AV8R4AA

It was a nice day and I thought I would see how the spare tire looks.
Without consulting the manual, I fiddled, pulled, cussed, then finally got the
spare tire down.
The tire looked fine, but the rack was starting to rust.
I removed everything possible on the rack assembly.
I regreased the sliding arms with marine grease, and washed everything else
down with warm water and dawn.
The spare tire was full of pebbles and dirt.

The most beneficial item accomplished today was to eliminate a very annoying
rear end banging sound.
If you crawl under there you will see a large pizza sized black plastic lower plate
When I had unscrewed the 3 Phillips screws and the three 10mm nuts the locking mechanism and the plastic pizza plate come apart.

Upon inspection the pizza plate had been banging and slapping in the metal pull
out rack. Enough so, that it wore the paint off the rack and pitted the pizza plate.
The pizza plate is not totally held down by the twist locking handle.
I noticed where the pizza plate was rubbing and ran a bead of clear silicon RTV.

Upon assembly, the wear marks are evident and very easy to realign.
I did a bumpy road test drive and the banging/slapping of the plastic are now
GONE!

The silicone bead really worked well.
If you have an obnoxious unfounded rear end bang noise, check out your spare
tire rack. It prolly needs some grease on the sliding rails anyway.

MAKE SURE YOU INSTALL TIRE WITH VALVE STEM POINTING AFT.

ldotmurray

Thanks for the info. I cleaned and inflated my spare for a trip to Boston last week. I need to remove the rust and add grease to the area.