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Glove Compartment Door Rattle.. Service Took a ride with me and....

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by pinkkitty724, Oct 8, 2012.

  1. pinkkitty724

    pinkkitty724 Junior Member

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    I've had my 2012 Prius Three since Sept 29, 2012 (just over 1 week) and a rattle started. I have pinpointed this to the lower glove compartment door. When I hold it after I start hearing the rattle, it stops.
    I had to go by the dealership for them to show me something and I had a service guy take a ride to see if we can replicate it. Before we took off, he played around with the glove compartment door a bit, and when we drove, we could not replicate it until the very end and it was so slight we weren't sure if it was still occurring.
    Well, it's back with a vengeance. They told me if I hear it again to make an appointment with service- which I will do. But, I thought I'd post here first to see if this is a common issue and if you've had it resolved by the dealer, or yourself. I did do a search and I am not finding anything about this specific rattle in the 2012.

    In my old car, which was a Mitsubishi, I also bought brand new and had a vibration in the passenger side which I could never get to occur when I brought in to service so I just lived with it. So, I am already thinking this is going to be another situation like this and will have to either deal with the noise, or find a way to make it better myself. I've already thought about lining the top of the glove compartment door with foam.

    Also there is another rattle in the back, but that just so happens to be the license plate frame we have on there from the dealer, which I plan to keep on. So, again with the foam- I plan to put a piece of door insulation foam along the bottom so it doesn't rattle :)
     
    #1 pinkkitty724, Oct 8, 2012
  2. wanaset

    wanaset Junior Member

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    I also thought the glove compartment door was rattling. To troubleshoot the issue I took out everything from the glove box and drove on an uneven road. After a while I came to conclude that the rattle was caused by a laminated paper hitting the hard plastic. Due to the fact that the glove box and most of the car's interior is made out of cheap hard plastic, even a tiny scrape creates a loud noise.

    This is probably why the technician was not able to replicate the issue because when he opened the glove box he might have had moved all the content around. Try removing everything from the glove box and see if you can replicate the rattle.
     
    #2 wanaset, Oct 8, 2012
  3. pinkkitty724

    pinkkitty724 Junior Member

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    I will try this. He did remove things and pushed around on various spots on it. But he placed it all back in before we left. And when we started to hear at the end of the road-test, all items were back in and he hadn't touched it since before we took off. :)

    ***Update on this- Nope! Not what it is. I took everything out and it still vibrated/rattled.
     
    #3 pinkkitty724, Oct 8, 2012
  4. wanaset

    wanaset Junior Member

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    The items probably went to their natural positions and started scratching against the hard plastic. By the way, I also had the license plate issue. It drove me crazy for a couple of days because I thought it was the window rattling but someone on this forum had figured out the cause and helped me out. I guess a few of us have very sensitive ears.
     
    #4 wanaset, Oct 8, 2012
  5. Dark_matter_doesn't

    Dark_matter_doesn't Prius Tinkerer

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    There's a device on the passenger door side of the lower glove box that eases its opening. That can rattle from side to side. You can put some grease on the mounting/pivot points to dampen the vibration.

    The damper is on the right outside of the lower glove box. You'll run into it when you remove the lower glove box to change the cabin air filter. It snaps onto two lugs, and the fit isn't that tight. It can rattle from side to side (left-right).
     
    #5 Dark_matter_doesn't, Oct 8, 2012
  6. pinkkitty724

    pinkkitty724 Junior Member

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    I took everything out of the glove compartment and it still rattled/vibrated.
     
    #6 pinkkitty724, Oct 8, 2012
  7. phoenixgreg

    phoenixgreg Senior member

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    #7 phoenixgreg, Oct 8, 2012
  8. Jonny Zero

    Jonny Zero Giggidy

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    The dealer has a better chance of breaking something else in attempt to fix the rattle, than actually fixing it.

    When in doubt, crank up the radio.
     
    #8 Jonny Zero, Oct 8, 2012
  9. pinkkitty724

    pinkkitty724 Junior Member

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    Eep! Even reading that intimidates me. It doesn't even make sense to me.. I couldn't/wouldn't do this. But now I am worried about taking it to the dealer... what if they mess it up or break it!?
     
    #9 pinkkitty724, Oct 8, 2012
  10. phoenixgreg

    phoenixgreg Senior member

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    I found this thread too. Unfortunately his pictures (which were very helpful) were lost when PC upgraded its forum several months ago. He used a sticky-backed felt to prevent the plastic latches on either side of the glove box from rattling. I also did this to mine and it really helped. Sorry to hear this problem has not been solved - even 2 years later:
    Fix 2010/2011 Prius Rattles for 99 cents (Neat Version) | PriusChat
     
    #10 phoenixgreg, Oct 9, 2012
  11. pinkkitty724

    pinkkitty724 Junior Member

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    Wow! Thanks for that thread! Someone within that post had saved the information as a PDF and it has the photos! :) :)
     
    #11 pinkkitty724, Oct 9, 2012
  12. pinkkitty724

    pinkkitty724 Junior Member

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    Which I think I do have sensitive ears... and this could be a problem for me and Prius. From what I am reading (and I kind of wish I had read before) there are a lot of rattles/squeaks/creaks, especially in cold weather. Since I live in FL it won't be TOO cold, for TOO long at least.. so I guess that's a benefit for me + sensitive ears vs. Prius. ;)
     
    #12 pinkkitty724, Oct 9, 2012
  13. wanaset

    wanaset Junior Member

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    I am going to try the rattle fixes listed above and see if it helps. Will report back later on today.
     
    #13 wanaset, Oct 9, 2012
    pinkkitty724 likes this.
  14. wanaset

    wanaset Junior Member

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    Update - My glove compartment no longer rattles. The fix took about 2 minutes to complete and I am very happy with the outcome.
     
    #14 wanaset, Oct 12, 2012
  15. pinkkitty724

    pinkkitty724 Junior Member

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    That's great! Which did you do? Using the "fixa" or another felt or something? Mine is getting worse I think...
     
    #15 pinkkitty724, Oct 12, 2012
  16. wanaset

    wanaset Junior Member

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    I could not order the one listed on pdf through Ikea. For some odd reason they wanted me to drive to the local store which I refuse to do. Here is a link to the Ikea one FIXA Stick-on floor protectors set of 20 - IKEA. Instead I opted out for this one Amazon.com: MASTER Scratch Guard 88499 Heavy Duty Combo Felt Pads - 12 Pad of 0.75" Diameter, 8 Pad of 1" Diameter, 4 Pad of 1.5" Diameter - Circle - Self-adhesive - Beige - Polyester - 25 / Pack: Office Products.

    The only issue with this one was the color but I do not mind. I kind of cut around the felt until it fit between the small opening. I drove on a tough terrain and I did not hear any rattle at all. Just to test it out I removed it for about 10 minutes and the rattle was very noticeable. It was a quick and easy fix but I should not have to do that on a new car, oh well.
     
    #16 wanaset, Oct 13, 2012
  17. phoenixgreg

    phoenixgreg Senior member

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    You can also buy very similar sticky-backed felt pads at Home Depot. The color shouldn't matter much as once the compartment door is closed, the treated area is invisible. Sorry to say, but once winter hits, you will probably notice other rattles unless Toyota changed the interior plastic formulation from the first G3s.
     
    #17 phoenixgreg, Oct 13, 2012
  18. Selzier

    Selzier Whee!

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    I'm going to try the simple fix soon! My rattle in the glove box is pretty pronounced and unless the radio is on really loud the rattle is very noticeable.
     
    #18 Selzier, Oct 17, 2012
  19. jayrider

    jayrider Member

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    Been living with the glove box rattle until today. Cold morning so I took a couple paper napkins and closed the door with them squished in the opening. No more rattles. May put some moleskin fabric used for blisters in the joint later. Sticky on one side and soft felt on the other. I see a similar fix has already been posted.
     
    #19 jayrider, Jan 1, 2013
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