while driving down the highway: rattle gone.

Listen to your rattles (or have a passenger listen)... find where they come from, then track down the rattling piece. A little duct tape/foam will more than likely take care of the problem permanently, and should be totally invisible.

Did you sew your seatbelt tags down or cut them off yet? :) That was my first mod... drove home from the dealer with the windows down, got out of the car and said "ok, SOMEthing was flapping and it's GOT to GO"

I've got nearly 3K on my car and have no interior squeaks at all. I do have sounds coming from the drivetrain I don't like. Like the odd thud or clunk.

Compared to American assembled Subarues like the Outback, I think the WRX has a much better interior fit and finish.

that thud/clunk is just your diffs... it's normal for awd cars.

Originally posted by
Im about to snap my short shifter in half it rattles so much!! It rattled for 5 hours at 75mph from CT to Montreal alst weekend, I hate it! How do you fix this, im hearing it in my nightmares!
Dan Coty
***
You know i just put my short shifter in, and man it rattles like crazy! I feel your pian. Anybody else with this problem?:confused:

get a loud exhaust, loud turbo, and loud radio and you wont hear anymore weird creaks or whatnots.

Originally posted by JMP73

***
You know i just put my short shifter in, and man it rattles like crazy! I feel your pian. Anybody else with this problem?:confused:

Yeah.. I got the STi one and on cold mornings my car sounds like this... vroBUZZZZZZZZZZZZZ*shift*vroomBUZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.. etc.. ad nauseum.

I think I'm gonna try some different bushings to fix it, also I heard that a few ppl were having problems with the lever vibrating against the frame of the car.. Mine doesn't appear to be doing that, but it still makes far too much noise.

I also have a rattle in my passenger door.. which is annoying but happens infrequently, and my stereo board in the trunk rattles too, but an L bracket should fix that.

Oh.. and my sunroof squeaks and rattles.. I'm gonna silicone that to see if it goes away.

I think I'm gonna start saving for a Porsche.. unless those rattle too.

Korey

My short shifter rattled a bit in first and third (at higher revs), but either I got used to it (unlikely), or it went away after a few hundred miles. Haven't really noticed it in a while. Other than that, my car is pretty quiet.

Check out this page from my site. (http://www.alltel.net/~et53151/misc/rattle/rattle.html). It'll tell you how I fixed the worst and most annoying rattle I had in my 1995 L.

Josh

I get a little wind noise but not very much at all. I also get a weird ratlle/rubbing that I found out was coming from a rear head rest. For a long time I thought it was coming from the front dash because it was the head rest on the driver's side rear and the sound was reflecting off the dash and hitting my ear. Since I never drive with my head facing the rear driver's side seat, I t was driving me nuts that I couldn't fix it. One day, my wife was in the car and since a passenger can move their head/body all around while the car is moving, she easily spotted where the sound was REALLY coming from. Moral of th estory is to have a passenger listen for the noise while you drive. Reflections of sounds can throw you off so the person must be able to move about the car and track it down...

Sadly, I am far away from all my friends (275 miles) because I just moved. I have yet to find someone I that is willing to squirm all over the place to try and find my noises. The main annoying noise is a high-pitched squeak that sounds like a squirrel. I think it may be coming from the passanger seat, but I can't pin point it. Pain is the arse. The other noise is a deep clunking that I get at low speeds. I can actually feel something in the suspension "give" a little every time the noise occurs. Kinda like a sticky bushing, or a strut tube that sticks as it slide in and out of the body of the shock. I have sprayed lube all over the place, and the noise still persist. And NO, it isn't the rear diff. The noise I get happens over bumps and un-even ground at slow speeds only. I also get a rattling noise from the rear deck, when the speakers vibrate, AND a rattle near the C-Pillar (beachbum, and I am gonna do that thing your web page suggested), and I get an occasional rattle from behind the climate control panel.

Maybe I should stop rallying the poor car.

-Andy

Originally posted by RallyImprezive
The main annoying noise is a high-pitched squeak that sounds like a squirrel. I think it may be coming from the passanger seat, but I can't pin point it.
Ok, I've lived in New England all my life. I've seen many many squirrels up close. At RPI we had an albino squirrel.

However, I've never HEARD a squirrel make any noise... what exactly does this soundlike? And don't tell me that it's "like a badger breaking wind" or some other animal noise. :)

The rails on the passenger seat for my Outback used to be a bit uneven, so the seat would *clunk* a bit if someone rode in it. And there was much talk for a while about a possible loose gas tank that slid from side to side in corners... beyond that, make sure all the stupid stuff is tied down (spare tire, jack) to eliminate obvious problem areas.

wait...you have NEVER heard a squirrel make a noise?! Were they all dead? Squirrels "chirp" They make a short, high-pitched noise, kinda like a short high-pitched whistle. Look, go throw a rock at one or something to piss it off, and it will make all sorts of pissed off squeaking chirping noises. (NOT a big rock) I used to live in Mammoth Lakes, CA, and we get a lot of Golden-mantles, Tree Squirrels, Ground Squirrels, and chipmunks. (All four are different.) A quick story....once,I was driving my moms car, and I heard a high-pitch squeal/squeak that sounded like a squirrel. I looked down towards the passanger seat, and sure enough, a squirrel had some how gotten in to the car, and was squeaking..probably out of fear cause it was trapped in a small space with a human. So I stopped, opened the door, and let it out.

-Andy

My WRX doesn't rattle but my backyard squirrels make lots of noises. They bark and they squeak. These are Fox squirrels, not those scrawny little Eastern Greys. And when you cross the border into Windsor, Canada, the squirrels are black!

speaking of squirrels... kind of off-topic a little but, I worked on a golf course for a few years during the summer. One day I was coming around the corner in a golf cart on a street, there were two squirrels humping in the middle of the road and I almost ran them over :eek:

that's something you don't see every day :lol:

my WRX has an anoying rattle coming from the glove box area I think, going to have to get a passenger to listen for where it's coming from

SHIFTER RATTLE:
My Short Throw shifter rattled at one point too. However. I did this fix and it has stopped. I removed the bolt and put some washers between the linkage and the shifter. Its a soft cloth style washer, not metal. Also, it is from the nut on the end coming loose, the nut is a locking one, and once you remove it you have to put a new locking nut on there. You can only use a locking nut once. I change that over and have no rattle problems almost 7,000 miles later. Try that. If it still rattles get a turbo and an loud exhaust and listen to the BOV sound.mmmm. I think I am gonna make mine rattle again so I can buy turbo!:p


Joe

yeah, after 98,000 miles, mine creaks like an old box spring mattress pulling out of the driveway in the morning.

then again, for a car that came with almost NO sound insulation in it whatsoever, it's pretty quiet at speed.

my biggest pet peeve is that now my rear passenger side window rolls up INTO the seal, so whenever you get out of the car after rolling it up, you have to bend the window pane out and let it snap back. any ideas on how to fix that??

-adam-

I know I have that lil' drivers side window rattle when it's not completely up and also a squak from my armrest ext. when it is really cold.

It's really quite a quiet car compared to the 1991 Ford Escort with 255,000 miles I got rid of when I bought it.

Tats.

For you guys with the short shifter rattles, did you change the bushings also? I have the SS and hard bushings and did notice more vibration, but I figure it's because I replaced the big spongy vibe-dampening bushing with the hard vibe-sending quick-shifting bushing. The price to pay for performance!;)

Also, I notice a slight rattle on power in 3rd. I think it might be the heat shield I've read about.

One final rattle...the change in the coin-tray! That's what you get with a quieter car that does quick turns!:D

All cars rattle! :D I work on BMW's and those cars have some of the worst rattles I have ever heard!

lol :lol:

Originally posted by RaceCarRiot
my biggest pet peeve is that now my rear passenger side window rolls up INTO the seal, so whenever you get out of the car after rolling it up, you have to bend the window pane out and let it snap back. any ideas on how to fix that??

I know there is some adjustment you can perform if you open the door up, but I forget just how much and how to do it. It might be worth checking out.

Josh

Originally posted by RallyImprezive
wait...you have NEVER heard a squirrel make a noise?! Were they all dead? Squirrels "chirp"...

-Andy

I've never heard or seen a squirrel. The smog in Riverside kills all the squirrels. You'll see next summer when the mountians of San Bernardino disappear completely under a yellow haze. I was told just breathing the air in Riverside during the summer is like smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. Maybe I have heard a squirrel before, it was probably hacking and coughing though. ;)

Impreza WRX ETA: 40 hours. :D