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Annoying clanking noise from the back of the car

Discussion in 'Prime Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by sylvaing, Feb 6, 2024.

  1. sylvaing

    sylvaing Active Member

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    I have this annoying noise that started all of a sudden when going over bumps.



    It seems to originate from inside the car. Opening the windows, I don't hear a anything from the outside. I took out the mobile charger, the trim where it is stored, both left and right storage area and the battery cover and it still does it. It's too cold to remove the other plastic trims in the trunk so I'm thinking it might be something lose there. I also took out the rear seats and lowered the backrest and didn't see anything lose there. Anybody heard of such a ratchet? It's really annoying.
     
  2. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    The animated GIF file above is muted and the volume needs to be adjusted to hear it. The gif file is also muted by default at the Imgur site.
    The sound is almost the same to my ear as the door lock. Other guesses are some actuator or valve trying to switch on, off or open, close.
    My dad was a mechanical engineer and unknown rattles, thumps, clunks, etc used to drive him bonkers too. :cool:
     
    #2 vvillovv, Feb 7, 2024
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2024
  3. sylvaing

    sylvaing Active Member

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    Yeah, Imgur videos havr the sound turned Off by default. You have to click/touch that speaker symbol with a line over it to turn it On.
     
  4. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Fourth gens had service bulletin for a loose rear suspension bolt (or nut) IIRC?
     
  5. sylvaing

    sylvaing Active Member

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    Thanks. I'll check next month when I remove my winter tires. Noise started last fall and hasn't got any worse since then.
     
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  6. pasta4breakfast

    pasta4breakfast Junior Member

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    Did you figure this out? I had a rattling sound I couldn't figure out coming from inside the car when going over bumps. One day my wife noticed that the cargo cover was upside down. I removed it a while back to fit a bunch of stuff going to Goodwill. I must have put it back in wrong without paying much attention. I almost never use it, so I never noticed it was on upside down. Once I fixed that, the rattling went away.
     
  7. sylvaing

    sylvaing Active Member

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    No, I'm waiting for the spring when I change my wheels to see if it comes from the suspension or the trims over the rear wheel wells because I removed everything, down to the plastic cover over the battery and the rear seats and it still rattles.

    Today I had a rolling rattle while turning, turns out this one was because free ice was rolling over the the plastic cover below the wipers (whatever that piece is called) lol. That one was an easy fix!
     
  8. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    I heard what I think is the same sound in my Prime this morning, as the sounds I heard in the GIF in the OP.
    I had driven about 10 mile and was standing in a parking lot in READY mode and switched from HV mode to EV mode while looking at car scanners All Sensors. It was 30 F ambient and coolent temp was 158 F . I switched back to HV mode and turned on the heat to 68 F I wanted to time how long it took for the coolant to drop below the temp where the engine would start. I heard the sounds 2 or 3 times from the back of the car, sounding like the door locking sounds, but further back and underneath. My first thought was something switching inside the traction battery case, from the perceived location and barely noticeable even while the car was parked in READY mode without the engine running. I'll post here, if I hear it again and have any clues what it might be.
     
  9. sylvaing

    sylvaing Active Member

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    Myself it does it going over bumps on the road.
     
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