WhiskeyBear553
New Member
- Thread starter
- #1
Hello everyone, I am new to the Wrangler Life and this is my first post ever. I just bought my first Wrangler two Fridays ago, I have been looking for several years (JKs and some TJs as well) and found the exact options and color scheme on this 2018 JL and the price was to good to give up. So I drove over an hour away to get the Jeep and then driving back I am loving life, top down, speakers bumping and I hear the rattling. So for the next hour as I am driving I am putting pressure in several spots on the speaker bar to see if it helps. I found that by pulling down slightly on the speaker bar in the center it would fix the rattle. The noise was gone and audio restored to what you would expect.
Once I got home I inspected it and determined the noise is more towards the center upper portion of the speaker bar where the top metal meets it.
So first I ordered some Sponge Neoprene Stripping with Adhesive on one side on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PBSTDWM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Once my package arrived I was able to attempt the remedy. I went out and cut several pieces. One for the left corner, Center, and right side. The pieces do not have to be huge and in fact cant be too big because they will not fit in the tight space. I took a larger piece about 4-5 inches and cut it for the left side because that side dips down more and had a larger gap, I know the metal was not hitting the plastic at this position, but by adding this piece I put more pressure away from the trim piece and the metal. Next, I cut two smaller sections, about 1 inch each and then cut these in half width wise because they were too thick. See the photos where I cut them, it was easy and took a couple of seconds. I took these half width and 1 inch piece and gently applied pressure to the bar pulling it down slightly. Do not man handle it or the trim may break, but overall its pretty strong trim so you should be good. While pushing down put the foam pieces in the direct center area and right side corner by one of the curves of the trim piece. You have to wedge it in and I put the adhesive side against the black trim to hold it in place. I held them down for 30 seconds maybe a minute each just to make sure the adhesive took and that was it.
Looking back you could order thinner stripping, but this worked well because it fit the left side gap and minor cutting with scissors did the job. I blasted some music and put the bass up several notches and put the volume up and have no more rattling up there. I have a couple real minor rattles just because well its a Jeep, but I can blast my music now and not want to punch my speaker bar!
I do not know how long this fix will last since the Jeep is my weekend car, I do not put a ton of miles on it, but whenever I am out the top is down and those adhesives will be exposed. But worse comes to worse I can fix it again because the amazon roll has plenty left. Enough to do this remedy dozens and dozens of times if needed, but I will put a update here if the issue does come back and how long it took.
Video Link, it is not Great and I accidentally hit a steering wheel button part way through but it shows the rattle is gone: https://photos.app.goo.gl/aLzq85EuhvoFyTzi9
**Also one quick question, I did not find a lot of information on this and even reading the Jeep manual did not help a lot, but do I not have a volume knob in my JL? I have driven several automatics with the volume knob on the left, but mine changes the air? Do I only control the volume with the steering wheel control? Thanks for any answers, photo attached of that as well.
Once I got home I inspected it and determined the noise is more towards the center upper portion of the speaker bar where the top metal meets it.
So first I ordered some Sponge Neoprene Stripping with Adhesive on one side on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PBSTDWM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Once my package arrived I was able to attempt the remedy. I went out and cut several pieces. One for the left corner, Center, and right side. The pieces do not have to be huge and in fact cant be too big because they will not fit in the tight space. I took a larger piece about 4-5 inches and cut it for the left side because that side dips down more and had a larger gap, I know the metal was not hitting the plastic at this position, but by adding this piece I put more pressure away from the trim piece and the metal. Next, I cut two smaller sections, about 1 inch each and then cut these in half width wise because they were too thick. See the photos where I cut them, it was easy and took a couple of seconds. I took these half width and 1 inch piece and gently applied pressure to the bar pulling it down slightly. Do not man handle it or the trim may break, but overall its pretty strong trim so you should be good. While pushing down put the foam pieces in the direct center area and right side corner by one of the curves of the trim piece. You have to wedge it in and I put the adhesive side against the black trim to hold it in place. I held them down for 30 seconds maybe a minute each just to make sure the adhesive took and that was it.
Looking back you could order thinner stripping, but this worked well because it fit the left side gap and minor cutting with scissors did the job. I blasted some music and put the bass up several notches and put the volume up and have no more rattling up there. I have a couple real minor rattles just because well its a Jeep, but I can blast my music now and not want to punch my speaker bar!
I do not know how long this fix will last since the Jeep is my weekend car, I do not put a ton of miles on it, but whenever I am out the top is down and those adhesives will be exposed. But worse comes to worse I can fix it again because the amazon roll has plenty left. Enough to do this remedy dozens and dozens of times if needed, but I will put a update here if the issue does come back and how long it took.
Video Link, it is not Great and I accidentally hit a steering wheel button part way through but it shows the rattle is gone: https://photos.app.goo.gl/aLzq85EuhvoFyTzi9
**Also one quick question, I did not find a lot of information on this and even reading the Jeep manual did not help a lot, but do I not have a volume knob in my JL? I have driven several automatics with the volume knob on the left, but mine changes the air? Do I only control the volume with the steering wheel control? Thanks for any answers, photo attached of that as well.
Sponsored
