Scritchy gritchy windshield noises

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

With the frigid temps lately I am getting a lot of noise around my windshield with a glassy, ticking, scritchy sound. I can duplicate the noise just by touching the glass by hand without the truck moving. My 2001 Ram also did this to a far greater extent.



My theory is water that melted when it was warmer a couple days ago worked its way in between the windshield & sheet metal (mainly at top where there's a gap) then froze, and any bit of even slight stress on the cab causes the freeze-dried water crystals to rub on the glass and make the noise. Has anyone had strange noises in bitter cold?



The roads are horribly chumped up with ice blobs and mounded manhole covers and it pounds every component of my truck driving around town every day. The bitter cold brings out a host of stressed creaks and groans as the stiff shocks deliver most of the shock to the chassis. If I had any idea we were going to get such a winter I woulda picked up a beater rig instead of tramping around in my pride an' joy pounding the stuffin' out of it every day!!



Vaughn

 

[evldsl]

I have seen windshield heaters that hook up inside of the cab and keep the windshield warm and I have also seen heated windshield fluid.

 

[Blakers]

Mine does it for a few miles when there's frozen stuff around the windshield. Today we had a combination of snow, rain and freezing rain that formed a nice 2" crust all over the truck. As the cab flexed, I could hear all kinds of crackling noises as the ice broke around cab seams and between the doors and the cab, etc.

 

[rbattelle]

Originally posted by Vaughn MacKenzie



Has anyone had strange noises in bitter cold?

Vaughn

I notice an abnormally large amount of complaining. The source seems to be my mouth.



I have noticed that on very cold mornings everything about the truck seems to be noisier: engine, exhaust, gear whine, interior/exterior creeks/squeels, etc.



But far worse than the cold, in my opinion, is the salt they use in winter. Although I shouldn't complain: I used to live in NY, and those guys get salted much worse than here in Southern Ohio.

 

[bworthington]

My 03 made ticking noises on the windsheild. Sounded like someone tapping real light. That plastic part on the bottom with the vents in it. the corners would vibrate and hit the window. I took soft rubber pieces and put under each corner. Its O. K. now

 

[JHardwick]

Vaughn,



what exactly does a "Scritchy gritchy" sound actually sound like?

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

JHardwick, it's sort of a glassy-resonating high-frequency mutli-pitch squeaky/creaky ticky sound

 

[JHardwick]

Oh, well hey, I understand now! Why didn't you say so in the first place



Off topic, but I haven't really noticed it on my truck, I have heard the sound though

 

[dieselpilot1969]

that's why we put on louder exhausts and stereo stuff

 

[jmbrowning]

Originally posted by Vaughn MacKenzie

Has anyone had strange noises in bitter cold?

Yes, after playing in the snow this past Sunday there was a noise that drove me crazy on the way home. Sounded like a rattle in the dash or A pillar but I couldn't touch anything to make it stop, so I never did find out what it was. After the truck sat in the garage overnight, where it's warm enough for the accumulated snow to fall off the underside, the noise was gone for my Monday commute. It sits outside at work and I didn't get to plug it in on Monday, so it was below freezing when I left there, still no more noise. Maybe another 10 degrees colder is enough to make a difference.



Steve

 

[rbattelle]

JM,



I believe I have heard that identical noise. I thought it was just some of the wiring I've run behind the A-pillar or up in the roof rattling around a bit.

 

[bighammer]

Mine rattled a bit and I was sure it was in the dash someplace. Turned out it was the new wire in the headliner for the roof-mounted antenna I had just put in. I pulled the dome lamp and gave a tug on the coax, and the noise was gone.

 

[Mathew Clausen]

Break all of the ice away at the bottom of the windshield. This seemed to fix the creaking glass sound that mine was making. The ice accumulates between the windshield and the plastic cover below the wipers.



Mathew