Do rattles annoy you?
Discussion
Funny one this. If I'm driving along and something is rattling in the glovebox, door bins, etc. I have to find what it is and stop it. The really quiet ones seem to annoy me more than if I'm on my way to recycle a load of glass bottles in the boot for some reason.
However, they don't seem to bother others as much as me. My wifes old 1 series was like driving a toddlers toy but it didn't bother her in the slightest. As a passenger I would spend the whole time clonking the dashboard in a feable attempt to find the culprit. We hired a Hyundai i30 on holiday which was terrible for them and I just couldn't relax much to the amusement of my family. Does anyone else suffer from this irritation?
However, they don't seem to bother others as much as me. My wifes old 1 series was like driving a toddlers toy but it didn't bother her in the slightest. As a passenger I would spend the whole time clonking the dashboard in a feable attempt to find the culprit. We hired a Hyundai i30 on holiday which was terrible for them and I just couldn't relax much to the amusement of my family. Does anyone else suffer from this irritation?
Definitely. I expect modern cars to be rattle-free which is probably unreasonable. We’ve also just bought an EV which is quieter and doesn’t help with my problem! It’s nicer to drive cars in the summer when the internal plastics have expanded with the warmth and therefore are have fewer rattles.
Yes, immensely so.
I had an Audi TT 3.2 DSG from new which was very well put together, not a single rattle or squeak.
Then some absolute a
hole scrote put the entire back window in when parked in a backstreet near Reading library one winter night when I parked it for 20 mins, nicking my laptop case.
It was all fixed on insurance but the Autoglass tech who did the window replacement, the main Audi dealer, my local indie, and me spending hours and hours on it could not get the last remnants of broken glass out of the cavities of the tailgate, which used to then rattle around on bumpy roads.
It was both hugely annoying from a noise perspective, but also reminded me every day that some smackhead scrote had got one over on me, completely ruining the ownership experience. I traded it on as a direct result.
A gentle reminder to anyone who has a tailgate window replaced, make sure you specifically ask the repairer to remove all glass fragments from the cavities so you don't have to share my pain. In hindsight I should have gone back to Autoglass and said "st repair" but I had a lot going on in my personal life at the time and let it slide.
I had an Audi TT 3.2 DSG from new which was very well put together, not a single rattle or squeak.
Then some absolute a
hole scrote put the entire back window in when parked in a backstreet near Reading library one winter night when I parked it for 20 mins, nicking my laptop case. It was all fixed on insurance but the Autoglass tech who did the window replacement, the main Audi dealer, my local indie, and me spending hours and hours on it could not get the last remnants of broken glass out of the cavities of the tailgate, which used to then rattle around on bumpy roads.
It was both hugely annoying from a noise perspective, but also reminded me every day that some smackhead scrote had got one over on me, completely ruining the ownership experience. I traded it on as a direct result.
A gentle reminder to anyone who has a tailgate window replaced, make sure you specifically ask the repairer to remove all glass fragments from the cavities so you don't have to share my pain. In hindsight I should have gone back to Autoglass and said "s
t repair" but I had a lot going on in my personal life at the time and let it slide. Edited by Shooter McGavin on Friday 18th October 12:10
Rattles drive me to distraction. I have an aging E Class which still has a fabulously quite rattle-free cabin. Then engine is near-silent and it's on air which all adds to the serenity.
BUT, for a while, a slight fizz started somewhere in the central section of the dash. I located the bit of trim and would sometimes drive around with my finger on it to stop it. My wife though I was mad but it was all I could hear. Luckily I had it booked in for an audio upgrade and the fella there knew exactly how to sort it; he whipped off the piece of trim below, nipped up a small crew and that was that.
That made me ridiculously happy.
Meanwhile, my wife's Fiat 500 sounds like it's dismantling itself around me. Fisher Price-style as the OP said :-)
BUT, for a while, a slight fizz started somewhere in the central section of the dash. I located the bit of trim and would sometimes drive around with my finger on it to stop it. My wife though I was mad but it was all I could hear. Luckily I had it booked in for an audio upgrade and the fella there knew exactly how to sort it; he whipped off the piece of trim below, nipped up a small crew and that was that.
That made me ridiculously happy.
Meanwhile, my wife's Fiat 500 sounds like it's dismantling itself around me. Fisher Price-style as the OP said :-)
Yep. They do my head in massively. I won't stop to resolve them but I will reach around and see if I can find something rattling while I'm driving if I can. Usually keys left on things in my experience. All of the E82/E87's I've been have A pillar rattle. It's factory fitted I swear. Drive me barmy. 1 was resolved by jamming my dashcam wire in the gap at the bottom where it meets the dashboard, the other side just bothered me for ages and I was too lazy to get round to sorting it.
Simon_GH said:
Definitely. I expect modern cars to be rattle-free which is probably unreasonable. We’ve also just bought an EV which is quieter and doesn’t help with my problem! It’s nicer to drive cars in the summer when the internal plastics have expanded with the warmth and therefore are have fewer rattles.
100% this. i have a rattle in the centre console which is only present in the winter months, drives me madYep - they drive me round the bend, similarly any rattles and knocks from the suspension.
Mrs DS has an R171 SLK and my word is that rattly/squeaky. You really have to stay on top of lubricating the seals to keep that racket down.
I’ve also a huge aversion to odd tyres - they MUST be the same on all four wheels. My other one is warning lights especially for bulbs being out. If I get a bulb warning light I will literally stop at the next available place and replace it at the side of the road.
Mrs DS has an R171 SLK and my word is that rattly/squeaky. You really have to stay on top of lubricating the seals to keep that racket down.
I’ve also a huge aversion to odd tyres - they MUST be the same on all four wheels. My other one is warning lights especially for bulbs being out. If I get a bulb warning light I will literally stop at the next available place and replace it at the side of the road.
Yes. They irritate me immensely. My clio 172 has polyurethane engine mounts and everything rattles. I'm sure it develops a new noise every time I go out.
I had a VW CC, a 3.6 V6 and one of the reasons I never gelled with it was the number of noises that came from the dash.
The subaru legacy that replaced it, despite being older, having many more miles, and not being the cutting edge of interior design when new, had a fantastic rattle and squeak free interior.
I had a VW CC, a 3.6 V6 and one of the reasons I never gelled with it was the number of noises that came from the dash.
The subaru legacy that replaced it, despite being older, having many more miles, and not being the cutting edge of interior design when new, had a fantastic rattle and squeak free interior.
Yes I sold my Abarth 695 Ferrari Tributo....cos on every corner I took, something that sounded like a loose screwhead ran across the back of car from side to side.
Dealer took all the seats out etc etc to no avail (we think something was caught between layers of the floor that could not be gotten into to remove it...so car had to go sadly!
Dealer took all the seats out etc etc to no avail (we think something was caught between layers of the floor that could not be gotten into to remove it...so car had to go sadly!
Yes, but only until I know what it is - consequence of having run so many snotters on a shoestring when a rattle could mean something about to fall off or explode. Something loose in the cabin just gets dealt with, but sometimes I just need to turn up the music or wind down the windows and get on with life…
My passengers have come to expect the "Get that empty fking can out of the door bin it's doing my head in" from me 
I've taken the entire interior apart on my Civic and put it all back together again over the course of a few days in 2020, using various foam, fabric and NVH mats to remove rattles - Put one panel back, sit there and tap it in various locations and at various frequencies, run the speakers through loud frequency sweeps to pick up any resonance, etc..
It's been a great success - It's beautifully rattle free. Apart from an intermittent one that appears for a drive and then disappears for weeks at a time, which I think is the car's machine spirit trying to wind me up.
Other than empty cans in doorbins / on hard plastic, as with OP, If i'm transporting a large stock of marbles in glass jars etc. and I know the rattle will go away once the car is empty - Then not a problem at all.
king can out of the door bin it's doing my head in" from me I've taken the entire interior apart on my Civic and put it all back together again over the course of a few days in 2020, using various foam, fabric and NVH mats to remove rattles - Put one panel back, sit there and tap it in various locations and at various frequencies, run the speakers through loud frequency sweeps to pick up any resonance, etc..
It's been a great success - It's beautifully rattle free. Apart from an intermittent one that appears for a drive and then disappears for weeks at a time, which I think is the car's machine spirit trying to wind me up.
Other than empty cans in doorbins / on hard plastic, as with OP, If i'm transporting a large stock of marbles in glass jars etc. and I know the rattle will go away once the car is empty - Then not a problem at all.
Yes! I spend hours tracking down squeaks, creaks and rattles.
Currently fighting with my new Transporter, the VW side of things is excellent, but the conversion company have added lots of annoying noises that I'm slowly working my way though with a mix of GT85, Tessa tape and silicone grease.
Currently fighting with my new Transporter, the VW side of things is excellent, but the conversion company have added lots of annoying noises that I'm slowly working my way though with a mix of GT85, Tessa tape and silicone grease.
I wouldn't buy an Audi A6 with the fancy dashboard, these are so bad for squeaks and rattles and rattles that sound like squeaks and vice-versa.
The are so bad, Audi don't even argue about fixing it, they'll argue about everything else but not this.
Mine had 3 separate attempts to resolve and it just tolerable, not what you expect on a £75k+ car.
The are so bad, Audi don't even argue about fixing it, they'll argue about everything else but not this.
Mine had 3 separate attempts to resolve and it just tolerable, not what you expect on a £75k+ car.
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