I just purchased a 98 cobra on ebay and flew 900 miles and drove back with her. darn is she a rattle trap. My question is....is this normal......there is a popping sound from the doorjamb when i go over pretty much any bump in the road. the dash rattles like crazy too and when I hit cracks or expansion joints in the road the whole car makes a pronounced rattling, squeeking thud! the car was lowered and I replaced the shocks/struts immediately, but I wanted to make sure I didnt pick up a bad car. Ive got an 04 mach1 and its pretty quiet, but its also only a year old. do these things really rattle that bad after 70k miles? thanks for any help.

 

70k and alot of rattles?? Did you check the car out to make sure it hasnt been wrecked. Some subframes might help out, but they also might stiffen the car up and cause whatever is rattling now to rattle worse. Subframes on a new car are a great great great addition for this purpose.

 

yup, mostly its bad when going over bumps ets, it doesn't have that solid, smooth feeling like the mach....just BANG! not sure if its the combination of the lowering springs and 18x9.5 cobra r's or simply 70k miles of road hitting the suspension. is yours nice and smooth/quiet on bumpy roads?. carfax came clean, but it looks like the driver's side was repainted at some point. its pretty scarry when I hit large gaps in the road though.

 

I have a 1998 GT with 71,000 miles that doesn't rattle at all...And it DID have a wreck (mostly upper body/hood)...If it's been repainted it may have been smacked in the side which may loosen more stuff IMO...

Ron

 

anybody have any suggestions on what to do to fix this problem? would some chasis stiffening help or make the problem worse?

 

SELL....SELL....SELL

 

well i know with a frined of mines 95, which is pretty low, and before he got new shocks/struts, and hit a bad bump, the car would hit HARD, because he had a stock pinion snubber, which was too long of course since he lowered it.

 

ebay? OUCH! I'd have a good experienced bodyman look your car over. Maybe at an SVT dealership. It would probably be money well spent

 

I've got a 95 GT with 140k and I dont have any rattles. Back a year or so ago I heard something banging under the rear of the car, come to find out, the sway bar was broken. Bought me a new Steeda sway bar and fixed it right up.

 

i have a 92 and it doesnt rattle enough to be annoying but i would definitely have it checked out. it could have been wrecked and not reported. not all insurance companies report to carfax. or they could have fixed it themselves. none of the 96 and up mustangs me or my family have bought rattled.

 

thanks, im having it checked out by a body shop next week

 

dont know if this makes it different, but a lot of it sounds like the plastic parts rubbing together in the console and rear parts.