Dash Rattle Around Left Quarter Window

Kelvin, I've had a similar problem. Seems rattles are a fact of life...irregular ones are the most difficult. Mine is temperature dependant as well. I've pushed and shoved on the dash area around the air inlet and sometimes seemed to make a difference. I'm hoping it becomes regular enough to properly identify. I'll monitor your thread for help as well.

 

I get a noise, but it's going to get fixed by popping it out and using small pieces of double-stick foam tape underneath at a couple fo points.

 

Good luck. Please let us know how it works.
Thanks,
Charlie

 

Kelvin - This piece is easy to remove. A small portion of it probably sticks up at the pointed corner. Just wedge it up with your finger and it will pop off. There are about 4 plastic clips that hold it in.

For the fix, I took some soft foam weatherstripping and placed it around the vent opening on underside of the triangular vent cover. I also put a little weatherstripping where it attaches to the main part of the dash (the darker gray portion). There is a small ledge that 2 of the clips attach to. These are the only 2 areas that have any contact with the triangular vent cover.

I just tried this fix today, so I have to drive around awhile to see if it helped. I don't know about clear caulk. The gaps between the pieces is so small I think it would show.

Please let me know how the fix works for you.

Marvinh

 

Here is a picture of the weatherstripping I put under the triangular vent window piece. It seems to stop most of the vibration.

Marvinh

 

Thank you for the photo. It helps

 

I think I fixed it !!!!!

This has been driving me nuts for months, and pushing down on that triangular plastic piece only fixes the problem for a few minutes. Foam and tape didn't totally fix it either.

BUT....it's NOT the triangular piece that rattles. It's the plastic cover on the beam coming down form the roof that rattles against the beam.

So I stuffed foam underneath the plastic piece covering the beam (take out the triangle piece and reach back up underneath the beam covering on the side of the triangle piece towards the door)) , and that solved most of it.
Then I also jammed something in the crack between the triangle piece and the beam (on the side closer to the windshield).
You may have to do one or both things.

 

Just checking back, is the mysterious Foam Triangle Rattle now 100% solved with these fixes? I have suffered this one for quite a while on my 2008, and was wrongly addressing the drivers vent (replaced it twice, covered the vent's inner workings with undercoat spray) only to find that the source is coming from the triangle area.
Thanks...

 

My rattle is about 75% gone, and yes, it does come from the triangle vent cover (or the roof pillar above it as another poster mentioned). Just have someone place their hand over the triangle vent as you go over a bump to proof where it is coming from. Also refer to a picture I posted above to see where I placed the foam pieces.

Marvinh

 

There are/were multiple rattles/creaks in my 2004:

1) The main rattle came from the quarter window area. Pushing down on the triangle piece has the effect of holding in place the pillar covering and that keeps that from rattleing. But since there is no way that I found to make the triangle piece stay down, the key is to stabilize the pillar cover with foam (under the pillar cover section near the speaker) and wedges (inserted in the gaps next to the pillar cover section closer to the windshield). I don't have a permanent, nice looking fix yet, but I am pretty sure it's possible now.

There can also be creaks came from vents. I fixed one by greasing the parts that were creaking against each other inside the vent. (take out the vent cover and push the vent cover/vent parts around to see if/where they creek)

In addition there are minor rattles that seem to come from the dashboard. According to others, there is a Toyota foam kit to address this, but my dealer didn't know about it (he instead wedged a long piece of foam in along the windshield, and perhaps that helped a little).

 

I too have thi9s problem..it seems to go away when i put pressure on the dash itself in that corner. On my 08 it seems like its coming from the dash more so than the plastic window piece.

 

Sorry for this late response, but I took my '08 in for an oil change recently and complained about the same rattle. The service advisor knew about this problem and they had a kit to fix it. It's not perfect, but much better.
Fred