"Cricket" Squeaking Noise Inside the Back of Your Wagon?
B18C5-EH2
Moderator
I recently chased down a few "cricket" squeaks from within the back half of my 1990 wagon, and there was this hard "slap" noise like plastic on metal when ever I'd hit a sharp bump - that noise was also coming from within the back half of the wagon. These noises quite literally made me not drive the car as much, because I had honed in on them and could not enjoy driving while those noises were ringing in my ears constantly.
I had my wife drive around while I sat backwards in the rear seats, looking as I listened, and the crickets almost went away entirely while I was back there, which told me that the noise was probably in the rear seats somewhere. I unlatched the seats and folded them forward, then went for a drive - the noise went away.
Low and behold the strikers for both seat back latches have a hard groove worn into them, which allowed the seat backs to move ever so slightly when driving, causing a constant "crickets chirping" noise. The temporary fix that has worked for two weeks now was applying a liberal amount of thick-ass wheel bearing/hi-temp grease into the seat back latches and onto the strikers for them.
On to the hard slapping noise when hitting sharp bumps.
A tech at my shop rode in the back of my car while I drove and he found the noise quickly, as his 1990 EF regular hatch had the exact same issue:
The striker for the hatch latch had a groove worn into it too!!!
I had already adjusted and lubricated the rubber bumpers/contacts to no avail. I had even disconnected the hatch shocks as one of them seemed to be loose at the top, but the noise had still persisted.
Temporary fix?
This is straight out of the ghetto handbook. I cut a small section out of a ball point pen tube, then cut a slit down the middle, and "sleeved" the worn section of my hatch latch striker. the noise is now gone, but I do have to slam the hatch a touch harder than usual, and using the key to pop the hatch makes me think the key is about to twist off so I just use the lever inside the car.
Permanent fixes for the latch striker issues?
For the seat backs you can simply remove them, flip them over, and allow the part that is not worn to catch the seat back latch. I thought of this only after I had already ordered brand new strikers from Honda at $7.00/each.
I ordered a new rear hatch striker and I'm hoping it will not allow enough movement from the hatch to make that slapping noise still. If it doesn't work then I've got an infinite amount of pens to gut and use as sleeves.
I had my wife drive around while I sat backwards in the rear seats, looking as I listened, and the crickets almost went away entirely while I was back there, which told me that the noise was probably in the rear seats somewhere. I unlatched the seats and folded them forward, then went for a drive - the noise went away.
Low and behold the strikers for both seat back latches have a hard groove worn into them, which allowed the seat backs to move ever so slightly when driving, causing a constant "crickets chirping" noise. The temporary fix that has worked for two weeks now was applying a liberal amount of thick-ass wheel bearing/hi-temp grease into the seat back latches and onto the strikers for them.
On to the hard slapping noise when hitting sharp bumps.
A tech at my shop rode in the back of my car while I drove and he found the noise quickly, as his 1990 EF regular hatch had the exact same issue:
The striker for the hatch latch had a groove worn into it too!!!
I had already adjusted and lubricated the rubber bumpers/contacts to no avail. I had even disconnected the hatch shocks as one of them seemed to be loose at the top, but the noise had still persisted.
Temporary fix?
This is straight out of the ghetto handbook. I cut a small section out of a ball point pen tube, then cut a slit down the middle, and "sleeved" the worn section of my hatch latch striker. the noise is now gone, but I do have to slam the hatch a touch harder than usual, and using the key to pop the hatch makes me think the key is about to twist off so I just use the lever inside the car.
Permanent fixes for the latch striker issues?
For the seat backs you can simply remove them, flip them over, and allow the part that is not worn to catch the seat back latch. I thought of this only after I had already ordered brand new strikers from Honda at $7.00/each.
I ordered a new rear hatch striker and I'm hoping it will not allow enough movement from the hatch to make that slapping noise still. If it doesn't work then I've got an infinite amount of pens to gut and use as sleeves.
Comments
Thanks a ton!
Oiled the rear seat pivot... squeak went away.A few months go by .The squeaks back. :evil: I'm really pissed now.I'm in the rear bouncing the Wgn. up & down.So what I did now was a little extreme.I goto the rear hatch .Unscrew the rear hatch bump stop out so far that the rear hatch open dash light comes on with the hatch shut.Squeaks gone.I'm now in process of slowly turning the bumper back in till it starts to squeak to figure how far to screw it in.Here's the funny part I've turned the bumpstop all the way down & NO squeak???