Shakes, rattles, squeeks and squeels

[maxboxa]

hi all. i recently picked up a 93 convertible and really enjoy driving it. while i was fully expecting to deal with noise in general, i'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of it.
are there any common areas that are worth addressing? would a strut brace or lower x brace help minimize any of this?
control arms feel pretty tight so i imagine the bushings are fine. would lubing them up help?
just need to figure out if i should put money towards quieting the cabin down, or in a sound system to help drown it all out

[J.Rizo]

unrelated, but buy a raceland wind deflector. every vert needs one.

[mlbryant8]

Strut tower brace will definitely help. And ditto on the Raceland wind screen. Have one and I love it. It also give you a little deterrent for non-valuable items on your back seat. One thing you might want to do if you get the Raceland wind screen is to find some type of rubber protector to put on the brackets that sit in the seatbelt well.

[maxboxa]

thanks for the tip fellas. amazon wind deflector has been ordered.

[MC Hammered]

I found the crossbrace helped get rid of a lot rattles/squeaks than a strut tower brace, and our strut towers are reinforced already from the factory.

[jeffnhiscars]

I glued lamb skin around the wind deflector tips that slide in the seat belt socket. And +1 on a strut brace

[fight4life28]

My cab with stiff ground control coilovers does the same thing. I have strut bar too, now going to upgrade to x brace. see what that does and wind deflectors work great. We are not talking b/s. got one my self.

[exhaust]

X-brace did a lot, I'm very happy with mine. Next on my list is wind deflector and strut tower brace. Now if I could just make the windows rattle less...

[flyboyx]

a hard top does a lot.

[Mwishlist]

Are we talking top up or top down noise?

I just re-did the vertical seals which are the seals that are attached to the rear windows and go upright between the front and rear windows. That cut down a ton of wind noise with the top up AND stopped a lot of rattle with the top down but the windows up (although not all as my windows need to be adjusted a bit).

I just installed my x-brace this weekend and drove it around Saturday with the top down. It really did minimize the cowl shake when I hit bumps. I have all stock rubber bushings with ground control suspension, nothing crazy stiff but it was definitely shaky before. For $180 and 20 minutes to install, I'd say it's definitely worth it.

It's apples to oranges but my wife's e30 vert with the hardtop on and pretty good original seals all around, is pretty damn quiet. It's probably quieter than most 25 year old hard tops I've been in.

[maxboxa]

thanks for the feedback all. i've just got word that the ujoint in the driveshaft is bad and is the source of some of the noise/vibes i've been experiencing. the car has an m50 with a getrag 260 and i'll need to source a replacement shaft. would that info be enough to ascertain what shaft/flange i need? i've read a few threads and the info seems to be flying over my head.

[e30rapidic]

I have a strut brace in mine but no x brace; no rattles or squeaks.