I've noticed when going up hills where the engine is working, there is a rattle/vibration that seems to be coming from the passenger side dashboard/glovebox area. I've opened both glove boxes and made sure nothing was in thrm and the rattle still continues. It sounds like there is a screw loose in the plastic inside the dash that is vibrating. Has anyone experienced anything like this or heard of a problem like this? Thanks in advance for any help on this.
Is your rattle/vibration RPM dependant and cold activated like my Prius v occasional glove box rattle/vibration? My rattle/vibration almost sounds like the rattle my Lexus RX 300 made when I fed it 87 (low) octane fuel and accelerated.
Yes the rattle seems to be rpm dependent because if I'm going up a hill the engine works a little harder which shakes the car just a bit, which causes the rattle. The funny thing is it seems to be when the engine is struggling, and a little more gas fixes it.
I have a 2013 v and have several rattles/plastic trim resonating issues. The silver trim for the center console cup holder will resonate against the cup holder/center console molding. I'm "fixing" that with 3M plastic emblem and trim adhesive i picked up from an autoparts store. This adhesive doesn't seem to get rock hard, but stays rubbery when dried. Its acting like a cushion between the two parts. So far so good. I've applied a thin bead to the gap between the silver trim and cup holder molding and the resonating is nearly gone. The more glue I add to the circumference the less it resonates. The other huge issue I had turned out to be too much slack in the windshield washer fluid hose under the hood. I left my car with the dealer for two weeks while I was out of town and gave them permission to drive it as much as they wanted to track down the "tapping" noise that was coming from the front right side.... would only make the noise when the outside air temp was below 50 degrees F. When I came back they said they couldnt hear any noise. Total BS. I drove home and decided to look for myself... figured it out within 30 seconds of popping the hood! The car still has one or two rattles that I have yet to track down, but the two big ones are taken care of.
Thanks for the tip on the washer fluid hose. I'll be looking at this tomorrow. I've noticed a "tapping" or "clicking" noise when I go over bumps at various speeds. My wife noticed a noise "coming from the dash" when we test drove the vehicle. I noticed it when sitting in the front passenger seat when we were heading down to Tampa last weekend. To me, it sounded like it was coming from the bottom of the windshield, as if the glass was not fully adhered . . . as if there were flexion in the body when we went over bumps and undulations. I noticed it again this evening when we were coming home from my son's practice session. The common denominator: cold temps, like you mentioned above. As I was driving this evening, it sounded to me like it was coming from the area of the small window on the passenger side. Oddly enough, my son, who was in the front passenger seat, said it sounded like it was coming from the from the front corner of the cabin in front of me. As it was occurring over bumps, I was thinking that it had something to do with the strut towers, or the windshield, as I mentioned above. I'll look at the hose tomorrow, but I'm also taking everything out of the car and taking a ride to make sure there isn't something else inside the car that is making the noise. I'll report back what I find.
