Noise has been driving me nuts for months

[Wyle]

Not that this will be too helpful for others, but for months I've had an annoying rattle that seemed to be coming from the driver's side of the cargo area. Sound was a high, tinny sound. Made me think it was a small carabiner chattering against solid steel. There were some back there. "Cricket-on-crack chirp" would come and go from drive to drive. It didn't happen near the house, so I would always forget about it by the time I got in the driveway and not hunt it down. It progressively got to the point of being an obsession to find.

Over the last couple weeks, I've

• emptied metallic items from the cargo area
• looked under the read driver seat (and found stamped sheet aluminum "wrench") Yay, problem solved ... NOT!
• checked the little side cargo area compartments (1 empty, camp hammock with no metal clips in the other)
• shook the took kit in cargo floor compartment (not the right sound) and moved it to the rear passenger floor
• tightened down the assembly nut on the folding shovel in the cargo floor compartment
• removed the wheel chocks from under the rear driver side seat
• repositioned the jack and put rubber under the crank pieces
• (later) moved folding shovel to front pass floor
• pointed all the cargo tie downs straight up even though they weren't loose enough to rattle (I'm getting desperate)
• took EVERYTHING out of cargo floor compartment (jumper cable, tie downs, ...)
• ratcheted in the rear seat belt (child seat style) to put tension on the retract
• started giving threatening glares at the liftgate and side cargo panels

Most of these were done on the side of the road or in a parking lot somewhere because I kept forgetting to do something about it when I got home.

As of tonight ... I WIN!!!! :wootwoot:
Went to get something out of the car and got annoyed just thinking about it. I'm scraping fingers under seat brackets, picking twigs and pebbles out of the nooks and crannies and BINGO. The TB gave me its , literally. I found two pennies amongst leaf debris in different bolt crevices that secure the plastic holder for the jack crank rods.

View attachment 18179

Of course, I may be pulling my foot out of my mouth tomorrow, but it was blissfully quiet for a test run in a vacant dirt lot.

As a side note, I also found the back of an earring under the rear seat, but I don't think that was making the noise.

 

[KNBlazer]

You know, I get that sound as well, from time to time driving down the road I hear a clunk, like you I've always forgotten to pinpoint the source of the noise. I think it might be the jack that is not secured in its place, will make a mental note, pretty sure by morning I'll have forgotten