The pod is out again.
I’m insane. Everyone knows this. I try to keep it together and most days I’m successful. But rattles bring out the red eyed beast. Dear God, rattles make me crazy. And Sharka has been slowly accumulating more and more rattles. I try my best to keep them at bay, but it’s not always enough.
I’d finally had enough.
Cracks. They make noise.
The #1 culprit was Sharka’s fancy dash gauge pod. It creaked and cracked. I could HEAR it very clearly. If we hit a bump that made things shake, I could hear the gauge pod creak as things flexed.
Removing it showed the problem. Lots of cracks. Twisting it with my hands, even just a little, produced the same creaking noise I’d heard while driving.
Goop. Not quite Shoe Goo but pretty good.
No more creaking.
This “Goop” stuff came from a hardware store. I was looking for Shoe Goo (lovely stuff) but could only find this. It stays flexible after it cures, so I was pretty happy. And a month after applying it, I can safely report that it worked great. No more creaks.
Ouch.
This also happened. A small crack in the boost gauge pod. It was pretty much invisible under the chrome ring, but once I had everything apart, I thought I might as well fix it.
Besides, I’d never fiberglassed anything before.
A little fiberglass.
And let it harden.
A little bondo and sanding…
And some paint fixes it right up.
It really wasn’t much of a crack to fix. I added a tiny bit of fiberglass to the back side to strengthen it. Then I sanded it back to round with a dremel once it was cured. Then a tiny bit of bondo applied with a finger to fill the crack on the front side. And some Krylon satin black to finish it up.
Now to address the gauges…
Yup. That won’t rattle.
There’s a lot going on in the above image. I spent several evenings staring at the thing, trying to figure out everything that could possibly rattle.
1: The gauge mounting posts. The nuts backed off of two posts and let the flat washers rattle. With a double nut, that won’t be happening again.
2: The backing plate at the bottom of the U-clip. That will make sure the U clips don’t re-crack the plastic. They’re glued in place with a thin layer of the previously seen GOOP.
3: The safety wiring. The U-clips slid all over the place and deformed in the year or so that they were installed last. They didn’t have anything to hold them straight. Well… I fixed that. Don’t laugh at the wire. I think it’s for hanging photo frames. It was just what I had on hand.
The whole gauge pod is now incredibly rigid. Like, shockingly rigid. Pretty proud of myself actually.
It better not rattle…
Foam for everyone.
The slider cable was a rattle source. Not any more.
Before putting the crash pad back in, I spent a few hours in Sharka’s passenger seat applying foam to anything that could possibly rattle. Then I’d shake things and slam doors. Then more foam.
The HVAC slider cable (seen in the 2nd photo) rattled against the plastic ducting. Like… a lot. A bit of foam applied to both the cable and the side of the duct took care of that noise. When the glove box was up, the same cable rattled a little against it too. I ended up just coating the whole cable in foam. No more noise.
Having a huge hole in the dash made finding rattles very easy. I could just reach through and shake wires around. Pretty sweet. You know, if you’re crazy.
Silicone time.
Gluing the crash pad back in place.
I didn’t take any photos of this the last time I installed the gauge pod. It’s held in with silicone from the factory, so I used the same thing. It’s a bit messy, but it works.
Wanna know how it all ended up? After ALL of this work? It was actually about 2 weeks of work…
Sharka STILL rattled.
Friction tape.
There was still one rattle. A big rattle. The main rattle. If I was driving, it sounded like it was coming from the crash pad. But if I was on the other side of the car, it was very clearly coming from the main gauges.
I was clearly going nuts.
I had two rolls of this friction tape. I had plans to coat every edge of every object in it until there were no more rattles.
THE RATTLE.
Fortunately, the rattle was easy to replicate. Just rev the engine up to 2000 and listen. So, I set my idle speed to 2000 and sat in the car moving my head all around.
If I had my head near the HVAC panel, the rattle sounded like it was right in front of me. I started to take it apart. As I turned my head to look for a tool, the rattle moved above me.
Right above me.
The whole goddamn mirror was shaking at 2000 rpm.
This was the rattle.
Suddenly, there was silence.
My fancy lighted mirror was the rattle. Specifically, the lens on the passenger side. When I touched it, the rattle stopped.
You guys have no idea the relief. Finding THE rattle? Oh my god. Instant relief. It felt GOOD. (yes, I clearly have mental health issues).
I taped up 3 sides with friction tape (better than gluing it in place) and stuck the lens back into the housing. No more noise.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.
Rattles? None here.
No rattles here either.
I’ve driven a couple weeks since fixing these things. I drove to the VLA and took photos. No interior rattles the whole time. At all. There’s still a few suspension rattles, but those are easy to ignore.
For now.
Celebratory no-rattle interior photos.
So rattle free. You have no idea.
These are some of my favorite Sharka interior photos ever. Why? No rattles.
I also did some small upgrades.
Leather door tops match the dash.
Compared to a few months ago.
The leather crash pad was installed for about a year before I did the leather door panels. During that time, it got cleaned and nourished and turned a rich black. The door tops always looked grey compared to the crash pad. So, I fixed it. A lot of leather lotion got the door tops the same rich black.
I also added a tiny upgrade.
Sharka’s lighter.
The early Miata cigarette lighters had a hollow depression on the front. It’s very small, but big enough to put a tiny domed insert into. I put a blue circle-M. It looks AWESOME. I have to admit, I didn’t come up with this myself. A buddy of mine named Jason ordered an insert for his own lighter. I just made up Sharka’s at the same time.
And no, the lighter doesn’t rattle.
This may sound really stupid, but if you didn’t want rattles, a MX-5 should have been the very last car on your list. They rattle from the factory. Hey, it might as well give them character! Embrace it!
just sayin’.
I hate to argue. I’ve only had Sharka for 14 years, so I don’t have THAT much experience with Miatas. But I’ve never had much rattle issues. The worst ones have been in the last year since installing the early dash, gauge pod, and mirror. The car was very quiet from the factory.
My NB doesn’t rattle either. Only had that one for 10 years.
Maybe I got two lemons.
I’ve only had my NB for maybe 2 years, and boy does it rattle.
Having said that I live in an area where we have had some really bad earthquakes last few years (like magnitude 8), and the road quality as a result is really REALLY bad.
That lighter insert looks awesome! Any info on where someone (read: myself) can purchase such a piece?
I had a rattle for over a year that drove me crazy. Same thing, I couldn’t locate it, it seemed to move around depending on where I was in the car. Finally noticed that if I put pressure on the passenger quarter window, it wouldn’t rattle. Discovered that if I put a bit of folded up paper between it and the A pillar molding, I could drive in peace. The occasional passenger would have to re-insert the paper after every door opening, LOL. I wondered how the quarter window had been deformed to lean out, not snug against the A pillar, and how I was going to fix that. Finally a friend suggested that instead, it’s a loose bolt inside the door, on the vertical bar in there. So without the folded paper in place, I pushed lightly on the door panel in the area of the bolt. Instant silence!!! Took it apart, snugged it up. I KNOW what you mean about how good the instant relief feels!
Oh my god I’m so glad that I’m not the only one that’s a complete NUTCASE when it comes to rattles, my NB had a few when I got it since it was heavily autocrossed and tracked by it’s previous owners and one of the very first things I did was find each and every one of them. It’s been good to go for over 2 years since, the only one that pops up occasionally is between the convertible top and the windshield frame but getting rid of it is as easy as unlatching my latch, pushing up on the top, and relatching. 🙂
Bucky has developed a rattle in the glove box area since I posted this. It’s been driving me only slightly nuts.