B Pillar Noise

[sullivas]

Anyone else have this issue? Whenever I hit a manhole cover or bump I get a thunk/creak (hard to describe)

coming from the area of the driver's B pillar, seatbelt/pillar/door area. Driving me crazy. I peeled back the weatherstrip

and put some butyl tape where the plastic side is a little loose but that didn't fix it. The bezel around the seat belt creaks

when I move it around but I don't think the noise is comig from there. Thanks!

[Mijostyn]

Noises like these can be a real pain in the a--. The perceived location can be very missleading. The FIRST thing to do is call your dealer. If it is good they will have a noise locator which is nothing more than a unidirectional microphone on an isolation wand connected to a powered headset. Take the tech for a ride on a rough road and he can positively locate the exact position of the source. Then you just fix it. No guessing. If it is the B pillar, the only item of significance in there is the seat belt mechanism which you DEFINATELY do not want to mess with. Good luck.

[Uwon]

I had a similar issue, a loud "crack" comming from the passanger B-pillar area on an intermittent basis once per drive and only without a passanger. Then I removed the trani, etc. (www.renntech.org/forums/topic/43715-clutch-aos-water-pump-thermostat-diy-questions/#entry234912) which required the removal of a suspension cross member that runs accross underneath the trani. On re-assembly I cleaned up the ends which were a bit corroded, cleaned the two bolts, used some anti-seize and retorqued. I similarly treated the eight front trani mount nuts/bolts on re-assembly. Voila, don't know what really did it, but I have driven close to 3,000 km since the job and have not heard it since. Hope this helps.

[biopsea]

i have a similar noise. it is maddening. usually only when crossing train tracks or similar situations. and a 997-1 S

[sullivas]

Well I saw a tip on the web about this. I wound a piece of duct tape around the stiker plate pin where the door latch grabs it

and the thump noise stopped. So to me that means that the plate needs to be moved in closer to the car or I need to replace the door

weatherstrip to make the door sit tighter to the car. The car only has 13.7K miles on it, and there is no door sag.

Any opinions or experience out there on this? I don't think the door latch is faulty given the low wear & tear on the car.

Being a 7 year old car could the weatherstrip have shrunken enough to reduce the tightness of the door?

[Mijostyn]

I"m not 100% sure but if you loosen the latch on the door you may be able to shift its position a bit towards the outside which will pull the door in a little tighter and stop the banging. The rubber on these cars is really tough. if the car was garaged I doubt it would fail this soon. I bet it is just an adjustment. Good luck!