Rear Hatch rattles!!!

[sirhk100]

I have a '92 Ex with just a single 12" sub facing the rear hatch behind the back seats. I'm curious about what I can do to quite the hatch down? I've searched through here and read all about the dynomat and similar products but don't really want to spend the money. I also saw the thread on the expanding spray insullation (sp?). Does this stuff really work as good as it sounds on that thread? (I know, read the thread!!) Does anyone have pictures of where they sprayed the rear hatch? I'm assuming that I just pull off the inner plastic trim and fill in everything little knook and cranny I can find, right? I obviously don't want to spray the wiper mechanism or that stuff. Is it OBVIOUS where to spray? Also, what can I do to keep the plastic trim piece from rattling against the hatch body itself or is this not an issue? Any tips on how to quite down the rear hatch would be greatly appreciated!!!
Thanks

 

[Ru Dawg]

Well man, I don't know if all that foaming stuff is really necassary...I'm sure it works but I think some type of matting would be easier and work just as well. In that "foaming" post the guy said that the "walk silent" stuff was the best effect. The walk silent stuff is not very exspensive. You could also try going to www.carmedia1.com and check their prices on Dynamat. I bought 2 speaker kits from Sounddomain.com for like 30 bucks. carmedia1 has them for 11 bucks a piece!!! Dynamat definitely works very well....go for the Xtreme dyanat if you do that...but I'd go to home depot or somewhere like that and see what the "walk silent" material is like...that's what I'll do. I wanna line EVERYTHING in my X, under every panel and carpet...I've yet to see this "walk silent"...but it's probably worth checking out!! Good luck man!!!

 

[aerialist001]

Removing the plastic cover from the rear hatchback is task that you really don't want to do. It's held on by a ton of those stupid clips that like to break off. Last year I put 2 Infinity Kappa perfect 10's in the back of my explorer and it rattled all to hell. After trying to remove the plastic cover I decided to try another approach. I went to a local hardware store and picked up some truck liner foam (not sure brand or if that's exact type) it comes rolled up in small packages, you can select the width, and it is sticky on one side. I believe that I went for around 1/2" wide. Cost was less than 2 bucks. Then you get a flathead screwdriver and pry at the outside of the plastic cover where it meets the metal just enough so that you can slide the foam strip underneath. It took around 20 min. to run the strip around the entire outside rim of the gate cover. Approx. 6 months down the road and subs sound clean and crisp with no rattle to be heard whatsoever. Hope this helps!
Todd

 

[sirhk100]

That's what I assumed most of the rattling wast coming from is where the plastic interior meets the hatch itself. I think I have a large roll of weather stripping at the house right now I can put under there. I still may attempt pulling the plastic off and putting some of that spray foam in there. I need to sit in the back and crank it up while pushing and listening around the hatch to see where it is truely coming from before I dive into this. Maybe I can sqeeze this in tomorrow.

 

[leenjen]

before you try spray foam, keep in mind that it expands!
to stop the plastic from rattling on my hatch, i used 2 cans of rubberized undercoating that i bought at wal-mart for about $4 each. it worked perfectly.

it's not a hard job to pull off the panel. if you use a butter knife or small screwdriver under the panel, you can pry out the plastic clips withou breaking them. and there is one screw by the lock holding it on. it should only take less than five minutes, but be careful and you wont have any problems or broken pieces.

 

[DocVijay]

Sounds like mice in here.

Well, my Explorer has progressively develope many squaks and rattles. So tomorrow I'm gonna go and Dynamat the whole car. I'll let you know how much of a difference it makes. The expanding foam is not an option for me as I live near Mexico and cross the border nearly every day to go to the hospitals over there. On the way back, the customs agents often like to knocjk on the body panels to make sure nothing is hidden behind them. If they knocked and hear a dull thud because it was filled with the foam... Well, let's just say it would inconvenient. So, even though it's MUCH more expensive, the Dynamat is just about my ony option. I'll let you all know how it works.

 

[leenjen]

instead of spending all the $$$ on dynamat, why not get the generic stuff. it's the same thing, but doesn't say dynamat on it. but it's not like you'll see it anyway when the panels are back in place.

 

[DocVijay]

I thought of that.

Yeah, I would, but all the audio stores around here don't carry it. All they have is Dynamat, or if they have another, it's Stinger which is cheaper, but not by much. Also, I'd can't order it since tomorrow is just about the only day I'll be able to do it anytime soon.

 

[KEbert]

I agree with leenjen about the Rubberized Undercoating. If you take the panel off you can spray all of the edges with that touch the metal with one 4 dollar can. Here's what you do:
buy a can of the stuff at an auto parts store. Then spray a layer of it around all of the edges that touch the metal (or if you want to, for better sound deadening, spray the whole panel) and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Then go back and spray a thick layer of it an let it dry for about an hour. Then you are good to go.
Good luck.

 

[JTang]

Originally posted by aerialist001
Removing the plastic cover from the rear hatchback is task that you really don't want to do. It's held on by a ton of those stupid clips that like to break off.

I just did it yesterday night, and it wasn't hard at all. There weren't any panel clips for my 91. There are just 7 screws you have to remove (4 at the top of the hatchback, 2 under the pull handle, and 1 inside the locking mechanism after you remove the small panel where the lock pin is). Maybe the cars are different, but that's all it took, and the rest were plastic hooks that just slid in place.

I basically did exactly what aerialist did, though, but with a different material.

There are two ways to handle the situation. If you want to go the easy route, you're just trying to dampen the vibrations. If you're more enterprising, then you're filling the rear hatch to also eliminate road noise from the outside, but you still need a way to dapmen the movement between panel and metal door.

I went the cheap route so far, and bought some heat shielding/sound deadener (mild sound deadener). It's basically that stuff underneath carpets, but it's about 3/8" thick. It didn't fit between the panel and the rear hatch, but it did fit along the edges. I basically glued long strips of it to the edges wherever I could fit it (usually between the plastic hooks in the doors) to absorb panel movement before it could make contact with the metal door area. In the middle areas, which were the places that the stuff wouldn't fit, I cut little 1"x1" squares and placed a few of them wherever I could, gluing them into the small metal recesses to again act as buffers so the plastic panel wouldn't hit the metal. I figure I'll use a dynamat clone or a thinner foam material to go back between the main panel and metal parts.

It doesn't kill roadnoise as effectively, but it did kill the panel vibration better in about 20 minutes with about a square foot of that stuff.

Hope this helps,

Jon

 

[DocVijay]

Dynamat experience.

Well, I finally got the Dynamat today. That was a chore in and of itself. I had to go to five different car stereo shops to get enough. THe first one is right near my place, but they had only a little. So I bought all of it. The guy said that it should be enough to do my Explorer. Hah! It covered the drivers side of the body and the floor of the cargo area, that's all. I went and got more afterwards and hacve gotten halfway through the driver's door. This stuff is pretty tough to put on. Not difficult, just tedious. But even with only 1/3 of my X done, I can tell the difference. It's cost about $600 worth of Dynamat (I used Xtreme), but I think it's going to be worth it. I'll even have a bit left over to silence my cmputer a little. Ten fans can get a little loud...

I'll write again when it's all done. Tomorrow hopefully. Then classes start again, and if I'm not done by then, it'll be a long time before I'll be able to.

 

[DocVijay]

Dynamat... good stuff.

Well, I finished Dynamating my X today. I covered both sides, both doors, and the hatch floor. I've driven around to test it out, and it really works, which is a good thing and a bad thing. Good because my Explorer is really much quieter, and doesn't rattle like it used to on bumps or rough roads. Plus, now when I close my doors, they close with a solid thud, instead of the weak klank they used to.

Of course there is a down side to this. Now that I can't hear the rattles and squeaks, I'm hearing all kinds of other noises that I never realized were there. Now I have to track those down and shut them up too. Once you start working on a car, it never stops....

Overall, I used 68 square feet of Dynamat Xtreme. Funny thing though. THe name of this Thread is "Rear Hatch rattles!!!" and I haven't even done the hatch yet. At some point I'm going to do that and also cover the entire floor with more Dynamat. Maybe way in the future I'll even do the roof. Or maybe at that point I'll just pay someone to do it. I think it was all worth it though. If I had to do it again, I would.