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Strange noise come from rear of interior...

Roger Barker

Well-known member
Joined
6 Oct 2014
Messages
160
I hope someone who has more experience/knowledge than me can help to try to find out what this could potentially be. Car is a 997.2 Turbo S.

I will take the car to a local indie for them to have a good look at in the coming week but first thought it would be good to ask fellow members for some advice and to try and rule out simple/basic things which I could possibly at least inspect or maybe fix myself.

It's a squeaking/creaking type sound, like leather rubbing against leather I suppose, 100% seems to be coming from the inside and also sounds like it's coming from the back of the car. The driver seat/behind the driver seat is where it *sounds* like it's coming from.

-Speed does not really affect it, same sound/volume at 10 mph as at 90 mph

-It's there nearly all the time when car is moving, nothing at iddle

-It's there weather I have a front passenger or not

-At last service in Dec driver seat was taken out/put back in, some insulation added under plastic bit where boot/engine release buttons are- this has no real impact, neither improved it nor made it worse

-I was told all window seals, mirrors, etc are fine no problems there

-You can hear it at very low speed, for e.g. it starts even when reversing out of drive sometimes, or driving very slow for e.g. less than 10 mph

-Definitely can't be heard from the outside if standing next to car as it moves

Could it be something to do with passenger seats/or rear seatbelts (which I have also left in rather than out).

Any and all suggestions welcome, hope someone has an idea of where to start looking...

Thanks in advance.
 
I wouldn't try to fix it, silencing it will only allow you to hear every other rattle, squeak and vibration that is currently being drowned out by it. :grin:
Good luck finding it, a vibration that I thought was coming from the passenger door speaker, turned out to be the blanking panels where the homelink buttons go. The acoustics of the 997 are remarkable when trying to find a noise.
Good luck :thumb:
 
Noises like this are a pain .. both for the owner and someone like me that has to try and fix the problem .

On the plus side its constant .. i would highly recomend you take the mechanic out with you on a test drive and point out the noise ..

From my point of view there is nothing worse than getting a job card which says noise from rear inside .. i have no F*ing idea what noise you are on about unless its pretty dam obvious .. sorry .. but i often have had just this from a service advisor that should know better .

Ill say sorry again as i have just read this .. but for us mechanics its true take us out on road test .. point out the noise .. it will be cheaper for you and we will get to the bottom of the problem.

Ive also had a job card say noise from rear , customer has been in before so it needs fixing .. give me a chance .. sheesh !

Sorry again .. i digress ..

leather on leather .. as these cars get older then you get a creaking noise as they rub together .. seat back to seat base is a classic one .. try altering the position of the seat back .

Seat belt stalk should have fabric on the back of it , it rubs against the center consol ..

rear seat backs can have a noise where it contacts the locking pin , i put fabric tape over the pin .

Many panels are fitted with a metal clip and a bit of rubber to try and stop noises .. so pretty much any inteior panel clip can cause a noise .

rear windows .. the rubber around them can dry out .. it rubs against the glass .. again another source of noises .

In short .. many .. many different areas and ive seen most over the years .. i get a mechanic to drive and i sit in the back and listen .. pin point an area then take it appart .. fabric tape , a plastic tape for contact surfaces .. kinda like selotape and crytox .. a rubber replinisher .. these are the things we use .

My guess would be some sort of fixing on the o/s/r quarter panel .

Btw .. if you get a creaking noise near your ear and from the window then rain - X on the window and the door rubber will stop it .

Cabs and a creaking noise to your right ear and up .. theres a pivot on the roof that drys out .. pm, me for details .

Ill also add .. the very rear panel under the rear screen .. very common for noises .
 
Few things it may be...

Seat bolster or seatbelt clip rubbing on the centre tunnel. Seatbelt clip should have felt on the back.

Or it could be the centre cubby lid. there are two rubber bungs on the underside of the lid that can wear and means that the plastic catch has enough movement to squeak...just drive the centre cubby lid open to prove if it is this.
 
Nothing more frustrating, squeaks and rattles can be so hard to find! had a similar problem a while ago, eventually solved it by having a mate in the back of the car hunting for the squeak, holding panels, pushing this and that. Turned out to be the rear, carpeted cover just below the rear glass. Worth a check, it is held on by those nasty steel spring clips, if it's been taken off before the clips can be over stretched and the cover can squeak and rattle.
 
A year or so ago I had a noise coming from the nearside rear cabin - it sounded like a seatbelt buckle gently hitting metal.

I sat in the back whilst someone else drove and never could locate it.

It started when I had a new set of tyres fitted and only made the noise in the dry not the wet.

It annoyed the hell out of me.

A suspension check at Centre Gravity found the nearside rear top mount was starting to fail

Once this was done the noise disappeared

Sometimes what makes a noise may be a vibration from something else.

Hope this helps and you get it sorted

Nice cars these 997.2 Turbo S's

Best 911 in my opinion 8)
 
In the past I have followed the very rudimentary method of asking someone to drive the car, whilst using a lapelle microphone around the car and listening to it live on headphones (helps you locate it).

These microphones are pretty good, cheap, tiny and come with a long cable, you can even prop them up outside the car, in rear arches, engine compartment - you name it. I normally use them to record engine sound in track videos.

As a bonus you will end up with a recording that someone else can listen to, which combined with an accurate location may help figure out the culprit.

Like I mentioned above this is rudimentary and may not be good enough to track certain noise sources.
 
There is something similar we use .. its called a chassis ear .. excellent for finding suspension noises but it does take x2 people on road test , one drives the other flips through the channels and finds which one is the loudest (closest to the noise ) .. we fit 4 or 5 of these at a time .

Not usefull for interior noises though im afraid ... need a man in the back for that :)
 
Thanks a lot deMort and everyone else for all the helpful suggestions. Much appreciated.

I am taking it to a good local indie next week hopefully and will have their mechanic sit in the back. I agree, these types of jobs are really awkward and frustrating as it's usually something minor but it can be so difficult finding out where it comes from.

Luckily, the sound is always there and there at all speeds so just 2 min in the car is enough to hear it.

I will play around with the seatbelts at the back and try and have a look myself if there is anything obviously wrong in the rear panel, bring the seats down etc.

From what I can hear it definitely sounds like something rubbing against something repeatedly, hence the sound being there nearly all the time- when it goes it's only for seconds and back again.

Up until now my car has been really good with things like this- this is the first annoying noise I have had.

Every older 911 I have been in (not counting 911's) has had some sound at some point, in a way it's part of the experience and character of a 911 as annoying as it can be :D .

The sound is pretty much drowned out by having music on but still I would like to find a solution...
 
Hi Roger

I don't know the interior of your car specifically, but I tolerated a `squeak from the rear` for years in my 996 C2. One day, I jumped in the back seats and pushed\prodded\pulled everything I could find.

It turned out to be the trim strip that sits up between the rear parcel shelf and the rear window. It had lost a couple of clips.

Good luck!
 
I've got creaky rear leather seats and have been told that the interior cleaner I use (that contains silicon) may be the issue. Has anyone got recommendations for a leather cleanser and conditioner to see if this solves the issue?
 
boardingnath997 said:
I've got creaky rear leather seats and have been told that the interior cleaner I use (that contains silicon) may be the issue. Has anyone got recommendations for a leather cleanser and conditioner to see if this solves the issue?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/251444414981?chn=ps

Great stuff and smells lovely :thumb:
 
my sunroof creaks regularly and sounds awful. IF yours has a roof, open it fully backwards before moving the car, see if the noise goes. Might help?
 
Thanks to everyone who replied, appreciate it.

Just to give an update, as it may be useful to others and can hopefully help someone with the same type of noise.

It was the rear seatbelts :D

I just took them out, put them back in, and made sure the bottom part of the seat belt was tighter (I leave them in as they are the yellow seat belts, just prefer it that way),for now at least the noise has gone or is very very rarely heard briefly and not an issue and it has been a few weeks.

That's all I had to do, silly of me not to try it earlier I suppose!
 

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