Grab handle ticking noise be gone

[ldusseau]

I wish engineers would acknowledge that when there's a plastic touching plastic design condition parts will inevitably squeak, especially ABS on ABS. Only one piece has to move and voila!, there's your noise. Every car I owned since my old Dodge Shadow (a POS, so this doesn't make sense) made a creaking noise, especially when cold. Ford Probe GT (noise buried in IP, ABS on glass situation), Mercury Cougar (armrest), even both BMW's (IP trim), but not to the same extent as the Big 3. You would think their long term vibration tests would pick it up, apparently KIA didn't in this instance. As an automotive engineer that specializes in plastics, I find this discouraging.

 

[ldusseau]

Have you folks figured out how to get rid of the seat belt adjuster vibrations? A year ago I stuffed a velcro strap in to take up some of the slack. It's been working ok, but i hear the vibes coming back every now and then. Certain roads/speeds really cause it to resonate.

I've heard noise near there, but I believe it's the plastic seat belt latch cover that hits the B-pillar. I'm thinking of getting a little felt to put on it to see if that helps.

 

[ldusseau]

I wish engineers would acknowledge that when there's a plastic touching plastic design condition parts will inevitably squeak, especially ABS on ABS. Only one piece has to move and voila!, there's your noise. Every car I owned since my old Dodge Shadow (a POS, so this doesn't make sense) made a creaking noise, especially when cold. Ford Probe GT (noise buried in IP, ABS on glass situation), Mercury Cougar (armrest), even both BMW's (IP trim), but not to the same extent as the Big 3. You would think their long term vibration tests would pick it up, apparently KIA didn't in this instance. As an automotive engineer that specializes in plastics, I find this discouraging.

The thing that encourages me is how many owners do great root cause analysis on most of these issues. We find a problem, try different ways to fix it, and usually come up with a good solution. If not, we keep trying until we properly diagnose it and share the results with the group.

 

[JSolo]

I've heard noise near there, but I believe it's the plastic seat belt latch cover that hits the B-pillar. I'm thinking of getting a little felt to put on it to see if that helps.

I'm hearing this on the driver side with the seat belt buckled in. Happens on certain road surfaces/speeds.

 

[MagooF15]

I tried rubber, hard plastic, and metal washers…still the damn ticking noise. Tried thin circular rubber gaskets as a buffer along the thin rod of the handles axis. Still the ticks. I tried different screws. A 3/4 inch 10-24 Countersunk Flathead needed to be screw driven thru the supports, which meant the screw essentially became firmly a part of the supports. The screws provided didn’t do that and there was space between the screw and the support they went through…so no matter how secure the screw was or even if there was a washer behind it, the space left between the screw inside the support allowed the grab handle to move…thus the tick. These screws did the trick with no washer…damn noise is gone.