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- Brian
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- Sep 14, 2023
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- #1
For those that don’t want to read the novel: use a paint pen to mark after you torque bolts. Check them often.
The long version:
The RSE slider plates for the powered steps I had ordered for the Coyote Lake run didn’t come in in time for the Lake, but they did eventually come in. I finally got around to installing them last week.
And right afterward, something started rattling like hell.
So it’s obviously the new slider reinforcement plates. I go digging around and strip out a body mount
bolt in the process. Get all that fixed, still rattles.
Really sounds like a loose skid plate, but all those bolts are tight. Now I’m convinced its the step is loose in the housing. It had a tensioning spring, so I monkey with that. Steps are now taunt. Still rattles.
Sunday rolls around and I run Shuteye with a friend (my favorite trail) - we are up in the mountains all day running around. It’s rattling the entire time. I crawl underneath a couple of times and look around: skid plates are tight, drive shafts are good, shock mounts are good, it’s driving fine and nothing obviously wrong. So I turn the radio up and finish the run. All good, a great run, was my friend’s first time.
Get home, wash it all up, still can’t find anything. We drive out to lunch down the road; still rattles. Wife is convinced it’s a loose skid plate, and once she’s convinced, well, you just have to follow through. So I wait for it to cool down a bit and resign to just dropping the skid plates one at a time until I figure it out.
Right after I grabbed the socket for the first plate, I notice this guy just setting down in the front plate.
He’a just setting there. Nothing holding him in, no lip on the plate, he isn’t hung up on anything. Just chillin’
So… I wonder what it goes to. I start looking around. I don’t immediately recognize this bolt. But I had done the FDU earlier this winter… those all look good though. My sta-bar bolts are in my pocket (I had pulled them for the run and was gonna re-install them while I was under here). I start to pop the hood thinking it must be something in the engine bay, when I notice out of the corner of my eye:
I’ll be hornswaggled. I didn’t install these UCAs, and I had never unistalled them, but after 86,000 miles I can’t really blame the installer any more — these did have torque marks and I just hadn’t been doing a good enough job of checking them.
I never thought to check the UCA because
a) I had just monkeyed with a skid plate
and
b) it was driving absolutely fine
Three major miracles here:
- I didn’t go on the freeway with this, thankfully (and I had nearly done so today)
- The nut somehow survived an entire off-roading run to 8,500’ just chillin’ on a skid plate- it isn’t a particularly challenging run but there are rocks. And at least two lunch runs
- I didn’t feel anything crazy with the steering, even though the entire knuckle was just hanging completely loose
Well, I needed new UCAs anyway, the bushing in this one is obviously shot (can see it in pieces by the head of the bolt there). It all snugged back up when I put the nut back on, but I will have to bump up my purchasing timeline some I reckon.
The long version:
The RSE slider plates for the powered steps I had ordered for the Coyote Lake run didn’t come in in time for the Lake, but they did eventually come in. I finally got around to installing them last week.
And right afterward, something started rattling like hell.
So it’s obviously the new slider reinforcement plates. I go digging around and strip out a body mount
bolt in the process. Get all that fixed, still rattles.
Really sounds like a loose skid plate, but all those bolts are tight. Now I’m convinced its the step is loose in the housing. It had a tensioning spring, so I monkey with that. Steps are now taunt. Still rattles.
Sunday rolls around and I run Shuteye with a friend (my favorite trail) - we are up in the mountains all day running around. It’s rattling the entire time. I crawl underneath a couple of times and look around: skid plates are tight, drive shafts are good, shock mounts are good, it’s driving fine and nothing obviously wrong. So I turn the radio up and finish the run. All good, a great run, was my friend’s first time.
Get home, wash it all up, still can’t find anything. We drive out to lunch down the road; still rattles. Wife is convinced it’s a loose skid plate, and once she’s convinced, well, you just have to follow through. So I wait for it to cool down a bit and resign to just dropping the skid plates one at a time until I figure it out.
Right after I grabbed the socket for the first plate, I notice this guy just setting down in the front plate.
He’a just setting there. Nothing holding him in, no lip on the plate, he isn’t hung up on anything. Just chillin’
So… I wonder what it goes to. I start looking around. I don’t immediately recognize this bolt. But I had done the FDU earlier this winter… those all look good though. My sta-bar bolts are in my pocket (I had pulled them for the run and was gonna re-install them while I was under here). I start to pop the hood thinking it must be something in the engine bay, when I notice out of the corner of my eye:
I’ll be hornswaggled. I didn’t install these UCAs, and I had never unistalled them, but after 86,000 miles I can’t really blame the installer any more — these did have torque marks and I just hadn’t been doing a good enough job of checking them.
I never thought to check the UCA because
a) I had just monkeyed with a skid plate
and
b) it was driving absolutely fine
Three major miracles here:
- I didn’t go on the freeway with this, thankfully (and I had nearly done so today)
- The nut somehow survived an entire off-roading run to 8,500’ just chillin’ on a skid plate- it isn’t a particularly challenging run but there are rocks. And at least two lunch runs
- I didn’t feel anything crazy with the steering, even though the entire knuckle was just hanging completely loose
Well, I needed new UCAs anyway, the bushing in this one is obviously shot (can see it in pieces by the head of the bolt there). It all snugged back up when I put the nut back on, but I will have to bump up my purchasing timeline some I reckon.
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Last edited:
Glad you found it when you did!!
