Dashboard Rattle

[PearlSolara]

It's been awhile since I've responded to this rattle issue, so I hope I don't repeat myself.

I too suffer from the dash rattle problem. My rattle comes from the passenger side near the front dash speaker. I took the service manager for a ride and he confirmed the rattle and said I should make an appointment to get it fixed. I asked what would be involved in fixing the probelm and he responded that the dash would have to be removed. Like Buckeygirl, I think ripping the dash apart will cause even more problems, so I haven't taken the car in. But I am intrigued by some of you who have taken matters into your own hands and fixed the problem using good ol' fashion do-it-yourself techniques. Has anyone fixed a passenger-side dash rattle on their own? If so, what the heck did ya do? I'll pay big money for your wisdom! (Well, no I won't, but I'll be much appreciative.)

If you can lift the rubber strip on the cowl cover from the windshield then the wind will rattle it also. You might want to check the bumpers on the glove compartment door , my Tundra was missing one and was making a squeek when I hit a bump.

[atypical1]

I took mine into the dealer a month ago and have not heard the rattle since. I have a rattle on my rear speakers now and they are going to fix those tomorrow. I literally toke my car in for an oil change and had them fix the rattle at the same time and it took them only an hour. If your dealers are making a bigger deal of this than that then your problem is probably with your dealer!

[fotodad]

If your dealers are making a bigger deal of this than that then your problem is probably with your dealer!

Good point.

Sometimes I think my dealer makes it sound like the entire car will have to be taken apart just to discourage me from having anything done. There is another dealer near me. I'm going to give them a try. I'll let everyone know what they say.

[atypical1]

Well, got the rear speakers fixed (dealer placed some felt under them...leads me to believe that Toyota should have done that from the start). No hassle and now my car is, once again, rattle free with just shy of 7k miles on it. My dealer has been especially helpful with all of this and has always fixed any problems I have right away. Luckily that is the only problem that I have had...I have read a lot about the "left drift" problem but, luckily, don't have that issue at all.

[mtodde]

I doubt any car has an easy way to access under a dash to fix rattles. There are many cars costing double ours that have to be taken back to the dealer repeatedly so it isn't only with our cars or higher price is better. That has never totally held true. It's across the whole industry these days. It does stink but the list of cars with almost no problems is rapidly shrinking it seems. Yikes to the consumer.

That's true. I have a friend that traded his BMW 745 in on a Mazda 3 wagon because the Idrive kept malfunctioning - they had a wreck once as a result. The Idrive is a single interface that controls all of the electronics, a/c, etc that is on the dash. Evidently BMW is having tons of problems with the Idrive and Mercedes has issues with their S class vehicles too. It is bad enough for a vehicle in the Solara price range, but imagine dropping $70k or even $100k and having your electrical system malfunction all the time. BMW has had to buy back several thousand 7 series cars under lemon laws.

I think all cars have some issues and since we bought a vehicle that was just changed we're going to see more than the folks that buy a 2005; hey atleast we didn't buy 350Zs. I was concerned about buying a car made in August in May (with 150 miles) but it was the only V6 SLE the dealer could get for 2 weeks; I'm not sure why it sat around, but so far so good (knock on wood)! Generally I think that Toyota & Honda have much better initial quality than any of the other car companies - most of the "vaunted" European brands have quality ratings that are well below the mean number of initial quality problems.