Well, 13 months and 12,000 miles, and I have my first rattle. Actually my first TWO. The weird thing is that they only appeared in the past week or two, when it's started getting down below freezing at night here in Boston.

The good thing is, I know exactly where they are. One is the ring around the speaker on the passenger door, and the other is the "down tube" to the right of the stereo and A/C controls - if I reach over and grab it tightly, the rattle stops.

(Actually, I don't even know if either of these are actually rattles - they're more just vibrating plastic, as opposed to loose objects rattling around.)

In any case, is there something easy that I can attempt to deal with this without going to the horrible MINI dealer in Boston? I'm not going to have the time in the next few weeks to drive to the good MINI dealer north of town. What does the dealer actually do for these types of problems?

Thanks so much!
_________________

 

Interesting....
I've developed a new rattle (somewhere back behind the tach) that just shows up in the morning when its cold out. As the car warms up I don't notice it anymore. (...mine in a 1/03 build.) At this point it doesn't bother me but I'm predicting that rattles, over time, will become one of those less-exciting parts of MINI ownership.

PS...my MINI is at the dermatologist getting a door ding fixed and I'm driving an Aerio for a few days. God, I miss my MINI! I love that car...quirks and all!!! :smile:

_________________
'03 IB/W Cooper

 

I'm at around 4300 miles, and I'm just getting my first rattles, and I can say that without a doubt it is cold weather related. I've also got an annoying down tube vibration, and something that sounds like it's coming from the upper area of the passenger side B-pillar (but I can really reach back there and push on it to make it stop, since I don't like crashing! )

I'm guessing that it's pretty basic stuff, really: plastic is contracting a little bit from the cold and then not fitting properly. I'm wondering if a couple of screws could be tightened here and there or whether some expertly placed Dynamat would do the trick (at least on the downtube vibe, which is definitely the more annoying and regular of the two).

Does anyone have any positive experiences with taking their cars to the dealer for rattles and actually getting them fixed?

 

I too have a cold weather rattle that I've only come to notice this fall. I think that mine is the washer hose under the bonnet in the air box up by the firewall. It comes and goes with rpm, being most pronounced in third gear at a steady 3000 rpm. Think I'll duct tape the hose down for the winter.

 

Chitown,
I'm no expert in this, but just for the heck of it, try driving your MINI with the rear seats down to see if that back rattle clears up. I had one similar which a MINI dealer swore was the rear hatch. It wasn't...it was the rear seat latch which was easily fixed. (...by me!!!) Anyway, you can test it out by simply driving around with the seats down for a bit.

 

Thanks for the advice, jds; but I always (90% of the time) drive with my rear seats down. I actually think that seats down makes a few rattles/general noise. But I like the automatic availability of "haulin' space"!

 

Glad to hear I'm not only one with this problem. The down tube part I can try messing with (there's an allen screw on it), but the speaker ring doesn't have any obvious method of removal. I know people have taken them off to replace speakers - does it just pop off, or what?

My fear is that I'll waste time bringing it to the dealer, since the Boston dealer is the type that would deny the existence of a problem if they can't hear it (in this case, if the weather is warm enough).

 

When I'm in 3rd or 5th gear and pushing it, there's a rattle that comes from the cupholders. At first I thought it was coming from the cup holders, but I have nothing in there, so it's not them...where are the most commun rattles?

Louay

 

Chris, you actually have to take the door off, which is a pretty easy thing to do. You could probably put something on the inside of the door panel and/or around the speaker (where it's not visible inside the door) to mute the sound. Dynamat works great, but you could easily use felt or something along those lines.

Let me know if you have any door removal questions. I've done it a few times, and it's a breeze. Let me know if you have any down-tube luck!

 

For the down-tubes: First, tighten the two torx screws near the top of each tube to eliminate that possibility. Then cut a couple of thin strips of heavy card stock and slide them down into the back of the sleeves that the bottoms of the downtubes fit into. You might need to double up the thickness. Not sure because I haven't done this.

For the speaker cover: remove the interior door panel (pop out the reflector, take out the 4 torx screws, pry off tweeter cover, then pop the clips starting at the bottom corner). Cut strips of felt tape and put them all around the front rim of the speaker where it would make contact with the speaker cover.

 

Thanks very much for the info, guys! Chitown_COOP, I'll send you a PM sometime later this week, when I actually have time to attempt the door feat. I'd be thrilled not to have to go to the dealer for this one!

 

My dealer actually fixed my rattles! Noticed that they left a bit of black "goo" where the dash meets the windscreen. Hardly shows. Pretty tight right now.

Definitely go to your dealer with your rattle problems.

God speed.

 

>>
>>Does anyone have any positive experiences with taking their cars to the dealer for rattles and actually getting them fixed?
>>
>>

Yes, I took mine to the dealer to fix a rattle and they did a great job. That black button in the center of the "dash" (which replaces the temp sensor I believe) rattled like crazy. The dealer took care of it. Rather than tearing apart the whole dash, they took off the windshield and fixed it from there. The windshield was replaced with a new piece of glass, so if you have this rattle wait until you have a cracked windshield before fixing it! :smile: It could save you some dough!

I have a new rattle that seems to come from the cupholders too. It's not the cupholders though (they are empty). It still rattles when I take out the holder w/ the cover. I'm thinking it might be coming from that round plastic piece that goes around the shifter cover?? Does anyone else have this rattle?

 

Yes, My dealer fixed my Door rattles. V happy!.

 

It might be worth the drive up to peabody if you are using herb chambers.I have heard through this forum they are terrible.My car is at peabody right now getting multiple rattles fixed, new front suspension,new software,etc. Today they told me they were replacing the entire sunroof assembly because it rattled.That one shocked me.But yes, the cold doesn't help the rattle thing at all.I used to have an old mustang that was dead silent during the summer, but come winter everything creaked and moaned terribly on the rare occasions it made it out of the driveway in the snow.

 

I rattle also in cold weather. I am over 40!

 

>>It might be worth the drive up to peabody if you are using herb chambers.I have heard through this forum they are terrible.My car is at peabody right now getting multiple rattles fixed, new front suspension,new software,etc.<<

Believe me, the last thing I want to do is let my car out of my sight at Herb Chambers, but unless Peabody is one of those freak dealerships that actually provdes loaner cars for warranty work, I'm not going to be able to bring my car there for a few more weeks. Let me know if they take car of YOUR rattles!

 

My appointment with Herb Chambers (shudder) is tomorrow morning. Amazingly, just today my worst rattle yet (by far!) appeared - from the sunroof. If I press hard up against the black plastic surrounding the switch, it stops. Interestingly, this morning was easily ten degrees colder than any morning yet this fall.

 

I have so many different rattles in my 26k mi, 03 MCS, that I cannot count them any more. They do change all the time, making it very hard to track them down. Having switched to non-ruflats has helped a lot, I have fewer now.
Ever since I got the car I noticed that there are cold rattles and warm rattles.
I figure that's because the car stretches as you start driving real fast, sorta like the Concorde?

 

Well, the dealer had my car for ten hours yesterday, and only managed to eliminate one of my three rattles. The sunroof one is still there, and it's horrible. Back to the dealer it goes next Thursday...

 

Yikes, chrsnl. Mine goes in next week for rattles. It's the second time. Last time they said one rattle is in the streering column, so they ordered me one. I'm not sure if I believe that I need one, but next Tuesday they are putting it in. Hope to be rattle free on Wednesday.

God speed.

 

I've had rattles in the door locks/doors (can't exactly pinpoint them), and have had the car into the dealership twice for them. They're back in the passenger door, and I'm thinking I'll pull the interior panel off myself for a look.

I've noticed various rattles too since the weather turned, and attribute them to contraction of plastic bits. Cest la vie. I think I'll invest in some felt and torx bits...

 

Geez, this rattles and buzz stuff is a trip. I think we need a dedicated forum on this subject, just like the one's for interior mods, performance mods, etc.

What do you all think?

(Tracking down ALL the seperate threads on rattles, and their possible solutions, is a SERIOUS pain! )

 

"Does anyone have any positive experiences with taking their cars to the dealer for rattles and actually getting them fixed?"

I finally got my "rear hatch rattle" fixed by my MINI dealer. After having taken it in several times for the cold start problem, and mentioning the rattles each time; they recently fixed it. Not sure what they did. Unfortunately, I have the cold start type issue that has never been resolved so my MINI dealership has an open case with my MINI. Still waiting for the software upgrade that will fix it...

 

Just this morning I noticed a new rattle on the driver's door somewhere. I couldn't determine where it was coming from, yet, but it seems to be near the seat. Any ideas? Only showed up once it got cold.

I had the rattles in the boot area 'fixed' at my last dealer visit. They installed a thicker sticker for the hatch which seemed to fix the problem.

Steven