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Found the rattles that were driving me nuts- thought I would share

5K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  City fighter 
#1 ·
I had a very distinct rattle anytime I hit a small bump for months. I have been sorting my FJ since I bought it a couple months ago. I knew it wasnt maintained by the most careful folks but was a little surprised by this find. The one thing the PO said he had done was the front brakes so I hadnt really looked very close at that since so many other things were rattling.

A big rattle was the skid plate against the exhaust cross over tube. At idle while warm it would make a small hum. I spaced it out with washers and got that sorted right away. Another was the winch and the cover on the front bumper which had several bolts that had come loose. Again - not too hard to find and resolve with some new bolts and a few strategically placed pieces of old bike tire rubber.

The big one was the front brakes. The PO or his mechanic had replaced only the pads. Nothing else. So it turns out that the rotors were beyond spec and the little hardware springs were all bent up. So what was happening was the brake pads were loose between the caliper and rotor. Loose enough to rattle like a banshee at times on one in particular. The fix was to replace the rotors, pads and brake hardware. While I had it out, I made sure the pistons werent sticking by creating some space in there with some old pads I had off another car and had someone press the brakes enough to verify the pistons came out and retracted properly - No more ratlle

I now have possibly the quietest FJ around since I found all kinds of little rattles while trying to figure this one out.
 
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#4 · (Edited)
I kept hearing squeaking sound (not loud, but sounds like plastic rubbing against something) around the subwoofer area while driving, so I took the subwoofer out and looked around. I couldn't exactly pinpoint where, but thought the squeaking noise might come from 1. where the plastic frame meets the car metal body; 2. one piece of foam at the back of the subwoofer (when you scratch it, it makes similar squeaking sound). I just used some tape (duct tape for the foam part and 3m mounting tape for the small plastic tip). I also put small pieces of 3m mounting tape at the very back of the subwoofer where it goes against the plastic wall. Basically I tried to eliminate any plastic-to-plastic or foam-to-plastic possibility.

I drove today and no more squeaking sounds. :) Maybe fixed?!
 

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