This question seems to come up over and over again so maybe its worth posting as its own thread. If anybody has any other ideas please add to this thread.

This method may not work for everybody but for me it worked 100% of the time when I needed to duplicate the cold-start, death rattle, chatter, noise...

• Parked car overnight to ensure it was cold
• Started the car and moved it 10 feet (from garage to driveway)
• Left car in driveway for 45 minutes (simulating length of time to wash Spike). No wash actually occured and Spike was not injured during the exercise
• Started up the car and drove it 10 feet (back into garage)
• Started Spike the next day and he was rattling for the first mile from my place

This proves out the theory that water is not a contributing factor. I don't know if you actually need to leave the car over night, but you do need to leave it for several hours. The problem relates to the car not getting up to full operating temperature before being shut down. Give this a whirl and see what happens.

Also cold weather seems to make this easier to duplicate but not always.