[justsayyes]

I'm getting a sort of plastic on plastic knocking sound in my dashboard somewhere in front of the passenger seat. It sounds as if there is a plastic piece loose or only attached at one end that knocks/bounces against another piece. The noise occurs at slow speed over small/medium road bums and dips. Larger bumps do not produce the sound. Driving about (30?) does not produce the sound (at least not regularly). Note that because it's behind the dash, I can't really be sure if it's plastic or metal that's causing the noise.

Any ideas of where to begin my search? Should I take it in and waste a day or two while running the very real risk of, "we could reproduce the sound. All is good!" sort of aggravation? I just rec'd my dash/door panel remover tool kit...

 

[Voodoo Idol]

Do you have anything in your glove box?

 

[lkaufmann19]

Do you have anything in your glove box?

Best advice ever. Take everything out of all of the compartments and try again. I kept getting rattles that were intermittent and I got a bit worried. Took my EZ-Pass out of the sunglass holder and the rattles stopped..

 

[1986]

deleted

 

[R1600Turbo]

I had a rattle that I tracked down to the vanity mirror light under the drivers sun visor. Had plans on taking it out to put some foam behind it but in my procrastination it went away.

 

[lkaufmann19]

I had a similar sound, it ended up being the passenger's seatbelt tongue bouncing off the door frame. I'm trying to source the sound of rustling paper from the back seat area. It's intermittant, and by the sound of it I should be seeing a tornado of newsprint in my rearview mirror but I see nothing, and it always happens at a speed where it's unsafe to turn my head around.

I sometimes get some noise when I have all four windows open on the highway that sounds similar. I think its the rear seat belts flopping around with the wind. I also get the seat belt tongue on the center pillar noise as well.

 

[justsayyes]

Great suggestions. I'll strip everything out a see what happens. Glove box has the clear plastic "bag" that holds the owners manuals, registration and proof of insurance. I'd hate to pull panels for nothing so next step is the clean out. I THINK I've eliminated the passenger seat belt clasp as that seems to make a different noise.

 

[kdetlor]

Great suggestions. I'll strip everything out a see what happens. Glove box has the clear plastic "bag" that holds the owners manuals, registration and proof of insurance. I'd hate to pull panels for nothing so next step is the clean out. I THINK I've eliminated the passenger seat belt clasp as that seems to make a different noise.

Use painters masking tape on things you might think it is. This will help eliminate possibilities.

 

[justsayyes]

I was hoping this thread would somehow disappear but it seems that I have to 'fess up. Turns out the noise was from a cheap pair of sunglasses that I threw into the sunglasses holder above the rear view mirror and forgot about. Recently, my wife and I were driving on a road with an uneven and irregular surface so we were traveling at just the right speed/body movement combination to get the noise to be almost persistent. This allowed us to isolate it to the sunglasses holder! DOH!

Anyway, I do have a very slight buzz under certain conditions so will investigate and go the painters tape route when I find them....

 

[kdetlor]

I was hoping this thread would somehow disappear but it seems that I have to 'fess up. Turns out the noise was from a cheap pair of sunglasses that I threw into the sunglasses holder above the rear view mirror and forgot about. Recently, my wife and I were driving on a road with an uneven and irregular surface so we were traveling at just the right speed/body movement combination to get the noise to be almost persistent. This allowed us to isolate it to the sunglasses holder! DOH!

Anyway, I do have a very slight buzz under certain conditions so will investigate and go the painters tape route when I find them....

Lessons learned...shared lessons teach.

 

[WesternSwagz]

I had a similar sound, it ended up being the passenger's seatbelt tongue bouncing off the door frame. I'm trying to source the sound of rustling paper from the back seat area. It's intermittant, and by the sound of it I should be seeing a tornado of newsprint in my rearview mirror but I see nothing, and it always happens at a speed where it's unsafe to turn my head around.

I sometimes get some noise when I have all four windows open on the highway that sounds similar. I think its the rear seat belts flopping around with the wind. I also get the seat belt tongue on the center pillar noise as well.

Same thing for me. I found mine to be the middle rear belt, it slaps against the leather seat. I just keep the rear windows about halfway down and the fronts and sunroof all the way. The rears seem to help with minimizing wind noise up front.