Gen 3 Dashboard rattles & creaks

I second that, my first and last Toyota, I have a V with 11,500 and it's become a rattle box! I miss my Honda

 

[

 

I ignored your thread untill last week my Prius started a little rattling in the left side of the dashboard. I also could not pin-point where it came from and was so disappointed I was ready to take it to the dealership.

I normally seldom open the car windows but yesterday I was parked to wait for my wife and she was a little late so I opened the driver's side window a lillte bit cause the air inside was getting a little stale.

When my wife came I closed the window and started driving and to my HUGE DELIGHT I found the rattling was GONE!

So it was the window not tightly closed that caused this rattling all the while. Try that.

 

Our rattle comes from two main areas, one was the glove box the other seems to be around the front passenger door.

I was able to put some foam tape around the two stop tabs on the lower glove box. Helped a little bit, however, the latch mechanism for the upper and lower glove boxes seems like the culprit. You can hear the rattle just banging on the latches.

When I had a look of how the dash is constructed, I am not at all surprised it rattle and creaks. Eventhough Toyota has put felt padding on some trim pieces, but the fact the whole dash board is one piece rigid plastic mounted directly to the chasis with no rubber bushing or washer of any kind it's no wonder it rattles.

 

Those are the same two areas I am having the most trouble with. I did pretty much the same thing with the glove boxes and as you said, it helped a little.

I have had all the trim pieces off on the passenger's side and the passenger's seat out and found nothing that helped. Next is to pull the door card off and see what is under there that could rattle.

 

It seems just the ways these dash board are constructed has something to do with it. This Prius has been the first Japanese car in our family. Previously it has always been American cars. I noticed that for GM and Ford, the dashboard usually has a metal frame then thin plastic skin over it. So if anything does ever squeak, tighten the attach screw usually fixed it. But the metal foundation underneath is usually solid. Unlike the modular all plastic construction of the Prius, I think it will just rattle and squeak as the plastic expand, and flex each time temperature changes or hit a bump.

 

Thats one thing I have noticed, the 4 chevy/gm cars/trucks I have owned didn't rattle. Thats the one thing I would tell Toyota to work on. Even though it really doesn't make the car break down or anything like that, I do think alot of people think Toyota makes cheap cars because of the rattles.

 

FWIW, I've recently received an email from Toyota in the UK claiming...

"...following feedback from Prius customers and our network of Toyota centres, a number of
product improvements and modifications have taken place in order to resolve this particular
issue. Prius vehicles manufactured after September 2010 have been fitted with improved parts
and to date we have not received any negative feedback relating to any noise or rattles in these
vehicles. We are therefore confident that our process of continuous improvement has
eradicated this concern."

It will be interesting to get feedback from owners with a build date later than the September changeover.

 

So....there's going to be a TSB for those of us with build dates before 09/2010? No mention of that, eh? I'll be waiting...

 

With 5000 miles on a 2010 Gen 4 Prius...rattles behind dashboard were becoming more apparent. Dealership was able to isolate the "cricket sounds" to cable rattle while test
driving with dash removed. This is a solid fix...so hope it solves your problems.

 

A cynic might say...

The improved parts are in Prius vehicles manufactured after September 2010.

Today is October 16, 2010.

I seriously doubt any Prius vehicles manufactured after September 2010 have arrived at any dealers, particularly in the UK, which is why they haven't received any complaints regarding those vehicles.

 

And for those of us who bought the Prius before Sept 2010?

 

Rattle away! Put a bigger knob on the radio

 

My friend just bought a 2010 VW Passat. Nice ride .... he now has 2700 miles on the odometer and I noticed riding in it yesterday it now has some rattles in it too. It's a quieter car overall than the Prius so they really stand out.

My rattles haven't gotten any worse so I'm not fretting too much....

 

Had some rattle noises that seemed to come from the glove compartment area. I just couldn't locate it.

When installing my lighted door sills today, I found a black panel below the glove compartment just above the door mat on the passenger side. I found it to be quite loose, so I removed it and added some insulating material behind it to get some tension on it and mounted it again (no screws). As it seems all of the rattle is gone though i have only taken the car for a shorter ride after this.

Maybe this information can be helpful to some of you. (This is my first post as a new member from Sweden

 

Thanks for your post John, anything you find that could cause a rattle is useful.

:welcome: Welcome to Prius Chat.

 

Never bye a first model design year car! I couldn't help it but sometimes you can--and always should. We are at a total disadvantage with problems and poor features and this has been true since the beginning of time! If nothing else it will take a couple years before Toyota gets their butt in gear to listen to us and works out problems they HAVE to, with the exception of safety issues which they must. Maybe GMs Volt or something else will be a good contender. I have to pass on my feelings to Consumer Reports too.

 

The first 12 months sure as heck count but if you let the opportunity slip away from you then you'll be 'paying' for it... Your own stupidity and Toyota's indifference will continue to eat away at you.

 

Rattle is the wrong word to describe the truly annoying sounds my Prius makes. A vibration or buzz sound is more correct for me and it is subtle too so that if the sound system or talking is going on I lose consciousness of the vibration. But temperature, road conditions, speed, talking, or sounds sytem is not any solution. This isn't a build issue either--it is a design issue...but part of design is deciding how much money you want to spend to do the design right. Toyota is falling down on this--maybe all the other cars are too. An obvious example is that Toyota uses one-time plastic fasteners to attach the rear seat bench and the door panels. They break or lose their holding strength when removed and the only correct thing to do is replace all the fasteners. Assuming Toyota engineering just isn't stupid there was some cost saving reason for it. They put a lot of design into the center console and the glove compartments too and I assume someone came along and said we have to save 0.001 cents (US) here so we aren't going to change that dimension by 0.001 inches or use that felt strip there. I find it hard to believe that my 1971 Ford Pinto didn't have any annoying subtle vibrations in it but it didn't! It would be fun if I was rich enough to keep dumping Priuses back at the dealer until I found one teweaked differently enough that it didn't have stupid vibration issues. Sigh...

 

I took my Prius to the dealership last year after I bought my car and noticed all the commotion coming out of the dash / center rest. They claimed that the dashboard wasn't making noises. However I found a ball of grey clay in my glove compartment after picking up the car (and it didn't belong to me). So apparently the dealership was perfectly aware of the problem from early on and attempted to minimize the noise by jamming clay between plastic parts of the dashboard / center rest ect. The noise in my car did not change at all. And in my opinion there is not much we can do without taking out the whole dashboard and inserting foam or clay buffers between each plastic piece at every single contact point. While these guys in the dealership are trained technicians, and are pleasant enough to work with, and I would trust them with drive train / engine work, I don't quite trust them to take apart the dashboard. My steering wheel also squeaks and I asked them to fix it. They took it apart and put it back together so it was worse. Parts weren't straight and the wheel wasn't 'straight' so they had to redo that.
In conclusion, I love my car for what it does extremely well. 53 mpg, actual mileage, with a great drive. For better or worse I have become resigned to the squeaky noises. Don't like it but can live with it. For me the pros outweigh the cons.