This is a strange problem with my 1994 850 Turbo Wagon (which is otherwise practically flawless)....

When I start the car there is a rather loud vibrating or buzzing sound coming from somewhere around the driver's door. At times it seems like it's coming from just above my left ear but not always from that spot. Tapping on the door, roof,rolling the window up and down, opening and closing the door, etc... seems to have no effect.

After I have driven a few blocks the chatter ebbs a bit and eventually dies way down or goes away completely.

One thing that I have noticed that does have a positive effect is hitting my brakes (but not while the car is idle) while coming to a stop... and sometimes hitting the gas when leaving a stop. Those two instances seem to make an immediate difference.

Other than tearing the door apart, I'm not exactly sure where to begin. There are occasions when the sound almost seems like it is coming from in front of the door, like to the left of the dash.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

The dash mounting tabs are known to break over time.

Thenoise is probably not from the door. Have you checked the upper engine mount? Does the tone change when you stepon the gas pedal?

It is very hard to tell you what to look for, without hearing the noise myself.

Sorry couldn't help you better.


JPN

 

Do you have an electronic climate control? If you do there is a small fan in a temperature sensor just above the grab bar above the door.They often get dirty and noisy.

...Lee

 

Hey thanks guys, as always.

I finally determined the noise is definitely coming from above my left ear near the driver's grab handle. The only way I can make the noise stop is to grab the handle and yank down on it two or three times. That seems to do the trick for a while.

Don't mean to sound dumb(er) but I'm not sure if I have electronic temperature control or not. I assume that I do. If so it does sound like it's that little fan. Crazy they could squeeze something up in that area. I would gladly tear things apart to get at the fan but... I'm not sure exactly what to tear apart. There doesn't seem to be anything you can remove, aside from that handle itself.

 

^Does your temperature panel have actual temperatures on it? I think the bottom is 62 or 64 and the top is 80ish.

 

Anddoes one of the slider switches have word "AUT"?

I do not believe it is the blower fan, if the noise stops when you grab onto that handle. It could be the handle itself, or the temp sensor (if you have the electronic/automatic climate control) may be loosebehind the handle. Or it could be somewhere along the head liner, sun shade, sunroof mechanism...


JPN

 

Thanks. It looks like I do have electronic temperature control. Ihave the AUTO option on my temperature control slider switch, and when I flip the Info dial the dash computer displays thetemperature. I didn't notice that before.

As far as yanking the grab handle to stop the noise that ain't work'n so great anymore. I guess the car caught on to my trick.

I'm wondering if you canaccess the little fan simply by taking off the grab handle... or do you have to go through the roof via the sun roof?

Thanks. You guys are awesome!

 

OK... the annoying noise was the little fan in the ceiling behind the driver's grab handle.

I just popped out the little vent cover behind the handle and sprayed some compressed air in there.

Unfortunately, I accidentally stuck the long spray tube of the compressed air can a little to far into the vent hole and caught the fan. (I heard the fan stop.) The fan started up again after I pulled the spray tube out... but after a few more blasts of compressed air the fan stopped altogether.

I think I may have killed the fan. I wonder what problems that will cause now. My bad. [:'(]

 

OK!!! I think I finally fixed it.

The fan started working again (and chattering again) so I blasted some WD-40 into the vent hole a few times and that worked!! Silence at last... and the fan still works. You can hear it if you listen very carefully.

Big deal right? Hey... one man's garbage is another man's 5'9" brunette.

 

I have an annoying chattering noise on the passenger side, but it goes away when my wife gets out of the car.

 

JimKW,
I know I am new here on the board, but I was going to reply with the exact quote. LOL!

"I have an annoying chattering noise on the passenger side, but it goes away when my wife gets out of the car."

 

Actually, the noise came back about a month after I wrote the above, but I forgot to update this thread. I finally fixed the problem by removing the temperature sensor fan located in the roof above the driver's left shoulder (behind the grab handle in the ceiling). You have to remove the grab handle and some trim. Then it's just a matter of removing the fan by taking out two screws. After removing the fan I took it in the house and cleaned it thoroughly with WD-40. I also sprayed it with some grease. Maybe I destroyed the fan in the process... but it sure doesn't make any noise now! lol