I have had problems with rattles in my car much like many others here. I have found many of them but there was one that eluded me for a long time and I have finally found it.

Yesterday, I was pulling into my parking spot at work after going to lunch, and some guy I do not know from a different office came up to me and said "Tell me something, do you get that rattle from the bottom of the boot hatch too?" I told him that I did have a bad rattle back there that I have been unable to find.

He said that he knew it was in the bottom of the hatch, but did not know where. He said he came to this conclusion by doing a simple test. He too a glove and shut the rear hatch on it and drove it around and the rattel was gone.

Now this is not the fix that I would recommend, but I did some searching and finally found the culprit. It is the door latch and the loop that it latches onto. It must be loose when closed. As a temporary fix (until I can find a better way) I have wrapped the loop in electrical tape. I test drove it briefly last night, no rattle. On my way to work this morning, no rattle. In fact, the whole car sounded different because there was no noise coming from the back at all.

I hope this helps some of you out there. As much as my car puts a smile on my face, that rattle was driving me insane. Also, if any of you have an idea for a more permanent solution, please let me know.

 

If this is correct and your hatch is 'loose' then there is adjustment on them. Simply turn the hatch stop bungs ( the rubber stop either side of hatch ) half a turn ( or more if needed ) to hold the hatch 'off' slightly and hence pretension the catch.....hey presto rattle gone.

Hope this helps

 

I tried that a while back, and could not get it to stop rattling. I kept trying to adjust until there was no more room to adjust on those pegs.

 

I wonder if that's the rattle that I have. So far I identified the sunroof, like half a dozen spots where it rattles, MINI service almost fixed all of them. The arm rest rattles on every bump so I'll have them look at that next. But there's one more rattle that I can't identify. Is the rattle that you're talking about kind of low in pitch and not very rapid? Like the impacts are not so much of a buzz but more like a series of thumps? Thanks.

 

That is exactly like what I was hearing. Definitely try adjusting the bump stops first to see if you can fix it that way, but the tape method works as a good temporary solution. I may look at the latch itself too to see if it is loose or something and causing the rattle.

 

check that you have not "lost" one of those little bumpers that keep the security tray from thumping up and won over bumps. They are very vulnerable and break away easily.
One of mine is missing as is one of my friends. I monkeyied up my own fix till I can bring the car in for service. I stuck a wraped plastic license plate bolt into the hole. Seems to work fine.

 

Can you go into more detail about this loop? I'm not at all sure what you mean. A loop of what? Do you mean the pull cord under the seat to open the hatch? I may have this exact noise that just started yesterday.

 

The loop he means i think is the metal loop that mates with the catch to hold the hatch shut.

 

If the bumper snubs for the boot are adjusted properly, you should not have this as an issue.

Of course the snubs will freely rotate and could easily be screwed down too far to do the job they are supposed to do. I applied a bit of silicone to them to hold them in place after I got them all set the way they should be.

They should apply enough pressure to the boot so the latch is tensioned against the hook. Thus no rattles.

 

I cannot believe this is happening with R56 MINIs. This was a bit annoyance to those of us who owned early first gen MINIs.

Chaos - could you please post a list of where you had rattles and how you fixed them? Maybe useful for owners on here.

 

I have only one rattle and it sounds like it coming from either inside the driver-side door or somewhere under the dash, to the left and forward of the steering wheel. Anyone have any ideas, I told my ma about it and she said she would schedule a service for me if I wanted, but I wanted to see if I could fix it first.

 

Could be the kick panel just to the left of the dead pedal. Try pushing your foot against it or reaching down with one hand and pressing on it. I remember reading that one quick fix is to stuff in a little bit of material at the top of the panel.

 

I have both of the bumpers in place, and no matter how far out I put them, the rattle is still there. I had them to the point that I almost had to slam the boot closed just to get it to latch, and I still got the rattle. Taping the metal loop (yes, that is the one that I am referring to) is the only thing that has made the rattle go away. Maybe it is not from back and forth movement of the loop in the latch, but from side to side. I don't know, but this worked and has continued to work for the last few days.

As far as rattles that I have fixed, here is the list.

1. Rear headliner: there is a plate in the dead center of the headliner in the boot that is glued to the headliner. This plate has a clip that clips into the metal rroof of the car. The glue in my car was not very strong and came loose and rattled badly. I used strong double sided tape to fix.

2. Emergency release wire for the gas cap. In the left side of the boot behind a panels is a small green wire for releasing the fuel door. The tip of it is mounted into the carpeting, but can easily come loose and cause a very faint high pitched rattle. I taped the wire down so it will not come loose.

3. Trim around the 3rd brake light. There is padding beteen the trip piece that goes around the 3rd brake light and the rear windshield, but no padding between it and the metal. This would occasionally make a smacking sound. I put some insulation tape in the gap. This also seems true for the area between the lower boot panel and the rear window, but this has never really caused any rattles for me.

4. Rear seat. I also did the tape job to the latch loops for the rear seats. They rattled slightly I think, but this was done as part of the search for the rattle that started this thread.

5. Sunroof trip. I removed the trim around the sunroof. Upon inspecting how it could contact metal and cause rattles, I put some foam insulation tape along those edges and replaced the ring. It is now dead quiet.

6. Boot latch. As described earlier in this thread, I tried several times to adjust the bumpers inside the door to eliminate the boot rattle, but to no avail. I had them to the last thred and the door would barely close, still rattled. I have taped the metal loop that the door latches onto and this has fixed the issue. I taped both the outer edge and the sides, but may at some point try just doing one or the other to see if it is coming form a side to side motion of the door. This is a big, heavy door, so some side to side movement is possible. Also, this tended to happen when first starting up the car and then only over very heavy bumps, so may be a matter of the metal expanding as things warm up etc.

7. Dash rattle. I hear this from time to time but have not gone after it. There are several threads on this one.

Anyway, hope this helps some people eliminate some of the rattles that they are experiencing.

 

2. Emergency release wire for the gas cap. In the left side of the boot behind a panels is a small green wire for releasing the fuel door. The tip of it is mounted into the carpeting, but can easily come loose and cause a very faint high pitched rattle. I taped the wire down so it will not come loose.

Arh, thanks. I may have this on certain roads, usually dual carriageways and although not loud and annoying is the only rattle my car has.

 

I guess I should count my blessings. Romi does not have any rattles or other noises which are not part of the normal operation of the vehicle. Then again, she only has 4200 miles on her.

 

I seemed to have caused my own rattle! Stupid owner! I installed the Web Electronics brake light flasher. In my case I installed it in the wiring harness that comes out of the roof and goes into the hatch. This way I was able to hide the module in between the roof and headliner. I did wrap the module in some extra cloth tape to make sure it didn't make noise but it seems I didn't properly fasten the trim panel that holds the third brake light. Rather than just banging on it to snap it back in place, I guess it helps to know where the snaps are and press on those directly. Doh!

I haven't described this yet as I forgot to take pictures.

 

Must be nice. I have less miles than that and have had all of these weird rattles. It is nice to have them fixed now though and it sures makes a difference. I would have lived with the rattles if need be since the car is so much fun.

Hopefully many others are as rattle free as your car is, and if not, hopefully my solutions will help others to get their cars to that point.

The boot rattle was the only one I couldn't drown out with the radio.

 

The Wife unit and I marvel at how quiet Romi is. We prefer her for long trips over our 2 year old Lexus IS250, which has 18,000 miles on it.

 

I have 12,000 on mine, and have one PITA rattle--the radar detector. Can't seem to silence it on rough roads.

 

Mine is velcro'd to the headliner, just above and to the right of the mirror. Doesn't rattle and grips like a python.

 

Mine is on the left side of the dash and the wire is hidden under the panels. It's on velcro, too, but just isn't balanced right. I suppose if I spent enough time on it I'd fix the thing.

 

I did this, too, which improved, but did not eliminate the noise. Oddly, the dealer blamed the foam for making the noise they claim wasn't there.

 

I had to redo mine twice as there was still some noise after the first time. I found most of the noise seemed to be coming from the rear corners of the trim ring. I found a certain spot that I just gave a little extra padding to and it seemd to work. I found the spot by knocking lightly on the trim ring while installed and listening for that plastic on metal sound.

Just went out to lunch with a co-worker who commented that my car was nice and quiet now.

 

Check the dash panel directly below the steering wheel. Mine has one clip that doesn't always hold and at times makes a lot of noise.