Granturismo Rattles

[Palmball]

As you'll soon get to know, I have a big problem in dealing with rattles....I just can't cope with them (it's a mental problem...I know!)! Indeed, I've made myself very competent at taking apart car interiors to ensure I can fix them myself (and in this regard, I AM much better than any dealer!)

Anyway, I've yet to come across a car that doesn't rattle (I'm sure I just make them up....well, thats what the missus says) and the GT-S started off very well with virtually nothing. It is indeed much better than the Porsche and up to now, only my Merc C63 and BMW M6 came close to satisfying my need for quietness!

Virtually I said....there have been a couple that bothered me so after getting my car back this afternoon from having the amp and speaker upgrades (which I feared would create more rattles...but didn't), I tempted my long-suffering girlfriend to drive the car whilst I sat in the back to find a vibration and a ticking sound. I insisted she drove for miles on the white lines down the edge of a dual carriageway so it created as much vibration as possible to help me find the exact location. So, for any budding rattle-busting GT owners out there, here's what I found....

1. Ticking/tapping sound from the rear - sounds like its the parcel shelf but it isn't. Even sat in the back it sounded like the rear shelf...only when I rested my head on the rear shelf, (which must have looked amusing to the person following) did I find it was the high level brake light that pops out the back of the headlining. The housing of this light was vibrating on the rear window so my simple fix was to put some sticky back felt round the edge of it between the light and the window.

2. Vibration (metallic sounding) from the rear - this sounds like it comes from the rear but is actually the rear air vents between the seats. It's an odd one this and took me a while to find as it sounds like a metal vibration but the vent unit is made of plastic. However, whilst being driven I pulled the vents out (lift up from the bottom with your fingers and then prise out from the top with a plastic trim removal tool) and voila....vibration stopped. I've greased the cogs and all the mechanism and put sticky back felt around where it fits which should damp out any noise....I've refitted and will see if that fixes it tomorrow.


Is anyone else as mad as me when it comes to rattles?

 

[RonnieMack]

Spike Milligan used to tell a story about Peter Sellers who was also a fairly fanatical car owner. Peter had bought a Rolls ( one of many ) and was convinced that there was a rattle coming from the rear of the car. Over many months he tried to pin point the source of the noise but failed. One night, when he was ******, he had a "Eureka" moment and thought he'd come up with a possible cause for the rattle but he was too drunk to drive. Peter phoned Spike and asked him to drive the Rolls around London whilst Peter was curled up in the boot trying to locate the source of the noise. They drove around for a long time and ended up getting pulled by the Police who checked the boot and found a ****** Peter Sellers!
I remember hearing Spike tell the story, as only he could, many years ago on telly.
So fear not ... your not alone !
Regards
Ronnie

 

[RonnieMack]

Sorry guys, just to clarify the above post the word which has censored out is a slang term for being drunk, nothing worse than that. It rhymes with hissed.

 

[Simon]

Indeed, I've made myself very competent at taking apart car interiors to ensure I can fix them myself (and in this regard, I AM much better than any dealer!)

That wouldn't be too difficult, seems dealers never fix things back properly and you always find missing screws etc. I always notice how they damage trim panels when removing them especially in places where they think the customer can't see.

 

[ENZ525]

Is anyone else as mad as me when it comes to rattles?

Ohhhh yes

 

[Parisien]

No buzzes or rattles in my 4200 PB....you must have been sold a lemon........


P

 

[safrane]

The quieter the car the worse I am...and with 2 soft tops they are a nightmare to fix them all due to all the frame work in the roof.

But I have done the same as you and 'Women' they just don't understand...amybe thats why we are so affected by whining noises

 

[conaero]

I used to have a couple in the GS, one was the passenger seat, which disappered when someone sat in it, the other was from the centre dash vent. I took the dash top off and found that if I pushed a rubberised byro pen down each side, it went! I drove round for ages with the dash top off trying to find the blighter, GOTCHA!

Other were from the curtain and A pillar trim, I just took them off and replaced the trim panel screws and that sorted it.

The leather does creak, so its always a good idea to apply a moisteriser to the edges and behind leather panels, this works really well.

Never did get to the bottom of the passenger seat one, the one that got away.

Also, you can get something called silicone lubricant spray, its awesome for this sort of thing and the best thing ever for seatbelts that dont return but pile up in the rear footwells. Pull them right out and liberal lube both sides:

 

[SimonM]

As you'll soon get to know, I have a big problem in dealing with rattles....I just can't cope with them (it's a mental problem...I know!)! Indeed, I've made myself very competent at taking apart car interiors to ensure I can fix them myself (and in this regard, I AM much better than any dealer!)

Anyway, I've yet to come across a car that doesn't rattle (I'm sure I just make them up....well, thats what the missus says) and the GT-S started off very well with virtually nothing. It is indeed much better than the Porsche and up to now, only my Merc C63 and BMW M6 came close to satisfying my need for quietness!

Virtually I said....there have been a couple that bothered me so after getting my car back this afternoon from having the amp and speaker upgrades (which I feared would create more rattles...but didn't), I tempted my long-suffering girlfriend to drive the car whilst I sat in the back to find a vibration and a ticking sound. I insisted she drove for miles on the white lines down the edge of a dual carriageway so it created as much vibration as possible to help me find the exact location. So, for any budding rattle-busting GT owners out there, here's what I found....

1. Ticking/tapping sound from the rear - sounds like its the parcel shelf but it isn't. Even sat in the back it sounded like the rear shelf...only when I rested my head on the rear shelf, (which must have looked amusing to the person following) did I find it was the high level brake light that pops out the back of the headlining. The housing of this light was vibrating on the rear window so my simple fix was to put some sticky back felt round the edge of it between the light and the window.

2. Vibration (metallic sounding) from the rear - this sounds like it comes from the rear but is actually the rear air vents between the seats. It's an odd one this and took me a while to find as it sounds like a metal vibration but the vent unit is made of plastic. However, whilst being driven I pulled the vents out (lift up from the bottom with your fingers and then prise out from the top with a plastic trim removal tool) and voila....vibration stopped. I've greased the cogs and all the mechanism and put sticky back felt around where it fits which should damp out any noise....I've refitted and will see if that fixes it tomorrow.


Is anyone else as mad as me when it comes to rattles?

Andrew, you are not alone mate - any persistent rattle etc in anything that shouldn't be there sends me to the point of insanity - my westie rattles like a bag of bones but that doesn't bother me because it is SUPPOSED to rattle - likewise,I find it's that singular squeak or tap where everything else is quiet thast gets into your brain... my wife calls me "an unauthorised noise nazi"

 

[Palmball]

Thanks chaps....I'm normal!!! Whoopeee!!

It really spoils a car to the point that I just don't enjoy it so I'm glad mine is pretty much perfect (lemon indeed Frank....**** you man!)...my only remaining concern is a slight (yes, I mean very slight!) clicking from the drivers door trim where the airbag meets the window so after Rockingham tomorrow, I'll be taking that off and fixing it!

The good think about having an insider at a main dealer is he gets me all the instructions on how to do things which on this car is important...the Italians don't make it overly easy as they seem to make things back to front so you have to remove large amounts of trim to get at a random screw.


Matt - that silicone spray on seatbelts idea - I'm interested as my seatbelts often stick (and it seems it must be a Maserati design flaw given you've mentioned it too?). Does this spray not leave a greasy finish on the belts?

 

[Parisien]

An Amalfi lemon.........PB..........not a real Maserati motoring lemon ............


P

 

[Palmball]

I tackled another tapping sound today from the drivers door trim - it's been there since I've had it but not loud enough to warrant attention so far. It was coming from the top where the door trim clips onto the door. To start with, I removed the door trim (7 hidden screws and a few clips....easy!) and what I found was the top part of the door trim that clips onto the window seal (and is a separate part that is screwed to the main door trim below) had 5 of it's 8 screws snapped. It'd clearly been looked at before as a couple of them looked like they'd been glued with some sort of adhesive.

The result was that I couldn't fix it as a new part is needed but as my car is going into Graypaul's for all of next week, they can order and fit the new part. Indeed, the guy I know at Graypaul came and collected my car this evening (yes, a Sunday evening!), dropped off my courtesy car and was surprised to see the door trim in my hallway. He suggested that he should be paying me for doing the investigation and removal of the door trim but I bet he doesn't see many GT owners taking such a hands-on approach to fault finding!

So, with this, here is the list of things being seen to this week on my car (I:m truing to get as much perfection as possible whilst i still have a few months of warranty left!)....

- Exhaust rattle; they replaced on of the silencers a couple of weeks ago that didn't fix it so they're looking at it again

- Dashboard panel; the hinged dash area beneath the steering wheel has 3 of the 4 clips that hold it up broken (by the dealer last time they had when they replaced my instrument panel). This requires a whole new dash panel which luckily is a separate and easily replaced piece!

- Climate control fault; one quick push of the temp buttons often see's two or more increments changing so they're replacing the unit

- Headlight water ingress; I spotted this yesterday at the wet handling day, when the lights get wet, water gets into the light unit

- Steering issue; something I noticed when I drove the MC Stradale and confirmed yesterday when I tried Chris's GT-S - my car has much heaver steering than other examples. When I mentioned this I was told there are problems with early GT-S steering pumps and it may need a new one

- Door trim broken; as described above

- New suspension; this is well documented on my other thread and it's finally being fitted this week


So, a lot for them to do in a week - lets hope the dealer don't break anything else this time round! It may seem that it's not being the most reliable car but in reality, it's me (not you car!)....I'm excessively fussy and really like to ensure my car is as perfect as possible so it's quite possible that most other owners wouldn't notice many of these things!

 

[ENZ525]

Hope it all gets sorted in the week Andrew, let us know how it goes.

 

[Simon]

After reading this thread and a "service" from the main dealer my drivers seat started to squeek on rough tarmac main roads. I've isolated it to where the plastic surround around the base of the seat presses against the leather, me bouncing on the bumps rubs the two parts leather/plastic together to produce the irritating noise. I've applied leather cream to the contact points and will test when the weather improves!

 

[Palmball]

I picked my car up on Friday having had all the above issues looked at and headed straight off to the Nurburgring and returned yesterday evening.

I've got so much to update....the 'ring trip, the hairy passenger ride (in my car), the suspension and is it any good....these deserve their own thread with plenty of pics so I'll compile that in the next couple of days.

What I can say is good progress has been made with the above problems...the exhaust rattle remains and they'll be looking into it again (as it only does it for a couple of secs on start-up, they're not finding diagnosis easy!) and the climate control buttons are waiting for the part to replace them but all the other issues are fixed. So, I've got a new dash panel under the steering column, the broken door trim part has been replaced and no longer rattles and most importantly I've had a new steering pump fitted which has made the car much nicer to drive...the difference is night and day particularly parking speeds and it now feels nice and light like all other GT-S's I've tried.

And f course I've also had the suspension fitted....but more on that later!

 

[dickygrace]

I'm exactly the same too. I had my first GS into the main dealers for 5 days to find 3 rattles. They dismantled half the car and only found one. I'm much better at finding the rattles than that. Thankfully my 4200 is silent but I got so fed up of dashboard rattles in different Porsches that I'll never by another one. I also had a ridiculous wind noise in a 350z that kicked in at bang on 120mph and the dealers wouldn't even entertain the fact that it should be sorted.

I think it's part of a personality thing, we all appreciate the fine design quality of a Maserati and to be spoiled by rattles and squeaks puts a complete downer on the whole experience. My wife also thinks I'm pedantic but even though she loves the cars, doesn't quite get it.