I have had my Mini for over a year now and have 11,000 miles on it. It just developed a rattle in the dash board. Sounds like it is coming from the top near the vents. Anyone experience this?

 

I've got close to 9,000 miles on mine and I have an increasingly annoying rattle in the area of the glove box, I know some of it is the glovebox itself, but sometimes it seems like it is coming from the dash area. I have my first service coming up on Tuesday, and that is a top item on my list of things for the dealer to look at.

 

I had a lower dash rattle as well
you can pop off the front dash and see if anything is loose
but if the rattle is near the wishield where my new one is then you are screwed
the dealer ship cant even fix it
but you can stuff some cloth in between to get rid of most of it.
good luck
I love cheap plastic

 

hmm no dash rattles yet

 

I've had my S since May of 2002. Around 11,000 I too have the rattle. It took me awhile to figure out where it was coming from. Mine is also coming from the dash near the top vents. I haven't done anything about it and I'm now around 25,000 miles. I did notice that it comes and goes, depending on the temp outside. I’ll put my hand on it for a few seconds when it starts up and then it stops. I figure one of these days I may do something about it. In the meantime I turn up the radio.

 

I have that same rattle! On a smooth road, it's quiet....lying in wait....then, when I hit a bump, it comes to life and won't shut up. I didn't know you can take the dash off. How? Does it just pop off?

 

>>I've had my S since May of 2002. Around 11,000 I too have the rattle. It took me awhile to figure out where it was coming from. Mine is also coming from the dash near the top vents. I haven't done anything about it and I'm now around 25,000 miles. I did notice that it comes and goes, depending on the temp outside. I’ll put my hand on it for a few seconds when it starts up and then it stops. I figure one of these days I may do something about it. In the meantime I turn up the radio.

That describes mine exactly! The rattle began immediately following laps at PIR (phoenix international raceway). I figured something had knocked loose and still haven't gotten around to fixing it. Rather loud knock type of rattle (as opposed to creaky/squeaky), intermittant and possibly linked to temp! Interesting that others may have it.

 

I have had rattles and have used syrofoam peanuts to quiet them. You compress them flat and slide them into the loose gaps. They expand and provide a buffer and inssulation for the rattle.

 

I got the same rattle in my MCS a couple of weeks ago. I determined that it was the "button" thing in the center of the dash, where the auto AC sensor goes. It just pops in and out, and had become loose. What I did was put it back in, then twist it until it kinda friction locked. It hasn't started rattleing again yet.

 

My Rattle is fixed thanks to the service dept. at assael mini. i've had that rattle for a while i was going in for a windshield so i told them about the rattle. They said there is a bulletin on it they had had the car for two days.i was told that the dashboard comes out and the mounting points get insulated, kinda a big job but it is nice to have quiet.it only took 28000 miles

 

I have 10k miles on mine and developed the dash rattle. A very annoing rattle. When I had the 10k service done I told Honolulu mini about it, they said they found the rattle but would need to remove the dash, a very involved job that would need to be rescheduled. I've set up an appointment for next week. Hopfully they can solve it. The rattle/squeek comes and goes and is more prevelent when there are two people in the car. The good thing is that it's a documented problem that mini is aware of. If you have the rattle have mini pull the dash and fix it, If its like mine, its just going to get worse.

 

but if the rattle is near the wishield where my new one is then you are screwed
the dealer ship cant even fix it
____________________________

This rattle is totally fixable. You have to pressure the dealership to fix it. The windshield might have to be removed, but the dash has to be removed and taken apart. Mine took 2 days at MINI, but it is totally fixed now, not one dash rattle. I tried to locate the post from Johnna, member here that I printed out his fix at his dealership from the technician there that figured out how to fix it and took it to my dealership. They used it as I told them this post was all over the internet regarding the dash rattles. They used the post to fix mine...it can be fixed, be persistent as it took me 3 trips to finally get it done. I'm sure they weren't thrilled about spending 2 days tearing the dash totally apart, fixing it and putting it back together..maybe Johnna still has the info you can take to the dealership concerning the dash rattle.....

 

>>I've had my S since May of 2002. Around 11,000 I too have the rattle. It took me awhile to figure out where it was coming from. Mine is also coming from the dash near the top vents. I haven't done anything about it and I'm now around 25,000 miles. I did notice that it comes and goes, depending on the temp outside. I’ll put my hand on it for a few seconds when it starts up and then it stops. I figure one of these days I may do something about it. In the meantime I turn up the radio.

!! Wow - This describes my rattle EXACTLY!! If it is HOT outside, no rattle. After the A/C is blasting or if it is cold outside the rattle is REALLY obnoxious - especially when driving over rough roads!

I took my 03 MCS to Baron MINI and they tried to take care of it - they "padded and insulated" the area under the dash.. two days later the rattle was back and just as annoying. I am glad to hear that I am not alone in this, but also sad to know that others are having this problem!! Maybe we all need to bark at MINIUSA about this?

 

Can anyone shed any further light on this process.... I am about to go nuts if I don't fix this rattle... I have 25k+ miles on mine so far and here in Florida you only get one temperature... HOT! I have basically a constant rattle between the speedo and the top vent which if I squeeze the dash between the two it goes away... generally it is a light rattle on smooth roads easily covered by the radio, but even the slightest bump makes it loud and obnoxious.

Any info on self fixes available?

 

I now have a buzz coming from the driver doorOnly when the window is down,and I'm going less than 40 mph. May still be there at 40+ but wind noise takes over.I drive with the windows down and the heat on till it gets real cold

 

Jeremy,

I had the same rattle at about 25k, or before...anyway, I have almost 35K now. I took Wanda in for her 1st Inspection at 28K and complained about the rattle. Was told that it was a KNOWN problem. Made another appointment and the dash was removed, a rubber o-ring of some sort was installed, and NO MORE RATTLES! YAY!

I believe there is a service bulletin about it, so take your MINI into your dealership and ask them to fix it for you! Good luck!

Clover

 

Thanks for the help!

 

Had mine fixed last week at the dealer. They put some felt around some retaining pins. Nice and quiet:smile:

 

Some ideas for you:
1. remove the door panel
2. you will see that there are about 50 melted plastic rivets holding the various pieces of the door panel and speaker grill together. Check to see if any of these are loose, and if so, put 2-part epoxy on them. You can see some of these things in this image here: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...8_1820-med.JPG

3. get some felt with sticky back (you can get this stuff at craft stores). You will see that there are round plastic pop-in connectors along the sides and bottom edge of the panel, which fit into holes in the steel door frame (these are the connectors that you pop out to remove the panel). I would suggest applying a small patch of felt around each of the holes on the steel door frame, in order to limit rattling of these plastic connector thingies.

4. as a finishing touch, you might want to cut thin strips of sticky-back felt and apply it all along the side and bottom edges of the plastic door panel where it makes contact with the steel door frame.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks MiniCooperMark
I'm going to the dealer soon,and will get them to look into it.But if they can't make it right,I will try out what you said to do

 

You will be back.
My dealer did the same thing. The rattle went away for a short time but like everyone else, I now hear it from the vents when it is cold.

 

Mine went away when the defroster was on. Maybe I will be OK until next summer

 

I'm at 27,000 miles in my 2003 MC, and I now have the 2 most annoying rattles. In my dash it sounds like a high frequency tinkling type of vibration/rattle. Almost like aluminum foil being crinkled.

I also have that driver side window/door rattle. I've been ignoring the door rattle for the past 2,000 miles but the dash one is pretty irritating.

Richard

 

Mine started rattling at 100 miles or so, and they've only gotten worse:

1 in the driver-side window near the ear
1 in the driver-side door panel
1 in the passenger-side door panel
1 in the dash somewhere behind the tach
1 in the dash somewhere below the speedo
1 in the glovebox

Also...

A bearing is shot somewhere in the car, possibly the alternator, so it makes a horrid grinding noise when it starts.

The breather hose collapsed at about 4000 miles, I have it forced open with a zip tie until I get a chance to get it fixed under recall.

The magnaflow has popped a few welds and sounds like a few marbles in a tin can all the time.

I know my rattles!

37,500 miles and counting...

Dealership responses: "Cannot repeat conditions"

Of course all these rattles magically disappear when you go to get 'em fixed.

 

My passenger door rattled (like how Octaneguy discribed as a high pitched
crinckling foil sound) while my window or sunroof was opened and caused
slight vaccume in the car.

It would stop rattling if I gently pushed or pulled on the door's map holder....
so I decided to bandaid the rattle by putting a hoizontal support in the
door's map holder to put pressure on the door panel. stopped the noise.