Fix 2010/2011 Prius Rattles for 99 cents (Neat Version)

I bought my 2010 Prius in March, 2010. After about 8 months of quiet ride, I noticed some rattle noise in the winter. After reading many ideas from Priuschat and several tries, I found some simple and neat solutions to fix those common rattle problems.

Material and Tools

IKEA FIXA self-adhesive pads (99 cents). If you couldn’t find this product, you can look for some rubber instead. The thickness is about 3mm.

Scissors and flat head screw driver (I’m using swiss army knife)



1. Hatch Rattle

Symptom: When Prius is running on bumpy road, you will hear some kicking noise from the hatch area.

Reason: I think this is the most notorious rattle in Prius G3. This noise is caused by the design of lower rubber stopper. The two steps on the top have gaps with the hatch frame. When the hatch door is closed, the steps on the rubber stopper are not fully compressed. When the rear of car body is twisted (due to the big opening of the hatch area), rattles come out.




Solution: phoenixgreg’s post gives me the idea.
Rattle from tailgate | PriusChat



I tried his solution. It works, but the self-adhesive pads will come off from the upper side spacers after a rain or snow. After that, I found another way to have the same effect.

1. Cut a small pad of IKEA FIXA into a 15mmX10mm rectangle for each step on the rubber stopper. Make 4 of them.
2. Insert the rectangle into the gap between the hatch frame and step.
3. If you still can hear rattle noise after you insert 4 rectangles, add 1 more on both sides.

2. Center Console Rattle (“the Bridge”)

Symptom: Creaking noise from the bridge

Reason: Another common rattle, another design problem. The G3 has a bridge style center console. Actually, I like this design very much. My right leg can lean on the bridge when I’m driving. G2 doesn’t have that feature.

But here comes a new problem. Maybe I have a heavy leg or something. I found the center console is not centered after having the relaxed driving style for a half year. And at this time, the creaking noise came out.





Solution:

1. Stack two or three large pads of FIXA (depend on the gap size)
2. Squeeze the stacked pad into the gap and make sure the pad has been compressed.
3. You can insert more pads to get better isolation result.

3. Glove Box Rattle

Symptom: kicking noise from the glove box

Reason: Thanks to phoenixgreg again. I haven’t realized the glove box rattle before reading his post.
Cause of lower glove box rattle - REVEALED! | PriusChat

The warning really scared me. I don’t want to break something to fix this rattle. But the photo of mechanism exposed the problem. If we can add more resistance to the end latch from outside, then we needn’t to open the glove-box assembly.



Solution:

1. Cut a small pad of FIXA into a 10mmX20mm round corner rectangle for each end latch. Make 2 of them. If you also experienced the upper glove box rattle, make 4 of them.
2. Squeeze the rectangle by using flat head screw driver into the small opening around end latch.

4. Rear Seat Rattle (Vent Area)

Symptom: kicking noise from the rear seat and vent, when the car is making right turn or on some bumpy road.

Reason: This rattle may only affect to the users who have clazzio seat cover in their Prius. Since the clazzio seat cover is a little bit thick, the width of backrest with clazzio seat cover is larger than the cloth cover. The right side of backrest will press the plastic cover of rear vent, when the car is making right turn.



Solution: Insert small pad of FIXA under the plastic cover.





The END

Prius is a comfort and quiet ride, but the interior has too much hard plastics and Toyota designers forgot to put enough soft pads to isolate the rattles.

I'm sure Toyota can make rattle-free prius. They just need some IKEA FIXAs.

 

Thank you! Your posts inspired me a lot.

I will keep updating the status when winter comes.