If you can recreate the noise for the dealer technician they may be able to focus on where it is coming from. While not my XT5, I had a noise in the dash of a 2015 GMC Canyon that was elusive for the dealer. I found I could cause the noise by swerving abruptly side to side and demonstrated that while the technician was riding along. It took two days and involved taking a lot of the dash apart, but he found a loose bolt in the defrost ducts that was moving around over undulations in the road. It was a great relief to have a quiet ride.

 

Noises can be very difficult to track down. Many MANY years ago, a friend had a Ford LTD with a horrible clunking noise going over bumps. Turned out to be a wrench left inside the front fender during manufacturing. I had a car with a loose hood latch spring that would make the most awful scrawnking noises when turning, but only when "damp" - not when dry or raining. After two full front suspension replacements, I narrowed it down to the hood because it would always stop after opening it.

 

LOL. those hard to track down problems are the best.... After you find them, its like a new car all over again. I had a 88 T-Bird Turbo Coup, had a rolling/clunking noise in the HVAC box passenger foot well.. Dealer wanted $450- to open it up and fix it... I took a Rare Earth magnet and Wala,, it was a bolt or screw that was rolling around during turns and bouncing up and down over bumps. I duct tapped the small magnet and problem was solved none the wiser....

 

I had the same thing with some rubbing type sounds coming from the rear. I checked out everything I could think of, Spare tire area, That alum. cargo rack thing being loose. Still had the same noise. I folded the rear seats flat and the noise went away. I learned that when the rear seat is in the fully reclined position it rubs on something. I leave it in the "half way" reclined and get no noise.

 

A long time ago I heard a story of someone hearing a noise coming from his back quarter panel. When the dealer found the problem ,it was a wrench hanging from a wired hook ,that was swinging around. It had a note attached ,saying you finally found the problem noise. I don't know if this was really a prank or just a old tale.

 

I also have heard tales like those. My earliest one I can recall was when I was around 12 years old and my older brother saying some guy was complaining about noise and they looked and looked and found a glass jar with some nuts and bolts hid away somewhere. In the jar was a note saying something like "you are a damn good mechanic to have found this". I think all those tales are BS. Urban legends.

I got a tale of my own though. Bought a new 1989 Chevy step side P/U. Few weeks later I was crawling around under it and found a large wad of bubble gum pressed onto the metal where the bed joined the fender. Got a good chuckle out of that.

 

I've heard those stories about assembly "Easter Eggs", too. My guess is that there was one instance where something like this happened where it did not appear to be accidental, and then the story kept getting embellished until there was a note. The ones I have heard were that the note said something like, "Up your's GM for not approving our pay raises". Have been on a modern assembly line, I think it would be very difficult to purposely sabotage a car like this. For the factory I was in, it would have also been hard to leave something behind because workers have only the tools for their specific job, and many of those are electric or pneumatic and are thus tethered.

What I did see was that trim panels held on buy those round plastic clips are a huge source of noises. The clips are mounted to the panels in such a way to allow them some movement as things flex, which means they don't exactly line up on the holes they snap into. Some the ones in the middle of a panel can't be seen, so the assembly worker has to pop them in by feel. If the clip is misaligned enough then the worker pops it in place, it can get damaged and it will lose its grip down the road.

 

I have a story about my 1980 Chevy Citation: I had a clunk in my driver's side door that was sporadic (but seemed more constant) with spirited accelerations and braking. It was somewhat annoying and I finally decided to take a look. There was a gasoline door assembly just loosely tossed in the door void that would roll (and clunk) when it moved. A little gift from the assembly line.

 

The part of your story that captured my attention was that you had a 1980 Chevy Citation that had "Spirited Acceleration". What did you do to obtain that? You must have dropped a V8 in it. I had a 1980 Chevy Chevette and that thing WOULDN'T and COULDN'T get out of it's own way. I recall 1980 was the first year GM came out with what they called "Computer Command Control". I kept that Chevette until the wife came home from work one day and said it was making a bad noise. The bad noise was because it threw a rod. But I was able to drive it to the dealer to trade. I laugh to this day about what they offered me on it for trade. $75.00. Yep, 75.00 bucks. They claimed it had a bad engine. I said it always sounds like that.

Thanks for making a funny memory make a appearance.

 

It was a 1980 Chevy Citation X-11 with a four speed; no speed demon but for 1980 a pretty good ride (handled nice too). Glad to help you reminisce. Back in '80, spirited performance was a relative thing.

 

The 1980's were such strange times. Big hair, loud clothing and conspicuous consumption were all the rage. Cars were boring and lethargic. Today's Camry outperforms Corvettes of the '80s.

 

I had a 1982 Chevy Citation with the 4cyl. It was lucky to get out of it's way. But that X-11 was the desirable model. The V-6 made it run pretty well actually. They were pretty good cars in the day compared to the other junk that was available at the time like the Ford Fairmont and Chrysler offerings (of which the slant 6 was the best engine they had). But one of the best for our area of crummy winters was the SX-4 from AMC. That was the ticket with it's AWD they offered in it.

Yeah, the 1980's. I had a Mercury Capri Turbo RS in 1980. I loved that car. Not so good in the snow with RWD but it was a fun car with the Turbo setup on it. .80g on the skidpad. And I used every bit of it.

Steve

Oh yeah, and for the noises I'd suggest taking it to a different dealer as it sounds like that one isn't going to solve your issues with the noises. It's probably some loose trim (like you mention about the rear hatch) and in the front it could be anything under the dash that's not appropriately attached correctly. wiring, dash itself, trim anything.

 

I was hoping for some guidance related to the XT5, not sure stories about cars in the 80s are going to help me much at the dealer. Entertaining stories though.