brownboy

I have an '09 and whenever I turn at an angle onto a parking garage ramp I get a loud popping noise or two as the body flexes. There are some other little creaks that I can live with but this one is pretty bad and even going over a little speed bump can trigger it.

It sounds like it's coming from near the top of the A-pillar on the passenger side but I don't find anything loose when I grab stuff around there. Anyone have suggestions on what else I should check? The top seems aligned fine. I am due for service soon and am thinking about asking the dealer to investigate. I realize this may open a can of worms but I'd happily spend some $$$ to make this go away and I really want to keep this car.

coldhammer

check the suspension. mine used to do this. they put it up on a lift with all the weight off the tires and loosened and re-tightened some of the suspension bolts underneath. sorry cant remember exactly which parts think it was the rear braces. but that solved the problem.

next2pool

Does it do that with the top open and closed?

brownboy

The most annoying noise is a pop that I get when the top is closed. When the top is open I get fewer noises and just some chassis flex and smaller noises.

I just got the car back and they had it for several days. They said they did $480 of work on it and made some improvement. They want me to drive it for a week and see if it's better to me. Thus far it is better but the most annoying pop seems to still be there though I've only made the trip home from the dealership.

They said that there were over a dozen TSBs that could be performed but since my extended warranty expired a year ago I'd have to pay for them myself. Cost will be over $1k and I requested a detailed breakdown but haven't received it yet. I set aside $10k when the warranty expired for repairs and haven't used much of it so I'm inclined to do this.

I gave them the PDF that someone else posted of some possible fixes but it's not clear whether they did those. Since they didn't charge me for the work they did I don't have an invoice.

carguyshu

i'd be interested to see these TSBs for noise reduction

brownboy

I'm going back to the dealer soon to see what else they can do but in poking around I see that this piece is a bit loose on the passenger side and may the cause of the main knocking/popping noise. The driver side one isn't completely tight but isn't nearly as loose as this one. Does anyone know how to tighten it? I didn't want to poke around too much with the top halfway up since I didn't know if it would move unexpectedly so I'm not sure if those little holes are access points for screws but they seem too small for that. TIA!





loose part of top mechanism

Speedriven1

Weird. Have that checked, and also just have them do an MPI for suspension bits.

brownboy

Finally got the car back and they fixed the one annoying popping/knocking noise I had and I don't get a bunch of squeaking when entering parking garage ramps. They said they spent about 4 hours of labor but only charged me for 2 (at $160/hr). Specifically the invoice says:

Re-torque top brackets, cross supports, and re-lub seals.
Removed seals and re-lube all seals, re-torque cross supports and sub frame

edit: forgot to mention that they didn't think the loose part I found (posted in this thread earlier) was causing any noise and apparently they were right.

I was quite pleased with the result and the cost but during the test drive afterward a motor mount broke and they said I needed to replace the transmission mount. That added $1550 to the bill. Ouch.

Also remarked that my rear tires have only 2/32" of tread left which is odd since I only have 8k miles on them (Michelin Pilot Super Sport, max perf summer)