it could be the steering shaft. im going to pick my new one up at the dealer. it is knocking like crazy. driving me flippin nuts. also had another noise from the front the bold on the swaybar disco was loose.

 

Noise coming from the rear caused by the steering shaft in the front?

 

OK, its been almost 2 months since my original post and that friggin' noise is still there, literally sounds like cans being dragged under the Jeep at times. Have conducted a ton of searches on here to find the culprit and have had no luck. If anyone figures out what this is, I'll pay a cash reward

Here is info on the problem....

- Noise happens only under dry conditions (in rain it is not apparent).
- Noise happens only between 5-45 mph. (Above 45 there is no sign of it.)
- Vehicle does not have to be running, as I have turned the vehicle off and coasted in neutral and still heard it.
- Noise is the same pitch no matter what speed in the 5-45 mph range
- Noise is best described as a can rattling, or a baby rattle noise. Very audible under overpasses, parking garages, etc.
- Seems to be present more when I turn to the right?
- Sounds like it is coming from the Drivers side rear wheel
- Does seem to be impacted by bumps in the road, but it is not set off by them. It happens on smooth even surfaces too.

Things already looked at for fix:

- every nut and bolt associated with my lift
- bushings in shocks
- Shocks themselves (actually replaced one rear shock as I thought that was the problem - obviously turned out not to be)
- Seat belts (looked to see if anything was loose with them)
- Evap Canister (unhooked valve body and ran without it. Noise still there)
- Floorboards (looked to see if by chance something was rattling on the floorboards under the carpet - nope)
- Exhaust Heat shields - on pipe (all welds intact - checked with screwdriver)
- Exhaust Heat shields - around pipe (nothing touching or hanging off)
- Exhaust itself (was optimistic as I found my gibson dual outlet to have broken welds at the muffler body - welded up but noise still there - DAMNIT!)
- Brakes (dealer ripped apart brakes and found nothing wrong with them)
- Driveshaft (no play and the boots are intact)

I have spent a good amount of time to try and find this as well as 5 separate trips to a Dealer and independent garage. Still nothing. At the end of my rope here and its driving me crazy. Absolutely ANY suggestion would be a help. Thanks in advance!

 

Any feedback? It would be appreciated! Thanx

 

Something loose in your jack compartment?? Something caught between your fender liner and wheel well?

 

Did you get the RC 2.2 shocks with your kit? I did with mine. Seems they had a bad batch of bushings during a brief period and one of mine gave out. Sounds a lot like what I had. I called Ben at Rough Country who enlightened me on the situation and immediately sent out a full set of poly bushings for all the shocks. That cured my ill. Good luck.

 

Just a thought......we had a rattle that went away when we removed a rock caught in our skid plate.

 

Maybe something in the frame rail? There's holes in it and I found a bolt in mine once.

 

After I added my body lift I noticed that those cables, e-brake cables that have that wiery bracket attached to the cab, were just slightly too close to my exhaust, and on turns it would barely touch the exhaust and make a baby rattle noise. I ended up bending the little wiery bracket slightly with a pair of pliers so it held them away from anything. Now, no baby rattle. Hope you find it man. I traded a year old nissan frontier for a different nissan frontier because of a mystery rattle/squeek. lol No one could ever find it and finally I said screw it. Got a new one.

 

Thanks for the feedback. The noise seems to be getting worse, so i am hoping that whatever is wrong eventually fails or falls off so I can finally figure out what it is!

In tooling around yeaterday with a buddy it was unbearable. So we decided to figure out cooperatively whats wrong. Nothing glaring or obvious as with my previous observations. Did find something interesting though. When belting everything with a rubber mallet for the one millionth time, I found that my rear rotor dust shields are very noisy and seem to resemble the noise. Couldn't replicate it exactly when the Jeep was standing still but it was very similar. There are no rocks caught in them so it got me to thinking that it could be my tires? Have a set of MT Baja Claws that are very, very worn in the rear. Could it be possible that the wear on these tires is so uneven it is setting off a harmonic vibration in the dust shields? Guess the only way to tell would be rip those wheels/tires off and run somehting else? Just wondering if thats plausible or happened to anyone? Thanks!