Maddening on/off dash rattle
 

My 2009 has a weird rattle coming from the passenger side dashboard/behind the dashboard area. It's "weird" because it is speed sensitive and it doesn't happen all the time. If it does occur, it happens only at highway speeds usually 60mph+ even if the road is completely smooth. It almost sounds like a plastic ball bouncing around against other plastic. Like a ping pong ball. At first, I thought it might be the rubber cover in the wheel well flapping around so I took it off but that didn't solve it. The only thing in my glove box is the owners manual and it's tightly stored in the upper "secret' compartment. I dropped the glove box door and everything seems tight and solid. The rubber trim between the windshield and A pillar on the outside is seated fine. The roof rack hardware is all tight. Nothing loose under the hood or around the fire wall. Just in case I taped down the washer fluid lines under the hood. I haven't had a chance for anyone to sit in the passenger seat for a ride yet and I bet it wont make the noise if I did. I'm too OCD to just "turn up the music." Any ideas??

So there are a few members who have had issues with the air flow causing noise from a part called the servo assembly. Try seeing if you turn off the air/ up the air if it helps. people also find sometimes cycling between the lowest temp on the HVAC control and the highest temp (85) back and forth a few times can help temporarily if this is the issue. Presumably you also checked the air cabin filter to make sure nothing is rattling around.

I know my entire dashboard and headunit trim dont fit perfectly so sometimes they rattle too

Remove your cabin filter and see if anything is sitting on the fan motor. I had a similar rattle and turned out there was an acorn bouncing around on the fan. I eventually did the “critter mod” - placing mesh over the fresh air intake at the base of the windshield - to prevent it from happening again.

https://i.imgur.com/6fyiP7ol.jpg

Thanks guys, I just got back in from tinkering around. I removed the glove box so I could get a better look. I ran the air fans a bit to listen for servo clicking or popping and nothing there. Removed the cabin air filter and while a little dirty in there did not see any debris. However I found the plastic "drawer" that the cabin air filter sits in felt a little loose when inserted. So I'm doing the felt test by putting a piece between the drawer and the blower to tighten it up how it sits in there. It's on the outside so it wont get into the fan. I'm wondering if air is causing it to move around at highway speeds. If it happens again Ill remove the glove box and go for a drive to see if the sound is more prominent.

Did your rattle noise happen just any time the fan motor was spinning or all the time? When it occurs for me, it creeps in after about 50-55mph regardless of whether the climate control is on or not. I'm starting to wonder if the windshield wiper, which is a RainX blade type, is chattering against the window at speed due to airflow.

I went through the same hunt last month. Rattled behind the passenger dash and only while moving.

I pulled apart and checked a whole lot and it ended up being my front pass fender liner. One of the clips wasn’t seated all the way down so the liner would rattle while moving.

Sounds loud from inside and couldn’t hear it outside with the windows rolled down.


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All the time IIRC, but being in Georgia, the fan is on most of the time and the thing was probably rolling around the rest of the time.

When you say fender liner are you talking about the rubber splash guard that has 3 clips? That was one of the first things I removed to see if it was flapping around at higher speeds but the gurglely rattle was still there. The black plastic between my fender flare and the body feels secure but I just pushed on it. can you take a photo of what you fixed?

Something else to check is the rubber “weatherstripping“ around the edge of the engine bay. My wife’s Acura had a situation like this, an odd noise that only happened at higher speeds. I discovered, after a LOT of time trying to figure it out, that part of one of those pieces had come loose and wouldn’t flutter until a certain speed was reached.

I just checked the weather stripping. It's all tight and "hooked" on as it should. Toyota really over engineered it to last. Today going down the freeway I dropped the glovebox so I know it's not the latch rattling and listened as best as I could and it sounded like it was coming from the A pillar area or where the door and dash come together. Im really at a loss at this point. Ill try to get someone to ride with me or drive while I listen.

glove box rattle? did you put that glove box shock back in? did it broke off? how about take 4 screws out and remove the top box, the secrete compartment and see if anything its rubbing? that should give you more access to that area and firewall and kick panel. could be a broken clip.

When I first purchased my used 4runner, it had a similar rattle on the passenger side that appeared around 50 mph and became worse as I drove faster, more so on windy days. I bought a mechanics stethescope, had a friend drive it while I listened, no luck. I even dropped the headliner looking for something with no luck. It was starting to drive me crazy. Then I realized I was attacking from the wrong direction, instead of looking for the rattle I decided to see if an air leak was the issue.

I put duct tape on the right side of the winshield over the outside seal and heard silence going down the highway! After smiling for a few miles, I pulled over and started taking small pieces from the top and bottom of the duct tape until I heard the noise again. Once I had the offending spot isolated, some black silicone sealant applied to the spot solved the problem for good. It's been 2 years and the fix is still holding.

Interesting, I might try this. I've been baffled at how it's a speed related which tells me air/wind is causing something to move/rattle.

UPDATE: I put tape from the bottom of the windshield almost to the top of the black rubber trim and went down the highway and there was no noise except for a little bit but I had to go almost 80mph. So it is definitely related to airflow making or causing the clattering/rattle. I am going to see about how to best tackle this now...

Oh I guess I should tell you all what the issue was. The clacking/rattling noise was the black rubber trim that goes down the side of the windshield. One night while It was acting up I took my seat belt off and leaned over and pinpointed it to be about half way up the A pillar area but it was not on the interior. I pulled over, pulled the trim out from its seating about a half inch, went down the highway and total silence. Since I cant have it just popped out all the time, I sprayed some lithium grease on the rubber part that pops in and it's all gone. How that trim piece somehow made a rattling/popping noise when it was tightly installed baffles me still but the rattle is gone and that's all that matter.