Oh boy....Dash rattles.

After hours upon hours of trying to locate one of my 2 rattles in my 08 Pri I finally found it. I've learned to avoid my local Toyo dealers for a fix under warranty as when they fix one rattle my car is returned to me with a new rattle. So I thought I'd give it a go myself and post my findings so as to maybe help someone else who's as anal as I am about interior rattles.

Great help is offered here in this forum and I appreciate the quality of people in here. After cancelling out all possibilities with cup holders, sunglass holder, glove compartment, srs pillar, small triangular window/dash panel etc.... I thought to look into the driver-side vent panel.

I noticed after removing it, if I thumped it on the side with my finger, it made several rattles. So I thought I would try to isolate the rattles to a certain area....couldn't as they were all over. So here is what I did (pics kind of large sorry):

1st image(0402): 4 little yellowish clips rattled-not tight/firm
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/7489/dcp0402kr5.jpg
2nd image(0405): this piece rattles/is loose
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/8530/dcp0405yq5.jpg
3rd image(0406): so is this
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/3685/dcp0406eb2.jpg
4th image(0407): oem felt from "under stereo" storage
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/6885/dcp0407bx0.jpg
5th image(0408): small piece of felt in 1 of the 4 yellow clips
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/4033/dcp0408rd1.jpg
6th image(0410): felt installed
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/5868/dcp0410yb4.jpg

This solved it for me. Now to do passenger side as there is a rattle over there from the exact same area. All in all takes about 20 or so minutes. Hope this helps someone who can't locate rattles.

 

I understand...*mechanic drives my car and doesn't hear what I hear* therefore he says, "sorry, but unless we can duplicate the rattle we can't fix it." ugh lol

To remove the vent panel I used a black plastic spatula...like you use to flip your pancakes ! Start at the top and wedge it gently between it and the dash. Slowly pry vent plastic away from dash until about 1/2" out. Then rinse and repeat on the bottem where vent plastic meets with black underdash plastic. Be gentle and you'll see that it almost "pops" right off.

Can't see very well in last pic, but there is felt also in that little upsidedown "U" shaped thingy closest to the lighter colored vent foam seal.

Good luck and hope it fixes your rattle as I know how frustrating they can be!

 

I thought about silicone caulk. I think the sealant would work as well. I wanted to use something that was less permanent incase something got glued/sealed shut. Guess I was afraid of not being able to remove the vent panel as easily incase something came up and I needed to remove it again heh.

Hope it works for you too. The rattling in there drove me nutzo's

 

In agreement with you 110% on TQM! You would think!

Here's to hoping this solves your rattles (*place 'beer' icon here*) . I know some people get the rattles from the other things I mentioned in my orig post, but for my 08, none of those "other" areas were the culprit....at least not yet heh. This is the sole reason I posted this so I hope it helps ya!