Eventually found the annoying noise in my car

[Moffat]

I've had my S3 since the start of the year, and there' always been an annoying noise in it. When I corner hard, something is loose in the car, and rolls back and forwards from side to side. I've had 2 weeks off work recently, so decided to get to the bottom of it. I started by taking the rear seats up, to see if anything was under there, but couldn't find anything. I've went further and further, until I've got to this point...



I was running out of places to look, so I let a mate drive the car while I lay in the back to try and pinpoint the noise. I decided it was either in the tailgate, or the back panel in front of the bumper.
I pushed 2 small magnets down into 2 holes in the rear panel (the orange straws at either side of the back panel have the magnets stuck to the bottom of them) and took it for a spin. I must have instantly picked up the problem with them....



3 nylon lock nuts! In that panel rolling about. They don't even belong on the car!
Glad I go that sorted!

 

[wuta3]

Good effort! That's a serious stripdown for an annoying noise, but yea, i'd do the same.

 

[buz]

Ha ha I'm glad to hear it's not just me that goes mad with rattles etc.

Well done and enjoy the peace!

 

[ROB A3 Quattro]

Wow extreme but yeah like wuta3 i'd probably do the same to get to the bottom of it

 

[Moffat]

A surprising discovery I made in doing this was, these cars seem to come apart awfully well. I've had a few Vauxhalls, and when you take them apart, it's guaranteed that clips are going to break.
I broke none in doing this. I was well chuffed!

 

[Rhyso]

Can you come and find the annoying noise in mine please lol

Good work!!

 

[pluves1]

Top effort. I would have just turned the music up a little louder

 

[Ash187]

Kudos for that! proper strip down!!!

Love the community of fellow OCD sufferers

 

[foxymk1]

haha you my friend deferentially deserve to drive an audi , top job

 

[347]

another bonus is the nuts appear to be unused , so its win win !
good work though

 

[Lukeyb]

I bet it was someone trying to put the rear bumper back on at some point and those are your 3 failed attempts at the 2 long studs along the boot door section lol

 

[Moffat]

I know exactly where you mean. Actually, the car used to be vinyl wrapped white, and I found a couple of stray nuts and bolts kicking about down the side of the spare wheel etc. When I was looking about yesterday, I noticed that the nut that you mean, on the right hand side, was missing off the stud. I looked at the left hand side to see what it was like, and the nut that is in place on that side, is the same as one of the ones I found.
So if the bumper was off when they wrapped it, you may be right.