Does your Prius rattle a lot?

My Gen 3, Prius V has started to rattle a little bit after I hit 15,000+ miles. Very slight rattle from time-to-time but not consistant. Quiet and smooth on the highway.

 

I have an 05 with ~157k miles on it.
A deer jumped in front of me in January. The repair was done on my insurance but since then there has been a periodic rattle on the front end then a click and it would be fine. There were weeks and months between the episodes. I was unable to find anything wrong myself. I took it in and had them do a diagnostic on it and look for anything that would rattle and they gave it back to me and said it was fine. This morning it started to rattle and shake and would not stop. It mostly does it when the ice is running but coasting. The rattle isn't as bad when I'm accelerating or coasting on the electric motor. I drove it home and pulled the plugs and they seem fine, there was no build up but I'm worried that it may be the coils or the injectors. I had 2 of my neighbors that know much more about cars look at it and tell me that they don't think its a cylinder but that it may be the coils, injectors, and/or 1 neighbor thought it might be the connection between the motors or the tranny, he wasn't sure since he doesn't know hybrids. I'm going to take it to the local Toyota dealership in the morning. Any thoughts?

 

The rattling is from driving badly (fast) on deteriorating roads and then blaming the Prius/Toyota. I've seen other Prius owners fly past manholes, potholes, steel plates. When their car goes over the pothole, I can see the tire "compress" very hard....that CANNOT be good for any of the components in any car.

My brand new Jeep Wrangler was perfect, no rattling etc. Then I let my brother in law borrow it for 3 months, after that it started rattling badly. I took it to the mechanic and he said that the axles were actually damaged.

When I see a steel plate ahead, I slow down and carefully take the Prius over. I avoid/go around all potholes, I slow down to 5mph and take each road gap slowly......when resale time comes, my prius will have a higher resale value than 99% of the Priuses here. My prius has 23K miles on it and there is no rattles......not even the cupholder.

 

I'm going to say this is untrue....in my 08, I carefully miss any and all bumps and guess what? it still rattles like crazy from the dashboard area!!!

 

I can assure you its not from driving fast on bad roads. It shakes the entire front of the car while the ICE is running and its idling in my driveway. I dropped it off at the local Toyota dealership this morning and I'm awaiting their call.

 

That's two different issues. ICE shaking the car sounds like a mounting defect while rattling of components (other than the ICE and actual defects) is caused by poor driving. If the rattle wasn't there when you test drove it, then you caused it.

 

Toyota just called and it was a loose mount bolt.

 

Then another family member drives the car. I've driven several BRAND new (different manufacturer) cars over the years and NONE of them have rattled. I've driven other family members/friends cars....ALL of them rattled.

Rattling (other than actual defects) is damage caused by bad driving, no exception.

 

Thank you, now we all know it's really our fault. Which Toyota dealer did you say you worked for?

 

I have a 2010 Prius with 1500 miles on it and the lower glove box starts rattling occasionally. I think this is a common issue based on forum discussion and I will try to follow the tips from the threads to mitigate the noise.

 

mwok86's comment is a bit ridiculous. Drive my car any day on smooth roads / roads with no potholes, take it from 0-60, and within that range you will for sure hear some rattling, esp. from the center console/arm rest. And no, its not the change in the armrest either.

 

Almost 150,000 kms on the car and none of the pannels rattle.
Rides smooth and quiet

 

My 2005 Prius was the same way, no rattles. My 2010 is a rattle trap, practically every piece of plastic inside the car rattles when it gets cold, and some of them still rattle when it is warm. I have fixed quite a few but there are some I can't find or can't fix.

Some of the Gen3 cars suffer from deplorable quality control, missing bolts and things out of adjustment, in addition to the rattles. These problems are made worse by a lot of dealers that either can't or won't try to fix them. A lot of the 2010 rattles are due to inferior plastics and no sound isolation between the pieces. The other problems seem to stem from sloppy workmanship and insufficient QA on the assembly line.

This 2010 Prius is my third new Toyota and the only one with these kinds of problems. Unless there is some good evidence that Toyota has fixed their quality problems I probably won't buy another.

In fairness I should point out that other than the initial problems and the rattles the car seems fine and drives much better than the '05 did. I intend to keep it and continue to fix rattles because it seems a good car underneath the cheap plastic interior.

 

A little over 1k miles and its not exactly a rattle, but more of a creak in the right side of the dash. Drives me nuts, but like one person said, its probably the ecological plastics, and the flexibility of those plastics that causes it. Especially creaky in the cold weather.

 

My 2010 III with 5K miles is quiet and tight...only noise (can't call it a rattle) came from the passengers side dash board speaker area. Dealer tighten the right front door hinge bolts......I no longer have that noise mentioned above.

 

Rattles only started when temps dropped. 90 % of rattles in rear were from hatch. I put some velcro tape over rubber/plastic stops on both sides of hatch, and rattles gone. Also, stuffed some insulation between contact points between plastic components of center console and eliminated rattles there. Was really driving me crazy for awhile. Now all is fine.

 

Hey guys,

I'm at 34,000 miles and I'm considering purchasing the Platinum extended warranty. I'm curious to know if all the rattles would be covered. It's getting fairly noisy and I know it's only going to get worse. Any suggestions?

Thanks!!!

 

You still have 2000 miles to find out. Why not take it in now and see how your friendly dealer does at fixing rattles.

 

The answer to the OP's question for me is yes and no.

It rattles, but not a lot....at 4,000 miles, more than it should for a $24,500 car....but I didn't sign the buyer's order for this one, so it doesn't bother me too much.

I'm hoping that when it's time to replace my personal vehicle (a rattle and squeak-free 09 Sierra) then Toyota will have identified and squelched the creaks and groans. Maybe even fixed the reverse beep and visors.
(Purty Please!!!! Are you listening out there Toyota????)

 

I have a 2010 Prius IV and when I bought it there were no rattles. This was the case until about 8000 miles. Now at 11000+ there are rattles in the console and in the sun roof slide. Drives me nuts. Not too bad on a smooth road but local roads are annoying.