Does your Prius rattle a lot?

Per my customer relations rep, tinting is a "go" before the inspection. I'm getting my tints done tomorrow...can't wait!

I will definitely keep you posted on my problems, tumbleweed!

3M, Llumar, or Madico??? Hmm....decisions, decisions...

 

I had the most annoying rattle coming from where the two sections of the console meet, under the cup holder. After weeks of it driving me crazy, I discovered that some pennies fell in the crack where the two pieces met and were rattling underneath. I'm not saying that what your rattle is but that is what mine was. To confirm, I was able to slide a paper clip between the two peices and could move them around despite not being able to see them.

I went to my Toyota dealership and the tech showed me how to pull off the plastic panels surrounding the console , which gave us enough leverage to remove the pennies....I've been rattle free ever since.

Also...At first I thought it was coming from the passenger side dash near the glove compartment. Wasn't till I moved my head around enough until I pinpointed it.

 

I have no rattles so far (1500 km on the ODO), but whenever I hit a pothole or something the car does't brake, ahha, joke, the car makes strange noises coming from the repair tire kit compartment. There is plenty of stuff in that compartment and most of it is free to move whenever the car changes direction or goes over a rough surface. I am planning to put dynamat all over the car and find a way to secure all that floating stuff in the rear compartment, hopefully the car will become a lot quieter.

 

I have had rattles in my IV since day one. Odd that I didn't hear these during the minor test drive, but then again, the salesman was sitting in the passenger seat so maybe that had something to do with it as others have pointed out. I normally drive alone.

Anyway, the three major rattling noises seem to be coming from 1) the glovebox area; 2) the center console; 3) the rear seat on the passenger side. These have all been reported before so nothing new but I did want to say you aren't alone on this.

Removing everything from the glovebox seems to reduce but does not eliminate the noise. The same thing for the center console. If I hold the hanging piece (which I keep my iPod in) the noise is reduced but doesn't seem to be eliminated. The noise in the back, well, my arms don't reach.

I don't notice the rattling all the time. On really smooth roads I don't hear anything at all. Hitting a pothole only produces a short rattle that goes away quickly (this is sort of expected with any car). However, on roads that are broken up or have an uneven surface like concrete there's tons of rattling! Needless to say, I now fret over any particular unevenness in the road just so I don't have to hear the rattling.

I plan to bring this up with the dealership when I bring it in for the brake update. Hopefully I can make these sounds happen when someone else is with me. Or maybe they can just drive it alone to see for themselves.

 

I've got my Gen III running quietly now and am quite happy with it. I've learned that locating the source of a squeak/rattle/creak is really tricky. For example, one really annoying rattle turned out to be my sun glasses in the overhead eyeglass holder. Here are the two that I've had luck fixing.

1. Rear passenger seat back clamp. This is where the steel loop engages in the button release mechanism at the top of the back seat. The noise was a creaking that manifested itself when the body twisted, as when going over driveway curbs at an angle, and was temperature sensitive. A tiny squirt of spray-on lubricant fixed the problem.

2. Sky Bridge console and cup holder (this one seems to affect a lot of folks). I tried a couple of things on this one and am not sure which one actually fixed the problem. First, I removed the plastic tops. There are details for doing this on other posts, but it's easy and doesn't require any tools. Just be careful when pulling the piece with the hole for the shifter knob, it will come up too hard if you pull with too much force. Once the two pieces were removed I stuffed all the inside air spaces with a sound deadening material. Glass wool used for aquarium water filters worked for me. I "REALLY" stuffed it in hard, the idea being that the wool would provide some upward tension against the top pieces when they were re-installed. Second, I applied a "lubricant" around all edges where the tops intersect with the bottom pieces. I used liquid Palmolive dish washing soap and a q-tip. ALL edges and clamp surfaces received an application. Granted, there are probably better choices of lubricant, but this was handy and non-destructive. I wanted to use silicon grease, but couldn't find any.

I'd eventually like to line the glove boxes with felt, and add some additional felt to the eyeglass holder, but the car is nice and quiet now, and has been for more than one month.

 

My 2010 also has various rattles. It is unfortunate that in such a high tech car that this low tech problem is not solved.

 

Mine does sometimes. I pay attention how the things in the car are arranged.

 

We have a creak like that. Did you lubricate the locking mechanism, the point where the lock engages the loop, or both?

 

BTW I test drove a GenIII Prius for 4 days and noticed a rattle coming from the back of the car, which turned out to be related to the tailgate locking mechanism. Fixed it by applying a little plastic tape around the hatch lock U shape part which secures the tailgate when closed. Basically this just tightened the grip between the tailgate and the lock.
Rattle sorted ;-)

 

I had an early dash rattle in my 2006 which was fixed by the dealer. The dash rattle came back, and I assumed it was the same problem. After living with it for awhile, yesterday I noticed that the plastic panel under the steering wheel had become detached from the rest of the dash. It was just floating in space. The press connector was fine, but disconnected. I pressed it back together and my rattle is gone.

Tom

 

? The thing just detached from the rest of the dash by itself? This is crap Toyota craftmanship, or you kocked it off yourself.
No the rattling in my Prius has nothig to do with that part. I guess Gen 3 rattling places are different, and I am going to get some rubber cement to go try to seal up as many places as possible.
I guess one fun project to look forward to.

 

I may have hooked it with my toe, or it could be related to the dealer tearing apart my dash. My rattling was nowhere near this spot; it was up under the dash close to the center speaker. Snapping the panels back together made that rattle go away.

Tom

 

Just a tiny squirt into the slot where the U shaped fastener engages the seat back. I didn't want to lubricate the U because it might make a mess.

 

Can it be foamed besides using oil?

 

My V did have some annoying rattles, but it came down to two. I tightened the spare wheel lock down and then found the license plate(rear) was vibrating against the body. I fixed that with some soft sponge and my Prius is now very quiet.

 

Mine rattles from the right side of the dash. By the way, in every car forum I've ever participated in, it seems like every fourth post says something like "I don't think a car that cost $XX should have [insert problem]." It is a dumb argument; every car has issues, cost notwithstanding. My last car cost $80k and it had a design defect that caused the engine block to become clogged with carbon. The $50k BMW 335-series had a defect that caused the oil system to fail.

The rattle is annoying.

 

My Prius did rattle at the back. I reported the rattling problem when I sent it back to the dealer for 1000 km service. They fixed it and now it does not rattle any more. By the way, my Prius is only around 3 weeks old

 

Majority of the dash rattle in 2nd gen Prius is at the defroster vent just below the base of the windshield.

The large flat dash panel has foam insulation on the under side except where it overlaps the defroster vent. The vent and the panel vibrate against each other making the rattle..

I was able to totally fix my rattles using the plastic insulation pulled off 12 gauge wire to keep the vent and the dash panel from touching each other by inserting the insulation between the vent and the dash panel at 4 places as shown in the attached photograph.

Photo is out of focus due to shooting through the windshield at a close distance to the vent, but it is still clearly visible..

You have to use a screw driver to carefully pry the dash off the vent a bit to create a gap to work the insulation piece into...

 

I am putting off buying a Prius until the RATTLE ISSUE is solved. (I really really really hate rattles.)

I just rented one this weekend and it seems to be rattle free! Manufacture date on the door jam says "03/10". Is it possible? Did Toyota fix the rattle issue with the latest batch of production????

DT - Cincinnnati

 

Not all of the earlier cars rattled, don't know what percentage did but it is significant. I think you have made a wise decision to wait, I wish I had done the same. Another consideration is the government imposed noise makers, there are several threads on that. Here are three:

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-hybrid-news/80572-silent-hybrids-evs-poised-make-noise.html

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-h...-hybrid-electric-vehicle-just-got-noiser.html

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-hybrid-news/79290-now-begins-bell-hybrid.html

It hasn't happened yet but it is almost a sure thing. If I know anything about the government approach to noise makers it may be more annoying than any rattle any of us have ever had.