hitokiri89

So I have some annoying rattles for a while now but it was tolerable... this all changed out of no where the other day when I was driving on the highway. There are so many rattles, shakes, and whatnot coming from the center console, arm rest, doors, trunk, everywhere! It's super loud and I have to drive with the stereo on full volume otherwise all I hear is a the sound of a tin cans clanking against each other. I've had my ups and downs with this car, but this is crazy. Anyone else have/had this issue? The dealer wants to charge me $145 an hour to diagnose the sounds and fix the issue but that can literally take days. I'm not really a DIY guy either so I'm pretty much stuck with this problem u less I'm willing to spend at least $1000.00 at the dealer for something they can probably fix in three hours...

vipsa

There's not really anything specific like a DIY where we can point you to and say go here and tighten this and that, so your best bet is to do exactly what the dealer would do. Start driving and concentrate on one rattle, isolate it to a somewhat specific area and then go back and start moving/tapping and locating the noise.

Have you done any work in the areas that you're getting the noises, like custom radio, or ran wires for ipods and things?
Also, has your car been in any accidents that would've required the interior to be taken apart?
If yes to any of these, than start with those areas and make sure all the screws are tight and there are no broken/detached clips.

hitokiri89

Never did any work to the cabin area, the car is lowered so that may have something to do with things coming loose. I found a DIY from someone who had the same issue but it's not something I can do on my own unfortunately. I think I'm stuck with having to pay the dealership to fix it

TheRulesLawyer

Get a tone generator program on a laptop and hook it up to aux on the stereo. use it to slowly change the tone and it will help you find rattles and buzzes that only really appear on the road. Take panels apart and use self adhesive felt strips to pad the problem areas. Sometimes something like dynomat can help too. It takes a while to track stuff like this down.

PelicanParts.com

Something like this will just take time and patients. If you found a DIY tech article that will help, why not at least try and see where it gets you? If you at least try and fix a few, that's less money spent at the dealer. I would just also make sure you're pinpointing what rattles are what so that you aren't wasting your time chasing after something that isn't rattling. Have someone drive the car while you poke around near the rattling areas and see if you can do a quick fix or if it'll take longer. Hope you get this all worked out.

-Luccia

cfmistry

Welcome to 5-year-old car ownership. Rattles and squeaks are inevitable as any car ages. You can chase them down and fix them all, but more will come. The best option is to live with it, followed by purchase a newer car, followed by fix the rattles.

hitokiri89

Lol seems about right

hitokiri89

Awesome idea, thanks man.