Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Interior rattles survey. Time to sound off!

I had my dash replaced under warranty for a "bubble" in it by the passenger airbag. Told the dealer to make sure that they really button it down since I had an occasional buzz/squeak as well. With the replaced dash the noises are twice as bad, especially when the summer months came.

Someone did a write-up on how to eliminate the most common dash squeaks... Should be on the site (did not have a chance to search for it yet).....

For those of you with a dash rattle or buzz, try this. When you hear it grab your left turn signal stock and hold it still (lean on it with your hand so it doesn't move in other words). If the noise goes away when you do this you'll have to take the plastic off the steering column (a few screws) and wedge a piece of paper, foam, etc. in a place you'll see when you take said cover off and rattle the turn stalk yourself. Hope that makes sense. I had the same rattle and swore it was coming from up front in the dash somewhere, but this fixed it and I'm rattle-free now.

Now if we knew where they were, we'd fix them. J/K

Passenger side front dash rattle
Rear deck rattle

My Driver's side door rattles when I have the stereo turned up. I'm too damn lazy to take it apart and see what the hell it is. Also when I'm going and I push the gas in just not enough to make it shift I hear a metalic rattle sound coming probably from the exhaust somewhere. I'll check it out when I do a oil change.

Am I the only one with a trattling sunroof?

It now rattles in his tracks when fulling opened, and will crackle when going over uneven bumps.

Annoying squeak coming from rear passenger side, mostly when car is slightly humid. Parking brake cable?

My 98.5 SE Sport has a rattle in the passenger front door.

I've tightened everything there is to tighten, and I still can't get rid of it.

It started when I replaced the OEM speakers, but the replacement speakers are the same size, have their own mounting holes, and are mounted SOLIDLY. I have even swapped speakers to see if the speaker was blown.

I really don't have any major rattles to speak of. I mean I have the general 'looseness' sounds that a car with nearly 100k makes among all the plastic pieces in the dash, but none of that I would call as a rattle. In fact, on warm, humid days, it seems to tighten up and is almost as quite as when it was new.

I do have a bit of rear suspension clunking over very rough roads, which I'm pretty sure is the common rear sway bar bushings, but it doesn't bother me enough for me to fix it. Under normal road conditions it doesn't make a sound.

I used to have a weird, very annoying metallic rattle coming from the center of the dash, like behind the stereo. But that went away by itself a long time ago. Oh, and when I first got the car, the reverse lockout collar on the shifter rattled at highway speeds like crazy. Drove me nuts, and of course the stupid Ford dealer says they couldn't find the problem. So, I fixed it myself by holding up the lockout collar with a hoseclamp beneath it under the shifter boot - no more rattle, and no more stupid lockout device. Other than that, my car has always been rattle free.

My '96 has no rattles at all.

I do have a bit of rear suspension clunking over very rough roads, which I'm pretty sure is the common rear sway bar bushings, but it doesn't bother me enough for me to fix it. Under normal road conditions it doesn't make a sound.

If this is the same thing that I had the dealer replaced the rear suspension linkages. Thats probaly what the bushing are but if not this may help you. I was out test driving a 97 contour lx (drool....) and it shared the same problem. Leads me to believe its a common one.

Hmm... the only sounds out of my car is the damn driver seat rubbing against the center console... I disassembled the dash once and tightened everything and that seems to have quieted the normal rattles.. But my center console needs to be adjusted.

Dom