Bucketboy

This is my first post, although I have been a reader since I got my TSX in12/04. I have been hearing a creaking popping sound from my rear deck for several months. Lately it had gotten worse. The sound occurred only over bumps that were off camber and twisted the chassis. It finally got so bad that I took the car back to Sunnyside Acura in Nashua on June 27. They heard the noise but couldn't locate it, so they sent it to a body shop for them to look at it. Long story, short, the body shop stripped out the rear seat and trunk liner and found missaligned sheetmetal and missing welds. They repaired them and I picked up my car today. My car is now creak free again. My only concern nows is that since all the welding is done by robots, what else did the robot miss? Also I think the problem was brought to light by my using the upper "Latch" anchors for my grandaughters car seat, this puts stress on the reinforcing member under the rear deck.

CarbonGray Earl

That sounds like my problem. Can you describe the sound a bit more? Mine sounds as if there is a bolt or nut loose on the rear deck. Like a bolt rapping on the bare metal. I can't tell if its necessarily a creak as you have, or if there is something loose. It seems to come along during off camber bumps as well, esp. when the left rear suspension goes over a bump, but the right doesn't.....then again, its so random I might just be thinking this....

But can you detail the sound for me? Does it sound like a creak, i.e. when a squeaky hardwood floor, or metal hitting the reinforcing member under the rear deck??

Bucketboy

the sound was more like an oil can effect, similar to the sound of popping the bottom of a coffee can. I was able to feel the vibration from the sound by folding one of the back seats and touching the reinforcing sheet metal under the rear deck.

CarbonGray Earl

Thanks for the reply....I'm heading into the shop tomorrow and I'm try to gather some information to point the tech in the right direction.

I'm afraid what your describing sounds familiar to what I'm hearing. When I have my back seat folded down, I can hear metallic popping, or flexing. On another thread, Divenow (I think) said that a spot weld on the frame behind the left rear seat was making that sound. Where was the majority of the problem for you? In the rear deck or under the seat?

Anyone else have this problem?

CarKnack

I have had a sound I describe as between a "crack" and a pop coming from behind me when going over off-camber speed bumps and sometimes even just in a harder-than-usual corners...it's come and gone, and the last I heard it was weeks ago. 16k on the mobile, and everything else seems in order, but...

CarbonGray Earl

It just seems totally unacceptable....I mean, its a brand new car. I took my wifes saturn Vue in for less sound that this. Hopefully they can resolve it for me like they did Bucketboy. I think it'll be in the shop for awhile, but Im going to take a couple of these threads to give them a couple of points of interest.

drunkenbuda

did you lower your car?

JTso

iTrader: (2)

I think there are two possible types of noise coming from the rear. One is from suspension components (loose endlink, upper shock mount bushings), and one is from the sheet metal behind the rear seat below the rear deck. I was able to locate the sheet metal sound, which is from the cross member where the two seat release yellow straps are located. If you place your hand on the cross member and squeeze or push in toward the rear seat, you might hear a crackling, poping sound. If you follow the cross member to where it meets the frame, you will see some small spot welds that hold them together. There are gaps between the frame and cross members. The twisting of the frame when going over certain bumps at an angle might cause the metal to touch metal, especially if some of the spot welds are broken.

Bucketboy

The car is has no suspension mods. The service advisor told me they had to "repair" welds as well as re-align some sheetmetal piece. He said the sound was coming from bending sheetmetal. I had a chance to look at the repairs this morning and I was not impressed. The left side trunk lining was loose, (I found the fastener in the spare tire well, and re-attached the liner. Also the right speaker cover was loose. I was unable to see any weld repairs, but I did notice that the rear deck support was all bent to hell (this must be the re-alignment!). The sound is still gone but I'm afraid there will be no more Acuras in my future

myblacktsx

I bought my car in the last week of May and at around 1400 miles or so (it has 1800 now), I noticed severe creaking sounds coming from the rear deck/trunk area and took it in to get it looked at/fixed. I just got my car back on Thursday. It was at Sunnyvale Acura for 8 days as they tried to fix the creaking from the rear deck/trunk area. I would say that they were partially successful. It is a lot better, but at times I can still hear it. I don't think I am going to take it back unless it gets bad again. I have other rattles in the car as others seem to have, for which I had taken the car in the week after I bought it! I talked to the technician about all of these problems and was told that Acura/Honda is not very keen on insulation. He commented that even the new RL has some areas where the insulation is poor! I too must say that it is very unlikely that I will ever buy an Acura again. I am quite disappointed with Acura quality. The good thing about not having my car for several days was that I found that the TL is not better with rattles! I was loaned a 2005 TL with only 2020 miles on it but it had more rattles than my TSX (no creaking sounds from the rear though!!).

myblacktsx

I finally had the chance to spend some time trying to locate the problem. Took me a good portion of a Saturday morning (dealer took 8 days and couldn't find it!!), but I was able to pin point it to the pillar that goes across the car in the rear. The pillar below the rear deck where the speakers are mounted. I noticed that if I stuck something between metal (arrow pointing), the crackling/popping would stop. My solution is crude, but worked - I went to Lowe's and bought a bag of small screws and screwed a couple of them inbetween the metal pieces. Hasn't creaked/crackled/popped since. I hope this helps with others' creaking/crackling problem in the back!

JTso

iTrader: (2)

Yup, that's the cross member I was talking about that makes the crackling sound.

San-AnT

Same problem here, but it comes and goes. good to know it has nothing to do with my comptech rsb install......

pr0tek025

I had the same problem, a squeek or metal bending sound from the trunk when going into a driveway at an angle at low speeds. The Acura dealer I took my TSX to was able to diagnose the problem immediately and I received my car the next day without this problem.

The technician wrote that there were bad spot welds on the left rear shock area and had to remove the rear seat back and bottom to locate the bad welds. The repair was covered under warranty. In case you are wondering, I took my car to the Acura dealer in Cerritos, CA.

afici0nad0

yup.

filled the gaps with wood shims awhile back.

considerable better now. i might hear the "pop" from time to time now, but, much less than before...

TheMirror

Outstanding thread gang, that is the exact problem I'm having. I'm going to try some of the basic fixes and see what happens.

-Mirror

jimstsx

I have also had a problem with the rear of my TSX making a noise. I would probably describe it best as a 'ping' sound when you go over ANY bumps or uneven road.

It used to happen once in a while but now it's happening all the time. My car is only 3.5 months old with about 5k on it and it is happening more each day.

afici0nad0

ya, try the basic fixes people have tried on this thread, and see if you notice a difference.

dmbfan36_23

I just took my 2005 TSX (it has 2000 miles on it, noise started around 1300) in this morning because I noticed a creaking noise when driving thru S-Curves at slow speeds.. sometimes I'd get the creak/ping when going over bumps too.. they ripped apart the trunk and found a bad seam weld in the rear left tower.... I'm hoping when I pick it up tomorrow morning that the noise is gone, based upon this thread it sounds like it will be.

TypeRS

im having my car fixed on this same problem too. i took it in last wednesday and since then i've been told it wont be ready till this wednesday...wth... ah well.

twizta

i only hear a wierd sound when i start the car... i cant really explain the sound. does anyone this this is the same problem? (its coming back of the car also)

afici0nad0

when you say they found a bad seam weld, was it b/c the welded seam cracked?

N2GLOCK

I too had the same problem soon after I got my TSX. Acura of Glendale diagnosed as bad spot welds and they repaired the problem same day under warranty. The noise has not come back and it has been several months.

afici0nad0

looks like my wood shims solution was very temporary.

the creaking/popping noise has come back, albeit not as frequently.

i guess i will make a visit to the dealership. hopefully, it won't take more than an hour to re-spot weld the cross-member. not really a high priority in terms of safety/annoyance for me though...

rtlltj

wow I think this is the noise thats been driving me fkin crazy lately. I've been stressing over whether this noise was there all along and I didn't notice it or started later. I'm definately going to look at these pics and try it.

West6MT

I have noticed some noise coming from the back of my car too,..............CRAP if its anything like you guys have been talking about. My car is only 2 weeks old,......and I hear the noise when I go over bumps sometimes etc,...........pretty infrequent so far. Im gonna drive with no music on etc for a few days,........and listen intently for any problems. This thread is really informative.

dmbfan36_23

Actually it turns out that all the welds are "double-folded" and sometimes you get an air-pocket in the fold. When stress is applied the metal sometimes clicks together causing the creaking/poping noises. They just banged out the airpocket and so far I'm noise-free...

dmbfan36_23

my car was only a month old when I started getting the noise...

afici0nad0

ok. cool. very informative, thanks man...

ya, didn't think this issue would affect performance/safety, and your post would further confirm my assumption.

i agree, this thread in particular has been very helpful to me.

just one of those little annoyances...

JTso

iTrader: (2)

I'm not sure what you mean by "double-folded" welds. Is that what the dealer told you? They are just simply spot welds. Not the strongest weld but relatively quick process during assembly.

dmbfan36_23

yes, this is what the dealer told me. However, I should clarify. My bad weld was in the rear-left tower. It was not the spot welds where others in this thread are putting the wood shims... but since it's the same noise I've posted it in this thread...

TypeRS

ok, acura claims they solved the issue last week. they diagnosed the tapping noise as the same as what's being mentioned here, but now (3 days later) im starting to hear creaking noises coming from the trunk again, this time more frequently, yet not as loud as before...wtf?! sounds more like the trunk metal is twisting kinda sound...

mld99jmd

Had same problem for few months until…

Quick fix is to grab all the different exposed sheet metal in trunk and try and move in all directions. I heard same 'popping' noise in sheet metal welds. Tugging at it seamed to tweak just enuff to keep noise from ever coming back (two months now) at least for me.

mld99jmd

Had same popping noise for awhile -
Manipulated sheet metal welds with back/forth & side/side force.
Seamed to reposition just enuff to eliminate noise for couple months now?

afici0nad0

aahh...

good idea, i will try that this weekend...

neckbone

Dammit, I'm glad I came across this topic. I've been getting the same damn creaking noise coming from the back. I looked everywhere and I can not pin point where the noise is actually coming from. I'm starting to think it's my shocks in the back. I'm annoyed because my car is only 5 months old.

jlukja

Thanks for the pics and writeup. I don't have the creak but I printed this out and saved it just in case it comes up.

Conman

I have had the sound described in this thread for a few thousand miles. I brought it into the dealer and had them look at it...they tried adjusting the trunk springs, couldn't fix it...asked me to bring it in another day.

In the mean time, I tried the self-fix-it proposals addressed in this thread, but it didn't help my clicking/popping trunk sounds.

I dropped off the car at the dealer again yesterday so they could take a closer took. It turns out it's a bad welding in the frame near the trunk area and it will take a few days to fix. What a pain in the butt this has been.

kaikai114

That's probably the same problem I'm having that I couldnt figure out when I installed my Progress RSB yesterday.

TypeRS, where did you take your car to and what did you tell them? I want to take my car in and get it checked too. Thanks

Kevin

TimSX

I have the creaking noise since I took delivery. At first I thought it was that piece of tin they call a lock. I also have a metal "clank" noise somewhere in the trunk area that happens if I take a hard turn and then later another turn in the opposite direction. With a new rattle, squeak or clank developing monthly... this car will sound like a bucket of bolts in a year.

I decided on a Honda/Acura because everyone raves about their quality. Why should this many customers have this problem and yet it takes multiple trips to the dealer without a solution? Why should customers resort to WD-40, shims and screws in attempts to fix this obvious design flaw? I would suspect that every TSX has this issue, so maybe Acura could find a solution.