Rattles (Three Different Ones)… Apologies to Pink Floyd not withstanding… I pretty much like almost everything about my three month old Five- but as many here have noted… lots of rattles, squeaks, other non-operational system noises plague this car. I have three different rattles/noises for three different types of roads…. 1) On freeway concrete at highway speeds: our local main roadway has long sections (20+ miles) of concrete slabs placed end to end. Each slab is maybe 30’-45’ long then a rubber expansion strip then the next slab begins. In many areas the edges of the adjoining slabs are not level with each other- it seems the end of the current slab is slightly higher than the beginning edge of the next slab- so the suspension/tire kind of drops down from the current slab to the beginning of the next slab, and over and over again- sometimes for a mile or more- then we hit slabs with even edges again. The noise this produces in my Five is a “click”…. “click”….“Click” coming from somewhere in the front right side of the cabin- I suspect around the area where a front seat passenger’s legs would go. If it’s very warm in the cab- the “clicking” stops. The next morning when it’s cold (under 73-75 deg) it happen again. 2) Again on freeway concrete at highway speeds- certain road conditions seem to make the steering column (tilt and telescoping wheel on the Five) vibrate like a tuning fork. It seems to be emanating from the area where the steering column enters the dash area. This only happens on certain stretches of roadway- but it’s repeatable. I can’t really feel the vibration- but I can hear it when it occurs. This one happens even if the cab is warm inside. 3) The final sound is a creaking type sound that comes from the hatch area when driving on an uneven asphalt road. It happens at any speed (2-60mph) and it sounds like two surfaces rubbing together if the asphalt is uneven and the front of the car is leaning to the left and the rear of the car is leaning to the right- or the other way around. It sounds like metal to metal- but it could be plastic to rubber, etc. I've already fixed the common rear license plate buzz, and the hybrid battery tin box vibrations- so these other three are on the fix list now. Please help with my lovable $30K rattle trap.....
My father is getting #3 in his Plug-in Prius but I am not. He's not even going to bother taking it to the dealer because in all seriousness taking it in for these types of things is unfortunately a joke. They waste your time and accomplish nothing but making up a story as to why it is doing it most often. He'll either live with it until he trades down the road or maybe if they recognize there is a problem because of others going in for it and offer a TSB he'll then get it fixed.
Agreed! I've read the posts of the dealers pulling out the full dashboard on a one month old car! That's why I'm set on fixing it myself (with the help of the good folks here).
I've looked around a little for him Rob and tried to find where it is coming from but had no luck. Maybe you or someone else with the problem can pinpoint it and I'll also fix it for him.
OP: Check this thread post # 24 for a solution to the hatch rattle. You can test if this is the problem by taking 2 old wash cloths and pinching one on each side of the hatch where the hard plastic block meets the spacer block in the rain track. I know it will look silly, but drive on the roads you normally hear the rattle and see if it goes away. If it does, follow my solve here: Rattle or Buzz on Passenger Side? Check Here: | Page 2 | PriusChat Also, I had that steering column buzz too. The plastic housing can be separated (seam on either side) and carefully removed (tilt steering all the way down) that surrounds the steering column. On the upper half inside, you will see plastic ribs that rest on the actual metal steering column. If the column vibrates, it can cause the entire housing to buzz. What I did was put adhesive-backed felt (available at Micheal's) on the upper half of steering column anywhere the "ribs" could make contact with the column. Problem solved. It's a bit tricky to snap the housing back on so take your time to get it right. Make sure the housing doesn't bind against the back of the steering wheel. About the seat noise...do you still get it with a passenger sitting there? Try pressing downward (or wedge a large towel)on the metal handle used for moving the seat back and forth. If the noise goes away, you've discovered a fairly common noise problem.
Phoenixgreg... Thanks for all the info- very helpful! Will try the towel trick and I'll pull the plastic covers off the steering column. Problem #1 the "click"... "click"... "click"... issue- the noise isn't coming from the seat- it's coming from somewhere in the leg-room area where the front passenger's legs normally rest.... somewhere in that little cockpit area.
The clicking you hear might be from the lower glove box. There are many complaints about it (especially for the '10s). Sorry to hear you got a "rattler" - I thought by now Toyota had solved all of that. Do you know how to remove your lower glove box? If so, take it out completely and drive around to see if the clicks are worse or gone. If worse, then the problem is in the lower dash area. If gone, there are several solves to that noise problem.
Thanks to all who replied- I'll have a look at the solutions for #2 and #3 today and post back with results after my drive to work on Monday. #1 will have to wait till the others are fixed...
Thanks for that thread...it's a good summary of the OP's problems. I also did something similar to the IKEA 99 cent solution, but was able to take my glove box door apart to do it both inside and out. One more tip, I found by putting a bit of plumber's grease (silicon based) on the hing area below the glove box stopped some more creaks and ticking sounds.
I think #3 (creaking type sound that comes from the hatch area) is fixed. Added a bit of foam rubber strip over the contact surfaces of the upper and lower rubber blocks in the rain track. No noises from back there this morning on the way to work and it was 63deg outside- so that would have been cold enough to produce noises in the past. Yeah!! #2 ((tilt and telescoping wheel on the Five) vibrate like a tuning fork)- Pulled the upper and lower sections of the steering column shroud, insulated the area where the top half of the shroud rests on the metal of the steering column- reassembled- the column still vibrated on my drive in this morning- guess it's not related to the shroud touching the actual column. I'll pull the shroud off and leave it off for my ride home tonight and try to see what's producing the tuning fork effect on the column. Hmmmmm... Haven't tried to fix #1 yet.
Good idea to leave off the shroud to determine where the vibration is coming from. If it's coming from the column itself, it will set up a sympathetic vibration in the shroud - now you know how it is assembled and supported. Glad the foam on the blocks stopped the hatch noise...that was more common on the '10s. For noise #1, it would be best to take out the lower glove box. As I mentioned, it will either be worse or gone so you can at least rule that out.
phoenixgreg- Thanks for the help so far! I just have to work through these issues one at a time- too bad I'm a stickler for rattles and noises. With the shroud removed from the column, it should be a lot easier to isolate the noise. So far I've fixed- -Buzz from hybrid battery box/cover -Rear license plate buzz -Rear hatch creak Remaining items: -Steering wheel vibration noise -Click-click-click sound from front passenger leg area over road joints Shame we have to address these issues at all in a $30K 2012 automobile.....
Yes, you'd think in a new "Five" it would be perfect. One more trick to determine if it's the passenger seat (I assume you are alone in the car when the ticking happens): When the ticking starts, press the passenger seat back towards the passenger door. If it stops, then the issue could be in the seat track below. There is a TSB on this problem, but again, I thought it was only on the older G3s.
An update- #2 (certain road conditions seem to make the steering column (tilt and telescoping wheel on the Five) vibrate like a tuning fork.) Have pretty much isolated it to the cup like plastic cover that attaches to the back side of the actual steering wheel. The cruse control stalk comes out of this cover. If I hold the top of this cover down tight- the vibrations cease. I don't know how this cover is attached to the steering wheel- it doesn't split in half to open like the steering column shroud does. #1 (“click”…. “click”….“Click” coming from somewhere in the front right side of the cabin) is temporarily gone due to the 100deg temps in NY yesterday and today. #3 (creaking type sound that comes from the hatch area when driving on an uneven asphalt road.) is fixed.
ny_rob: Good to hear you've solved some of the noise issues. I'm going to look at the CC stalk to see if mine is the same design as yours (I've never looked at it). If the seat noises return, try my trick of putting sideways pressure on the seat. If it stops, then it should be a problem with the seat track. BTW, do you hear this noise if there's a passenger in that seat? Sorry to hear about your temps - we're headed for 110 today.
Have to look into how to remove the steering wheel rear cover- but at near 100deg temps- I'm not going anywhere near the dash area for a while. Problem #1 (“click”…. “click”….“Click” coming from somewhere in the front right side of the cabin) is confirmed to not to be coming from the seat at this point. It's somewhere in the right forward cockpit area where the front passenger's feet rest when their legs are stretched out. But, due to the current high temps (85deg this morning at 8am) this annoying noise has stopped for now. I'll have to work on this one once it cools back down to normal June temps (60's in the am and low 80's during the day) again and the noise returns. It was so hot here yesterday our major area roadway from Eastern L.I. to NYC (495- the Long Island Expressway) pavement buckled in several spots leaving a 8"+ height difference between the joints in adjoining pavement segments. Needless to say- two out of the three lanes had to be closed for emergency overnight repairs... It was real fun driving home yesterday
Wow, 100 in NY would be like 118 here. Too bad about the highways buckling from the heat. Ours are made to take extreme heat so we don't see that here as much. I took a closer look at my CC stalk and it appears to have an access panel surrounding it. Mine is OK, but with a fine-blade screwdriver, you might be able to pry that panel off and then discover if anything behind it is vibrating. It should just snap back on after you search for the noise. If it's deep in the steering wheel, I'd take it back to the dealer for repairs. As far as the other noise, you should remove your lower glove box and try to replicate the noise. Some of the G3 lower glove boxes were problematic with ticks and rattles. If you don't know how, I can step you thru it.
