The Rattle

"Patrick Morgan" (pmorganracing) 03/01/2015 at 14:54 • Filed to: None

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iTunes. They are entirely who to blame for this. If it weren’t for a slight gap between songs, I would have never heard it. If you're at all like me, you’ve no choice but to track it down and fix it. It’s the automotive devil in the details. “The Rattle.”

Three weeks ago, it happened to me again. I may have heard it for only a fraction of a second between the concluding vocals of Aloe Black, and the low-fi joys of Washed Out, but I simply could not ignore it. The faintest squeak sound coming from what my ears told me was the front-right of the dashboard. It must be solved.

Now, Illinois’ I-90 is probably not the best place to be doing acrobatics in a car, so while paying close attention to the road, I steadily leaned to the right to get a better grasp on where the rattle emanated from. From here, the only logical action rested in pushing on various parts of the CLK’s soft dashboard in a vain attempt at hitting a sweet spot and shifting something back into place. Satisfied with my dashboard massage -and with half of my body still in the passenger side of the car- I waited in silence… It was still there.

Actually it wasn’t. The exact same sound was present, but the location now changed. “How wonderful,” I thought, now slumping fully into my usual comfortable driving position. I was forced to task myself with finding other places this noise might come from. “Maybe it could be coins in the tray in my center console...? No.” I tried pushing my sunroof shade forward (it likes to slide back a half-inch from brisk acceleration). No luck there either. I mentally noted the lack of clutter in my car, concluded the folding rear seats were fully latched, jokingly felt the steering wheel still firmly attached, but this had me increasingly concerned that my options were running out. “Where is this noise coming from!?”

I spent an additional 25 minutes going through this process of leaning out of my seat in some sort of strange road yoga, and opening and shutting every compartment within reasonable reach. There was a point in stopped traffic that I contemplated getting out of the car and firmly closing both the hood and trunk. This was not to be. Finally accepting defeat to this high-pitched annoyance, I continued on with my drive and rewarded my efforts with one of the two water bottles I had sitting in the back seat.

At that very moment, the rattle stopped.

HammerheadFistpunch > Patrick Morgan 03/01/2015 at 15:03

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this happens to me so often I don't even look at the car anymore, if I hear a noise I go strait for the bottle or wrapper or map or whatever no matter where it sounds like it's coming from and it always kills it

lone_liberal > Patrick Morgan 03/01/2015 at 15:09

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Same thing happened to me recently. I was pushing on anything and everything that could possibly be causing the noise that was driving me insane. Turned out to me my wife's sunglasses in one of the two sunglass compartments. It took me two days to figure it out.

DasWauto > Patrick Morgan 03/01/2015 at 15:14

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I know this feeling all too well. My Golf is so much quieter than my old Mazda3 that any little noise is immediately noticeable. Sometimes I'll find myself in a cycle of hearing something, muting the stereo, looking/listening around to isolate it, deciding I've imagined the noise and un-muting the stereo, only to hear it again shortly afterwards.

I've also gone around the car poking and prodding at stuff I can reach, opening/closing windows, compartments and even doors.

A couple of weeks ago there was some ice built up in the bottom corner of my windshield causing a whistling noise at speed. I got out of the car at 2 different stop signs trying to identify that noise. I ended up figuring it was the ice and parking the car in the heated shop to let it clear out, which worked, thankfully.

This process is why the right rear passenger seatbelt is now buckled at all times in my car because the buckle on the belt makes an annoying soft ticking noise agains the trim beside the seat when I'm driving along.

All of this is probably some for of OCD. :/

Burrito de EJ25 > Patrick Morgan 03/01/2015 at 15:36

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As a WRX owner I've yet to live and let live. A Subaru will rattle. And a Subaru will rattle in more than one place. It's the law or something.

yamahog > Patrick Morgan 03/01/2015 at 16:10

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Lol, if my jeep isn't rattling it probably isn't moving.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Patrick Morgan 03/01/2015 at 16:33

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In all reality, I lol'd. Rattles are the worst. And I've been in that predicament far too many times.

Battery Tender Unnecessary > Patrick Morgan 04/07/2015 at 18:43

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Ooo, I recognize that interior. :D

Dr. Strangegun > Patrick Morgan 04/07/2015 at 19:17

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Only thing worse than rattles are squeaks. I hunted one in my truck for weeks before it finally got worse and revealed itself as the belt tensioner idler pulley bearing.

I also remember in high school/early college taking panels off the dash in my '84 Tbird and putting little dots of foam or felt tape around the contact points, just to resolve the creaking/squeaking/rattling.

Even the old '91 shadow rallycrosser, that was almost completely stripped to the point that the instrument cluster, light switch, and and heater controls were ziptied to the bare firewall (no dash) would occasionally garner a fresh ziptie or a strip of tape because something was tapping against something else under the vibrations of driving it.

Tom Hegedosh > Patrick Morgan 04/07/2015 at 19:20

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I came here to find a solution, instead I only found an article about a problem

Vicente Esteve > DasWauto 04/07/2015 at 22:30

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I can relate so much to this. I am often scared when I hear a ticking noise, and its actually the truck or car behind me.

Nauraushaun > Patrick Morgan 04/08/2015 at 00:05

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Try living with an old car previous owned by careless owners :( Seems like everything has been removed and poorly put back together.

xtheunknown > Patrick Morgan 04/08/2015 at 10:18

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Ah ha! The CLA isn't the only Mercedes with interior rattles.