Rear hatch rattle - Subaru Outback

For well over a year, our Subaru Outback 2010 has had a rattle coming from the back of the car.

The real bad situation was that we had to drive all the way to Melbourne and back at Christmas time and it was annoying as hell.

I looked up a few online forums that seemed to think it was either the striker bracket that locks the rear hatch or rubber seals around the door.

To fix the plate you mark its present position, then loosen the bolts and move it to the back of the car and retighten. I did that and it made no difference.

Rather than going out and buy new rubber seals I tried placing something in between the rubber seals and the door and that made no difference either.

I was starting to think that it was something loose inside the the hatch door. To find out I would have to take off the hatch door inside lining. That was a bit of a task in itself but I had a go at it today.

After taking it all off I could not find anything that was loose that was causing the rattle.

So I put down the back seats and did a drive along our bumpy circular driveway to see if I could here where the rattle was coming from. I could hear the rattle but could not see where it was coming from. I could see nothing moving.

I thought perhaps since it was a slightly squeaky rattle, it might have been the side foam floor panels on either side of the spare tyre opening. So I took them out and went for a test drive. The rattle was gone. However this was a false test because I had inadvertently left the hatch door fully open. In the up position. Closing it and the rattle returned. At least that mistake indicated that was definitely the door itself.

I thought I'd have another go adjusting the striker bracket. I did so as I had done before and it made no difference.

But after looking at it for a while I saw it had worn where the catch clamps around it. I thought I'd have to buy a new bracket. I decided to test the theory first. I could wind some wire around part of the bracket, to make it thicker, where it has worn. But I didn't have any suitable wire. I thought what else is nice and thin that I could wrap around it. I cut up an aluminium soft drink can into a suitable strip.

I wraped the aluminium strip around the bracket part that was worn. The hard part was making it stay in place. Had to cut the aluminium so that it wedged in underneath the bracket at either end.

Put it on, took it for a test drive and the rattles gone.

This is not the first time I have of used a soft drink aluminum can to fix the car.

The sound deadening lining underneath the bonnet had dropped away and the head of the plastic grommets were not big enough to hold it in place.

I cut up a aluminum soft drink can into pieces, big enough to act as giant washers, to hold the lining in place.