RX300 Dash rattle sorted.

[Delphius1]

Ever since I bought my RX back in May, it's had an annoying dash rattle that appeared to come from the very front of the dash by the demister vent.

I've had a couple of goes at quietening the rattle down. The first few attempts I attempted to secure the front of the dash to the demister vent with different thicknesses and strengths of double-sided tape. I got some improvement, but there was still a rattle on certain bumps.

Today I decided I would silence the thing once and for all. This time replicating the vibration of the dash by pulling the demister vent up and down. By using pads of material stuffed into random places, it became apparent that the rattle was coming from the very front of the dash where it butts up to the windscreen. The tongue of dash material between the vent and the dash seems to have shrunk so it can move around and hit the windscreen and the support brackets underneath. By stuffing a pad between the dash and the windscreen the rattle was silenced.

All very good, but stuffing pads in between the dash and the screen is pretty unsightly :-).

In the end my solution was to strip the black outer sleeve from a satellite coax cable to give me a black crushable tube to fill the space. The material was a bit plasticky which I thought might rattle on it's own if it was allowed to move, so I wrapped black tape around it to bulk it out and deaden any rattle. I then stuffed it down the gap between the dash and the screen. The tube easily squashed into the gap and being black blended in so well you can't see it. But being a tube it conformed easily so there should be no danger of it putting excessive pressure on the dash or screen, it just filled the gap.

Taking it for a run on my worst rattly road, the rattle has gone. Hopefully for good. 

Obviously this solved my rattle. It may not help with other rattles, but it's a starting point for anyone being sent spare by dash rattles.

 

 

 

[rich1068]

True dedication Mark 👍

I can't abide rattles and have spent many an unhappy hour trying to track them down. Usually on BMWs.

[Delphius1]

This one was pretty loud and annoying, so it had to go. No matter how long it took. The main issue was on the passenger side, but the drivers side also had a small rattle that I noticed after fixing the big one. So the drivers side got the same treatment.

It's nice to have a quiet car. Now it's just my keys rattling hanging from the ignition. That I can solve easily. 

[rich1068]

BMW once agreed to take an 2011 E91 320d back after 18 months of contract hire because the dash was so noisy. Drove me (and the dealer) absolutely crackers. Sytner Sheffield even removed the entire dashboard to re-fix it but consensus was that it was a broken spot weld that they just couldn't get to. Happy days 

[Delphius1]

Wow, that's customer service!

I just wonder how many dealers whould have sent the skinny trainee into the bowels of the car with a dremel to hack off the offending bracket?

 

[rich1068]

I did just condense roughly a year's worth of arguing into a two line forum post...

And I had to agree to lease a brand new BMW. But that was no bad thing because by then the F30 was out and I could afford one of the six pots.

[Delphius1]

Ah, you made it sound so easy... so normal BMW service then.