Plastic Panel Under Dash?

Don't be afraid to use foam or other sound deadening materials.

I had a BMW with an inner-dashboard noise that drove me nuts all winter until Spring time came and I finally decided to bite the bullet and remove the whole thing. About 5 hours later, I had taken it down, isolated the rattle (a broken plastic clip securing a harness running along the firewall) and repaired it with a stretch of foam pipe wrap. Another 4 hours and I had it all together never to hear the noise again. The Prius should be much easier to take care of by comparison

Good luck..

 

the only rattles i've had are loose stuf i've left laying around in bins and cupholders etc.

 

That's what some of us Gen III owners are saying as well, then why are you going around blasting the Gen III for having bad interior? Aren't there a number of complaints about the Gen II being a rattler?

 

whatreyou, trolling for evpv? never had a rattle in my 04 or 08. seems like a lot more complaints about the gen III but perhaps i'm misremembering.

 

He's paying me big money but I'm not going any further The point is there are Gen III non-rattlers just as there are Gen II rattlers. I would caution against drawing any conclusion from a message board, which tends to attract complaints. The Gen III is much more mainstream, hence more new buyers compared to the Gen II and their complaints. Maybe Toyota did downgrade the interior quality construction-wise in the Gen III just as they did with the NAV screen (which results in a larger percentage of rattlers), but we don't know this from reading the complaints alone.

 

In eleven months and 11k miles of driving over all types of roads and temperatures our Prius has no rattles at all. (Except for the minor ones I created with my unsecured stuff.)

 

That panel on my '11 is extremely loose fitting also, it seems to be on the verge of falling down no matter how I try to wedge it in.

 

My Prius was delivered with that panel barely hanging on. I noticed it the first time I sat in the passenger seat to load up the glove box. Took a while to get it "secure" (not really secure).

 

i'm glad i'm not the only one with that panel below the glove box issue. how that got past quality control in Japan, i'll never know.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if it was caused by the dealer from installing/removing LoJack (or their own tracking device). Some dealers (particularly Lexus) pre-install LoJack on all their vehicles and attempt to get the customers to sign up during negotiation. It'd be taken out during prep if the customer declines.

 

Yes, I had the dealer replace it with one which fit. Thge dealer first tried placing foam on top, but it was clear the thing had to be replaced. It is one less rattle, but the other rattles have lots of siblings. I plan to return to the dealer a few more times to address the dash rattles we all seem to have. My car was built Dec. 09. Aside from the rattles, I like the car.

 

Yes mine is the same way. I "fixed" it by putting some foam pieces under it, it's still a little loose but it no longer rattles.

 

As part of my adventures in changing the cabin air filter I managed to completely remove the lower plastic panel. It is attached only by the wire to the small amber light. I looked around but haven't found any guidance on how to get this back in place. The long tab on the back of the panel looks like it snaps in the square hole shown in "firewall" (pic 1). "panel" (pic 3)is a shot of the panel. The white spots are the insulation showing through the holes. The 3 hooks that appear to be my problem are at the top. "hook" (pic 2) is a close-up of the, well, hook.

At first I thought they were tabs that slipped into the slots in the bottom glove box frame. Now I believe they have to go over the bars then the panel is rotated back and snapped into the square hole.

If I'm correct, any helpful advice on how to do this is greatly appreciated. If I'm wrong, thank you for correcting me.

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For the longest time the panel was pretty much hanging loose. Pressure in the right place caused a buzzing or humming sound so I figured since it is warm I'd try reassembling the car. It appears that a number of these panels are not being fitted properly at the factory or the dealer (like me) is having a bugger of a time trying to replace them which explains some of the buzzes and rattles.

 

I am having trouble keeping the panel on. Is there a way to secure it? Since both my wife and I have long legs, we seem to dislodge the panel many times. Thanks for any answers.

 

Glue it on with clear RTV. Easy to remove if you want to later.

Mike

 

That thing's always been loose for me. I've used velcro tape, double sided tape, foam tape, doesn't matter because just when I think I fixed the damn rattle, another one pops up...cheap plastics can't be fixed with tape, it's a Toyota in-house matter since they decided these crappy pieces were fine, and obviously it hasn't deterred people much based on sales figures...sad

 

There is a certain Prius rattle plant and a semi quiet one then the non-rattle Prius plant. The 11th digit in the VIN number tell what plant/line it was built in. This is only the Liftback, 0=rattle, 1=kinda-quiet, 5= no=rattles.

Mike

 

Interesting. My VIN has the 5, and no rattles so far....in 8 months and 15k miles.

 

Mine also came from #5 called the Fugimatsu plant Zero rattles and appears to be put together well. Panels line up nice and so forth I was thrilled to find out is was made in that plant even before it hit the shores of Oregon

Mike