thelinux

I see a lot of people having rattle around driver side dashboard and A pillar. I am having this rattle with my 2008 TL too.
It sounds like plastic hitting plastic. A tic-tac rolling around in a plastic box like. If you press around tweeter, the rattle seems to goes away. I took my car to dealer 3 times but they couldn't fix it. (Of course they said they fixed it everytime. But not really)
I guess I've read all posts about this rattle on this board and tried all the fix I found in them. But the rattle is still there.

Does any one know the exact cause and fix of this rattle?

Also I have some squeaking noise from driver side vent. I applied felt around the edge of vent hole where vent assembly contacts with dashboard. It reduced the noise by a lot. But still it squeaks on very rough road. Is there anything else I can try to fix this?

maharajamd

iTrader: (1)

I have noticed several areas over there that can go wrong...

- The meshy plastic dash cover that is right above the drivers side vent contacts and expands and makes noises.
- The silver piece where is mates up underneath the same vent/dash makes noises.
- The tweeter makes noises...

SouthernBoy

Maybe four+ years ago, someone posted a fix to the noisy driver's side tweeter problem. Something to do with removing it and wrapping a little electrical tape about the barrel, but do a search and see if you can come up with it.

My '04 manual does this too under certain temperature conditions only, but my '05 automatic doesn't.

vinnier6

iTrader: (1)

i have the same exact rattle, i too think its the tweeter cover...how does it come off...do i just try to pry it off or what....

thelinux

I think it has nothing to do with tweeter. I put electircal tape around the tweeter but that did not help at all. I took out the tweeter and shaked it hard. But no rattling from tweeter.

The tweeter sits very tight in it's hole. So it's hard to see the tweeter grill is making to noise.

Only thing worked was squeeze in some piece of felt or rubber between dashboard and windshield near VIN number plate. It helps a lot in reducing noise but not completely.

To take out tweeter, be careful. They are easily get scratched.
Also, do not put any metal object or tools on the dashboard. Dashboard get scratch very easy too.

Go autozone and get a filler gauge. It's thin flat metal stick with round edge so it will be safer in terms of scratch. Wrap it with some thin cloth or electric tape. Slide it in between tweeter grill and dash board and slowly fry it up.

But I won't recommend you to do this as I said, I think this rattle has nothing to do with tweeter. (My dealer already replaced the whole tweeter assembly but the rattle is still there)

I will do some extensive check tomorrow. I will drive my car without tweeter and driver side vent assembly and see if I can find anything about this issue.

I will keep posting.

SouthernBoy

I use either a very small straight blade screw driver or a table bread and butter knife to remove it. No scratches or marks of any kind with these. There is another item on the driver's side that can rattle: the dash vent. Remove it and put some felt tape on the bottom. I did this around two years ago and what little bit of an occasional rattle from that disappeared.

vinnier6

iTrader: (1)

i also think i might be comming from the area around the vin plate, all i know is that when the noise is going on i reach up around the tweeter and put some pressure there and the noise goes away....i was going to put some felt up inbetween the windshield and vin plate or just by the pillar and the dash too....keep the posts comming and lets get it figured out together....

thelinux

OK, I took off the whole driver side vent assembly then drove from work to home today. It was about 40 min drive on local road, mostly rough surface.

Guess what. Absolutely no rattle.
Originally, I thought I have rattle from tweeter area. Took my car to dealer to fix it 3 times. They thought it was the driver side vent. But I did not think so because I was getting no rattle from vent. Anyway they took off the vent added some felt tape. Then the vent started to make a lot of rattle. Delaer simply made it worse.

So until now, I thought I have two rattles. On from tweeter area and a lot from vent.

But after today's test, I think it's all coming from vent.
The original thought (rattle from tweeter) now looks like wrong.

The dealer did not apply felt tape around vent completely.
Mostly the edge of vent make contact with dashboard. The dealer did not cover all these edge completely.

So, I think it's vent hitting against dashboard. The rattle seems like get better when I push near tweeter. My theory is that this pressure bend dashboard slightly and gives makes some gab between vent and dashboard which prevents hitting each other.

I looked at the vent assembly very carefully then added foam tape wherever I suspect as noise source. It took about 1 hour to carefully do this. (A lot of thinking actually)

I also observed that the vent assembly could make contact with the plastic air pipe under the dashboard.

So, tomorrow I will apply foam tape around air pipe under dashboard and every suspected spot under dashboard.

Let's see if this would fix the rattle.

BTW, when I tested today without vent assembly, I still had tweeter in place. I applied electrical tape around tweeter housing before the test drive. So I don't know for sure if this stopped tweeter rattle if I had one. If I really had tweeter rattle then it means that tweeter housing was sitting in the hole loosely. So applying tape around the tweeter housing makes the housing's diameter little bigger and makes it tight sitting which stopped the tweeter housing hitting dashboard. Just my guess.

knavinusa

I believe I have the same rattle, and it does seem like it's probably coming from the tubing attached to the top of the vent. Tried bringing it to the dealer to fix it and it worked for a day, but came back pretty quickly. I told them it was the tweeter that rattled so they probably cushioned the wrong area.

thelinux

Here is what I did today. First of all, it looks like the rattle is gone.

This is what I used. Purchased from Ace hardware. This is a sponge tape with sticky back. You will need 2 rolls of this. I also used velco stripe softside. But do not use velcro. It's too thick for this job. Find something very thin like felt tape.

Pic 1.



Now you need to take off driver side vent. Pull the lower left corner (circled in yellow) first. there are
6 clips holding the vent assembly in place. 4 (blue lines) are shown and other 2 clips are on the other side. (You can't see it from this angle so I did not draw) It comes out real easy. When I did the first time, I almost felt like it fell off by itself thinking something was wrong with clips. It's that easy. Once you loosen up these 4 clips I marked in this picture, you can easily take out the whole vent assembly.
Pic 2.



This is the side of vent assembly. You can see two clips (A & B). They are metal but I covered them with foam tape to mute possible squeaking. C (blue circle) is the end of vent which goes into metal pipe under the dash. You can see that it's already foam applied from the factory to prevent rattling.
Pic 3.



This is the other side showing two metal clips which I applied foam tape on.
Pic 4.


This is the top side. This is smaller vent which goes in to top air pipe under dashboard. The fog-removing air flows through this. I completely foam taped it.
Pic 5.



This is what's behind the vent assembly. You can see two big pipe holes. The top one is for fog-remove air passage. The two air pipe from vent assembly goes into these holes. As you can see I applied foam tapes inside of the pipes where I think the pipes from vent assembly sit on. Because We can't see how they meet each other when vent assembly is in it's place, I don't know for sure if they makes contact and rattle. So I decided to apply foam tape here to erase possible rattle cause here.
Also, in this picture, you can see that I applied velcro on dashboard where vent makes contact with it. This work was like doing a mosaic. I had to cut several pieces of velcro to perfectly cover all edges of dashboard completely. You have to apply velcro very close to the edges of dashboard because that's where vent assembly makes contact. If you apply velcro too much inward, vent assembly will make direct contact with dashboard which causes squeaking noise. If it's too much outward, velcro will be visible when the vent assembly goes in it's place. So you must be very careful here.
Pic 6.


This is the back side of the vent assembly. Acura applied foam tape at the end edge of pipe on vent assembly. But if you see it carefully, it only covers side area but not the area which could make contact with under dashboard pipe. (marked in red in the picture) This is why I used foam tape in Pic 6.
Pic 7.



This is the bottom side of the vent assembly. There are two plastic tabs here (Yellow circled). I applied foam tape on them.
Pic 8.



At the bottom of the vent assembly There are 3 plastic ribs which could cause rattle. I circled them in yellow in the picture. Another one is at the other side and now shown in this picture. So I did not draw circle for it. I put a piece of velcro between plastic ribs and lower part of the vent (the metal covered part at the bottom of the vent assembly)
Pic 9.



Yellows circles in below picture are where I added velcro because these I thought could cause rattle. The one at the top-center, I don't know what is that for. But it looks like it could make contact with the thing in pic 5. In Pic 5, you can see that there are something under the foam tape I applied. It is a plastic rib and I think it somehow works with the one shown in this picture at the top center. This is why I taped as in Pic 5. The Foam tape in Pic 5 is to kill the contact between vent assembly and this plastic tab shown in this picture. And the velcro I put under this plastic tab is to kill the contact between upper air pipe and this tab.
Pic 10.


Now I pushed the vent assembly back in it's place and this is how it looks like. As you can see in yellow circles, the velcro is visible. Velcro is too thick to use for this purpose. You can't see it from this picture but the vent assembly is not flush with dashboard. It's because velcro is too thick.
Pic 11.


Pic 12.



I test drove my car after this fix for about 40 minutes on rough road. No rattle. All the squeaking noise from vent are gone and the rattling I thought was from tweeter is gone too.

I guess the tweeter rattle was caused by vent air duct making direct contact against air pipe under the dashboard as I described in Pic 6 and 7.

Think about it. It's a pipe. When you hit a pipe, it gives a lot more resonance than most other shaped material. Pipe is made for good resonance like we hear from various musical instruments such as flute. So even a very weak contact with this plastic air pipe under dashboard could cause very vivid sound. We simply think it's from tweeter because this noise goes away when we press on the tweeter but when we press tweeter, we are actually pressing dashboard and air pipes under dashboard. I guess, somehow, tweeter area happen to be a good point for this but not the tweeter is the cause. I think somehow again, that pressing stopped vent assembly making contact with air pipe under dashboard. It's all just theory. It's hard to confirm the exact cause because we can't see what is going on under dashboard. So I guess we have to do a lot of guess until we find one that works.

It was over 80F when I test drove my car today. I don't know what would happen when it's cold. I will keep posting any further development.

My driver side noise is now completely gone, but it helped me to hear other rattles. :-(
I can definitely hear something from moonroof and some creaking noise from somewhere (looks like shifter trim).

SouthernBoy

I just remembered that there was a TSB out on the driver's side vent rattle and that's where I got the idea that I posted in post #6 above. It may still be out there.

thelinux

I think you are referring to Pic 9 of my post. I know there is a old TSB about it. But mine is 2008 TL so Acura must have fixed the problem. But anyway I made this fix a while ago but the rattle we are talking about was still there. So I guess we are talking about different rattle from what's said in the TSB.

thelinux

I have to make some change.
If you look at the bigger metal pipe under dashboard, it does not have complete groove (I can't find the right term, but you will know when you see it) inside. I can't remember exactly right now but it probably has wedge only in half like this picture (part in yellow)
Now I think I know why.




When vent is completely open the valve rotates and half of it's valve (yellow line) will come out beyond the edge of vent assembly. (blue line) So I think that is why in the above picture there is no groove at some part.



I think it should be even if you apply foam tape completely as foam tape is very flexible. But you may want to think about this if you are going to do this. I will fix mine when I re-do this with felt tape (not with velcro).

thelinux

Oh wait. I found the picture.

You see the area circled in red. See the groove is not completely goes all around inside of the pipe. So I guess you should know what I am talking about now.

thelinux

Bad news. The rattle came back yesterday and today. As people said on other thread, it looks like that this rattle is related to the ambient temperature. It did not rattle when I tested when the temperature was oever 70. But today and yesterday in the morning when the temperature is around at 60, it rattled away.
Now I am back to where I was. But I still think this is still something to do with vent assembly.

vinnier6

iTrader: (1)

that sucks, after looking at your pics, i would think that if you put too much material in there it will not fit the way it needs too....

thelinux

I think I found the source of the rattle.

It rattled again this morning. So I took off the vent assembly and drove.
Well, It still rattled.
So vent assembly is NOT the source of the rattle.
I was able to duplicate the rattle by hitting the bottom half of the upper pipe (the small plastic one). It made similar rattle sound when I hit the bottom half of the smaller pipe from inside of the pipe. (toward the bigger metal pipe).

I am not going to put back the vent assembly until I figure this out.
I am thinking to put some card board between bigger pipe and smaller pipe. It looks like somethings are making contact deep side of the vent hole. I couldn't see it well because it was dark outside.

Stay tuned.

vinnier6

iTrader: (1)

i would use something more sound deadning then cardboard....foam or something....

keep up the good work....you will get it

thelinux

Thanks. I would use foam if I can pin-point the contact point AND if I can reach my hand to it. Right now, It seems like the contact is being made deep in the hole. Even if I find the contact point, I don't think I can reach my hand to it.

So I am planning to put a narrow and long shaped card board deep in between upper and lower pipes and move it around until I can stop the rattle.

Once I can stop the rattle by doing this way, then I hope I can probably come up with better permanent solution.

I don't think it's possible to put a foam in that deep narrow space as foam is not a very solid object. But if this card board thing works, then I can maybe apply some foam on both side of the card board then stuck it between two pipes.

If you have better idea for this please share with me.

Charles12

Thelinux,

Nice illustration job.

The rattle issues seems a most popular one the TL faces. My 2008 TL driver side has rattle coming from the vent when the temperature is lower outside and turn on the heat.

In your case, you can use either heat or cold air to see the difference.

I simply do not turn on the heat to dashborad vent but to the floor.

Rattles from other locations keep coming out.

One good thing for the TL is its engine sounds - pretty good - fun to dirve.

thelinux

Thanks.

Right now, I can duplicate the noise regardless of the temperature using my hand. The rattle comes when the upper pipe where defog air passes through bounces up and down.

I looked into the vent hole carefully yesterday but I couldn't find the exact point of this rattle source. The space in the hole is too tight and dark.

But I am pretty sure that this rattle point is in the deep side, probably underneath the tweeter.

It could be the upper pipe hitting underneath the dashboard OR upper pipe hitting lower pipe.

If I can't find that exact rattle point, I will try to squeeze in some foam or whatever to prevent upper pipe from bouncing up and down. Now sure yet if I need to push upper pipe down toward lower pipe or push upper pipe up toward dashboard.
Or maybe I will do both.

As you see this picture, all pipes are held in it's place by screws at the front side of the dashboard which allows free up and down move of the pipes at the opposite side.


I think I am almost there. All I need to find out is the right spots to put foam to stop this pipe from bouncing.

thelinux

Update.

I tested my car for many days.
Drove it without vent assembly and tweeter.
The rattle is still there.

I have two noises from this problematic area.
One is squeaking which I think it comes from where the dashboard and A-pillar cover meets.
Another thing is a tapping noise.

So, at this point, it is clear that vent assembly or tweeter have nothing to do with this problem.

I put some thick felt between dashboard and upper vent pipe through tweeter hole. It stopped rattle for few minutes then it came back. I think this point is not good place to apply pressure to stop this noise.

I can duplicate this squeaking by pressing dashboard near tweeter.
The only sure fix is to put a thick felt pad between dashboard and windshield near A-pillar cover.

This fix stops both squeaking and tapping noise. But I don't like to take this fix as I don't want to add any band-aid to my brand new car. I want to kill the noise from the source.

Then I realized that the tapping noise is very similar to what I hear when I tap on the A pillar cover.

So I think I need to take A pillar cover off, then add foam between a_pillar cover and dashboard and find out what is hitting the a pillar cover from inside.

Does anybody know how to remove A-pillar cover? Yes I do have manual but I am looking for some picture guide. I heard that it's very easy to break clip with cover.

Can someone at least give me a very detailed guide on removing a pillar cover? I really hate to tear apart my new car but I can't take this rattle any longer.

vinnier6

iTrader: (1)

its most likely held in place by clips....i would guess you can just start pulling on it and it will come off....

thelinux

OK, I took off the A- pillar cover. It was very easy. Pull out the clip on the top ("Side curtain air bag" is written on it) Then the middle clip came off easily. I didn't have to use any force.

Applied felt tape where the bottom of A pillar sits. Applied felt tapes where electric wire contacts with metal frame.
But this did not remove the tapping noise.

So, I am now at the dead end. I did everything I possibly could.
I have no choice but to stick in a thick felt between windshield and dashboard even if that's now what I like.

I know it sucks, but at least I found out that the rattle source is not Vent assembly, A-pillar cover or tweeter but something else.

Definitely something is going on under dashboard. I can't see it, I can't reach my hand to it. So I can't fix it.

I hope someone else take over this from this point. I did everything I could. (I've never took off any of what I took off in the past)

After 2500 miles with my brand new TL, I am deeply disappointed with this car.

I've owned, a 93 Hyundai Elantra, 97 Jeep wrangler, 99 Nissan Xterra, 2000 Eclipse, 2005 Camry. But none of those cars had this much rattle.
I even had no single rattle with my Hyundai. My last car, Camry, was rattle free too. Among all those car's I've owned, I thought Mitsubishi Eclipse was worst. But now Acura/Honda is the new winner here.

Aside from this rattle in this thread TL, I have so many other rattles going on with my TL.
Gear shifter trim, center storage box, coin holder, center speaker rattle, vent rattle, sun glass holder rattle, seatbelt buckle squeaking, rear deck rattle, the whole radio/climate control thing rattle, moon roof rattle and some several other rattles which I can't identify where it comes from.

It's just too many. I did not expect this from a so called luxury brand like Acura.
My wife's 2006 Honda Accord rattles a lot too. I thought I just got a rattle box but now I know that this is just a nature of all honda made cars. (Dealer put it "Normal characteristics of this car")

I strongly doubt that I will buy another Acura or Honda.

Charles12

Thelinux,

I totally understanding your frustration. I too am disappointed with the rattles from my 2008 TL - Rattles from everywhere. One of them from the top next to the sunroof, for which I fixed it by just hitting the top hard (I do not care a dent on the top as long as no noise). It worked so far (cross my fingers). The one from the back as you said deck may be glass, They (dealer) lift the glass and placed the glass back. So far so good. There are a few ones from the dashboard, especially on road with a lot of little bumps. I put rubber (black color which is close to the color of dashboard - not felt) between the glass and dashboard to push the dashboard lower lower (as much as possible). It reduce the noise some but not completely.

I still have a few rattles. One from passenger door, and one from passenger side rear door. One from the driverside dashbroad (vent?) when turn the heat on on cold weahter.

I enjoy driving this car when the road is wet which makes noise to cover the rattles and turn on the radio lound.

I once have loaner cars (2 TSX and 2 TL and 1 MDX). All of them except the MDX are rattling, even the TSX, which is made in Japan.

Maybe next time, I will try for Infiniti or BMW (car fun to drive).

thelinux

I am not sure on putting black rubber or whatever between windshield and dashboard. To completely kill the rattle, the thickness of this thing we put must be very wide so that it gives wide gab between dashboard and windshield.

I don't know if doing it is OK. downward pressure on dashboard might be ok, because it is being held by several clips and hooks. But upward press to windshield? I don't know but I think it's only a rubber trim that holds the windshield down against metal frame of the car. I don't know, if the upward pressure is too strong, maybe it could pop out the glass over the time. I guess I will just live with that tapping noise rather than risking glass poping out.

Yes, I drove 2009 TSX and another 2008 TL loaner. They all rattles. It's just the way that Acuras are built.

vinnier6

iTrader: (1)

all cars rattle....period....sucks

vinnier6

iTrader: (1)

i took my vent off this morning, i personally think the vibration or rattle or tapping noise is comming from the upper vent, the one that is plastic and is two pieces....the side closest to the steering wheel seems to make the noise when i lift up on it and the two pieces touch....i put some thin foam inbetween the two pieces and will keep you posted....i also stuffed a small piece of microfibre cloth above the same piece to take up any room above it that may allow it to move over rough roads....

i will let you know how it goes....

thelinux

I am pretty sure that it won't fix the rattle. I already did both of what you did but they didn't fix the problem. I think the problem is located way deeper towards the windshield.

Fred99x

I fixed the rattle by the tweeter by removing the tweeter and inserting some cardboard through the tweeter opening and wedging it between the upper dash and what ever is below the upper dash. If you put your hand on the upper dash while driving, you can really feel how much the upper dash vibrates and thus the rattles.

I have one more rattle that sounds like it is in the vent area but I noticed that I can bang on the door just under the memory switches and get the same rattle so I'm thinking the rattle may be in the door and that's why I can't seem to get rid of it. Been looking in the wrong place?

thelinux

Tried that cardboard thing but didn't fix the problem.

07AcuraTL

I removed the vent, the tweeter, and the plastic pan under the dashboard.Needless to say, it is still there. Can anyone help on further dismantlement of the dashboard?

thelinux

That's all you can go. The next step would be taking out the whole dashboard.
You could try to take out the A-pillar cover. I did and this rattle is still there. And there is no big enough whole to put your hand through to under dash. You will have better luck with tweeter hole if you have any luck.

I can replicate this rattle by pushing the upper duct up and down. It should be done under the right temperature I guess. At 58F, it works well. (rattles well)

I tried to remove this duct movement by putting some think foams under and over of this duct. But it didn't fix it.

All I can say for sure is that this has something to do with the upper duct.

Oh, I actually have an idea. Maybe we could take out instrument panel. I mean not the whole panel but just the plastic trim around guage. This may give us access to the area. If some one can try this, let me know how to do it.

thelinux

So how did it go?

MistahSleepy

Uh....All cars DO NOT rattle, my 95 Accord LX didn't rattle at all, not one bit! I've driven/ridden in many cars owned by friends and family, some rattle, and some don't.

2002 Camry is whisper silent, 2004 BMW 325ci also very silent, 2004 Mazda Rx-8 extremely quiet even with such stiff suspension. G35 Sedan, no rattles.

I mean it's kind of ridiculous, I love my car a lot, it's just an absolute dream. Except for the rattles, I mean the rattles are just so annoying. And once you realize you have rattles it seems to be even more apparent. On certain days my car doesn't rattle at all, yet on others I'll be bashing the dash at several places and it'll still rattle like crazy. I'm starting to think it's just the dash itself that rattles, if you push on the dash it's super flimsy and soft. Maybe the vibration of the dash cover itself is what's causing the rattle. I can easily push down at least 1/2 a cm on my dash if I push right above the center speaker. I totally feel you TheLinux any car Brand that calls itself "luxury" should not freaking rattle in 20 different places in the car.

vinnier6

iTrader: (1)

i have never met a car that didnt rattle....most cars arent this quiet, and in a quiet car you can hear every little squeak and rattle....

zeezz

great thread, i'm also getting annoyed. it seems like every few months I am developing a new rattle in my 2004 TL. It's at the point where I need to drive with music or it's super annoying.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Acura.. but driving my mom's new Lexus IS 250 around is like a whisper quiet dream with build quality that is 2x better..........

I'm jealous.

vinnier6

iTrader: (1)

if you drove your moms is every day for a month, you would find every rattle in it, you just dont hear them when you dont drive the car on a regular basis....

rod11

My 07 Type S has been at the dealership 4 days now with them trying to solve this dash rattle and also a rattle from the back seat. There was a service bulletin for the rear rattle for them to reinforce the rear deck in like 9 spots. They say this is done. For the dash rattle, the tech figured out that it was in fact the tweeter causing it. He reinforced the area but that didn't work. He removed the tweeter and grill entirely and the noise went away. They have ordered a new tweeter and grill and should be installing it today. Hopefully this works b/c I really need to get out of the loaner TSX. I can't believe Acura even puts their name on this car.

And I agree, a car that is supposed to be a "luxury" vehicle should be free of annoying rattles. I don't care how stiff a suspension is. Today's technologies make it possible to have a sport suspension and a quiet ride. Acura owners shouldn't have to choose.

thelinux

It may not be the tweeter. This rattle comes on and off depends on,,, I don't know... it seems like it depends on the ambient temperature. Mine makes good rattle between 58-65F. Sometimes, doing something (like taking off vent and putting it back, or putting some foam between upper duct and below dash) temporarily stop the rattle. But it comes back later.

Just because it did not rattle when you took off your tweeter, does not mean that it's the tweeter. If new tweeter fix the rattle, then we are talking a different rattle. Mine rattles without tweeter.