Today I started to hear a "clunk" when the spoiler goes up or down......happens twice during each up or down cycle. I took off the trim to expose the motor .....lubricated the gears everywhere I can get to...but clunk (double) still there......


It's not a squeak....it's a clunk!

Thoughts?

 

Well mine makes NOISE but...clunking idk about...Try making a vid of it so we can hear...Hope it's not any serious problem....

It does cycle all the way though successfully right?

 

Could it be slightly bent in some way maybe from a car wash or some one leaning on it?

 

A car wash? Please say it ain't so. That would be sacreligious!

However, the point about it being bent might be worth a look. Have someone use the button on the dash to put it up and down. On the down cycle it goes through a series of repositioning. Look closely at various angles to see if it might be bent and hence catching on something. Maybe the clearance on the struts has shifted and it's catching on something.

 

Fred's washed in the driveway & don't think anyone has leaned on it......it does complete the cycle. It's just that at 2 points in the process ......there's a sensation like a ....speedbump.

I had my son cycle it while I had the trim off & you see the whole motor flex when the bump sound occurs. Looks like a bracket that holds the motor has some rubber washers....maybe some flex is normal??


I might take the trim off of Wilma & look for any differences between the two actions.....

 

Sounds like a good plan. If it were Wilma I might just say its........er.......her time of the month --- but since it's Fred, I'd say that any flex in the motor enough to cause it to move might be the issue given the limited clearance of the struts. However, if there are gears in the motor (and I don't know if there are) then they could be going bad too. I had a car with the power antenna and it made clunking sound as certain points during it's up / down travel and it turned out to the the gears.

Good luck.

 

I made a good video of the motor / sound....uploaded it.....but can't find it in my gallery?

 

YouTube - Spoiler Bump Sound 001

I swear in the file on my computer there is sound??? For some reason when uploaded to YOUTUBE......no sound?? You can see the motor flex....that's when the little clunk sound occurs.

 

Looks normal from what I've seen my own spoiler motor do. I've had my motor replaced a few years ago though due to a bad one shorting out and not staying down. It would go up and down just fine, it just wouldn't know when to stop once it got all the way down and would keep running until I let go of the switch, of which it would go back up and the light would flash red.

Again, from what I can see, it LOOKS normal. I would have to hear the sound though to tell you if that's what mine sounds like.

 

You had your spoiler motor replaced a few years ago & you're only 20 .....?

Well, the sound seems to coincide with the flex & it just started yesterday.....definitely not normal...

I've greased everything I can see.....probably have to take it to a dealership....$$$$

No rush, I prefer the look with it in the up .

Any idea what the motor costs, or was that a warranty repair? Fred has a Lifetime Powertrain Warranty....but at almost 50K miles....nothing else.

 

I would look for a bent arm or shaft. This is quite a neat little mechanism which is solid all the way through its cycle, to achieve the solid action all the parts must be made with a minimum amount of play in the pivot points and if one part does not have the correct dimension due to a slight bend all the other components in that mechanism are strained.
I would not operate it until you have found the fault as other parts are being stressed.
If there is a way to disconnect the motor you should operate it by hand and that may help you see the reason for your problem.
If there are visible gears check to see if there is any thing jammed between the teeth. As the noise occurs twice in each cycle check to see what moves more than one rotation, a shaft or a gear etc.
Check also for loose screws as everything has to be in the correct place to operate properly.

 

Good points, thanks!

 

About a year and a half or two years ago, yes. I got the car almost 3 years ago, for my 18th birthday. Almost 21 now. The spoiler really doesn't have anything to do with how old I am though. I had all sorts of problems trying to get that damned thing fixed, first they repaired a short, then they replaced the switch console, then finally after I told them for the 30th or so time that it was the motor, they replaced the motor and it was fixed. Haven't had a problem since.

As for the new motor and how the spoiler operates, mine is not as quiet as I would like, and I would say it would be normal from what I can see. Again, mine is a little jerky when deploying/retracting, but nothing I would say is out of the ordinary. I noticed the same rubber mounts you did and my guess is that it's supposed to flex at least a little bit. The torque the motor creates is decently powerful for the mechanism it operates.

As for the noise, I couldn't tell you since I haven't heard yours yet. Mine I would say is noisy, especially with the hatch panel off, but nothing out of the ordinary. I recently lubricated the gears on mine also because it was a little squeaky due to the summer heat.

If you want to try to upload your video again, make sure the audio feed from the original video is in a format that youtube supports.That's probably the most common problem when it comes to "no sound".

As for what 180 said, he's probably got the best advice. If the noise isn't normal, my guess would be that there's something slightly off or bent. The apparatus used to lift the spoiler is pretty tightly built, and I could see something being even slightly off causing some undesired effects.

 

I suppose I could swap the motor on Fred with the one on Wilma....if the problem stays with Fred then I'd know it wasn't the motor itself.....probably not that easy to do......

 

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