Rattling: if you've solved a rattle in your rear hatch come

kbc749

Hello all,

I have a rattle in my rear area and I understand there are many many things that it can possibly be and I am at my wits end with it. I have tested everything I can think of so I am calling out to try and find if anyone has solved my issue (or if there are any rattles that I don't mention here trying to fix)

Okay so I have Berk HFC's and AAM Short Tails so my exhaust is reasonably loud and has caused rattles before (like the roof liner rattle that I have fixed. Later, I installed a Evo-R Hi-wing and originally I thought that a washer falling into the hatch area was causing the issue but I have explored the hatch from every side and there is no rattle in the hatch. Because there was a new louder rattle that I have ever heard before, but it did not start the day I got the spoiler but like a week later.

The noise: a metallic rattling that intensifies as the exhaust gets louder and as the engine passes through the "hot" resonation range the rattle climbs louder and then falls off as the resonation range ends (this is low rpms up until like 5k, or that the engine noise drowns it out to the point where I cannot hear it)

What I have tried:

-Holding the spoiler to the deck while someone else rev's

-checked the hatch latch mechanism, the rattle occurs when the hatch is open and closed. So I do not believe the hatch mechanism is causing the rattle as does happen in some cases.

-Putting soft material in between every single panel in the rear hatch (part that opens when you open trunk).

-Removed allllll panels in the top hatch area.

-Checked every single bolt, the ones that hold the spoiler on, the ones that hold the little fog light on the hatch on, bolts that hold the hatch to the rear panel, holding the spoiler itself

-Checked the rear fog light panel underneath (held it while someone revv'd the engine, sound persisted and that metal panel did not move or vibrate at all)

-Checked the rattle that many people have in the roof liner that is some wire that heads to the antenna on the roof, occasionally this one acts up put putting some slight pressure on the roof where the wire is located stops this

-checked the "rattling plastic on glass" sound that is described in some issues where tapping the glass creates the rattle (this does not create the rattle for me) and putting your fingers between the glass and the plastic stops the rattle. I have checked this multiple times because as everyone says the sound travels down the glass and echos back and sounds like its in the back. And it sounds like my sound is coming from the back but this does not solve or quiet the noise.

-Removed Every single panel and piece of the rear hatch, including the spare tire and all parts and all panels. Now this one I did today and what I found is that the noise got VERY much louder. So naturally I thought it was a loose bolt or something on the metal of the rear hatch. After an hour worth of having someone else rev the engine and sitting in the hatch, trying to tighten bolts and pressing on the different panels of metal on the interior of the hatch. I cannot find any item that is loose or not properly attached or rubbing on any metallic surface.

-At this point I got outside the car with all of the panels removed and checked my license plate (which already has cardboard between the plate and the bumper) and the fog light plate again. When checking the fog light plate, my head was near the location of the "Nissan" emblem in the center and I did not hear any rattle outside the vehicle but could hear it echo'ing from the inside of the hatch. (I think)

-This caused me to try and check exhaust components themselves, so I laid under the back of the car and tried to shake the exhaust components in the hangers and the hangers creaked a little bit (which might be it idk)

-The exhaust does not have a leak or any silly "washer mods" that would create such a rattle and I am reasonably sure that all of the exhaust connections are tight enough.

Does anyone have any other ideas of what it might be. I feel like I have exhausted every thing I can think of?

And I know if I go to the stealership I'm sure they will say "well its modified so theres not much we can do". and I know its not as modified as other Z's but around here it might as well be running on unicorn magic and fairies, the way the local dealership treats me when I go in there like they cannot figure out why I modified the car at all.

Any insight that is offered would be much appreciated

KBC

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2010 Black Cherry 370Z Admin 3" intakes, Motordyne LTH, ART Pipes, AAM Catback, Z1 Anti Starve Kit, and some other stuff too