Hello, I have a 2012 Prius plug in with 49K miles. Two weeks ago I started hearing a noise like a rattle over bumps and a faint clunk when the car takes off and stops coming from the front of the car behind the windshield, I think from the engine area. I took the car to the dealer and explained the noise above. They had it for the whole day then I was told that they did not hear anything. To my surprise when I picked up the car at the end of the day, the noise was completely gone. I noticed that they took my towels out of the middle console, so it appears that they went in there. It's good news, but I don't understand what happened. Is it possible that it was a simple issue and the technician did a minor routine adjustment not realizing that he fixed the problem? Is that possible? Can anyone explain to me what happened please? Thanks Mike
I wondering if a small stone may have gotten into the plastic underbody panels. That has happened to me before.
At least half a dozen times I've gone into panic mode after hearing similar "engine compartment" noises. Each time it turned out to be something in the center console, one of the glove boxes, or even a cup holder. All the glass and hard plastic surfaces seem to bounce interior sounds around in odd ways, so that if you are listening from one place, such as the driver seat, it really is difficult to tell where a sound is coming from.
Actually, the noise is gone completely, but what I found unusual is the dealer is telling me that they couldn't duplicate the noise. The paper work doesn't mention anything and the service adviser says that he drove the car and he didn't hear anything. They usually do a routing inspection every time the car gets in, so perhaps the technician adjusted something during the inspection not knowing that it has fixed the noise problem. Well I'm thankful that the noise is gone.
