Dashboard Rattle

[slingshot]

I agree that Consumer Reports doesn't rate cars too intelligently but I was not commenting on that. I was commenting on the reliability charts that people fill out (forms) and send back. There is no better reliability tracking of cars in the industry than that of Consumer Reports in their yearly April issue. Go check it out in your library and you'll agree it is very useful to see trends in car models.

[atypical1]

I had the same problem in my Solara with the dashboard rattle. I took it in when I got my oil changed and it was fixed no problem. They just went in and added some felt (this, arguably, should have been done at the factory) and it sounds like new again. It was not a big ordeal and took them no time. I am not sure if they had to remove the dash but I don't think so as it was fixed quickly and without any kind of hesitation on their part. I think (gut feeling) that the problem started because I tend to listen to my music loud but that is only a guess and not fact based.

[bigpow]

Personally I don't think Consumer Reports knows anything about automobiles. This is a company that tests peanut butter one day then cars the next. My husband has owned Hondas since 1987, and never had a problem with any of them, not even a recall. We looked seriously at the Acura TSX before buying the Solara only because the Acura was out of my price range. I know his Honda's dashboards don't rattle in the cold. Heck, Consumer Reports said my '02 Rattletrap4 was a great vehicle, they never asked me for my opinion.

I couldn't have said it better.
My beaten up '98 Corolla doesn't have any dash rattle (and surprise, it drives STR8!).
I buy a car (approximately) once every five years, I'm not even 30... so I'll have some more cars in the future.
My first car was a Honda Civic, it didn't last long... So I switch to the Corolla. It's holding out fine, that's why I bought the Solara...
For now, Toyota has convinced me that I should try my luck somewhere else.

Who knows... maybe when I'm 50 and tired of trying many different brands, I'll end up with another Toyota (hopefully a real Lexus)

[atypical1]

"Personally I don't think Consumer Reports knows anything about automobiles. This is a company that tests peanut butter one day then cars the next."

I would have to totally disagree with the above comment. They don't have to necessarily know anything about cars to test them. They disregard the bias that many of us have towards cars (which causes us to lose our objectivity) and provide a fairly objective review. For example, my last car was a '94 Del Sol which I love dearly. It has over 225k miles on it and runs like a champ. I had a CRX before that with similar miles and same condition. Based on those two cars my experience is that Hondas are excellent cars and I am biased towards them based on my previous experience. That does not mean that every Honda is good. I think that if I had owned the Honda-Izuzu venture like some of my friends (that 4wd product) I might have a different bias. If either of my Honda's gave me trouble I would have a different opinion. I had a '99 New Beetle that gave me nothing but trouble so I am very biased against VW's even though they might be totally reliable vehicles. Consumer reports looks at vehicles in a couple of different ways...first by testing them for various aspects. Because they (CR) are aware that you cannot base an entire population off of a sample of one they also survey a certain percentage of the owners of that particular vehichle. This gives them a fairly unbiased report of the overall reliability, satisfaction, etc of the brand (or at least specific models). Obviously there are some limitations with this data (people have to be willing to answer a survey for example) but I assume (which we have to) that they take that into account.

As for our individual experiences, we will all have different ones. All of us on this thread are discouraged (or were) because we all have defects. We tend to listen to others that also have defects and base our opinions off of those. A better way would be to get a good sample of the population of Toyota, Honda, etc owners and start from there. I am sure that there were one or two Yugo owners who were perfectly satisfied with them but the overall data showed them to be the exception rather than the rule.

As stated earlier I had the same rattle but it is now fixed and I am satisfied again. I have had no other problems with the vehicle and have no reason to believe that I will have other problems. But, I am basing that off of my own personal experience.

[bigpow]

I am sure that there were one or two Yugo owners who were perfectly satisfied with them but the overall data showed them to be the exception rather than the rule.

YUGO and DELOREAN...

[Buckeyegirl]

"Personally I don't think Consumer Reports knows anything about automobiles. This is a company that tests peanut butter one day then cars the next."

As stated earlier I had the same rattle but it is now fixed and I am satisfied again. I have had no other problems with the vehicle and have no reason to believe that I will have other problems. But, I am basing that off of my own personal experience.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Solara. As far as the several complaints I read about the tires, personally I don't have a problem with them. I didn't buy this car to auto-x, but I'm sure there are owners that wish Toyota would have put a better tire on the car.
I just find it hard to believe that the Toyota engineers didn't put in an access panel near the base of the windsheild to allow mechanics to fix these rattles without removing the dash and creating more. It use to be "you get what you pay for", but that doesn't apply any more. It's pretty bad when you can buy a $10K-$15K Honda Civic and not have to take it back several times to the dealer, but when you spend $20-$30K on a car you have to take it back to the dealer repeatly.

[atypical1]

I am not sure the dash has to come out. My rattle was fixed with some felt and it took no time at all (I had an oil change and they fixed it then). I would think that if they had to remove the dash they would have told me about it or would have made some excuse not to do it. I will check out my paperwork later on and see what it said.

[slingshot]

I just find it hard to believe that the Toyota engineers didn't put in an access panel near the base of the windsheild to allow mechanics to fix these rattles without removing the dash and creating more. It use to be "you get what you pay for", but that doesn't apply any more. It's pretty bad when you can buy a $10K-$15K Honda Civic and not have to take it back several times to the dealer, but when you spend $20-$30K on a car you have to take it back to the dealer repeatly.

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.

[atypical1]

I just checked out the paperwork from when I took my car in. The notes stated that they removed the speaker grills and added felt under them (they also did the front ones also). They time given to complete this was listed as an hour including the test drive (to make sure I was telling the truth). I would think that if they had to remove the dash it would have taken a lot longer than an hour to do. I tried looking up how to do it on the 'net but was unable to come up with anything.

james

[Buckeyegirl]

I just find it hard to believe that the Toyota engineers didn't put in an access panel near the base of the windsheild to allow mechanics to fix these rattles without removing the dash and creating more. It use to be "you get what you pay for", but that doesn't apply any more. It's pretty bad when you can buy a $10K-$15K Honda Civic and not have to take it back several times to the dealer, but when you spend $20-$30K on a car you have to take it back to the dealer repeatly.

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.

You are so right!
Price goes up, quality goes down.

[alan8888]

I has that rattle as well...is is pretty loud.....
Already fixed 3 times......but the sound is still there....someone tell me what should i do now ????
..!.. Toyota....
should I complain it....
if yes who should i complain with ?

[atypical1]

You can try these numbers:

Phone:
800-331-4331
800-443-4999 for TDD
6:00 AM - 6:00 PM Pacific Time, Monday - Friday

These are the numbers listed on the website. I am surprised that the rattles cannot be fixed. Did the dealer tell you what they did? From all of these posts there seems to be a lot of variation between dealers. Mine (in Reno, NV) has been really good to us and was able to fix the problem with no issues.

[PearlSolara]

We had the car back to the dealer 3 times ,tried the felt at the bottom of the windshield and the speaker grills ,pulled the A pillar covers off and the rattle has not changed. So after all this the wife and I started to check for things loose under the hood. She sat in the car with the windows up and I started shaking and tapping things under the hood and found the plastic cowl cover loose on the drivers side. We removed the wiper arms pulled the plastic rivets from both sides and removed the cover by pulling it towards the front of the car.and found that one of the tabs that hold the cover against the windshield was broken. We heated the tab where it was cracked with a small propane tourch to fuse it back together , and placed some peel and stick felt on the bottom windshield seats. NO MORE FRIGGEN RATTLE !!!!! I must tell you that the plastic cover is a pain in the a$$ to get back on and I can see how it could have been broken when the car was put together. So if you have a rattle in the dash area try to see if the cowl cover is loose enough to pull the rubber from the windshield.

[Buckeyegirl]

We had the car back to the dealer 3 times ,tried the felt at the bottom of the windshield and the speaker grills ,pulled the A pillar covers off and the rattle has not changed. So after all this the wife and I started to check for things loose under the hood. She sat in the car with the windows up and I started shaking and tapping things under the hood and found the plastic cowl cover loose on the drivers side. We removed the wiper arms pulled the plastic rivets from both sides and removed the cover by pulling it towards the front of the car.and found that one of the tabs that hold the cover against the windshield was broken. We heated the tab where it was cracked with a small propane tourch to fuse it back together , and placed some peel and stick felt on the bottom windshield seats. NO MORE FRIGGEN RATTLE !!!!! I must tell you that the plastic cover is a pain in the a$$ to get back on and I can see how it could have been broken when the car was put together. So if you have a rattle in the dash area try to see if the cowl cover is loose enough to pull the rubber from the windshield.

Thanks for the info!
That was the same thing that was wrong with my '02 RAV4. I replaced all my plastic push pins with screws and took care of it myself. The dealer said Toyota would not authorize that type of repair.

[fotodad]

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.)