I have developed a vibration/rattle which seems to be behind the central speedo satnav display. The dealer has repaced the plastic trim surrounding the spedo/airvents, but to no avail. Has anyone else had a similar problem and been able to find the cause of it?

had similar, for the short time then it's gone and never back by now... first thought was something in the glovebox...

Hello mate.

As daft as this may sound are you sure it's the dash I picked my MCS up a few weeks back and it developed annoying squeak/rattle from what I swore was the behind the speedo. Turns out it was a loose bit a trim in the back near the boot lid and the sound was echoing to the front. I was ready to get them to rip the dash out but they stopped it by tightening a couple of bits up and greasing them.

Good luck any way those rattles don half ruin the experience!

Ry

Thanks guys. It's certainly not the glovebox as I have emptied this and still have the rattle. I will now check the rear of the car to see if there is anything loose.

Yep. Have booked it in to be looked at on Tuesday. It's behind the rev counter for me.

My Countryman had so many bits of buzzy rattley trim that I came to the conclusion that it was just poor design and not something that could be cured.

Never again! Thankfully it's gone. Forever.

Yep. Have booked it in to be looked at on Tuesday. It's behind the rev counter for me.

How did you get on with this? It sound exactly the same as one of my rattles!
My car goes back to the dealer next week (4th visit) for 2 days to try and fix this and I would love to tell them what is causing this one.

thanks

Robbie

I forgot to ask... They wanted to order a part and have a further look at it (I needed the car, so need to book in for a revisit).

So far I am impressed with the level of concern and understanding they are showing, so I have very good hopes of things being resolved.

Please keep us advised how you go with the fix. Have the same issue and it's driving me insane.

I have a rattle noise in both doors near the dashboard and is more hearable when I am driving on bumpy roads, this rattles are very annoying ... I hate them... I am looking for disasamble the dashboard in order to look what I can do. I also don not if the noise could come fron the speaker located in the front door.
If anybody knows how to ammend this issue I will appreciete your help.

Well, the car has been with the dealer for 7 days. They could not find the rattle at first but did a test drive each day and, on day 3, they heard it!. They have diagnosed this as faulty dashbord fixings. Evidently the top dash is fitted to the lower part with plastic fixings and these are padded with a felt tape to prevent any noise but these seem to be faulty, or incorrectly fitted on my car.

They had to take the dash out to correct this and have now fitted everything back together and I will get the car back tomorrow. It remains to be seen if this has solved the problem but will keep my fingers crossed.

I have to say that my dealer has been brilliant and stuck with it to resolve the problem and I have had the use of a brand new Clubman Cooper Hampton for the past week.

Mind if you post the dealer's contact details on the forum? I would like my dealer to get in touch with them regarding how to fix it. I have had a lot of difficulty getting warranty work done correctly in Australia. Would really help if one dealer could talk to another. Seems that BMW does not share their database of reported problems and suggested solutions... Annoying for dealer and customer! Window regulator for passenger side window was recently replaced and the dealer chipped the internal door paint, damaged the plastic trim and broke several clips. Don't want a repeat of this! Bogan BMW dealers here in Aus!

Mind if you post the dealer's contact details on the forum? I would like my dealer to get in touch with them regarding how to fix it. I have had a lot of difficulty getting warranty work done correctly in Australia. Would really help if one dealer could talk to another. Seems that BMW does not share their database of reported problems and suggested solutions... Annoying for dealer and customer! Window regulator for passenger side window was recently replaced and the dealer chipped the internal door paint, damaged the plastic trim and broke several clips. Don't want a repeat of this! Bogan BMW dealers here in Aus!

My dealer is:

Westerly Mini
Matford Park Road
Exeter EX2 8FD
UK
Tel: 44 1392 825753

Good luck.

Robbie

So, hows the rattles now?

I had a rattle quite early on with my CM, they tried a few things (this was when the CM was brand new, I'm not sure they'd even seen one before they got mine in!) and in the end it was the bolts holding in the glovebox that were not tightened enough so were rattling. Hopefully this bit of information can save someone a lot of hassle! 18 months in and no other rattles since this one :)

So, hows the rattles now?

Well, the main rattle in the centre of the dash seems to have been sorted but still getting an intermitent one from the area around the steering column.

I think I will learn to live with them. Prefer this than damage caused by investigating these things.

If they cant find a reason after around 4 attempts, it becomes a "Characteristic" of the marque.

If they cant find a reason after around 4 attempts, it becomes a "Characteristic" of the marque.

"A Characteristic of the marque" I like that, yes, I can live with a characteristic. Thanks for the spiritual advice Nun!:D

I had a dash rattle recently that was hard to trace. Eventually found that the terminal cover on the battery was loose (funny enough just after being serviced) and rubbing against the bulkhead.

the rattles comes from the side air con vents in the dashboard, I beleive that there are something wrong installed or wrong insulated.... this week I will buy a Tork screew and eded to kill this mdfk noise that is make me crazy!!

Well, it's been a long story since I started this post but it may be near the end now. The car has been back into the dealer for the past week, having previously been in for a week last month and 5 times in all.

Yesterday we went to collect the car having been told the rattle was fixed but on the drive home, there it was again! Straight back to the dealer and this time the rattle continued so I was able to take the car out with their engineer. He identified the noise as coming form the area under the top central vent above the speedo, forward to the demister vent. When he applied pressure the noise stopped.

So, at long last we now know where the rattle is and I have left the car with them to rectify, and they are confident they can sort this out once and for all.

It is a very sorry story of an expensive car with not so expensive quality construction/design by Mini. Thankfully, I have a superb dealer and despite the odd glitch they have stuck with it and done everything they could to get things sorted for me.

Every time the car goes in I get an email from Mini to rate their service. It's a pitty they don't take as much care building their cars, and contacting customers when there is a persistent and ongoing problem. 9 out of 10 to my dealer and nil points to Mini. The shine has certainly gone off the Countryman for me.:mad:

That's what took the shine off my Countryman too. The disappointing build quality. The dash rattle I have is the same as yours. I have learnt to live with it. I had an Alfa 147 ti a few years ago and it was in with the dealer every 2nd week for warranty work. I sold it ASAP. I really don't want to go through that again with a 'BMW' product... Seems to be sound mechanically, just the cheaper interior fitout let's it down.

Robbie - Nice to hear that your dealer is willing to help fight your battle with the beancounters in Germany. If more dealers like yours actually had the balls to challenge BMW and ask/demand for better quality we would all be ahead in this game including the beancounters with larger sales, profits and being able to raise their chins high with a little bit of pride and respect.

Here in Canada, we average about 4,000 MINI sales per year out of the 110,000 sold worldwide, or 3.6%. The voice from our 28-30 dealerships mean jack squat to the beancounters in Germany. If more dealerships like yours starting to challenge BMW and their goons, then life really would be sweet and I would be out enjoy the art of automoble riding in a Countryman S All4.

Gute nacht BMW! :)

Thanks guys, seems like we have a global thing going on here. Australia, Canada and UK so far.
Yes, I am very fortunate that I have a superb dealer in Westerly at Exeter who are still working on my car as we speak. They have stuck with it and accepted their responsibility to their customer. First Class and 5 Stars from me, which is remarkable considering my car has been off the road for a total of 3 weeks since the start of April. It is also 5 stars more than I would give Mini. It is also fortunate for Mini that they have dealers with this level of integrity.
My understanding is that BMW will only pay the dealers so much depending on the issue. After this it is down to the dealers to suffer the cost and the pain which seems very unfair if the build quality of their cars is not up to scratch.
Come on BMW/Mini, start supporting your customers and the cars they paid you good money for. Don't leave it all to the dealers.

After one month I have decided to remove the dash panel, Thanks to someone who posted the first steps to do this quest. Finally, with the dash panel part removed I decided to drive the R60 willing to discover and isolate the rattle noise..... but.... the noise comes from the main dashboard attached to the car body..... so I have put all the stuff in place again ,and I will delivered the R60 to the dealer next week in order to do him his work.... I live in Lima Peru, streets are not the best but this is a Mini-BMW car.... and rattle noise are nor allowed for the price that we paid, right?

latest on my Countryman is that having put the car back together there is still a creak and the dealer removed the dashboard yet again and have now ordered a new unit. It will be another week before I see my car but have a Countryman SD on load now so just hoping that my car car will be squeak, creak and rattle free when I get it back.

My car has now developed a very annoying tinkly rattle from somewhere around the dashboard, but it only appears around 3000rpm! Getting out of the car this evening I pranged the clutch pedal and noticed it made the same noise. I'm assuming its something that the clutch pedal is attached too as it sounds as if its coming from behind the dash. It sounds kinda like that tinkly noise a refrigerator makes. Driving me nuts!:angry:

Everyone needs to contact Mini / BMW in their respective countries and complain about this. This is clearly a significant design flaw.

It is a safety concern as it can be very distracting.

What's worse, you have people pulling their own dash apart trying to find the issue.

If the dealers are having no luck at fixing it, the only solution left is BMW providing a new dash for all Countryman owners.

I really expect better from a BMW product...

But then again, Mini is at the bottom of all JD power surveys. In that regard, they live up to reputation.

It is a safety concern as it can be very distracting.

.

A little tinkle is no more distracting than a car stereo, you know the ones, that will only work on full volume if the windows are right down :rolleyes: