rattles and creaks

I have heard folks talk about eliminating the rattle caused by the door latch on the post on v.s. cars. mine is starting to bother me a bit when i hit bumps. i looked for any type of adjustments and didn't find any. does anyone have any tricks/ suggestions?

I wrapped the shaft of the receiver post with electrical tape. Not too much, just enough to tighten up the connection between the catch mechanism on the door and the receiver post on the car. No more rattles. You have to replace the tape every few months because it wears off. Not an elegant fix, but it works.

When I had my VS, I did what John did, but additionally, I added some weather stripping on the vertical part of the door sill and replaced the stripping on the horizontal portion. I used the kind that looks like a train rail when looking at a cross section, but hollow where it makes contact. This seemed to help a great deal, almost completely eliminating the rattles. I found the material in an auto parts store.

i'll try both of these. thanks alot.

"Rattles? IM's aint got no rattles. IM's don't need no stinkin rattles..."

Why?

I'm with George on this one!

george, i was gonna throw you a wise-ass return, but then i checked out your car. DAMN, that thing looks tight!!!! my only question is this: was it still cheaper than a new boxster?

Yes, that car is tight. It's a good think George isn't, though, or else we wouldn't be able to look at it, as it wouldn't exist.

I have no idea if mine rattles or not cause I can't hear anything except engine noise. Mike Cochrane has a great mechanic who specializes in rattles, check his photos.

I wish I could say that my IM does not rattle but that's not the case. It creaks and groans and rattles etc. Could be the crappy roads we have here with frost heaves and such. Could be the cold weather that I often drive in as I notice that some of the creaks and groans go away when it is hot. Might even be the fact that whoever painted it before I bought it didn't bother to put weather stripping in the doors, left crappy seal in the trunk, etc...that's being rectified.

Probably just due to the fact that its an 18 year old car. Even my Benz that's a bit older creaks, groans and rattles....course it has 400,000 kms.

One of the rattles I've learned to live with is the window cranks and handles...all four on the interior are loose and rattle around. Anyone have an easy fix for those?

Brian

I haven't worked with Mercedes Benz cars but I imagine you can check for loose fasteners.

She follows me around and usually fixes the rattles quickly. Ah, life is good.

I think I might have crushed her head? Ah......no worries!

Mike, All that weatherstripping gives you a much tighter fit. TOM

If you have 'hollow' weatherstrip on your vehicle, this worked for me... Your local hobby shop has 36" long soft plastic PVC dowel rod in 1/32", 1/16", 3/32" diameters. Select a diameter depending on how much rattle you're trying to fix. Cut the length down to 18" and slip inside of the vertical hollow weatherstrip along the door jam by the locking mechanism. This takes up the 'play' in the door mechanism. Be careful, too thick of a diameter may prevent the door from latching.

Tom; this is off-topic but are you related to Jim Weider? He's been the guitar player for The Band ever since Robbie Robertson left and he lives in Woodstock.

Tom,

If you're kin-folk didn't produce such greats as "up on cripple creak", is there any chance they were a former Mr. Olympia and maker of several popular nutritional supplements?

To Wally Krause:

I worked in Arlington Heights for a number of years, Your name sounds familiar. I worked at Honeywell up on Dundee Rd until they closed a few years ago. Just curious. The wife and I lived in Schaumburg until we moved out to Oregon in the summer of 2000.

Regards, Bruce Williams

Stop it Bruce! Now I'm tripping down memory lane!
John H
(former Oak Parker)

John,

If all us flat landers keep leaving there will be nobody left to pay those Illinois taxes! No sales tax in Oregon and that is sure nice after paying the 6% Illinois tax, the 1/2% Cook County tax, and then the 1% city tax. I bet they have moved it up even more, yikes.

Happy in Oregon, Bruce

Bruce,
I hear ya. Tennessee has no state income tax, but a stiff sales tax on just about everything, 8% (food) to 9% (non-food items). Knox county is a quarter of a point higher, but thankfully I live in Loudon county. However, with the lower prices for housing and miniscule property taxes (about 25% of what I was paying in Illinois on a smaller house) we have found this to be a great place to retire.

Approximately 60% of our community is from Michigan, followed by Florida and Illinois. The Florida component confused me at first, but those who migrated north found Florida to be some or all of the following:
1. too hot and humid (doh!)
2. too congested
3. too far from family members still living in the north
All in all, TAN-ah-see is a good place to live. We never considered Oregon because we heard it rains all the time, not unlike Seattle. True?

John,

That is a loaded question. I have been warned by my neighbors to keep that myth going. Actually we get 18 in of precip a year. If you want more details I can give you more details off this site!

Bruce

Mike , where do you get weatherstripping with those full figured dimensions? Most everything I see has a much smaller profile! Please disclose your sources and put a large order in for me too.
TOM

I have the same problems with a CMC. I replace the front trans nose rubber piece,what ever it's called. That really helped. Try and find a Greman made one. The first one was made in India, it lasted about 2000 miles.
Paul

To Bruce Williams:

I've never worked for Honeywell. I was born 'n raised in Park Ridge, IL. Last 25 years the wife and family have lived in Arlington Heights. Maybe our paths have crossed somewhere in the past?? My other hobbies are Amateur Radio and Astronomy. Have we bumped into each other at a club meet?

Wally,

Thanks for the reply. No, never into amatuer radio or astronomy but still have lots of friends and aquantiances in the area back there.

Maybe the thing that triggered me was the fact that my wife worked with at Unocal was Clair Krause. Barb just mentioned that her husbands name was Wally! She said last she heard that they had moved to Tomah, Wisconsin. Any link there? Do you have a Speedster/Spyder?

Bruce

Bruce,
Sorry no relationship. My wife of 22 years is Diane.

I have a JPS Speedster on a '66 chassis. 1957 'ruby red' with natural tan interior. 1641cc engine, 041 heads polished and ported, larger valves, full circle crank, counterweighted, lightened flywheel, modified 110 cam, dual baby Webers and balanced. At 95hp she scoots along nicely.

John had my car at Knotts. He has a coulple of pics posted on his web site... a front qtr shot and an engine bay close up. (John did inadvertantly list my car as signal red).

OK Wally,

Did see your car at Knotts. It is almost a carbon copy of my 2003 JPS. Mine is Signal red,(Guards Red) with tan vinyl interior, have the chrome wheels with a 1776 and the full circle crank, all the same engine mods, dual ICT's. I am sure you will love your car as I love mine. To bad no connection on the name but now we have something in common with our JPS Speedsters! Enjoy and keep us posted on your adventures with Speedy.

Bruce

who is mike cochrane, please?

He's one of our forum members from Canada; check his post above.