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Removing Rattle Noises In The Front Of A Gallardo
rattles   
Figure 1. Source of vibration rattle in a Gallardo  

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.

   
Figure 2. Trunk with partition   Fig 3. Trunk with partition removed   Figure 4.
   
Figure 5. Remove rubber water seal   Figure 6. Trunk outside car   Figure 7. Right hand side rattle location

 

   
Figure 8. Central rattle location   Figure 9. Close-up of rattle location

 

  Figure 10. Close-up of rattle location
Figure 11. Reattaching the rubber water seal.    

This page was last modified on 03/12/2014

This page was last modified on 09/06/2014