RE: Does Goretex go bad?
It does break down or seams will leak. As far as the noisy sounds. I'm thinking you dryed it to hot in a dryer or something. You've had a good run with that suit. Go buy a new one. They now have better zippers and pockets and all that stuff. Mine started leaking through on the shoulders this spring. IT was OLD. I went out and got a new one. Love it. I've had Goretex boots, well let me rephrase that, I HAVE Goretex boots that are so old I don't remember how old they are. They're still water tight. One time I bought a light weight set of "Waterproof" turkey boots that were NOT Goretex. They felt great and were indeed light. On the first campout for turkeys it rained for 3 days. The boots sprung a leak the second day. I'll never again buy a "make believe" Goretex. If it doesn't say Goretex, it sucks. I was in one of their plants one time helping them out with a filter/still distillation problem. Their testing and quality control are first class. In addition, they sent garments and fabric to the International Fabricare Institute for unbiased tested and quality control to determine the limits they could push their products to. So did London Fog. I had a similar problem at their plant, at least they thought they did. The problem ended up being the glue used in bonding.