Rattle in the drivers left ear

[vath2001]

Has anyone found / fixed a rattle just behind your left ear? It an annoying little rattle that I hear at highway speeds. Can't fnd it while I'm driving and I can't see or feel anything when I'm parked. Sound like it's in the top mechanism, but not in the top.

Only there with the top up. I wouldn't be able to tell if its present with the top down due to wind noise.

[superbuick]

I have this exact same rattle and have not yet been able to diagnose.

[RandallNeighbour]

hoo boy I've got it too and can't figure it out.

It sounds tinny like something going on with the heat shield above the motor, but it's under carpet and I don't think that's really it.

Someone said it was the door latch and adjusting the door latch loop up or down a little keeps the door from rattling.

Who knows for sure?

I'd pay someone handsomely if they could solve this problem!

[turbo23dog]

Does your car have a headliner? If it does, there's a plastic clip that holds and elastic band that stretches part of the headliner tight. On my car, this clip broke and is hanging loose just behind my head on the driver's side, basically right next to the seat belt turnbuckle. Could this be your problem?

[vath2001]

No headliner. I've checked the top and its not in there.

I don't think its in the door. Heat shield on the motor? Not likely. But I will try looking this winter.

[Aron in Toronto]

It may be coming from the door striker/catch plate. I've heard others have wrapped electric tape around the metal (silver) loop to see if that was the source of the noise. If the noise goes away with the tape then it may need to be adjusted.

Good luck tracking it down.

[Dave S.]

I'm sure you've looked at this, but I had a rattle behind the driver's head and it was my seat hitting the roll bar, just had to move the seat a hair to stop it. That is probably not it, but I just had to mention it.
I also had a little rattle in the windstop window. Put a small piece of electrical tape on the bottom of the window and it fixed it.

[Burg Boxster]

Here's a thread w/ some possibilites

Covers both the door latch and a ticking/rattle noise caused by the convertible top cable.

Sounds are tough to chase in a car. When I first bought my '99 I would have given my right arm to stop the rattle from the passenger side dash speaker. Turns out it was some quarters stuck in the center console....

Good luck

[Gougoushu]

Have any of you with rattles installed the windstop hardware replacement kit? The one that installs with pop rivets.

If so, you had to drill out the old rivets, and might have left some rivet remnants inside the rollbar, or rollbar pads [esp in the case of the middle pad]. I just did this job and had to drill a nice big hole in the back of the middle rollbar pad to extract a lost rivet, because I noticed it rattled quite loudly.

[vath2001]

Well thanks for the suggestions, but the noise is in the left ear. The top cable might be it, but it was pretty snug last time I accessed the engine. I'll keep looking.

[roadracer311]

Solution! (I've also posted this at Renntech.org)

After a year of chasing this sound, I've finally made it go away on my car (2003 Boxster S with the original top).

The sound was exactly as you describe: shirt button hitting on a hollow tube. It was really taking away from my enjoyment of the car. So much so, that I was avoiding driving it unless I could to so with the top down.

I've attached two photos. The fist shows where to look. In my case it was on the passenger side (right side) under the spring loaded flap shown in the photo.

The solution was loosening the torx screw, pushing down where shown, with one finger while tightening the torx screw with the other hand. The position of the head of the screw moved from one end of the slot, to more than half way toward the other end of the slot.

Caveats: I have no idea what this spring loaded slotted thing is for. For me, it made the rattle go away, and has had no negative side effects. But that was only 24 hours ago.

[RandallNeighbour]

Now how about that!

I was thinking all along it was coming from behind my shoulder or neck somewhere, but sound travels in odd ways.

I will give this a try and see what happens!

[Quickurt]

A piece of 600 volt electrical tape on both ends of that flap stopped it on both sides of my 987. I noticed it first, on driver's side and after I fixed mine, wifey complained.
If it hadn't been for all the years of race engines, machine shop machines and people beating on steel around the shops, I might have heard her side........
Wifey also has a habit of reclining her seat all the way back into the rollbar pad and then it squeaks/rattles/ticks with no-one in the seat.
Then again, she never turns the seat heater off either.......

[vath2001]

Originally Posted by roadracer311

Solution! (I've also posted this at Renntech.org)


Caveats: I have no idea what this spring loaded slotted thing is for. For me, it made the rattle go away, and has had no negative side effects. But that was only 24 hours ago.

So has it been 24 hours? Is it a confirmed repair? My Boxster is tucked away for the Winter, so even after I do this repair, it will be April until I know that it worked... or maybe May... its 6 F outside this morning and the DD is under 6 inches.

[roadracer311]

Originally Posted by vath2001

So has it been 24 hours? Is it a confirmed repair? My Boxster is tucked away for the Winter, so even after I do this repair, it will be April until I know that it worked... or maybe May... its 6 F outside this morning and the DD is under 6 inches.

I drove it over 100 miles without a rattle, so it's definitely fixed. I did touch a few other things on my way to finding that one adjustment, but I'm 95% sure it was the torx and slotted spring thing that did it.

[litteng]

mine was staring to rattle too, top up or down as mentioned right behind the drivers left ear......> over behind there somewhere, not really sure if its the same thing, but i will have a look.

thanks for the suggestion

[vath2001]

Ok, the tighening of the Torx screw did nothing for me.

Today I reached behind the drivers seat into the top hinge area (parked, with the top up). I believe I found the source of my rattle. I have a couple of the top's drive levers that feel loose... 1/4" play. I can not see the levers, but I can feel them. I checked the passenger's side and the same levers are snug.

Now, how do I fix / tighen these? Any options of replacing bushings?

Randall... if I'm right, I prefer Jonny Walker

[vath2001]

I can't see what's loose, so I took the camera and stuck it in behind the drivers corner to photograph the loose bracket. The head and bushing are out about 3/16". Looking at the parts catalog, the whole thing should be able to be unscrewed and replace whatever is worn.... I hope.

I would post the pics, but their sub-standard.

I think I'll have a better view when I open the top to the maintenance position.
But that will be next weekend.

[vath2001]

Finally have a chance to open up the top. Here are two pics showing the DS and PS push rod attachment. It appears that the DS is missing a rubber pushing. The PS side rubber bushing looks pretty beat up. Now its time to call Sunset and see if these bushing exist. Their web site shows the push rod, but no bushing.

Randall... you may have the same issue.

Per the USA Katalog, pg 296 Item # 27
Rubber Bushing 986 561 881 00

[texomawaves]

fyi... My rattle was super simple... the wire mesh screen on the roll bar/head rest on the drivers side. I'd swear it was coming from the top or somewhere else. I almost drove off the road a couple times just trying to feel around and find it