Thread: Silencing The Isuzu Rattles.............

I've been noticing that the County has had lots of niggly rattles of late, so instead of saying "I'll look at that next week" I thought I'd investigate while it was stationery with a dud alternator.

First up was the front passenger door, I removed the panel too find all the nuts were loose and everything was rattling around.That was an easy fix, adjusted the door pull and lubricated everything too. no rust in here.

Also took the door mirror off and repaired it as it was constantly facing downwards.
Next was the front passenger seat, bolts were a bit loose but the main annoyance was the lid on the battery box, always rattling Another annoyance is all the crud that gathers beneath here, chips,lollies,etc

I'd been giving this some thought for awhile,so I went completely mad and took both seats and cubby box out, removed the three lids and decided to make a new panel and lids. The idea being that it would help "silence the noise," and help to keep this area cleaner. I made the panel out of 16mm mdf, and cut out the openings with my jigsaw. I then made three lids, which just drop into the holes supported by a frame underneath.
A quick trip to Clarke Rubber had me some nice new carpet to fix to the mdf, I got quite heavy rubber backed thinking it would help with the soundproofing.Also popped into Bunnings and got 16 longer bolts to put seats back later

Carpet cut and glued, panel fitted, seats back in place and hey presto I have new driving position, 16mm higher. A trip round the block confirmed that the rattles had gone, it's a little quieter but this panel seems to have moved the noise (if that makes sense) rearwards. It certainly has made it more sociable in the front As I had emptied all the junk out of the cubby box, I had an idea to raise it slightly before refitting it. The idea was to make a compartment underneath to hold cd's. A prototype is under construction and it sort of works. I can now use the cubby as an arm rest, hold the gearlever and stop it rattling

Here's a couple of pics of the panel in progress, the cubby continues.......