Squeak, taking apart the dash

[David N.]

Hey all. I've slowly been noticing a creak develop in my 986. I don't know when it started, it's really only when the car is twisted by uneven pavement. It's kinda subtle, but it's like this twisting of plastic sound that's starting to annoy me. It seems locallized right under the dash, in the driver footwell, right around the center console.

Has anyone ever taken apart the center console, like down to the frame? I'm thinking of just taking off everything and tightening all the bolts/connectors down/applying any grease where necessary. Maybe look under the steering wheel as well, just to see if something is loose.

-David

[blue2000s]

Originally Posted by David N.

Hey all. I've slowly been noticing a creak develop in my 986. I don't know when it started, it's really only when the car is twisted by uneven pavement. It's kinda subtle, but it's like this twisting of plastic sound that's starting to annoy me. It seems locallized right under the dash, in the driver footwell, right around the center console.

Has anyone ever taken apart the center console, like down to the frame? I'm thinking of just taking off everything and tightening all the bolts/connectors down/applying any grease where necessary. Maybe look under the steering wheel as well, just to see if something is loose.

-David

I have the same creaking noise. I'll be interested to know what you find.

[David N.]

I did it! I don't know how, but I loosened and tightened two bolts and that seemed to fix it. I'll post pics tomorrow.

-David

[David N.]

First off, if the sound is like mine, it's a creak that occurs mainly when the body of the car is twisted (like over uneven pavement). And the sound seems to come from right under the dash.

So I removed the CD caddy and the DSP unit, then pulled out the rack and the carpet protectors. Underneath was the airbag sensor and this treated steel crossplate with two bolts in it.



Exposing this made the sound very loud and noticeable when I tried driving it again. That being the case, the first thing I did was loosened the two bolts and took it for another drive around the block. The sound was gone. I tried tightening both bolts again, and the sound never returned.



Somehow, that did it, and the sound was gone after that.

-David

[blue2000s]

Originally Posted by David N.

First off, if the sound is like mine, it's a creak that occurs mainly when the body of the car is twisted (like over uneven pavement). And the sound seems to come from right under the dash.

So I removed the CD caddy and the DSP unit, then pulled out the rack and the carpet protectors. Underneath was the airbag sensor and this treated steel crossplate with two bolts in it.



Exposing this made the sound very loud and noticeable when I tried driving it again. That being the case, the first thing I did was loosened the two bolts and took it for another drive around the block. The sound was gone. I tried tightening both bolts again, and the sound never returned.



Somehow, that did it, and the sound was gone after that.

-David

Thanks for the update, that's great to hear. You got off lucky, actually. There's a TSB on dashboard noises that involves removing the dashboard and applying some felt and zip-ties to the frame behind the dash. I'll have to see if these bolts do the trick for me, otherwise I'm taking my dashboard apart this winter.

[David N.]

The whole dash? Wow, that sounds like a pain in the ass

Please post pictures when you do it tho. There may be a point where I pull out the dash to replace the liner around the defroster vents that is starting to blister a little bit (the wonders of age...). It would be great to know how I can be proactive about future dash sounds.

-David

[David N.]

Ay crap, the sound is back. I shoulda figured loosening and tightening a couple bolts was a bit too easy. That's definitely what fixed it before, but looks like I'll need to use grease or some sort of gasket in there somewhere to make the fix permanent.

I'll go back in soon and try something else..

-David