Rattle n/s (that's the left over/up here) rear door area

[thomas]

I've got a really annoying rattle at the n/s rear, present since getting the car last year. I've replaced the pair of rear shocks the other week as the shrouds were a bit crusty and holed and this hasn't cured it, to my great disamy, all the exhaust except the cat was brand new when I got the car but it isn't that, it's not a hard knocking noise, but softer, more or a creak, inside the car around the passenger side rear door, I've pulled and pushed at all the trim, parcel shelf, roof lining, seats, seat belts, and height adjusters junk in the boot, and still it's there on all but the smoothest roads, even when the car is rolling at just a few mph. I don't know if there is a smiley, or rather an angry/annoyed emoticon signifying 'AAArgh!!!' but I need one, or several. Does anyone have any ideas, telepathic diagnostic skills, suggestions? I really like a silent car, I can't just turn the sounds up, but must turn them down while turning round and turning my head to try and sort of localise the source. I'm at the end of my tether with this. Which species of tree/branch would be the most suitable for giving the car a damned good Basil Fawlty style thrashing?

[thomas]

s/disamy/dismay
s/more or a creak/more of a creak

edit button (andothers) is inactive, does nothing, on this forum theme

[Cavalier342]

Just a random thought, sometimes the corner trim gussets (small triangular pieces of trim at the back of the rear doors) can start creaking over time, the front ones are notorious for it.
A good way to isolate the source of the issue would be to have someone sit in the back while you drive slowly and have them push on trim here and there to see if it stops, or if they can pin-point it by ear.

[thomas]

Thanks Cavalier342, I probably missed those little pieces in my previous efforts, and have given them a little push and a thump now, I think I'm in for the day as it's turning cold and wet, but I'm still looking for more off-the-wall possibilities too, still shopping for ideas involving the least dismantling.

I've noticed the speaker shelf part of the side trim does not seem as rigid as that on the other side. I have some self-adhesive draught-proofing tape so might get the boot area side trims all out and reassemble things with some cushioning between mating parts. I'm determined to try and nail this niggly issue soon, might have a look at the (manual) aerial mounting too inside the boot.

I've got a long borescope camera, with led lamp, too now, that connects to my lappy so can have a right good poke around inside the rear arches and pump some waxoil into places, and inside the door(s) too. In the post has come too a big bag of 500 assorted trim clips, some familiar, some not, so I'm equipped to reassemble tthings with care, cope with breakages. I expect it'll be one of these things I cure inadvertently and never really figure out what the actual cause was. I had hoped the thick dinitrol coating underneath done last year would damp things down.

Outside the car replacement maybe of dry or deteriorating (none have been spotted though) suspension bushes might be called for, but creaky trims, on the ns/r door especially still seems the most likely cause, or the parcel shelf, I might take this out altogether. I do need someone to drive it whilst I poke and probe from the back seat and hope to do this too very soon.

ty

[Cavalier342]

No worries, keep us posted.

[Mk3alan]

Are you sure it's the door area?
I was convinced my MK4 Astra Estate had a tailgate rattle, dismantled everything going - still there.
Turns out it was the sunroof! With the blind fully back or forward no rattle, halfway, rattle back!
It was the plastic trim piece that covers 'the gubbins'
I would have bet money it was from the back though!

Alan

[Robsey]

I have the sunroof rattle...
Had it for about 15 years.

Just slide the blind to the correct position, and all is good with the world.

[thomas]

I never noticed it on a short drive today, albeit having much more grave matters on my mind than this infernal rattle, but had exercised the sunroof blind and the sunroof itself the full length of their travel yesterday. Fingers crossed, I will keep you all posted, I'm sure you're on all on tenterhooks!

Nothing else to report though I did too phone the previous owners of the car from Manchester (from six months old until I got it last year). I meant to ask who owned it before them, the RBH part seems distinctly Luton-ish, the gentleman has a little bit of Alzheimer's, a Mr. Marshall, he is a retired TV engineer and loved and cherished the car into his retirement, his wife whom I spoke to loved it too and recalled with pleasure their taking it, or it taking them on a touring holiday to Italy. Spoke also to the salesman I bought it through and he has unearthed the spare key for it and is sending it on to me.

[thomas]

I think I've cured the rattle, after a false start when I imagined it went away with a fuller tank, but it hadn't. I'm pretty sure it is the parcel-shelf, though all four locating lugs were properly seated, one of the suspender straps was broken (as noted when I first got the car) so it seemed to fall inside too low at that side, but both parts (front and rear sections) were also slightly bowed downwards in the centre, and simply by bending them at their outermost ends a little bit, downwards with my knee in the middle, the rattle seems banished entirely. I'll need to get one of those straps, still though sometime. Are they unique to the Cav or found on other models too?

My temperature display is also reading high, at around 8°C when clearly it's just above freezing outside. I've seen these sensors on ebay at £toomuch, so might try cleaning the connector to it first and might try adding a little resistance to the sensor line, at the instrument end, if it behaves that way -that it's resistance falls with temperature increase (NTC)?

[thomas]

I should have made clear it's the ambient temperature indicator, built into the digital clock (I liked the analogue clock on the pre-facelift models better), not the engine temperature gauge I'm on about.

[Robsey]

The little sensor is in the bottom of the bumper skin on the front near-side corner.

It is more or less a generic part used on almost all Vauxhalls between 1988 and 2008.
They are typically about £8 a pop.
Although I have seen a few as much as £12.

If it is only 8°C, then it is only in the early stages of failing.
I used to get values of 30-odd°C when mine failed.

I have an analogue clock in my spares box...

Hmmm - load area cover rattling. I think most sag and rattle. Although all four mounting pins should have a rubber sleeve on to reduce noise.

If your sleeves have split, you could always fit some heat shrink tubing round the pins.

For anything else, a few strips of velcro wool will absorb some vibrations.

The rubber hanger straps are still obtainable. About £16 for my last pair.

[3cav3]

The temperature display on mine had gone haywire, bought the new sensor on eBay for under a tenner delivered. Only took a couple of minutes to fit and has been fine ever since.

[cavalier1990]

Replaced my temp sensor and still get weird readings on temp display.

[thomas]

Robsey: "If your sleeves have split, you could always fit some heat shrink tubing round the pins."

Genius man! Will do that this morning.

Been working on the bike more last week, it's ready now for its MoT - couple of advisories last year now rectified - though it's not due till May. Time the car got some TLC I can't seem to find the motivation, the lack of any progress whatever with the Viva, getting on for two years now, is getting me down. I'm trying to remember if there are any other niggling small jobs I need to to do on the Cavalier, there are but nothing of any great importance or priority. Need to sort the slightly loose driver's door-trim is one, but also need to replace the vertical window channel rubber at the lock/handle side of the door, so it's not worth sorting the trim until I can find that rubber strip; at some time the glass has gone outside the rubber, due I think to those crappy wind deflector things which were on it. Meanwhile my stack of boxes of Cav parts grows, but it has a long way to go before it matches the spare Viva parts collection which is starting to take over a whole room. Got everything almost but the much needed but sadly elusive o/s inner wing.

[Robsey]

If the sensor is definitely reading wrong, then it has to be a dirty or damp connector or its pins,

or something giving an inaccurate resistance value, and hence incorrect displayed temperature.

8°C should be approx 4000 ohms
5°C should be approx 4700 ohms
0°C should be approx 5900 ohms

Although to be honest, it has been getting quite warm in the sunny Manc weather this week.

Thinking of bikes...
Still have the wife's 'S' / 98 plate Honda CB500 SW to sort out.
It hasn't been ridden in anger since 2006.

[thomas]

Thanks for those resistance values Robsey. Didn't get to look at this sensor today, was stuck in most of the day waiting for a phone-call that never came. I'll definitely get my head under the bumper tomorrow and clean up the sensor connectors, I have a spare digital dash clock/ambient temp display from one of my ebay forays, but the sensor seems the far more likely cause of the wrong readings.

I did however do the heatshrink on the parcel-shelf lugs, very satisfactorily and neatly. Oh how I wish I'd had the advantage of seeing into the future and taken all sorts of useful parts from the 1.6L before the banger-racer came and took it, but I never thought I'd ever (be so lucky as to) own another Cavalier again. I could have had those parcel-shelf hangers, and so many other bits and bobs, and he could still have driven it away to its horrible fate. *sobs*

Nighty night, take care, you're a treasure!