rattle under dashboard

[tendons]

we havea rattle in the mcs, early 2003 build, which began after we brought the car in for the rear end recall. I don't know if it's related, but we noticed it on the way home. Real rattle. We live 90 miles away from the dealer and there is no one in New Orleans who will consider handling the car. The bmw dealer who does not have the franchise absolutely refuses.
The question I have is 1- is there an easy way of removing the spedometer cluster, because the rattle sounds like it's directly behind the instrument. Another thing is that the rattle can be stopped almost entirely by pushing on the vent in the center of the dashboard. it sounds as if there has to be something attached to the vent, which is loose.2- Is there a diagram or service manual somewhere on linewhich would show how to get into the dashboard? thanks.

[sjbartnik]

Wow. I had that EXACT same rattle and I've been chasing it for a while. It sounds like it's coming from the instrument cluster, but it's not. It is coming from the area under the padded dash cover by the defroster vent.

I wrote some instructions on how to take this all apart and they are on my web site.

I just posted them yesterday so your timing is excellent.

Once you get the dash cover off you can play with the vent shroud underneath there and activate the rattle at will. I put some cardboard spacers under it to stiffen things up and that seems to have done the trick so far. See my site for instructions and pics.

[Shorty]

Quote: Originally Posted by tendons

we havea rattle in the mcs, early 2003 build, which began after we brought the car in for the rear end recall. I don't know if it's related, but we noticed it on the way home. Real rattle. We live 90 miles away from the dealer and there is no one in New Orleans who will consider handling the car. The bmw dealer who does not have the franchise absolutely refuses.
The question I have is 1- is there an easy way of removing the spedometer cluster, because the rattle sounds like it's directly behind the instrument. Another thing is that the rattle can be stopped almost entirely by pushing on the vent in the center of the dashboard. it sounds as if there has to be something attached to the vent, which is loose.2- Is there a diagram or service manual somewhere on linewhich would show how to get into the dashboard? thanks.

The sound you describe is coming from under the dashboard vent, just had mine done by my dealer. Not quite sure what it was though!

[PigLick]

sj, great site. I have a rattle coming from the front of my dash too, but mine seems to be coming from under the darker hard plastic piece in front of the dash cover. It doesn't look like you took that part off, but did you hapen to notice how easy/difficult it would be to do so?

PigLick

[sjbartnik]

PigLick, quite right in that I did not take that part off. Removing the padded cover is easy. Everything else appears to be not easy. It did not look like anything else in there was coming apart in a simple way.

But you may simply have the same rattle we had, so pull off the padded cover and see what you find

[PigLick]

heh, ok, thanks for the info. I don't know if I'll ever even get around to pulling the cover off (due to general laziness, lack of space, and lack of tools), but if I do, your site will come in very handy.

PigLick

[sjbartnik]

Nevermind -- rattle came back today. Grrrr

[PigLick]

doh! I played around a bit yesterday on the way home, and I'm almost positive mine is coming from the front, hard black plastic piece in front of the dash cover. If I pressed fairly hard on the dash vent, the rattle did go away, but I had to put a fair amount of pressure on it. On the other hand, by putting almost no pressure at all on the front (between the UV sensor and windshield), it went away immediately. I'm not sure if it is that plastic piece itself causing the rattle, or if there is something underneath it which is causing it, but it is definitely coming fdrom somewher in that vicinity.

PigLick

[sjbartnik]

I've taken the dash cover off this evening and removed my spacers. Readjusted that center vent and left the dash cover off. Will try it tomorrow morning and see what I've got.

If it does rattle tomorrow morning I will try the area around the sun sensor as you did.

[002]

sjbartnik,
thanks for posting that information on your site. It saves us all a lot of time and broken parts. really appreciate it. I'm just about to crack that baby open on my cars and am glad I saw this post.

[stellablade]

There's nothing more annoying than when that happens! You think you've found the rattle and nailed it down but it comes back to haunt you. It seems as though the quality of plastics isn't of a high standard in the MINI. I guess this is where costs were cut. Also the plastics seem very prone to changes in temperature (especially when cold). I'm not sure why this is, most other cars I've been in don't seem to display this behaviour.

Quote: Originally Posted by sjbartnik

Nevermind -- rattle came back today. Grrrr

[sjbartnik]

OK so this morning I drove to work with the dash pad removed after making my adjustments last night and there was no rattle. It was certainly cool enough this morning to produce the rattle.

So the next step is to put the dash pad back on and try again.

[scooterboy]

Perhaps it's the dash pad itself? Possibly the underside of it is clicking against something?

[sjbartnik]

Nope. The original time I had the dash pad off I was able to replicate the rattle without the dash pad even being installed.

It's something deeper than that.

[sjbartnik]

PigLick,
I was still getting the rattle (though less) and yesterday I removed the sun sensor thinking that perhaps it was causing the rattle, especially based on your post. The sensor simply pries out (gently!) and then what I did is wrap a layer of electrical tape around it, then put it back in its hole for a more secure fit.

So far so good, no rattle this morning.

EDIT: Well nevermind, that didn't do anything. Something I did before has made it better but it still pops up every now and then. Certainly not as often as before.