Fixing the rattles

Yesterday, I managed to isolate & fix two sources of some rattles in my gen II Prius. The rattles were already present in the summer, but became stronger during the winter months when the car was cold and exceeded the level where I draw the line.

I traced the first source of some metal-to-metal clinking, coming from the back of the car, to the handle of a fire extinguisher I carry under the hood (figure 1 - please note that all the stuff you see is held in the place by very strong velcro tapes, preventing it from traveling around the trunk). I eliminated that clinking by stuffing some foam rubber into the handle (figure 2).

The second source of a particularly annoying rattle, which was driving me crazy :crazy:, was a loose plastic cover under the lower glove box, right above the feet of the front passenger (the cover in suspicion, removed from the car, can be seen in figure 3). Please note the two pins at the top, left and right. Those pins are supposed to fit into corresponding guide holes, holding this side of the cover in place. The right pin became dislodged from its guide hole somehow, so the respective edge of the cover became loose and caused the worst rattles. The whole cover and its fixture is rather flimsy .

I noticed that the foam rubber, covering the pins, is worn out at the points of contact (figure 4) and that the pins are very loose in their guide holes, so I covered them with more foam rubber and patched with some tape, to make them fit tightly into the holes again (figure 5). I hope that the tape will last longer and will prevent the wear of the foam rubber.

Figure 6 - this is what lurks behind the cover. The left guide hole is denoted by red circle, the other is out of the picture to the right, where the red arrow points.

I also found another loose panel in the process (figure 7, yellow circle - the left guide hole can be seen in the red circle), so I stuffed some foam rubber behind it to serve as a rattle damper.

This cured the worst and most audible rattles, although some minor ones still persist - I can hear some very silent, yet clearly audible "clik-click-click" sometimes, coming from the very left side of the dash, hiding somewhere behind air-vent grille . Yet, it is much quieter inside the car now.

Hope this might be helpful.

 

Interesting. Perhaps this might be the source of the clicking I happen to hear occasionally. I'll check this out. Thanks!