Noise from dash

[SSTibet]

I have an annoying trembling noise coming from upper right hand side (where tha airbag is located) of my 95 C4 coupe at around idle & slow engine RPMs. The same noise is also audible on bad road conditions (such as gravel, etc). I took it to a shop and the mechanic could not eliminate it. Reason was he was unable to reach the bolts holding the ABS to the dash... How can I learn the procedure to reach around the airbags so that the bolts can be tightened? Remember, I am in Turkey and there is no authorised GM dealer here...

 

[spyysee]

I had a similar noise...drove me crazy. No one could find it. for YEARS . Not all the time, mind you.
I finanally found it. Before you rip your dash apart, check the hood! see how it lays when closed. Look for tell tale signd of rubbing or friction. Use lithium grease on all contact points.
Let us know .

 

[SSTibet]

Spyysee,
Thanks for your response. I am sure it is not from the hood. The noise goes away when I press my finger on the dash in proximity of the noise... Where my finger is around the ABS area on the dash... But how on earth can the mechanic get under the dash and tighten whatever is lose??? Darn!

 

[SSTibet]

Hey, I meant the Air Bag area... Not the ABS... Sorry

 

[jedi]

SSTibet,
I have the same problem! Annoying isn't it? Would be very interested to find out what you do!
Jedi

 

[Rabbit]

Try pulling the pass air outlet apart. It was the cause of a rattle that I thought was the airbag cover. After pulling it I found a couple of loose screws, etc. There's a small vent in the center with horizontal louvers. Pry this up ,gently ,
from the bottom to access the screws holding the vent. Next time it rattles give the vent a push
& see if that's it??????

 

[SSTibet]

Rabbit,
My mechanic here in Turkey tried all of that. In absence of service manulas it took some imagination how to disassemble the passenger side air luvers. But being an engineer I know how designers hide away the "one million dollar" bolts. Once we took away the air luvers, it was pretty easy to take apart the right hand lower part of dash. And we tightened all bolts, nuts etc. that was within reach of a wrench. We were unable to reach the Airbag bolts though... The mechanic shoved some soft material around the airbag area thinking that this would reduce the noise. The noise has decreased but there is still something there rattling at low engine speeds combined with bad road conditions. There is no noise during smooth rides on the highways. Now I am having two service manuals being shipped from Ecklers and if the noise does not stop I will ask my mechanic to follow the manuals.

 

[ameribrit]

Noise

Try pulling the pass air outlet apart. It was the cause of a rattle that I thought was the airbag cover. After pulling it I found a couple of loose screws, etc. There's a small vent in the center with horizontal louvers. Pry this up ,gently ,
from the bottom to access the screws holding the vent. Next time it rattles give the vent a push
& see if that's it??????

I don't know it this is the problem at all, but I had a vibration coming from the center vent. I noticed that each of the torx screws (2) holding it in was loose, so figured easy fix - WRONG! The screws could not tighten up so I removed the vent and found that each was screwed into an integral plastic frame and each one had vibrated into oblivion. So, now trying to figure out how to reattach it all without replacing the subframe piece, which I know is not cheap or easy.

 

[Whitehorse]

Try using some epoxy. Remove the screws, inject a little epoxy into the screw holes, screw in the screws and before the epoxy completely sets, remove the screws. This should give you a new clean thread to work with. I think you can also coat the screws with Vaseline so that they don't stick to the epoxy.

 

[ameribrit]

Broken center vent screws

Try using some epoxy. Remove the screws, inject a little epoxy into the screw holes, screw in the screws and before the epoxy completely sets, remove the screws. This should give you a new clean thread to work with. I think you can also coat the screws with Vaseline so that they don't stick to the epoxy.

Thanks - hopefully there are holes left to screw into. I was actually thinking something along these lines. I wonder is this a common problem with C4s? I have never heard of this happening for any vehicle. I guess "plastic" has its limits!otfl