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SW Rear Door Rattle

3K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  Rob 
#1 ·
i've got a 97 SW with the spare tire bolted on the rear door (stock) and when it gets to be about 50 degrees and colder any little bump in the road causes a really annoying rattling sound from the door (i haven't been able to isolate where but it's definitely the door). I took the whole door apart this summer and really cranked down on the bolts that hold that spare tire carrier thing but that didn't seem to make a difference. I also inspected the inside of the door for any broken welds but everything looked fine.

I don't want to put one of those bolt-on spare carriers either...i'd like to keep it stock. I'm assuming that something has either shifted or aged and I can replace if necessary as this has only started happening two winters ago.
 
#2 ·
how many miles on your truck gotta think about how much wieght is on that door. i know that over time the tire tears the door up. if you dont want a tire carrier you could put it in the back cargo area on the hood or on roof rack. I bet if you took the tire off it wouldnt rattle any more.
 
#4 ·
There is a fix if you can weld. If you buy a couple feet of 1/4in by 2 inch steel you can cut that into triangles and weld them as support to the tire carrier. You will never be able to remove the tire mount again but that will keep the tire from bouncing around. Then you can take the same steel and cut 3 braces with holes that line up to your hing screws. Remove the bolts that attach the door to the body and hard top and replace them with longer ones, preferably a little larger too. Grade 8 or course. Then put the steel reinforcement on the inside of the cab and place the bolts through and tingten down and hard as you can. This should take care of it.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Check the hinge bolt tightness. A lot of people easily over look them because they assume its the carrier. Open the door 2/3rds and gently lift up and down to see if there is any play. Also there was a good thread on the old BBS about simple rattle repair before you need to go the welding route. I dont have the link handy to the thread right at the moment, sorry.
 
#6 ·
i just got rid of rear door rattle on a '97 D90....mine was rattling where the spare tire carrier was attached on the rear right side (2 bolt hinges)....when the car bounced the hinge metal would rattle on the metal....undid the bolt (1 at a time) and slid a piece of rubber in between the metal parts...poked a hole thru the rubber for the hindge bolt, and rebolted....no rattles.....
 
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