The inside of my Mini is driving me crazy. 2009 Cooper S. There are squeaks and rattle everywhere! The frustrating part is they seem to come and go, so it's really hard to pin them down. Something inside both my doors rattle, something in the dash on the drivers side, something in headliner in the back on passenger side, and somethin in the headliner on the front passenger side. I look like a nut job driving down the freeway reaching over pressing on panels and trim, trying to find out where.

I am really diassapointed in this. I realized how bad it was when I drove my wifes 2002 Mazda Protege 5 the other day. Not only are there zero rattles, but there is much less road noise.

I spend an hour or so a day driving, and being frustrated and irritated the entire time is not working for me. I took off the door panels and lined them with sound deadener, but I did not take off the big middle part. I tightened down all the screws and bolts I can find. I put a little dab os silicone on each of the plastic door fasteners to keep them from rattling. No difference. I have noticed the door locks rattle less when locked, unlocked they make a racket.

I suppose the next step is to gut the interior and put sound deadener everywhere. I'm at the point where I want to squirt expanding foam in all the cracks and crevices just to get the mini to STFU.

I have never had a car that I loved and hated so much. I regret buying this thing more every day, and since I've had if for all of 6 month, I will be screwed if I trade it in.

Fun times.

 

If it's still under warranty, let Mini fix it.

 

I've been to the dealership with this thing about every 3 weeks with warranty issues. When I bring up the rattlles, they just shrug and say "they all do that". Same answer I get when I mention the transmission that feels broken.

 

Have a friend drive the roads where you hear it he most, and while you are in the back pinpoint the locations. It will be more accurate and wont end up in a TA.

The retractors in the sunshades for the sunroof are a common issue. Extend the sun shades and if that particular sound goes away, that is your culprit there.

There is a felt tape fix for the sunroof mechanism I believe. Doors could be loose gear in the pocket or window regulator. Will the rattle in a door go away if the window is slightly down ? Use to be a "fix kit" consisting of new hardware for this from MINI with an accompanied TSB....If you are second owner, maybe PO had other speakers in there and was not ethical with his ability to put it back to stock ?

 

Thanks for the tips, I will play with the windows and roof on the way home tonight. The speakers in the doors are not stock anymore, I put new ones in. But, the rattles were there before that. I also put dynamat inside the door as best I could when the speakers were out.

 

loose screw inside the door? or a washer? rock, ect?

also, try to tighten the dash screws, those come loose sometimes. mayhap someone else tore into your car at some point, and did a crappy job of putting stuff back together?

 

I think its the panels themselves with the doors. THe passenger side is the worst, and if I reach over and push or pull on the arm rest hard enough it stops. I've tightened everything down, still does it. The drivers side sounds like its coming form the front corner or kick panel area, no ammount of pushing or pulling stops it. BMW, why so much plastic???!!???

 

Sound deadening material will not help if the rattle is in the interior of the car and the sound deadening material is on the outside of the rattle.

Gray Raven gave you good advice, having someone else drive the car while you hunt them down.

I've noticed that with the cooler autumn temperatures, squeaks and rattle have gone away. In the summer the plastic bits expand and rub together a little more, I just turn up the radio.

Dave

 

Here is my deal. I know I can spend countless hours hunting down all these little noises, some of which may never be found. I can't really rip my doors apart as someone else drives down the freeway. If I do quiet it down, then I will have my transmission issue, which will never be fixed. Is it worth my time and effort to do all this, or just get something else? I don't know right now. I know people love their mini's, but I was expecing a lot more quality from a premium product. While I could just turn up the radio (which gets pretty loud with the new system) I moslty listen to podcasts during my commute... which is why the rattles drive me nuts. It's not like I'm incapable of doing the work, it just makes me mad that I have to. This is my daily driver that I bought to be reliable, and I paid more for what I thought was a quality product. If I want to dig into a project, I would rather it be my project car.

http://forums.vintage-mustang.com/vi...-coupe-17.html

 

Before I bought my roadster I read a lot about why it didn't have an insulated top...to be more in the "classic roadster" tradition. I think I just figured out the real reason, though. It's so I won't hear all the rattles.

 

Took me just one afternoon. Had sticky felt pads on hand, and used flexible rubber strips from garage door kit.

The area where each of the dash panels meet up have a thin clear plastic membrane strip to reduce these sounds. Problem being that will only last so long. When you do the dash have something like felt strips or tabs on hand to stick onto these areas before re-assembly.

Patience will prevail. I have 160K miles and I only have an occasional creek from the plywood built into MINI's sunroof.....and that is not an issue 99% of the time.

Installing the rear upper stress bar reducing body flex also had a degree of benefit...

 

LOL - They are making everying out of plastic these days....including thermostats, waterpumps and even intake manifolds.....

Someday when we are done with out cars, all they will have to do is bleed off the fluids and thow the damn car thru a shredder....