I have a rattle that turned out to be the gas cap... anybody run into this and if so... What to do?

 

I have the same problem with mine. I just bang on it a couple times, and it goes away for a little while.

 

Mine rattles too. I've been too lazy to buy a new one. Mostly because I know a new one would start rattling pretty quickly too, thanks to my daily commute over metal bridges, railroad tracks and light-industrial roads riddled with pot holes.

 

the one on my old sporty used to do that; drove me nuts. I just went and bought an aftermarket one; looked exactly the same and didn't rattle. Cost me like $20; well worth it

 

Never had one that made noise. But I'd look at a dap or 2 or 3 of clear silicone between the cap and cover.

 

This is real easy to fix, but hard to describe. Take the gas cap off and look underneath. Just outside of the black plastic center threaded part, there is an inner "liner", that is what is rattling against the outer shell of the cap.

I used a small blade flat screwdriver and gave the inner liner part a few raps that created a tiny dent to wedge it better against the outer shell in 2 places, no more rattle. (nothing visible on the outside when you do this)

B

 

Shoots, nice to know I'm not the only one... will give your sug. a try

 

Same boat here! (you're not the only one)

07 FXDL

 

I thought this might solve my problem when I first read your post. I pulled out my old caps and examined them. It is not the inner metal liner that is rattling on mine. It's the inner plastic piece with the screw in threads. I can wiggle it in my hand and make it kind of rattle against the metal cap. It's almost always the right-side cap that does this and I believe that is the vented cap.

I bought some brand new caps when I first discovered this problem. That lasted about a day until they started rattling again. The right cap is very loud. If I put my hand on it while riding, it will stop.

And of course it always rattles the loudest, right at the rpm that I want to cruise at, so I end up going down a gear and revving it higher to quiet the rattle (noise is better, but still there), or up a gear and on the verge of lugging it.

I don't think the silicone trick will work either because the plastic piece actually slides and spins inside the metal cap, almost a complete turn. One direction will make it click when it gets tight enough. So if I put a little silicone on it, it will stop that process and it might be needed for the proper function of the cap (venting maybe)? Regardless, I think that after a couple of ons/offs that the silicone would just tear and be back to square one.

I want to find a nice looking cap that will not rattle.

I like the low profile pop-up caps, but I don't know if they would work with my tank (HD extended length) and a guy at the HD parts counter said they were pieces of crap (his words, not mine), because I was gonna buy some when I went in and bought the replacement caps the first time.

Any suggestions guys? I would really like to be able to just hear my bike when I'm riding, not a damn rattle.

Thanks.

 

That's an easy one...sell it and get a Honda