Yet another tailgate rattle thread

[Ford Motor Company]

I have a similar rattle, can’t find anything, hope you find the answer.

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[Brian_B]

Following up

checked the bumper bolts. Boroscoped inside the rear cargo panels and driver taillight/fender but didn’t pull them. Replaced the stock spare tire bumpers with ghetto extenders with real Barnes cut-to-fit bumpers

I didn’t find any smoking gun.

The rattle is significantly less - it not longer sounds like a bolt barely hanging on, but it will still tick on occasion, rather than the bolt about to fall out of something now it sounds like a connector hitting a body panel.

Part of that may just be frame/body flex And maybe that’s why the trailer seemed to affect it - but that could be that I have/had multiple things going on all at the same time and got some of them by accident. It could be I have a nut, bolt, wire or harness loose and still haven’t found it yet.

The noise seemed to have got better with an appropriate bumper (I had been running with nothing back there since installing the TOR carrier): so I have to think that was at least related

I’ll have to see if I can find a c-pillar brace or something that doesn’t interfere with speaker pods and see what that does

 

[BEW119]

Following up

checked the bumper bolts. Boroscoped inside the rear cargo panels and driver taillight/fender but didn’t pull them. Replaced the stock spare tire bumpers with ghetto extenders with real Barnes cut-to-fit bumpers

I didn’t find any smoking gun.

The rattle is significantly less - it not longer sounds like a bolt barely hanging on, but it will still tick on occasion, rather than the bolt about to fall out of something now it sounds like a connector hitting a body panel.

Part of that may just be frame/body flex And maybe that’s why the trailer seemed to affect it - but that could be that I have/had multiple things going on all at the same time and got some of them by accident. It could be I have a nut, bolt, wire or harness loose and still haven’t found it yet.

The noise seemed to have got better with an appropriate bumper (I had been running with nothing back there since installing the TOR carrier): so I have to think that was at least related

I’ll have to see if I can find a c-pillar brace or something that doesn’t interfere with speaker pods and see what that does

I found this to be my problem as another member posted

 

[BEW119]

I found this to be my problem as another member posted

If you reach all the way back toward the tail light, this cable will be dangling, and it tends to make a rattle when you’re moving backwards or a little forward

 

[Brian_B]

If you reach all the way back toward the tail light, this cable will be dangling, and it tends to make a rattle when you’re moving backwards or a little forward

I saw your post over there and that was why I got my scope back out. I stuck my boroscope back there but didn't see anything - there were cable bundles but I could see them all ziptied up - I have a molle panel that's a pain to get out of the way to just stick my hand back there or to really see back there in general.

But just because I didn't see anything with a scope doesn't mean it may not be there - I did have that side off doing a trailer wiring package about a year ago. And I'll have the molle panels off later this fall when I switch back over to the hard top, so it's on my list to dig a bit deeper.

Thanks for posting that - I'll report back if I find that, or anything else, later one. Because from the sound it wouldn't surprise me if it is something like this.

 

[Brian_B]

Final Update.

I found it - quite by accident. It was indeed a loose bolt. It was no where near the tailgate.

Doing an oil change I was dropping the engine skid plate. I noted one of the bolts spun free - the captive nut had broken free. This was the skid nut that’s on the support plate for the FDU that’s just tack welded on. It wasn’t hard to pull that small plate off and retack the nut back.

At the time I didn’t think anything of it. But after driving it a few days and noticing that particular tailgate rattle is no longer present - I am assuming this was the cause.

 

[Brian_B]

Part 2:

Updating this thread, since it's more tailgate stuff

So Part 1 was definitely a rattle - but not the only one.

I had a distinct creak, and 2 different other rattles going on. I ended up getting one of those mechanics' stethoscopes and bribing my son to ride around in the back. I pulled everything off the tailgate - all the trim, my table, everything. We learned some things.

3 different things:

I have both the Turn Offroad tailgate re-enforcement, and the Turn Offroad tailgate table. Each were contributors to an item.

The first was the latch. Something on the latch was rattling, so I fiddled with the alignment on the latch itself. I ~think~, but I'm not positive, that it was the lower re-enforcement post that the bottom part of the latch catches on to help keep it from moving when it's closed -- like maybe that wasn't seating all the way in the seat in the tailgate. Moving it outward (toward the rear) made it worse. Moving it inward (toward the front) made it better. Finally found the sweet spot that eliminated one of the rattles this way. This was the easiest to find. This sounded like a loose body panel or something when it rattled.

The second was in the hinge on the TOR carrier. It would creak. I thought it was just the frame twisting a bit, but nope - stethoscope pointed right to the latches. The latches are fairly robust, and each latch has a single bolts that holds it all together. It would creak occasionally. Pulled the bolts off (one at a time), greased up the bolt where it slides through the hinge, and re-assembled. I may have over-torqued these bolts on initial installation, and it wasn't allowing all the bushings and everything inside the hinge to spin like they were supposed to, so made sure not to cave man it this time. Creaking gone.


Test drive after these two, but before we put everything back - had everything silent. Glorious silence. So we put the table and the trim back on. One of the nut-serts for the table stripped out, and of course, in attempting to replace that we dropped the old nut-sert down inside the tailgate. Not sure if that was a contributor to a rattle or not - the TOR table has a nice foam backing that goes between it and the table, but at this point I'm not ruling anything out.

One of the rattles returned. It sounded similar to the one for the latch - like a loose body panel or something. While taking the table back off, we noticed the latches have a large nut on the back that holds them to the table - both latches, that hold down nut had come loose. Tightened those back up - and that was it. That was the final rattle!

At least until that dropped nut-sert decides to start rattling around, which is coming, I'm sure. The inside of that tailgate is like a maze, with random sealed off compartments. I might be able to get at it from behind through the vent that's behind the spare - although last time I was looking around for rattles I couldn't figure out how to get that part off. If I have to I can pull the entire tailgate off and just spin it in circles to see if I can get it to roll out a drain or something.

But that's a problem for another day - it hasn't started rattling around driving me crazy yet.

 

[mdavismac]

Joining the tailgate rattle fam! Yall check out this sound and feel free to suggest. When the tailgate is unlatched from the truck, taps on sheet metal don’t reveal any rattle or noise. There’s no interior trim rattling. About 800 miles on this 2024. Right now, the spare is off, but this sound is present with or without the spare.

 

[Brian_B]

There’s no interior trim rattling.

I would check bolts in the undercarridge - like on the rear control arms, body mounts, rear bumper and shock mounts, as well as the spare and spare carrier. Also pull everything out of the jack compartment.

 

[Brian_B]

Part 3:

So there was one last occasional rattle that I assumed was coming from the dropped rivet nut.

Turns out it was also the Turn tailgate table. The latch fell apart the other day. I was able to find the pieces and put it back together - it’s probably been loose for a while but I didn’t realize and it isn’t obvious to check

 

[Brian_B]

Part 4 - another rattle crept in from someplace and it was driving me nuts, as I couldn’t quite replicate it.

Just recently it finally got bad enough that I could reproduce it from just shutting the tailgate. I took the opportunity to investigate

It was coming from my Revolink Starlink mount. So I pulled all of that apart, cleaned it up, lined it with some foam. Put it back together and — still rattled.

It was the damn USB power cable touching against the mount. This rattle has been ongoing, off and on, for months now - I had gone as far as taking the entire tailgate off convinced it was internal to the tailgate (I even got the missing rivet nut out!) and I’m kicking myself that it was something so ridiculous in the end.

But it’s fixed for now. Until the next one

Pic looking up from underneath after I zip tied it all back down.

 

[Fast Eddie]

Man you sure do get quite a bit of rattles. It has been many years since I have wrenched but now the beast in me has awakened and I am taking apart something on my truck almost every weekend. As a former interior restoration/mod guy I am very cognizant of squeaks and rattles. I went out and purchased wire harness tape, which is what the OEMs use to prevent the wires from making noise as they come in contact with the interior/body. I also tie wrap/tape down my wiring every 6-8" to keep it from moving and I also bought 1/4" foam tape that wraps any connections so if they decide to bang around they will be silent.

I am however having a rather annoying issue coming from the rear. A terrible squeak/creak that I THINK is coming from the last roof bar on the oem soft top. Originally it only happened when the top was pushed back halfway but now it happens even with it closed (I am assuming my new soft top has loosened). It doesn't happen all the time and it doesn't seem to matter hot/cold out or any other factor I can find.

One thing that may have contributed to it. I was bringing home a wine fridge that just barely fit in the truck but I was unable to close the rear soft top down. I have the IAS struts on the top so I just drove home with the rear soft top in the "up" position. Got home all looked ok and closed it back up. Next day the creak started. I'm not sure if driving for a bit like that caused something to misalign or what. Anyone have any ideas before I start digging in?

 

[Brian_B]

Anyone have any ideas before I start digging in?

Soft top definitely has a lot of joints and connection points to look at. I’ve had a couple and a bit of strategically placed friction tape or silicone lube has usually fixed it.

Hardest part I’ve found is just being able to reliably reproduce the issue. Once you can do that zeroing in on it is usually pretty easy.

I’d start by cycling the top all the way back and then closed again - see if just that doesn’t settle it back out or reveal where it’s coming from

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