As many have been suffering as I have with the elusive noise coming from the windshield....Popping, high pitch rubbing sound, etc.

Today I found that the cowl was loose on the driver's side of the engine compartment. This cowl rests against the bottom outside of the windshield and is made of three components. 1) The center piece and 2) side pieces that with the center part form the box around the battery and the box around the brake fluid resevoir. I found that I could pull up and down on the battery side and was able to generate loose movement. This movement resulted in quite a bit of noise. I had a friend do the same while I was in the car and bingo the noise in the inside was amazingly loud. I couldn't believe how loud this was..amazing. I then took apart the cowl by removing the push pin connectors and found one was missing that connected the battery box to the fender. I moved one from another place and this help secure the cowl. Movement was less however I found that "any" movement caused the plastic cowl that rubbed on the windshield caused a high pitch rubbing sound. I then found some thing plastic packing material and inserted this between the plastic cowl and the windshield. The noise stopped.

Now I need to find a permanent fix for the noise created by the plastic rubbing on the windshield. I may completely remove the cowl and drive around and see if all noises are eliminated and then find a permanent fix.

I wouldn't have believed that this was the problem without hearing/seeing it myself.

The first two pics show the battery door cover removed. If I lifted on the cowl by the ridge seal in the first two pics, there was significant movement and much noise was created. In #1, I took out the push-retainer pin to show you what was missing (left of negative battery terminal which connected plastic to fender). Pic #3 shows the temporary styro that I slipped between the windshield and plastic cowl. The best test is to sit in the car and have someone move all the parts of the cowl and listen. In my case it was louder while in the car then right on top of it while outside.

 

sounds legit, looks like you have found the cause, do you think you can snap a pic of the location of which you're talkin about so i can try to fix that myself, as this is the only problem i have had with G to date but have learned to live with it as it only really occurs in cold weather.

 

WOW! Thank you very much for posting this. This noise bugged the heck out of me for the longest time, but somehow it mysteriously disappeared. Fortunately, I haven't heard it in a long while, but it seems to rear its ugly head every so often. Next time I hear it, I'll mess with the plastic cowl, but definitely not now for fear the noise will come back. Anyway, thanks again!

 

I have been spraying WD40 between the bottom of the windshield and the cowl and this has eliminated the rubbing noise.