Yes I hate rattles ! … rattlesnakes , rattletraps, and rattlebrains (well baby rattles are kind of cute though).
Yesterday my wife and I were going down our driveway and heard a rattle coming from the right front area of my car. It was loud enough that I decided to put it back in the garage and take her German autobahn cruiser instead.
Over the last 37 years of owning jaguars I’ve become somewhat of an aficionado when it comes to their squeaks, groans, clunks, bangs, and … rattles. But this one has me scratching my head,
First of all it occurs when you go over a bump. Surely it must be the upper shock mount. But no, I used a floor jack to take the load off the shock and there was no play there. Also a visual inspection of the bushings showed no deterioration. While I had the wheel off I checked all the suspension components and everything looked fine.
I crawled under the car and checked the exhaust system and again everything looked normal and I couldn’t duplicate any kind of noise by banging and pulling on it. (much unlike the beautiful series I XJ6 I use to own. No matter how hard I chased it I always seemed to have an exhaust rattle … but I digress).
The final clue is that after roughly 10 minutes of driving it appears to go away. Hmmm, I’ll take it for a long ride today and see if I can narrow things down.
And yes…I did check the glove compartment for a baby rattle.
Sounds like you’re on the right track. In my opinion, finding exactly where rattles and squeaks are coming from is one of the most difficult things you can do on a car. Good luck!
Thanks Joe I did that and everything under the hood looks fine. Actually this sounds more like a … (if this makes any sense) … heavy rattle as opposed to something that just needs a bit of tightening.
So I just got back from a 30 minute ride in 60 deg weather and after about 10 minutes the rattle was completely gone. Based on that the only thing that would really make any sense would be the exhaust pipes. Rattle when cold, not rattle when warmed up. I can’t think why the shock mount or the suspension would be time/heat related, but this IS a Jag-wur !!
Groove, maybe you’re right. Possibly a metal part expands as it warms up getting tight again. Are you gonna remove the heat shield too and look behind it?
I had the same rattle issue and thought it was coming from the front end. Turns out it was the left side exhaust mount bracket that was broken…where it attaches over the rear axle. The rattle would disappear after driving for while because the exhaust pipes were warmed up. I had the mount bracket soldered and happy to say “no more rattle”.
I finally replaced both sets of upper shock bushings and while one set was very worn and elongated it was the side opposite the noise. the other side however was in good condition, so that wasn’t the cause.
I’ve finally determined that the villain was the outer heat shield for the middle portion of the exhaust that runs by the transmission. One end of the heat shield that encloses the exhaust pipe had gotten wider and no longer was tight against the pipe all the way around. It rattled when it was cold but shifted position when it warmed up and the rattle went away. A little work with a metal finishing hammer and all is well once again.
