[SMSmart]

Originally Posted by AP

Creaking sounds can be really difficult to find

Agree with this, creaking sounds are tough. I've also concluded that they're just an inevitable part of car ownership. I've owned one new car and a couple near-new cars and I've come to the conclusion that sooner or later every car will develop some sort of creak or rattle within just a couple thousand miles of being new.

It ends up coming down to what amount of rattling/creaking you're willing to tolerate -- I spent a lot of time and energy trying to track down the sounds on my cars and although some I was able to fix, some would've required too much disassembly to try and track down, and I just tried to get used to them. You just tune out the sounds and/or mask them with the radio/music.

One thing about creaks specifically, is that they can be temperature dependent -- on an Audi I own, the car is really creaky in the morning when the car has been sitting in the cold all night. You hear all the plastics in the interior 'settle-in' on every driveway curb or drainage dip in the road until things warm up. Then after the car sits in a parking lot in the sun all day, it's dead quiet driving around. All the plastic bits and pieces in a car are often just clipped-in or fastened with plastic fasteners, and all the plastics have their own temperature dependent expansion/contraction that occurs which can lead to interior noises when the car gets going.

[CnSky]

Originally Posted by NGT2

In case it ever helps anyone - my previous G30 had a dull rattle that ended up being the rain gutter/chute under the hood that drains from the windshield.

Make that two I had the same issue also simple fix with felt pads