Nasty squeaking noise from upper cabinets...

[TJHUB]

A year or so ago, I had a nasty squeaking noise coming from the driver's sided of the upper cabinet that nearly went away, but now is back in full force. It is located where the front cabinet meets the piece that turns long the side wall. It's worse on rough roads and it's extremely loud. What's worse is that the passenger side started making the exact same noise, and it has to be fixed!

The sound is a squeak that sort of sounds like a metal bracket against wood with an almost popping sound. Nothing is loose or out of place that I can find. Any one have this? I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to go about trying to remedy this. All I know is that it has to stop. It's going to drive my wife and I completely crazy.

[bucks2]

The first thing you have to do is find it. Here's one way. Buy a mechanics stethoscope at Harbor Freight (or equivalent). You're going to use the open end of the tube to listen as someone else drives and makes the rig make the noise. With that open tube end you will hear exactly where the noise is coming from. This method also works well for wind whistles.

Sometimes you can't reach exactly where you need to with the fairly short tube. Get an extension of fairly rigid tubing. I use ice maker tubing because it's what I had in the garage. I taped mine to a 3' dowel to keep it straight.

Once you find the noise you may be able to silence it with a spray of silicone lube thru the little straw thingy, or you may find that sliding a piece of thin cardboard (like the back of a tablet) keeps the pieces apart. Or other times tighten a screw, add a screw, or some other inventive method.

[CamJam1]

On my 2004 Dolphin the noise was coming from the plastic trim pieces up around the the privacy curtain track. The plastic trim pieces rub against the cabinets and each other. Every time we stopped for gas I would stick my head up there and push pieces of cardboard and folded paper between the plastic pieces where I thought the noise was coming from. Little by little I got rid of all of them, though it took a bit of trial and error to find the right spots. It's worked so well that all the cardboard/paper pieces are still up there, lol. You can' t see them at all unless you practically lay on the dash and look up.

Also, since I removed the 100 pound RCA TV set and replaced it with an 8 pound LED TV, the remaining creaks and groans from the overhead cabinets seem to be completely gone.

[TJHUB]

Thanks for the responses. In the attached pictures, I wanted to blame the screws and bracket in the red circle, or maybe the yellow circle. I don't think it's the track in the blue circle. However, inside the green circle, you can see obvious rub marks in the wall board. I'm assuming this is the area you put the cardboard and paper?

[CamJam1]

Originally Posted by TJHUB

Thanks for the responses. In the attached pictures, I wanted to blame the screws and bracket in the red circle, or maybe the yellow circle. I don't think it's the track in the blue circle. However, inside the green circle, you can see obvious rub marks in the wall board. I'm assuming this is the area you put the cardboard and paper?

I'd have to go look at my moho (in storage) to tell you for sure, but that area in the green circle looks exactly like the type of thing I was talking about. It wasn't the track itself on mine, I was just using that as a reference to the general area.

[Kasey]

We had the exact same thing happen. It got so bad this last trip that it was going to ruin our trip! My lovely wife found it by sitting on the dash and looking up behind them while I drove. It turned out to be a loose screw in the track that holds the windshield curtains! Good luck!

[TJHUB]

I just got the coach out of storage for a trip this Thursday. I poked around a little bit, and I found the nasty creaking sound. It's so nasty, it's not a squeak; this is a creaking noise and it's obnoxious!

In the first pic, the sound distinctly comes from the yellow circle. If I reach my hand around the back of that panel and press on the area circled in red in the second pic, I get the nasty, loud, creaking sound. I'm not sure how to approach trying to fix it, but I will attempt to loosen, tighten, and maybe remove some of those screws back there. Maybe I will try adding a couple of screws. I don't know. All I know is I have to get this figured out, or driving this thing is going to make me insane!!

[Frantz]

A strange solution for us was to "poof" baby/talc powder into all squeaking spots that weren't large enough to stuff cardboard, etc. Apply as needed. Smells nice also.

[TJHUB]

I had a chance to try and dig into this a little further this afternoon. Nothing I do makes the sound better or worse. In the attached pic, the creaking comes from the red circled area. The creak is easy to produce if a push/pull around the area circled in yellow. I'm thinking I'm going to have to remove the entire plastic cover under the cabinets and see if I need to screw and glue something behind the area circled in red. It doesn't look like it's going to be very fun...

[kennersonf]

I would use a pocket screw to secure the two pieces. Use a plug to cover the hole. You could stain the plug to match the cabinet.

[biggerboat]

I had this annoying squeaking noise a few weeks ago. It was originating from the front wood cabinets where the wood butts up against each other and the corners. I used some silicone spray with the straw and put a little on each seam and then wiped it down with a rag. The wood did not stain. This fixed the issue!

[Belgian]

I've have repaired squeaks in all the areas others have mentioned. Here's another solution I had. I could move the front cabinet and sometimes re-create the noise. It was located just above your last picture just above the red circle. I tried screws and lubricants, what worked was removing the tan sealant National used to fill the seam where the two pieces of wood come together. Weird!

Replacing the two ton TV has also helped a lot with squeaks.

[TJHUB]

Thanks for the comments thus far. I drove 2 hours today to our campsite, and wanted to drive the damn thing straight into Lake Michigan! Nearly drove me nuts today!

I do have a newer 32" flat screen, so weight of the TV isn't an issue. I'm really thinking I need to tear into the cabinets to be sure they are secured properly. Hopefully this process will reveal the issue so I can fix it.

[Robertgaumer]

Keep the info coming as I have the same issue and it is driving me crazy.