Long post, skip to the last paragraph for just the point....

So I took delivery of my Mini last friday and amongst all of the features had the iPod adapter installed at VDC.

Long story short when I was driving it around on Sunday I noticed a fairly persistent rattle on all but the smoothest of roads coming from the passenger side of the car. After some poking around I narrowed it down to the secret compartment.

So this being a new car and all (and the rattle being fairly annoying especially earlier in the morning or at night when the dash was cold). I decided to take it in to the dealer to get the situation fixed. I did a test drive with the SA and found some good road to test things out and he confirmed it. Now mind you I was a bit hesistant to have the dealer pull apart the dash of a 4 day old car to fix a rattle, but figured what the hell with what I'm paying for this it shouldn't sound like an old accord.

So today I pick the car up after they supposedly (I don't doubt them) pulled the compartment out completely taped it off with felt tape, installed rubber bumpers on the inside of the door and generally put a great deal of effort into isolating the situation. The good news it looks like they did make the compartment a bit more solid. The bad news, the rattle was still there. On top of this I also noticed as soon as I sat into the driver seat that something looked a bit off about the gap between the bottom of the secret compartment and the colorline trim below it (this was with the door closed). I was able to see metal clips and stuff gleaming in the sun where before there was maybe a one millimeter gap at most. After opening the lid I could tell right away that basically where there used to be a 1 mm gap there was now a 3 or 4 mm gap (which may not seem like much but is enough when the tolerances on the dash are fairly tight).

So now basically the way things were fitting together looked like I just took the car to a aftermarket audio shop to have them install a CD changer or something and they didn't quite get things 100% right. After debating things for a while I decided to take it back to the dealer (which I hope will not become a move I regret even more) and have them fix the rattle for good and also look into why the color line fit is a bit off. I did this even though I was strongly considering just trying to fix it myself, based on the fact that in the end I should not have to be pulling the dash of a +$30K car myself when I've only had it for 4 days to fix something that the dealer bungled. This is already killing the "new" of the car for me a bit.... seeing the inside of the dash would do it even more.

Anyway, the point of this post is as follows.... I was playing around with the compartment a bit later (frustrated that by having my dealer look at this whole thing they just screwed up the cosmetically flawless install from the VDC), and noticed that the foam insert that comes in the bottom of the compartment has some play. It turns out that someone, for reasons that may forever escape me, decided to make the foam insert part sit on a separate plastic backing that is attached to the housing of the compartment, but has some play... just enough play to start rattling. I suspect now that the foam insert piece is probably the main culprit. Just an FYI to help narrow things down for anyone else who may have this install as I suspect that this piece will rattle in most of them to some extent.

 

No rattle from my ipod compartment, but I'll look for this if I ever hear it.

 

Maybe the loose insert is just a freak defect in the case of my compartment then. Regardless I'll be getting the car back again today and hopefully this time they will have fixed the issue. If the rattle is gone I won't make a big deal about the fit issues as long as they aren't any worse.

I hate having them have to repeatedly dissasemble the dash on a car that only has 140 miles on it and sort of worry that after a point the risk of the rattles and other problems that this process could introduce outweighs the benefits of getting things perfect cosmetically. Plus I don't like the idea of people having to repeatedly test drive my car over bumpy road while it's still in break-in. Sort of defeats the purpose of getting a car with only 4 miles on it.

 

I have the exact same problem. Although now I'm kinda nervous to bring it to the dealer. I don't want them to screw up the dash.

 

Well here's an update. I put it back in last night to have them fix the remaining rattle with the foam pad and to correct the fit issues with the dash. (I should say, to be fair, that the dealer has been very good about dealing with my nitpicking on this and furnishing free BMW loaners everytime I felt like taking it in).

Anyway, got a call from my SA and picked it up today.

The good news.... they completely fixed the gap (actually it's even tighter than it was when it came out of the vdc) and fixed up most of the cosmetic issues with the storage compartment. It still isn't 100% as cleanly fitted as it was when I got it from the VDC, but basically for anyone who had not seen it before they wouldn't be able to tell.

The bad news.... something is still rattling in that area of the dash. The storage compartment is definitely more solid than before, but something is still making noise in that area of the car. Unfortunately I don't really have anyone around who can drive a manual for me to be able to sit in the passenger's seat and isolate the noise. I didn't bring it up with the dealer again... as I said before I hate them messing with the dash and at this point as they've put stuff together fairly well. I've decided to cut my losses and quit while I'm still ahead (maybe that would have just been at the beginning... but at least now I can't say I didn't try).

Basically I'll either try fixing it myself now (I probably could have done a cleaner job than the dealer in the first place, live and learn) or I'll just ignore it. The whole experience has sort of tainted the new car feel for the past few days for me. I'm hoping that by putting this behind me I'll be able to go back to just enjoying the car (and this was to a great extent my own fault for taking it in so soon).

My only lingering concern at this point is whether any of the car's actual systems (lights, cooling, audio) could have been affected if someone was messing around back there without any apparently large amount of attention being paid to detail. If anyone here is familiar with the process of totally pulling out the storage compartment... is there anything I should look for specifically aside from the iPod adapter itself, or are the major systems wired through a different area.

 

Well I don't know if this will help but this forum says a way to fix one sort of rattle maybe thats the one your hearing?

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ash+rattle+fix

Thanks for the story I'm going to bring mine in now.

 

Thanks for the pointer... I saw that too and was thinking about applying the fix.


Another update.. as I drove home from work tonight I noticed that about 80% of the rattling is indeed gone. Where before there was an almost constant rattle coming from that area of the dash with every contour of the road. I only really hear a rattle now if I hit a particularly bad patch of road or a pothole (at which point I also hear the sunroof shift and other stuff move around.... so it has dropped down to the ambient level of cabin noise). Bottom line it is now down to an acceptable level given the stiffness of this car's shocks. Part of my problem may also be that my last car was a Infiniti I35 (which had a pretty smooth ride in general) so I may be a bit spoiled as far as rattle free environments go.

So in the end this whole excercise seemed to have yielded some positive results. If you're thinking about having the dealer do something like this though I would only advise it if you are both comfortable with your dealers level of competence... and also with their ability to be patient with you and fix any issues you may have with their work afterwards. Apparently removing the compartment does involve the removal of quite a few trim pieces, so there is a lot of room for them to screw up if they don't know what they are doing.

Another bit of advice is to not do what I did (as maddening as the noise may be) and maybe wait till you've made it through break-in before doing this... at least that way you will not have to deal with having your brand new car in the shop only a few days after delivery (which can really wear on the whole experience).