Hey all.... so after spending the last year saying... damn i need to get that tailgate rattle repair kit... ( for my 95 850 wagon) ... I finally spent the $20 bucks on the kit. Tonight i went to hammer it out (metaphorically) and upon removing the door panel and inspecting the work at hand... i realized that the previous owner had ALREADY REPAIRED IT! .....

needless to say, the noise I am hearing must not be the vibrations of a loose door panel... but something else entirely, coming from the trunk of my wagon! GHAHA! Super Frustrating..

SO... the sound is kinda deep, more of a clunking, like a soft clunking. The sound occurs while driving, and appears to based off the vibration of the car, so for instance, if i hit a bump, i hear it... almost like a loose muffler rocking bacl and forth.... or SOMETHING!

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

Loose jack/tool kit in the wheel well rattling around?

 

Maybe upper shock mount?

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

I thought it may have been coming from the spare tire, tool area.... but its not...

Tech, thats def a possibilty... but, if the shocks had been replaced at all in the last 2 years... would this still be in the running? I mention that because they were replaced with bilsteins recently.

 

The upper shock mounts usually don't get replaced with the shocks.
The ones I have seen go bad you could get it to make the noise by slightly lifting and dropping from the wheel wells on the side the noise comes from.
Or if you get in and inspect them you should be able to see them bad.

 

I think I might have a much easier fix. Mine was making what I would describe as a soft clunking too. The panel flaps around, but that actually wasn't it. Open the tailgate and look up by the latch. There should be about four screws holding the latch in place. On mine they had loosened enough to where I lost one and was having trouble closing the tailgate. If you're able to pull the panel off slightly with the door open, there should be four black screws. All it took was about 5 minutes with an allen wrench and no more clunking. Of course, that was just my car, but hopefully it's the problem in yours, 'cause it's cheap.

 

That would be a very nice surprise.


how do i inspect the mounts? where are they visible from? do i pull interior peices or do i pull the wheel off and look from the exterior?

Ill inspect all suggested areas. THANKS!

 

You will have to remove the inner trim panel behind the rear door to see the upper mount.

 

Also check that the rear hatch latch catch is adjusted properly! Say that 3 times fast! When the hatch is closed, pull and push on the hatch and see if it is loose and noisy. If so, you can adjust the catch on the body by loosening the bolts and adjusting it in a bit. Also make sure the catch is centered in the latch.

My 97 850 just had a bunch of rattles too. I found the catch out of adjutment, the latch bolts loose, the panel was broken, and then the rear wiper motor was also loose!

B

 

sounds like a loose screw

 

Thank you for the upper shock mount pointer. Bingo!

 

In my wagon it's the rear seat back that rattles.
There's some nolathan (?) 'bumpers' inside the seat back catch assembly, in my car these are worn out.
Try driving around with the back seat down to see if the noise persists.