ok basically as you all know, civics like to rattle, alot. especially with higher frequency bass.

i was wandering if any of you have some cheap/free fixes for some of the most common rattle producers.

ill give an example.

for my tag, i put a piece of cardboard behind it, now it doesnt rattle.

here is a brief overview of what i think/know is rattling.

the piece around the tag (that the tag bolts too)
the metal bars inside the doors that are attached to the locks and door handles.
the 3rd taillight
the carpet/board that is where the rear speakers/3rd tailight is.

im not buying dynamat, but any thing that you guys have ghetto rigged up like i did for my tag would be great.

 

i understand dynamat, but im moving into my first apartment in a week, and i cant afford that, cheap is good for me.

 

Sorry, wrong button.

Dynamat is awesome, but if you are looking to do it on the cheap, all you have to do is look at what their doing. The reason the rattles are there is because the panels are flexing - a lot and often. This is a common problem in subwoofer enclosure design, and the solution is always to make the walls heavier, stiffer, and more dense. Dynamat isnt the only option, its just the heaviest flexible 3/4" material you can find. Look around for deadening methods online, but if you just want to lower the rattles, perhaps less bass is the option. If you have a ported system, obstruct the port a bit to make it work similarly to a sealed box, even just a rolled up egg carton foam piece will obstruct the port enough to lower boominess and increase tightness. Lowering the gain on the amp will also do this.

Rattling is a fact of bass. Until you can get the money to do deadening the right way, you will probably have to deal with it to some extent, or lower your output.

 

its a sealed box, and cardboard worked behind the tag, but obviously i dont wanna fill my car with cardboard.

i stopped trunk rattle by unscrewing the rubber stops on the trunk a bit, which tightened it up.

the 3rd tail light i can stick something under it bringing it tighter againts the window, but looks ghetto.

just asking for some input on what people may have done as cheap alternatives to dynamat.

i will end up doing it correctly one day, but not any time soon

 

Wedging is going to be your answer for a lot of things in your case.

For your doors, if they are vibrating at the latch, you have to either make them close tighter, or improve the tolerances around the latch itself (not really an easy thing). Unscrewing the rubber trunk stops a bit is a very good solution for the trunk, and a hackish fix for your doors is to add rubber feet (hardware store) to the frame of the car to make the door press out more. I highly doubt that either are good for your latches, but for a short term cheap fix...

Polyfill is a common filtering/deadening material -- pretty much the same stuff in non-feather pillows and cushions, but I doubt you want to fill your trunk with that either.

Egg carton foam makes a bit of a difference, but for panels you just want to add weight. Try lead sheets, should work, you can find those for pretty cheap at any home hardware store. Same principle as Dynamat.

 

doors arent rattleing at all, just the panels, those i can fix by adding foam pads around the contact points with the metal door frame, the bars for latches and such need some sort of padding wrapped around them, but i dunno how i can do that, i might just leave them rattleing.

i think i will remove that piece wehre the third tail light is completely and see if i can put something softer underneath it to dampen it a little then put that piece back in.

i dunno what else is rattleing yet, as im not willing to stick my headinto my trunk with the system going for more than a few seconds even with ear plugs, as i want to keep my hearing

 

A good alternative to dyno that I used was fatmat on ebay... Its the same stuff except cheaper. For $100.00 shipped I got enough to do my entire car.

 

i think i may have found the source to a few of my problems, two broken skrews, one on each speaker, made an awful high pitched rattle noise.

the plastic cover that is behind the seat, when you fold the seat down it makes it look cleaner by covering up the bare metal, i removed that because it was loose.


i shall test it now and see how that does

 

well none of that helped, i just folded the seat back up and turned it down till i couldnt hear them anymore.

 

get raamat (sp), its rubber based (not asphalt like shitty deadners) and does a great job for a hell of alot cheaper then dynamat

 

i think i will just have to spend some money, cause i cannot stand rattles.

btw that avatar is funny as hell dude

 

Rattle control is differant the dampening, dampening is used to keep things like sheet metal from resonating, [vibrating], rattle control is getting rid of rattles, [some vibrating against some thing else], and as has been mentioned it can be an ongoing thing, unlike dampening, once you have applied the dampening material, and as long as it was done properly, you will not have to deal with it again, as long as you pound bass in your car rattle will keep appearing.

Here is what you do, and you have already done it with you plate, "tag", you "wedge" something between the parts that are "rattling" against each other, this can be done cheaply and permanently, go to a hardware store and pick up 3 or 4 rolls of different size weather stripping, [the kind with the "peal and stick" backing] get yourself a test disk, the kind that has tone sweeps on it, something like this http://www.enhancedaudio.com/dcat-3.htm pop that into your HU start "sweeping" when a tone makes something rattle, push repeat on you HU, then find the rattle, [normally done be pushing the area where you hear the rattle, if you can stop or limit the rattle, removing that panel or whatever and installing some weather striping between the 2 pieces will get rid of the rattle.

Door linkage is a little more of a problem, as for obvious reasons, you can't wedge anything behind it and restrict it's movement, however on Honda/Acuras, if you remove the door panel, run the sweep, you will see a a few places that you can put some weather strip behind to keep the rods from rattling against the doors inner sheet metal skin.
Another thing we do for linkage is remove the rod, slip surgical tubing over it, that is just a little longer then the rod, so when reinstalled, the tubing holds the rod tight between it'd two connection points, but does not restrict movement.

The key to rattle control is the test disc, different frequency make different things rattle, and although it sounds like its the bass that doing it, and bass does make more things rattle louder, you will be surprised at the stuff that will rattle in your car at frequencies not only above sub bass and mid bass but even higher, you just can't hear them because of the music.

One more thing, I said it can be done cheaply, that excludes the time you have to put into it, you will need patience, it can be a long initial process, and as I said it is never ending, if you spend a day or two getting rid of all the rattles, a month from then, there will be new ones, it's the nature of the beast. 94

 

now that is some good information

thanks FCM

for you

 

ok. for your door latch stuff... all you have to do is wrap a little fatmat around the metal bars. just dont restrict any of the movement. but trust me, just putting a little of this stuff on metal shuts it up pretty good. i did my entire car with a $100.00 roll of fatmat off ebay. and a little bit goes a long way. just strip everything out of your car, pull the carpet-panels-everything. put the fatmat everywhere, and put it on nice and tight too. i started with strips about 2" by 5" and once i got most everything covered, i went over it all again with a second layer. compared to stock, my hatch is as quiet as a cadillac or bmw or somethin. you will love your car a lot more when its nice and quiet

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by habitat307 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ok. for your door latch stuff... all you have to do is wrap a little fatmat around the metal bars. just dont restrict any of the movement. but trust me, just putting a little of this stuff on metal shuts it up pretty good. i did my entire car with a $100.00 roll of fatmat off ebay. and a little bit goes a long way. just strip everything out of your car, pull the carpet-panels-everything. put the fatmat everywhere, and put it on nice and tight too. i started with strips about 2" by 5" and once i got most everything covered, i went over it all again with a second layer. compared to stock, my hatch is as quiet as a cadillac or bmw or somethin. you will love your car a lot more when its nice and quiet </TD></TR></TABLE>
i think i will do that too for the doors.

but im selling the system. i need to money for the apartment i move into on sunday.

ill get another one, one day. lol

 

heres a link i thought might come in handy for you http://www.sounddeadenershowdown.com/ give that a read

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 93egsedan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
the metal bars inside the doors that are attached to the locks and door handles.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I don't think that is your problem. I just found out that it's the plastic sheet behind the door panel hitting all over the crap that's attached to the door. Try to put some sort of a mat between the metal and the plastic sheet.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 93egsedan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the 3rd taillight</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm not sure how exactly it sits, but if it is pressed against the windshield, then it's hitting against the windshield.

Most of the time I think it's just something hitting against something else, so seperating them with a soft mat should help. I don't think reinforcing metal with Dynamat will solve anything.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fcm &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Rattle control is differant the dampening, dampening is used to keep things like sheet metal from resonating, [vibrating], rattle control is getting rid of rattles, [some vibrating against some thing else], and as has been mentioned it can be an ongoing thing, unlike dampening, once you have applied the dampening material, and as long as it was done properly, you will not have to deal with it again, as long as you pound bass in your car rattle will keep appearing.

</TD></TR></TABLE>
Absolutely true! Dynamat won't fix rattles!!! it will deaden road noise and is good for sealing off doors to help midbass response. That's about it. Buy some foam rubber and stuff it in between rattling panels--- cheap fix!! Don't be afraid to take some stuff apart. Do it while your system is playing. If you really want to kill the rattles, play bass mekanik test tones, it will help isolate the rattles.