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Figure 1. Source of vibration
rattle in a Gallardo |
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When I drive my
Lamborghini the only sound I like to hear is the sound of the
engine. Sure when I am in bumper to bumper traffic I will opt for
switching on my Satellite radio (Sirius) or listen to a CD. But on
the highway nothing beats the sound of the engine as I massage it
for the terrain.
Recently in my Gallardo when I was drive slowly over rough ground I
could hear sounds from under the hood at the front of the car. While not
a "show stopper", I thought it would be nice to eliminate them. They
sound is like something is rattling against the frame of the car. At
first I thought it was something in the trunk itself ("boot", for those
in UK & Ireland), but even when I removed everything there the sounds
still remained. After a lot of trial and error I found the problem
was due to a few cables and hoses hitting against the frame of the car.
The solution was simple and is described here, but before I start let me
say there are numerous complaints from Gallardo owners about "sounds"
coming from the front of their cars. They generally fall
into 3 types:- 1. Sounds when the car is raised and lowered by the
front lift system. This seems to be unavoidable and seems to be due to
the flexing/stretching of components in the hydraulic lifting system.
At least that is what dealers say. Not sure I buy that since the Diablo
never had that specific lifting problem. Nevertheless its very brief and
transitory and one can put up with it. 2. Some (earlier) cars had
problems with the couplings for the front anti-sway bar. Apparently the
joints quickly wore loose causing them to rattle slightly. This quickly
becomes annoying on rough ground. I believe Lamborghini issued an
update/repair for this situation - replacing the joints themselves.
3. The third situation which we address here is a less dramatic
sound. As I said above more like things rubbing rather than metal to
metal. This is what this article addresses. -
The Solution
First one has to remove the trunk container. When the car is
delivered it has a stupid division running across the trunk so that you
can only fit two brief cases upright in the trunk (figure 2). Apparently
this partition is there to meet US DOT requirements. If a trunk is big
enough for a child to get into and close the lid, it has to have a
clearly available pull cord inside the trunk so that the trunk can be
opened from the inside. The partition insures a child cannot get locked
in the trunk, so pull cord is required. Sounds like a last minute fix by
the staff at Audi! Anyway I don't have young children and don't
consider this a problem, so the partition was removed (easy to do, 4
plastic plugs) yielding a trunk at least of some practical value as
shown in figure 3.
In order to get to the source of the rattles you have to lift out the
whole trunk box. It is attached to the frame of the car with 4 screws as
shown in figure 4. Next we need to remove the rubber water seal around
the top of the trunk that holds it to the rest of the car. This
can be done by getting under it with a screwdriver and pulling it
straight up (figure 5). It should be removed completely all around the rim. It
comes out as one large rubber loop. Next pull the whole box up and out a
little. You will see the interior light is connected via a wire. Unplug
this lead at the light assembly. The whole trunk box can then be removed
from the car as shown in figure 6. Figures 7 - 10 show where the
problems are. In each case there is a cable or hose that can vibrate
against the frame of the car. Simply use a plastic wire to tie up the
piece so it cannot vibrate. Hopefully the pictures are self explanatory.
Most of the noise seemed to come from the high voltage cable for the HID
as shown in figure 1.
Putting the trunk box back in the car is a little frustrating. The
rubber water seal needs to be first inserted on the car. Then pop in the
trunk box and working your way around leverage the seal over the box. Do
not forget to hookup the light wire. Start at the front and work your
way around the sides. Use a screwdriver (figure 11) to pop up the edge
of the seal. Its easy once you get the hang of it.
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