Rear window noise in cold temps?

The last couple days I've noticed a rather loud popping noise coming from the interior rear of my car when going over bumps...big and small. It sounds to me like the car is flexing, making the rear glass glue pop, or something? Has anyone else experienced this? I've only started noticing it with temps around 0 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm not sure what else would cause such a noise. Nothing in the trunk.

I have also noticed this in mine under extreme cold. I figure it's something in the rear deck popping and resonating through the window. I've had suspicions that my car has been wrecked or at least completely repainted though do to some areas I can tell were repainted. Since you have the same noise, it gives me hope that it's more of a 5th gen issue. I don't get this noise in my 6th gen.

I believe brandon.mol has been talking about this specifically.

I have noticed that noise as well on sub 0 days. We don't get that many days below 0 so I haven't spent much time looking into it. I am the original owner and my has never been wrecked.

it's ice cracking.....nothing to worry about

it's ice cracking.....nothing to worry about

 

When it's super cold out, mine does it too even when the car is completely dry and there's no ice anywhere to be found. It only does it once whenever I set off, and seems to not do it as often or as loud if I defrost the rear window for louder. It's something shifting/creaking/cracking in either the seal or the adhesive around the bottom of the window.

 

There's actually a big thread on the Facebook 5th gen group about this exact same thing right now, and about 10-15 people from various chilly climates corroborating this happening to them.

trust me it's there.... I routinely wipe my trunk of snow and ice and I do not hear cracking unless it has snowed and the run off goes into the water channel around the trunk. Same thing happens in the front I can hear the cracking of the ice.. every single car I have does it when it gets cold and runoff gets into certain areas and freezes.

Trust me, every car doesn't do "this". It's not ice or snow. I've had many cars over many winters and none with this problem. It did it the first time before any snow, ice or rain that froze. Something is shifting with the cold after it sits for a while. As soon as I make a turn or hit a bump it makes a loud pop in the rear window and never does it again until the same scenario of sitting in freezing cold for a while. I do however buy into it may be the trunk seal freezing to the deck lid and then breaking free. Why it would do that without snow, rain or ice.. I don't know. I haven't bothered to look at it yet. No time for now.

lol believe what you want... all cars flex and all cars have frozen water from melted snow or ice in them in sub freezing temps when the car moves you can hear the ice crack as the car flexes sounds almost like a snap.

 

don't believe it? go fill up an ice tray and put it in your freezer and then flex it when the water has frozen.....and you will HEAR the ice cracking as it is flexed

Yes, I understand that. Yes, I've had cars make cracking noises like that in the cold due to things being frozen and breaking free. This is not so much like that. This is loud enough that the first tjme it happened I thought my rear window broke. Like someone hit it with a hammer. It's not the normal type of sound you would expect. If it was I would have heard it by now over my 20+ years of driving in the winter. So, lol believe what you want.

It's definitely loud, and definitely unnerving, and it definitely does it without ice in there. It seems to be a common thing in cold-climate 5th gens though. I wonder if it's common enough to warrant a TSB?

I want to say I remember reading that someone with that issue had their rear windshield pulled and re-seated, and that solved the issue. Best guess is that the urethane that holds the windshield in place gets pretty rigid at low temperatures, and a little bit of flex turns into a whole bunch of noise.

I have the same noise when I make right turns on very cold mornings. It makes the noise even when its been completely dry out for days. The noise seems like its coming from the upper right of the rear window. It sounds like someone snapping a huge towel.

I want to say I remember reading that someone with that issue had their rear windshield pulled and re-seated, and that solved the issue. Best guess is that the urethane that holds the windshield in place gets pretty rigid at low temperatures, and a little bit of flex turns into a whole bunch of noise.

 

Yeah, that sounds reasonable. It wasn't as bad today, but it had warmed up to about 15 degrees when I got out. Thanks for the responses. Before I left today I popped the trunk and briefly looked around and didn't see any moisture/ice at all; not to say there was zero, but it certainly wasn't real visible if it was there.

trust me it's there.... I routinely wipe my trunk of snow and ice and I do not hear cracking unless it has snowed and the run off goes into the water channel around the trunk. Same thing happens in the front I can hear the cracking of the ice.. every single car I have does it when it gets cold and runoff gets into certain areas and freezes.

 

My Leg does this too. My GenCoupe did it. My Accent did it. It seems to be rather common. I can't recall if my wife's Elantra did it, but I know her Outback doesn't (for obvious reasons). Seems to be common. FWIW, I never had any water penetration after a few MI sub-zero days and then pressure washing the following spring/summer so if it was the adhesive, it "re-glued" itself once normal temp heat reset it.

Mine did this BAD... like I thought the back window blew up. And then for the rest of the drive it creaked and moaned. Once it went back in the garage and defrosted, it stopped.

 

The Mazdaspeed6 I used to have did this bad and (while still under warranty) they took out the rear glass and reseated it with new PU adhesive and it went away. Possibly water trapped inside the PU adhesive somewhere, or air, or internal stress in the PU popping it off the glass somewhere, etc.

 

So if it does it a lot and doesn't go away on its own, then maybe take it to a glass shop and pay to have the rear glass removed and reset.

I want to say I remember reading that someone with that issue had their rear windshield pulled and re-seated, and that solved the issue. Best guess is that the urethane that holds the windshield in place gets pretty rigid at low temperatures, and a little bit of flex turns into a whole bunch of noise.

 

My LGT just started doing this about a week ago once the temperature dropped below -15C for a sustained period of time. I inspected the area under the rear window for ice, none to be seen, and gently pushed down on the bottom of the rear window. This reproduces the popping sound, stronger when pushing on the driver-side than the passenger side.

 

I'll have the rear window removed and reinstalled, fingers crossed!