Annoying trunk rattle

[Tjn182]

The past few weeks my trunk has adopted an interesting "rattle". When I close the trunk I can hear it rattle -- and when I'm driving I hear a constant rattling noise. I'm think maybe the trunk isn't closing securely enough? It does kinda look like it's sitting a little high and not flush with the rest of the body.. barely.

Is there an adjustment for where the trunk secures? Kind of like the plates for the doors? I'm up at college and I don't have my bentley with me So don't pull that one on me.

-Tj

[booker]

I bet a tool has been dislodged from your tool kit and is rattling around behind the liner. It happened to me somehow. :~

[Tjn182]

I dunno.... there's the foam behind the toolkit... and the rattle seems like it's throughout the entire trunk. Plus -- Like I said earlier, it looks like the trunk isn't closing hard enough.

[booker]

You can try to lower the latch a little and see if it helps.

[BMWCCA2]

I concur with the previous diagnosis. When I got my "new" 535is a couple of weeks ago it had a similar rattle on closing the trunk. Since someone had recently worked on the trunk torsion bar I got sidetracked. But when I got into it, I removed the trunk light lamp to kill the bulb and out fell the allen wrench crank for manually rolling up the windows. Problem solved!

-Phil

[Tjn182]

I found out what it was - the long metal strips that connect the two "joints" of the trunk are usually held together by little plastic clips. The clips unclipped allowing the metal to float freely, rattling over bumps and when closing the hood. It's all good now!

[BMWCCA2]

Are you describing the trunk lid's torsion bar springs? Thanks for posting the resolution.

[LexingTom 535is]

Mine was an errant golf ball that escaped. Man you could just see the anxiety in my face. Clunk! Everytime I went around a corner. And I had just done a bunch of suspension work. Geeesh, was I worried!

Thanks for the post.

[RonW]

Originally posted by LexingTom 535is
Mine was an errant golf ball that escaped. Man you could just see the anxiety in my face. Clunk! Everytime I went around a corner. And I had just done a bunch of suspension work. Geeesh, was I worried!

Another sneaky trick I heard of was to throw a few nuts/bolts/ball bearings under the rear seat.

[Edited 8/24/2008 to enable BBCode]