Dash Rattle Found

jdm · 12-31-2004, 03:01 PM

Due to road construction I have been taking a different route to work each day. The new route is much rougher and one section of road is "washboard".

I have noticed a rattle coming from my dash when driving on the washboard section of the highway. It took several days, but I found that I could place my hand on the defroster vent on the driver side and press down and the rattle would go away (until I took my hand off, or got back to smoother road).

Today I pulled the defroster vent off. There is (6) 1" high styrofoam blocks glued to the dash that the vent sits on for support on the passenger side.
There is only (1) styrofoam block on the driver side, and it is on the very end of the driver side end of the vent. The styrofoam blocks are on the edge of the vent hole next to the windshield.

I got some thick pieces of velvet tape and made me some blocks to support the vent on the driver side. RATTLE GONE!!!!!

Lazy assembly line workers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

garo1 · 12-31-2004, 03:06 PM

Good find. I'll have to do the same, these rattles are driving me nuts!

SarkaZm · 12-31-2004, 03:12 PM

Been trying to fix this one myself I ended up using some weatherstriping around the whole piece. But the rattle has since come back. I did not recal seeing any blocks, but maybe I'll check again and get some thicker stripping.

dman · 12-31-2004, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdm

I got some thick pieces of velvet tape

Hmmm...velvet tape??? Where do you find this stuff at? My girlfriend has been complaining that the shackles and hand cuffs have been chafing her wrists and ankles. She will be real happy to hear that there is something called velvet tape

RED BRAWN SE CC · 12-31-2004, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dman

Hmmm...velvet tape??? Where do you find this stuff at? My girlfriend has been complaining that the shackles and hand cuffs have been chafing her wrists and ankles. She will be real happy to hear that there is something called velvet tape

GENIUS!!

scr38 · 12-31-2004, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dman

Hmmm...velvet tape??? Where do you find this stuff at? My girlfriend has been complaining that the shackles and hand cuffs have been chafing her wrists and ankles. She will be real happy to hear that there is something called velvet tape

Don't be cheap! I line mine with mink!

Bayou Titan · 12-31-2004, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dman

Hmmm...velvet tape??? Where do you find this stuff at? My girlfriend has been complaining that the shackles and hand cuffs have been chafing her wrists and ankles. She will be real happy to hear that there is something called velvet tape

Alas, a use and an excuse to get rid of those black velvet paintings of dogs playing poker and Elvis.

jdm · 12-31-2004, 06:56 PM

Had my mind in the gutter and got busted!!!

It actually was Felt tape from Home Depot.

SarkaZm · 01-18-2005, 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SarkaZm

Been trying to fix this one myself I ended up using some weather striping around the whole piece. But the rattle has since come back. I did not recall seeing any blocks, but maybe I'll check again and get some thicker stripping.

Well, since I took it in to the dealer for various fixes and they said that they could not reproduce the rattle...I decided to give it another try myself. I did discover that I do have the little white foam like blocks mentioned above, but interestingly, they are all about equally spaced apart...except for around the area of the rattle! I picked up some thicker foam and placed some in the bare spot. While I had the defroster cover off I did some pushing on the defroster 'vent tube' itself and noticed a sound very much like my rattle. After some careful and high tech evaluation (more pushing) it appears as though a tab on the vent was hitting something below it. If you look through the windshield while the defroster cover is off you will see a bunch of "caulking" type stuff on the metal below the vent. This is where the tab on the vent seemed to be hitting making the noise. I ended up using some high density foam pads and cut a piece into 1/2" X 3" strip. After some careful maneuvering with a screwdriver and my now bloody fingers I was able to position the foam strip below the tab...believe me it is pretty tight. Well, after all this I hope that my rattle is gone

. I will be able to tell for sure in the morning when it is colder because that is when it rattled the worst. Hopefully all this typing will help some others with this issue too. It appears that all the weatherstripping I put around the vent cover was probably needless, but I will leave it on just in case! I'll keep ya posted! Sorry for the length!

**loufish** · 01-18-2005, 10:15 PM

Quote:

While I had the defroster cover off

How did you get the defroster vent out? I just picked up a rattle this morning from the pass. side, sounds like something is rolling back & forth when you hit the brakes, or gas...

SarkaZm · 01-18-2005, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by loufish

How did you get the defroster vent out? I just picked up a rattle this morning from the pass. side, sounds like something is rolling back & forth when you hit the brakes, or gas...

I only took the cover off, I'm pretty sure you need to remove a good portion of the dash to get the actual vent tube out. I basically just pushed up/down on the plastic pieces and wedged the foam underneath. There are some small bolts (7mm) that attach the vent to the dash, you may want to try removing those and see if you can pull the vent out. That was going to be my next try if this doesn't work...but I'm confident! Just don't drop the bolts if you try it!!

BigRedTitan · 01-19-2005, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SarkaZm

After some careful maneuvering with a screwdriver and my now bloody fingers I was able to position the foam strip below the tab...believe me it is pretty tight.

Thanks for going through the "pain" from your "bloody fingers" to type this to inform us of this possible fix. I hope it was worth the sweat, tears and blood loss.

Let us know.

SarkaZm · 01-19-2005, 08:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigRedTitan

Thanks for going through the "pain" from your "bloody fingers" to type this to inform us of this possible fix. I hope it was worth the sweat, tears and blood loss.

Let us know.

LoL, no problem. Actually I cut 2 fingers at my cuticle so typing is no problem

This morning was good, no rattles so far! Now if I can get my seat to stop creaking!

SarkaZm · 01-24-2005, 11:21 PM

Just an update...so far so good. No more dash rattle. Here are some pictures of where I put the foam piece. Sorry it's kind of hard to see, but it's a tight spot! The yellow arrow is one of the main bolts that was loose. The gray arrows are here I put the foam (you cannot see the foam piece as it is under the plastic that is closest to the windshield). You'll need to pry between the defroster vent and the plastic. It's kind of hard to explain but if you take the vent cover off and push around on the dash and hear a sticking/popping sound...then you have the same rattle as I did.

talltom · 01-31-2005, 06:05 AM

Sorry, could explain how easy is it to get the vent cover off?