Morris Minor Owners Club

I have an intermittant noise from behind the facia, mostly when taking my foot off the accelerator pedal. Now, I am not looking for any advice on what it might be as I need to remove the glove box panels and investigate myself. Without actually experiencing this aggrevating rattle yourself, noone can say or advise what it is, or where it comes from. My passenger thinks it is central, I think it is on my left side. in other words, the location is not definate.

I was wondering though if others suffer from blank nerves from driving a Minor (mine is a 69 Traveller) that has sqeakes, rattles and scraching noises which have nothing to do with the engine or gearbox or diff? I put in the anti rattle springs on the gearbox last year hoping for a definite improvement there. Nope!

All those noises sound fairly typical for an old Morris Minor!

I too have a 69 Traveller and have been chasing rattles and squeeks for the last three years or so.
Quite often I do find the one that is currently annoying me, only to discover another new one almost straight away.

It is part of the charm of running a Minor

Phil P

But it would be nice to , and is part of the challenge , to get it into pristine order. Or at least as near to as one can.

I have a modern Audi. Squeaks and rattles annoy me in that car but the Morris well it is a very noisy car and always will be. Only noises indicating a serious mechanical issue would concern me in the Morris. It is so loud that I never did install a radio. I didn't think I'd ever hear it anyway! My car is a tourer though so noisier due to lack of metal roof.

It's probably worth investigating any new noise that becomes apparent though; I recently noticed a rattling vibration on start-up that seemed to come from the nearside. I took off the passenger door card to investigate and found that the two nuts on the door stay were loose and, if left, would certainly have fallen off, causing severe bodywork damage the next time the door was opened 'enthusiastically'.

But it would be nice to , and is part of the challenge , to get it into pristine order. Or at least as near to as one can.

Even then, after a couple of runs I bet the rattles and squeaks would return......
Every now and again one will bug me but you come to realise it's not worth getting stressed and chasing your tail over.
After all, how old is the youngest Morris Minor 1000 now?......... 50+?...........
As someone said, part of the charm...........
Best wishes,
Mike.

Yes, the engine noises, or suspension noises always need to be looked at. I get an loud "clonk" sometimes when making a right turn. It is not from the suspension - I suspected the exhaust but it seems quite fixed.

No, the infuriating and annoying vibration rattle from behind the facia has reached epidemic level - but we will vaccinate it with something .

but we will vaccinate it with something

How about something like this?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164990540537 ... Swg1lhBaNW
Best wishes,
Mike.

Nickol, I had an annoying rattle like that years ago and it baffled me. Quite by chance I discovered what it was. A small metal badge had been dropped into the air vent on top of the dash and was rattling around in the heater pipes/vent. Unlikely that your rattle is that but could be worth checking.

That is worth looking at when I do the LHS and can easily take the air hose off to check. That will have to wait a bit....

At the moment I am driving around in the sunshine with my nearly restored Triumph Herald 13/60 cabrio which also has a squeaky door when driving along....Incidentally , we call a rolling restauration of any car an "english restauration". I wonder where that came from?

Nikol
Had a very similar noise in my 948 2 door. Turned out to be the link between the door lock and interior door handle rubbing on the door panel. I think there used to be a rubber pad, long since gone! I fixed mine, I hope, with a short piece of fuel hose with a slit to go over the link. So far it hasn't fallen off
Cheers JohnG

Hi, I had that and it was the bonnet side badge. The small fixings become loose over time and fall off.

Yes, I've experienced that (the clips work loose), and also the front radiator grille slats vibrating with the engine idling.

I have suffered irritating dash vibrations since replacing the original worn engine mount rubbers with new ones. I almost wish I hadn’t bothered. If I place my hand on the little screws next to the passenger side window air blower then it immediately stops. But I can’t figure out how to tighten those screws (at least not without removing the glass).

Similar to you, if only happens at certain engine rev points.

Nickol wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 9:41 pm I was wondering though if others suffer from blank nerves from driving a Minor (mine is a 69 Traveller) that has sqeakes, rattles and scraching noises which have nothing to do with the engine or gearbox or diff? I put in the anti rattle springs on the gearbox last year hoping for a definite improvement there. Nope!

Well I had a bit of a result on Sunday...........I finally cured the persistent chattering noise from the nearside front suspension.

It has done it for a while now and I put it down to a knackered shock absorber, however having replaced both, the noise was still there.
I have lost count of the times I have had the front up on axle stands and trying to find something that was loose, my last resort was going to be a new steering rack as everything else on the front suspension has already been replaced during the last three years.

The only clue I had was that the chattering noise stopped if I lightly applied the brakes. (Has anyone guessed what it was yet ?????)

So Sunday morning I tried something I had not done before, and that was with car on the ground, to grab the front wheel and try and pull/push it backwards and forwards, and lo and behold there was the noise I have been hearing. I laid on my back and reached round the back of the wheel while I was doing this and discovered by feel that it was the tie rod fork end that was loose in the wishbone arms, the nut at the back had not been tightened fully by the garage when they had replaced all the bushes etc.

The reason I did not find it with the car up on axle stands is because the tie rod would have been under quite a bit of tension and no matter how much I pulled on it there was no play evident until the car was on it's wheels. That also explained why the noise vanished when the brakes were applied.

I am just glad I did not fork out for a new steering rack and then discover the noise was still there !!

Phil P

Good to hear you found the culprit - an interesting one, that!

Wow! I bet you are glad to have discovered that after all the frustration but at least it was a nice easy fix in the end - we like them!