I have two issues with my 2004 Tiburon, V6 GT manual.

The first is most annoying. It is currently at the dealer for the sixth
attempt. There is a noise coming from what sounds like behind the interior
rear speaker grill, passenger side. It is NOT coming from the audio system.
If I hit a bump it sounds like the speaker is loose and it hits the grill
cover from behind. It is a metal to metal sound. If I hit the right drive
frequency it vibrates and makes a buzzing kind of sound. This is driving me
to hate this car. I posted a similiar message on newtiburn.com and the only
response was from 3 people saying they have the same problem. This can't be
an isolated issue therefore.

The second thing I think could be dangerous. Last winter when it was really
cold outside and everything was frozen, when I turned on the heater I could
smell gasoline inside the car coming out the blower vents. This does NOT
happen if the temperature is above freezing. This did not happen just once
but every time when the weather was cold. It did not happen the two
previous winters. The dealer was unable to find a problem and just blew it
off.

I take the car to different dealer now. Do you have any idea what may be
the cause of these problems?

Thank You very much.

 

I haven't seen any cars with the noise you describe. It'll basically take
someone tearing into the car to find the problem by narrowing the
possibilities. Your dealer should have a special tool called "chassis
ears" which will enable them to check for the specific location origin of
noises. Since you've got a GT, one of my suspicions would be the rear
sway bar bushings or links. The hard suspension tends to cause a faster
wear rate on these components. The noise could be transmitting through
the rear suspension, some of whose components are not that far from the
speaker area.

The fuel odor is likely originating from your exhaust. The fuel
management system on the 2.7 seems to produce this condition at cold
temperatures. I'm not sure whether it's necessary for the mixture to be
this rich, but in my experience, the odor you're smelling, if it's from
the exhaust, is probably normal.

 

Thank you for your consideration in the replies. The car is currently at
the dealer today where they are replacing a rear strut in another attempt
to fix the noise. It do not think this is a wear issue. This has been a
consistent noise since I bought the car new and it currently only has
16,000 miles. So we'll see what happens.


The dealer thought the smell was from the exhaust as well and they are
checking it out. However, the gasoline smell was strong enough to give me
a headache and feel somewhat nauseous after a while so "normal" seems a
bit odd. However, I am willing to accept that and just open the windows a
bit as long as there's no danger of fire which was my main concern.

Thanks.
Ron