Yesterday, I managed to isolate & fix two sources of some rattles in my gen II Prius. The rattles were already present in the summer, but became stronger during the winter months when the car was cold and exceeded the level where I draw the line. I traced the first source of some metal-to-metal clinking, coming from the back of the car, to the handle of a fire extinguisher I carry under the hood (figure 1 - please note that all the stuff you see is held in the place by very strong velcro tapes, preventing it from traveling around the trunk). I eliminated that clinking by stuffing some foam rubber into the handle (figure 2). The second source of a particularly annoying rattle, which was driving me crazy :crazy:, was a loose plastic cover under the lower glove box, right above the feet of the front passenger (the cover in suspicion, removed from the car, can be seen in figure 3). Please note the two pins at the top, left and right. Those pins are supposed to fit into corresponding guide holes, holding this side of the cover in place. The right pin became dislodged from its guide hole somehow, so the respective edge of the cover became loose and caused the worst rattles. The whole cover and its fixture is rather flimsy . I noticed that the foam rubber, covering the pins, is worn out at the points of contact (figure 4) and that the pins are very loose in their guide holes, so I covered them with more foam rubber and patched with some tape, to make them fit tightly into the holes again (figure 5). I hope that the tape will last longer and will prevent the wear of the foam rubber. Figure 6 - this is what lurks behind the cover. The left guide hole is denoted by red circle, the other is out of the picture to the right, where the red arrow points. I also found another loose panel in the process (figure 7, yellow circle - the left guide hole can be seen in the red circle), so I stuffed some foam rubber behind it to serve as a rattle damper. This cured the worst and most audible rattles, although some minor ones still persist - I can hear some very silent, yet clearly audible "clik-click-click" sometimes, coming from the very left side of the dash, hiding somewhere behind air-vent grille . Yet, it is much quieter inside the car now. Hope this might be helpful.
Interesting, and cool that you found the culprits. I too once carried a fire extinguisher, but stopped after I actually had a car of mine catch fire. After I put it out with the extinguisher, and had it towed to the mechanic, I asked him what else I could do if it happened again. His answer: "Yeah, next time pour gasoline on it.". Extremely sage words.
This may help someone else. After looking for quite a while I found that these pieces adjacent to the small front side windows on both sides of the car would rattle at certain temperatures. Mostly when cold and when left in the sun they quit. Since its just noisy at a small temperature range I haven't tried to fix it. If anyone else has had these rattle and fixed it, how did you do it? I haven't investigated how to remove these small dash panels.
Interesting. Perhaps this might be the source of the clicking I happen to hear occasionally. I'll check this out. Thanks!
Here is the easiest fix I have seen so far: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...n/73709-i-fixed-squeak-in-my-dash-1-00-a.html Good luck!
For this small dash panels, you just need to insert a black rubber form cut to the size you like and insert it in between small panel and dashboard crack. For my 07, I put it near the crack closer to the windshield and no more rattle noise. As for the door panel noise where you put your arm when you rol down the window, i am using the women triangle makeup sponge a trim it and insert into the door frame and the plastic door panel. The sponge is a high density sponge you can find in cosmetic area. They are the same one I saw in Ultra. Ask you lady friend they will know. :> Hope this help.
Does anyone know if dealers or car shops fix these rattles? We are at 95K miles and seems within the last 6 months, the rattles have gotten much worse. I just want to take it in somewhere!
