Foam Master Jay - Dash Speaker Grill Creaks
09-18-10, 06:55 PM
#1
Pole Position
Thread Starter
Foam Master Jay - Dash Speaker Grill Creaks
Tonight I think I finally found a way to isolate and hopefully fix for good the terrible creaking/rattly noise that has been coming from my passenger side dash area. As usual, I didn't take any photos of what I was doing sorry!
I thought it was something in the door for the longest time, but it turns out it's the speaker grill cover. When pressing around it, it was making this creaking kind of sound. I did a few things:
1) Isolate the metal parts of the cover that are bent around the plastic part of the cover with foam mounting tape and press them like crazy to make them as secure as possible. Part of the problem is that the cover itself makes a creaking sound when you flex it because of the two parts of the cover rubbing against one another.
2) There is a rubber area under the cover that ironically I'm sure lexus put there to keep it from making noise. Problem is, something about the cover rubbing on this rubber causes the noise. Probably could be quieted by lubricating the rubber with a lot of silicone grease but I just went ahead and covered around this whole rubber piece with the foam mounting tape leaving one side with the adhesive cover on. This served to stop the rubbing and also tightened up the fit of the speaker cover significantly.
Now manually pressing on the thing no longer makes noise. Since I live in the middle of downtown and it's saturday night I didn't want to actually go for a drive so I'm hoping if it holds up to manual poking and prodding that it should hold up during driving.
I just wanted to put this out there for you guys in case anybody else is having this kind of noise. It's really easy to get the covers off, just stick a coin like a quarter in the gap at the front and pry it up.
Hopefully I'm nearing the end of my crusade to make "Foamy" quiet, but temperatures are going to drop quick and I'm sure I'll be back with more tales of my foam filled adventures.
I thought it was something in the door for the longest time, but it turns out it's the speaker grill cover. When pressing around it, it was making this creaking kind of sound. I did a few things:
1) Isolate the metal parts of the cover that are bent around the plastic part of the cover with foam mounting tape and press them like crazy to make them as secure as possible. Part of the problem is that the cover itself makes a creaking sound when you flex it because of the two parts of the cover rubbing against one another.
2) There is a rubber area under the cover that ironically I'm sure lexus put there to keep it from making noise. Problem is, something about the cover rubbing on this rubber causes the noise. Probably could be quieted by lubricating the rubber with a lot of silicone grease but I just went ahead and covered around this whole rubber piece with the foam mounting tape leaving one side with the adhesive cover on. This served to stop the rubbing and also tightened up the fit of the speaker cover significantly.
Now manually pressing on the thing no longer makes noise. Since I live in the middle of downtown and it's saturday night I didn't want to actually go for a drive so I'm hoping if it holds up to manual poking and prodding that it should hold up during driving.
I just wanted to put this out there for you guys in case anybody else is having this kind of noise. It's really easy to get the covers off, just stick a coin like a quarter in the gap at the front and pry it up.
Hopefully I'm nearing the end of my crusade to make "Foamy" quiet, but temperatures are going to drop quick and I'm sure I'll be back with more tales of my foam filled adventures.
09-19-10, 07:40 AM
#3
I discovered the exact same thing in my car a few months ago. I ended up removing the OE tape and replacing it with surgical tape, which has no friction on the non-adhesive side. That was 5 months ago, and no squeaks since then. At least not from the speaker grilles anyway.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...sh-rattle.html
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...sh-rattle.html
I noticed today that when I pressed down on the corner edge of the driver side or center speaker grilles (and presumably the passenger side as well), I could duplicate the noises I'm having from those areas. So, I pulled over, took a quarter and popped off all three grilles, prying them gently from the sides. I didn't hear another peep from my dash the rest of the drive.
Interestingly, I think the grilles are making at least some of the noise themselves. They make a creaking sound when I bend them ever so slightly. I think I know what is producing this. There is a strip of felt tape on the outside edge of the grille, presumably to prevent friction with the dash. Incidentally, it also holds the metal grille tight against the plastic cover. After removing the felt tape, I found that the grille would no longer make the creaking sound when I bended it. I think the tape is causing friction between the grille and plastic cover, and when the dash flexes, makes the sound.
Tomorrow I am going to apply some felt tape between the grille cover and the plastic and see if that does the trick.
Hoping I'm not on a wild goose chase here; has/does anyone else found anything similar with their car?
Interestingly, I think the grilles are making at least some of the noise themselves. They make a creaking sound when I bend them ever so slightly. I think I know what is producing this. There is a strip of felt tape on the outside edge of the grille, presumably to prevent friction with the dash. Incidentally, it also holds the metal grille tight against the plastic cover. After removing the felt tape, I found that the grille would no longer make the creaking sound when I bended it. I think the tape is causing friction between the grille and plastic cover, and when the dash flexes, makes the sound.
Tomorrow I am going to apply some felt tape between the grille cover and the plastic and see if that does the trick.
Hoping I'm not on a wild goose chase here; has/does anyone else found anything similar with their car?
09-19-10, 03:02 PM
#4
Pole Position
Thread Starter
Found and got rid of another annoying rattle, this time in my roof. It's funny how when you fix one rattle, then you start noticing another one.
This time, it was the rear passenger LED light module. Inside, there is a plastic harness that is poorly insulted with a small wrap of foam but the foam does not cover the whole harness. I pulled it down, wrapped it like crazy in more foam, taped some additional foam to the roof and reassembled.
Previously, when driving the harness would rattle against the roof of the car causing an annoying metallic sound that was hard to pinpoint.
Now that that was gone, on my test drive, there is a small amount of creaking still coming from the passenger door area... still not entirely sure about that one, so I lubed all of the weather stripping with silicone and I'm just going to hope that the noise is from the weather stripping rubbing against eachother between the door and the door frame.
Almost there........ you know, I bet my last car (Toyota) had all of these noises and more, but since I was "just" driving a toyota I didn't care but now that the thing says Lexus on it and has a higher price tag I am just going insane and this forum probably isn't helping my rattle/creak OCD since it was probably the forum that seeded the idea in my brain that this is worth going bonkers over.
Even when the thing in the roof was rattling like crazy it took my wife after I prompted her to listen a good freaking 5 minutes before she admitted she heard anything, she thinks I'm off the deep end.
This time, it was the rear passenger LED light module. Inside, there is a plastic harness that is poorly insulted with a small wrap of foam but the foam does not cover the whole harness. I pulled it down, wrapped it like crazy in more foam, taped some additional foam to the roof and reassembled.
Previously, when driving the harness would rattle against the roof of the car causing an annoying metallic sound that was hard to pinpoint.
Now that that was gone, on my test drive, there is a small amount of creaking still coming from the passenger door area... still not entirely sure about that one, so I lubed all of the weather stripping with silicone and I'm just going to hope that the noise is from the weather stripping rubbing against eachother between the door and the door frame.
Almost there........ you know, I bet my last car (Toyota) had all of these noises and more, but since I was "just" driving a toyota I didn't care but now that the thing says Lexus on it and has a higher price tag I am just going insane and this forum probably isn't helping my rattle/creak OCD since it was probably the forum that seeded the idea in my brain that this is worth going bonkers over.
Even when the thing in the roof was rattling like crazy it took my wife after I prompted her to listen a good freaking 5 minutes before she admitted she heard anything, she thinks I'm off the deep end.
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