Rear Deck "popping/clicking/tapping/ticking" noise.

[Suparu]

This is a great post, the interior’s metal ticking noises have been driving me nuts. I did what OP showed to do and it helped but it wasn’t the main ticking sound I was chasing. I’ve read every related post that I could find on here and here’s my story:

* I used a flathead screwdriver to pry the areas shown in the trunk/boot (source #1 in the TSB) as OP showed. Then used white lithium grease in those areas. I did this to every metal seam in the upper part of trunk. It helped but apparently wasn’t the main ticking sound I was hearing.
* I removed the rear deck shelf with the help of this video:

* Starting with source #2 in the TSB and OP’s post, I would wedge a flathead screwdriver into the opening then I slowly pulled up on the screwdriver until the cracking sound stopped happening. I didn’t put all my muscle into it, don’t want to break the weld, just enough to make the metal stop creaking/cracking for side of each opening.
* Then I’d spray a plentiful amount of white lithium grease into each opening.
* I did this for every metal seam opening that I could fit my flathead screwdriver into, not just source #2 in the TSB.

The rear deck shelf had more problematic areas and louder metal-ticking noises than the trunk/boot had and my car is quieter than ever now. So quiet that I’m hearing additional little annoying sounds that I never noticed before cuz they are much quieter than the rear deck shelf area/trunk noises were.

The wireless receiver on the rear deck shelf seems snug and quiet in my case. The current sound I’m chasing sounds like it’s coming from somewhere back there, up by the roof liner. Maybe behind the B pillar, I need to take a look there next.

All this time I thought it was one noise coming from one problem area but it turns out it’s actually many noises happening at the same time (from bumps/vibrations/etc) giving me the false impression that it was just one annoying noise.

The problems seem to vary for different people but start with the easy to reach spots like source #1 in the TSB and bending that wireless receiver’s metal clip down to tighten it. If that doesn’t do it then do what I did and also check that wireless receiver that’s on the rear deck shelf’s metal which was fine in my case but is a noise source due to it being loose for other people.

[Suparu]

So that last metal ticking sound that I thought was coming from the B pillar actually was the wireless receiver that’s on top of the rear deck shelf even though it seemed snug and quiet. I unbolted it with a 10mm socket wrench and put 2 pieces of foam weatherstripping under it. One piece with a hole in it that went under the metal plate, the hole was for that 10mm bolt to go through. The other piece went under the actual black wireless receiver box itself although this might be unneeded, overkill. A piece of rubber or anything to cushion it or dampen it would work fine, I just used weatherstripping cuz I had some on hand.

Now there’s no more unwanted sound at all, finally! I suspect the noise from the wireless receiver is just the metal plate that the 10mm bolt goes through but best to do the whole wireless receiver area to be sure :/

[LancePower]

Originally Posted by Suparu

So that last metal ticking sound that I thought was coming from the B pillar actually was the wireless receiver that’s on top of the rear deck shelf even though it seemed snug and quiet. I unbolted it with a 10mm socket wrench and put 2 pieces of foam weatherstripping under it. One piece with a hole in it that went under the metal plate, the hole was for that 10mm bolt to go through. The other piece went under the actual black wireless receiver box itself although this might be unneeded, overkill. A piece of rubber or anything to cushion it or dampen it would work fine, I just used weatherstripping cuz I had some on hand.

Now there’s no more unwanted sound at all, finally! I suspect the noise from the wireless receiver is just the metal plate that the 10mm bolt goes through but best to do the whole wireless receiver area to be sure :/

Do you have any pictures of the area in question?

[Suparu]

Originally Posted by LancePower

Do you have any pictures of the area in question?

I’ve put everything back together now so I don’t have a pic but here’s a thread with a pic with it. I call it a wireless receiver but in this post they call it a wireless transmitter, at any rate it’s the black box with a 10mm bolt holding it in place:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?p=358267

[LancePower]

Thank you, good sir.

[Suparu]

Originally Posted by LancePower

Thank you, good sir.

You’re welcome. I took the rear deck shelf cover back off and snapped some pics while I was at it. You’re probably already good from the last post’s link but here’s mine, it’s in the 3rd picture. If you zoom in you can see the squished up foam weatherstripping I put under it. You’ll see some foam sticking out of the left of that black box too, I cushioned the whole area. It was a bit of a pain getting the black box and it’s bolt back into place cuz it was snug. But once it was bolted back in, there was no problem getting the rear deck shelf’s carpeted cover back on.

That black box + it’s metal clip + bolt were the major source for me... then to a lesser extent the weld spots throughout the entire rear deck shelf area were partially responsible. Even the white plastic clips that are seated in the metal, directly behind the rear seat (they can be seen in the 2nd pic and one of them can be seen in the 3rd pic, bottom center of the pic) they were a problem too lol.

The car got quieter with each issue I addressed, allowing me to hear quieter noises I couldn’t hear before cuz they were quieter in comparison. It was a wild goose chase for a few weeks. Which is why I ended up Dynamat’ing it to absorb resonance from the metal, that was probably overkill though.

https://www.ft86club.com/forums/show...9&postcount=27

[Compelica]

Originally Posted by tonytduc

Try this, pull the headliner down in the rear like you did and you will see near the side airbag 3 10mm bolts. Tighten them down alittle bit more and the ticking noise should go away. 6 bolts total 3 on each side. Had the same problem and now FIXED!

Originally Posted by velocityorange

This absolutely worked for me after I had tried every other other single thing suggested on this forum. My big mistake was thinking the sound was in the parcel shelf or trunk (boot) area. It was my son riding in the back who said it was coming from the roof. Thanks tonytduc!

I undid the 3 bolts each side that secure the roof crossbeam to the C pillar internal metal supports, hit them with a spot of lithium grease, slightly prised apart the join with out deforming it to get a bit of grease in there too, then replaced the bolts and did them up tight. The annoying constant tick ticking sound has vanished. It drove me so crazy I thought I could still hear it after it had gone, but it has definitely gone. Ah, the serenity!

Hey guys... mine's a 2015 JDM 86 and it's finally started to tick on me.

After looking at a bunch of posts from here I'm certain mine is coming from the roof crossmember at the 3 bolt location. However I'm not confident that I can pull out the entire headliner without damaging anything, would anybody know if I could just the airbag trim and pull the headliner partially to access those bolts?

Thanks in advance!

[Compelica]

Originally Posted by Compelica

Hey guys... mine's a 2015 JDM 86 and it's finally started to tick on me.

After looking at a bunch of posts from here I'm certain mine is coming from the roof crossmember at the 3 bolt location. However I'm not confident that I can pull out the entire headliner without damaging anything, would anybody know if I could just the airbag trim and pull the headliner partially to access those bolts?

Thanks in advance!

Reporting back after attempting to fix. I followed the instructions to remove up to the B pillar from another fellow person here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/zombie...57651076099880

Panel removals were easy with your basic set of tools. Once the B pillar was off there was enough room to fit an arm with a ratchet to tighten the crossmember bolts - I was mostly working blind at this point. Surprisingly most of them were tight, except for some of the bolts holding the wiring to the airbag. Since you'd have access to it, you might as well get it out of the way.

The hardest part of the job was actually to refit the trim. There is a trim plug located right above the passenger rear window, which was a real b*tch to reinsert while having the rest of the trim components aligned. Add that you're working in a confined space makes it all the more difficult - I suggest you bring patience along with you on this one. Protip: those plastic panel remover tools are a must, especially the fork ones so you can hold the plug 'unlocked' while you reinsert it.

Also if you have attempted to fix the ticking this way you may have accidentally creased the roofliner, which got me a little worried for the moment. Eventually after some time it would uncrease itself so it's all good.

No ticks now, apart from button snaps on the seatbelt guides but nothing like a good thump on the seat would solve it