Rattle from Hell - Found and Fixed!

[Minidave]

And just in time too, as we're leaving for Winter Park in the am.....

The backstory:

I've had an intermittant rattle in the back of my Clubby since about April or May, coincidentally right about the last time I had it in at Baron, where they replaced my rear pads........hmmmmmm.......

However, also coincidentally, it was about the same time as I did an event at Heartland Park.........also hmmmmmmmmmmm.......

Shortly after that it went away.

Then, a few weeks ago out of nowhere the rattle started up again. This time it was worse than ever before and it took next to nothing bumps-wise to cause it to carry on - and it was loud! It sounded like a bolt was loose and rolling around in the back, but I took everything out of the back and it still did it. My next suspect was the rear bumper frame bolts, but I just couldn't believe one of those had worked loose enough to make that much noise, and no one had been working back there. That left brakes and rear suspension.

I had it back to Baron yesterday for them to install a couple of new window seals and asked them to look for it too. Their conclusion was that my aftermarket sway bar was too big and was hitting the body - even tho it's been on there for two years and never did it before?

I resigned myself to changing back to the original sway bar - which is about 1/2 the size of the new one - and started working on it this morning- even in this heat. I got the car raised up and on stands and pulled both wheels and looked everywhere for a shiny spot that would indicate where it was hitting - nothing showed anywhere. So I grabbed some tools, the first thing I put a wrench on was the sway bar end link nut, which turned very easily! Ahaa!

So I tightended both sides with the wrath of Khan, put the wheels back on, put it on the ground and holding my breath headed down the street.

Eureka! Quiet as can be.

Now it all became clear, I had changed the sway bar setting each time I went to the track and changed it back after the last run - I just didn't get them tight enough. So, kudo's to Baron for steering me to the right part of the car too.

I'm going to buy some new end links, the studs on the OEM ones are a little bit small for the holes in the swaybar and allow a little movement - which possibly could over time cause the nut to loosen.

There's nothing worse than a really loud rattle!