Annoying rattle

[jw2015]

Has anyone noticed a noise coming from the soft-top workings, just behind and below your right ear. As far as I can make out it's sounds like two pieces of plastic connecting constantly to produce what might be described as a rattle, but is probably more accurately described as rubbing plastic. Initially I thought it might be the glass moving in dirty window seals, but it's not. It's coming from the soft-top housing just behind the door. I can hear it when the top is up or down, always coming from the same place. When the hood is down, the exposed bits and pieces in the area the sound comes from seem to relate to opening and closing of the section of bodywork that covers the top when it's down. There isn't anything obvious though that might be producing the noise, anyone got any suggestions?
I'm pretty sure it's also coming from the same location on the passenger side too. My wife says I'm out of my mind but it's driving me nuts because in general the interior is noise free and this noise is right next to my ear. Top down and engine roaring it's not a problem but at this time of the year it's getting to be a bit annoying.

 

[Guest]

jw,

The noise sounds exactly the same as the one I am getting from the passenger side, but I think its from the dash around the airbag area. It is doing my head in. I think it is worse when the car interior is cold. I only got the car 2 weeks ago so taking it to my OPC on Friday. Also getting loads of wind noise around driver window!!

Crank the stereo!

Paul Bigman

 

[jw2015]

Doh!! Just been out to the OPC to get some paperwork and the service manager pointed out the seals under the softtop lid and reckoned they'd be the source of the noise. I'm pretty sure he's right, it's just like the noise made by dirty seals and even though I had cleaned and lubricated all seals that I could see, I just didn't think about these, and they're pretty dirty.

 

[Brian Halling]

Has anyone noticed a noise coming from the soft-top workings, just behind and below your right ear. As far as I can make out it's sounds like two pieces of plastic connecting constantly to produce what might be described as a rattle, but is probably more accurately described as rubbing plastic.

I had a similar noise, which turned out to be the back of the seat/headrest rubbing against the firewall. Simply incline the backrest forward a fraction and it's gone. Worth a try.

 

[Guest]

I have something similar, particularly in wet/damp conditions. I am told it is the hood rubbers, but mine sounds more of a squeak than a rattle.

 

[jw2015]

You can get spray on silicone lubricant for squeaking rubber (sounds like an ad for Ky gel []), it does work well on things like window seals, so if you can access the seals in question you can probably sort it.

 

[jw2015]

Been there Brian. One of my first trips out almost gave me heart failure as I had the headrest right back into the rollover bars, and going through corners at high speed on a bad surface made it sound like something was about to fall apart just behind me, took a wee while to figure it out. Must be a real pain for taller folks who need to have the seat that far back.

Talking of seatbacks, has anyone almost killed themselves or had a passenger almost kill themselves with the seatback adjuster switch. Until a friend of mine almost crushed himself recently when moving the seatback forward, I hadn't realised that the toggle switch would lock if pushed completely forwards and needed to be pushed again to release it. Until then I had always thought the seat could only be adjusted by keeping your finger on the switch. I wouldn't like to have found this out the hard way while travelling at speed, it's a pretty dangerous feature IMO.

 

[Brian Halling]

Yes, we have also experienced the self-squashing seats. Last September while driving in the Swiss Alps (Eurohoon with PistonHeads) I braked hard and an atlas wedged between the passenger seat and the door slid forward and pressed the seat back adjuster. Within a few seconds the seat back had folded my wife hard against the dash. She was in such distress I had to make an emergency stop, and it took me a moment to realise what had happened and how to release her.

Until John's last post I had not realised that the switch is 'one-touch'. Whilst accepting that loose items should be avoided, surely I'm not the only one to stow maps like this. It is a genuine hazard and the 'one-touch' feature should be disabled before it causes a serious accident. If it had been on the driver's side who knows what might have happened. I reported this potential danger to Porsche but had no reply. Just how do you get them to take you seriously on matters as important as this?