After owning the car for just a couple of months, there seems to be many rattles developing in my car. Quite disappointing. I’ve done a bit of exploring and found a few potential rattle sources, maybe it will help someone. Random pictures to follow later on when I actually take some!
One
Sounds like it’s coming from infront of me, or the dash area.
It’s very quiet and not really that annoying. I’ve tried pushing on the latch cover and the cover at the front edge of the roof but it doesn’t seem to be this. Maybe from the window. I’m not too bothered by it at the minute.
Two
Sounded like it was coming from the passenger side.
I had a look and at the bottom of the passenger seat on the back there were four small metal rings. They are all loose and jingled easily. I’m not really sure what they’re for, but I just cut up some dish scrubby foam and wedged it through each ring to stop them moving. The drivers side doesn’t seem to have these rings.
I’m not really sure if this solved anything, but maybe worth checking.
Three
Sounded like it was coming from the centre / passenger side of the dash.
Behind the glove box there’s a green wire that had been taped to the existing wiring loom. Maybe something to do with the nav unit, I’m not sure? Anyway, this tape kept coming loose, so I just taped that wire back up properly myself. It’s kind of shocking really… I also attempted to secure / wrap the A/V + USB cable in the glove box to stop that potentially knocking around.
This seemed to solve it for me.
[Insert picture]
Four
Sounds like it’s coming from behind me on the passenger side.
The back of the passenger seat storage sleeve seems like it could flap about and hit the back of the seat, creating a rattly noise. I now store the owners manuals etc in there to just put a bit of weight on it and stop this from possibly happening!
I don’t think this one actually solved anything, but maybe worth checking.
Five
Sounds like it’s coming from behind me on the passenger side.
There’s two wiring loom looking ‘fluffy pipes’ which disappear in to the back trim. They seem to be water drains. Wiggling the passenger side one of those seemed to rattle. I pulled at it on the trim side and it completely detached - oops! Fortunately easy to take the little cover clip off and reattach to the plastic thing inside. I’ll probably try and just cover the plastic bit inside with some electrical tape or something to make it a tighter fit.
[Insert picture]
Six
Sounds like it’s coming from behind me on the passenger side.
There’s some kind of fabricy / foamy cover behind the trim on the passenger side, near the bottom somewhere. It is loose and can flap about and hit the plastic trim creating a rattly noise. I’ve just wedged a bit of foam between the it and the trim to stop it flapping about.
I’m not really sure if this solved anything, but maybe worth checking.
[Insert picture]
Seven - Unsolved
If I pull on the cubby hole striker for the latch, it makes a rather loud click noise and seems a bit loose. If I pull on the trim just behind the wind deflector towards the front of the car, I hear the same noise. It’s nothing like the rattle I hear really, but pulling on it isn’t the same as slight movement from bumpy road. Googling suggests this is a common problem for older NC’s, but this one is new…
[Insert picture]
Eight - Unsolved
If I wiggle the wind deflector about I hear some clicky rattling noises, not as loud as the striker, but sounds more like the rattle I’m hearing. I took it off and put a small strip of foam under each of the metal clips, as they jingled about easily, but that didn’t make any difference at all.
[Insert picture]
This didn’t seem to solve it. It seems to be something to do with the rear trim piece. If I gently wiggle the outer mounting holes for the wind deflector (circled red in stolen picture) it made the very same quiet clicking noise. I’m completely stumped as to where it is coming from at the moment though, wiggling that edge of trim didn’t seem to be moving anything much at all.
My dealer seems pretty crap so far, and the rear trim sounds easy enough to get off, so I am looking at removing it whenever I get a few hours to myself and seeing if I can solve those two rattles. Hopefully the two items above is all it is…
Two points, firstly it could be the passenger seat rattling, secondly, forgive me for speaking my mind, but you have paid a lot of money for a new car, if the dealer is dragging his feet paying attention to your concerns I would say it is time to be rather more assertive. Just my opinion you understand!
Regards Geoff Peace.
I’ve not found any other rattles on the passenger seat, except those weird metal rings. It also still rattles with a passenger. But that means nothing, it could still be the seat somewhere. Is it a known ‘issue’? I’ve not stumbled across the passenger seat rattling on searches before.
I know, you’re absolutely right… However, I’m not an overly assertive person, and with my experience of them thus far I am not sure I trust them much. It’s been back three times already but I’ve been fobbed off with “it’s normal”. I’m not convinced, and less than impressed with them. I expressed my unhappyness with them the third time, and the response was literally “yeah…”. Anyway, if I can’t find this rattle myself soon I’ll take it to them to try and solve, or maybe try the dealer in Norwich to see if they’re any better.
I’m a nightmare when it comes to cars. I seem to always get cars with problems! Either that or it’s all in my head… some people have suggested this as a possibility… 
I found a couple of new rattle sources today which could be it, but they’re in front of me, below head height, and it sounds more like behind me when it happens, so I don’t hold much hope!
Behind the glove box, if I launch my arm in to the space more behind the head unit area there seems to be a black wire running from the drivers side to the cigarette lighter socket (possibly). This was just completely loose and could have been hitting the plastic. It’s not easy to navigate behind there without taking dash apart, so I just tried to wedge it down as best as possible.
The bonnet release cable that runs from the lever to the firewall buzzed loudly every time I thumped the dash, and did actually sound very much like what I was hearing. I’m not entirely sure why it buzzed, but it does… just tapping on the cable with a finger makes it buzz. I’ve cable tied it to another wire and it seems to have stopped it.
A wire right near the bonnet release cable (Electrical boot release possibly? Not sure) had snapped off of it’s plastic clip. It’s some long thin piece of plastic, seems a bit of a stupid design really. I cable tied that to another wire too, as it had a lot of slack and could potentially hit trim.
I’m not too fussed about finding rattles, but I know you’re quite likely right. It’s only got 1,300 miles on it. I think I’ll pop up there next time the better half is on a late shift - Thursday / Friday I think.
I’m a very patient person, anyone who knows me will tell you that, but I did start to get rather angry at them last time. I wouldn’t have called it a row, no swearing or harsh language involved, but I did feel very angry at the time. They had the car for the day to investigate a sort of banging noise over most rough road (still present…they claim “normal”). I heard a scrape as I drove out of the parking lot, but thought nothing of it. I got back home and heard another scrape going up the slope to my driveway. Looking underneath, the oil filter access flap was touching the floor. I phoned them and they completely blew me off, saying they would have had no reason to have touched that, and that I must have gone over a speed bump too quickly or something. There are no speed bumps on my way home at all, and it happened as I left their parking lot! In hindsight, I should have stopped there and then, but such is life. They didn’t even offer to have me drive back and sort it out. Eventually I did get advice from them that I can reach underneath from the passenger side and just push it back up, which I did and it was easy, but I still feel it was unacceptable really.
Now Ive said that and reminded myself, I’m thinking it might be better I try the Norwich branch…
In other news, I’ve been for a drive today and I think the rattle I was hearing from what seemed to be the drivers side top of window area has gone, I guess that was probably something to do with the broken clip and/or bonnet release cable I found yesterday. I didn’t hear either of the rattles I had heard over the past few days which seemed to be coming from behind me either, but there was still a quiet rattle from the passenger side ish. Or maybe the roof. It’s so hard to tell. Hopefully the dealer will be able to pinpoint it.
I’ll still upload pictures of what I have found so far (hopefully I can edit previous posts), incase it helps anyone out.
I think I have found the annoying rattle from the rear. There was a little wire which I think goes up in to the boot lid, on the left hand side. It was touching the plastic trim. I moved it up away from the trim (the wire seems stiff enough to hold it’s position up) and haven’t heard it since. Quite mad. It sounded like the passenger side rear, but not that far back!
I also applied Rejex on all the rubber seals I could get to as there seemed to be a rattley kind of sound coming from the roof. That seems to have disappeared. I’m not sure if that’s to do with the Rejex application or not though.
I still have rattles. It seems like all from the front now - probably the wiring behind the head unit. It seems to be mostly over bigger bumps though which isn’t quite so annoying.