Older Gen 3 Jimny owners - adjust your rubber bonnet stoppers to stop squeaks!

Thought I'd share this just because I am astonished at how quickly it made a difference to the noise of my Jimny. Night and day! I have an 07 vehicle and whenever I went over even tiny bumps or road surface changes I would get this squeaking sound like a mouse or a bird chirping. Sounded a bit nasty too, like metal on metal somewhere in the suspension. But whatever, it's an older vehicle with a ladder chassis, what do you expect? I put it down to old shocks or something but then stumbled across a few posts mentioning it could be the bonnet / hood.

www.bigjimny.com/index.php/forum/7-jimny...aky-front-suspension
www.bigjimny.com/index.php/forum/7-jimny...persistent-squeaking

So essentially there are two little rubber stoppers with a corkscrew thread ( looks like this ) on the front crossmember that are adjustable. Just by rotating them you can make them taller or smaller and completely remove any play in the bonnet when fully shut. Did that in 2 minutes and now I have marvellous silence (well as silent as a Jimny can get), huzzah

You can test if you have this problem by trying to lift the bonnet without first releasing the catch under the steering wheel and seeing if you have excessive play like I did.

Just thought I'd point this out so that in a few years someone can stumble across this thread and have the same pleasure of this fix. No tools necessary!

Yes, and it's the same with the doors.

Trouble is once you fix one rattle you then go hunting for the next one. The best one is the dash board screws close to the Window (there are 3 of them), they work their way loose almost over-night and the dash board rattles.

When you tighten them in, put a bit of Loctite in as well.

Robin

I thought it was part of the charm.  My old Mk1 MX-5's bonnet used to vibrate like a WWI biplane's engine cowling on the motorway.  It was great.

This applies to the gen 4 too, had a squeak/rattle that sounded as  if it was coming from the rear, tried everything, then one day on a particulary rough piece of road realised it was maybe coming from the front, adjusted the two rubbers and problem gone and we had been suffering this infernal squeak for weeks.

Yes @DrRobin, I've been meaning to tighten those screws actually. I get the occasional plasticky rattle out the dash and I think that's that cause. Never seemed to have any issues with the doors but will keep in mind.

And @rogerzilla, there was no charm to that infernal chirping! Nice low rumbles and vibrations yes but it sounded like I had a budgie sellotaped to the bottom of my car

@AJ nice that it applies for the Gen 4 too, I guess for most Gen 4 owners it's less of an issue because the rubber is newer / tighter. I could see mine had worn away loads in the same place. Definitely filing this away in the back of my head for the next time I'm in any older car making that noise.