Do you have rattles in the car?

[anthony]

There is nothing worse than a rattle in a car.
I have owned 7 new cars,all from new,and have this to say...
1982 Ford Cortina...NIL
1988 VW JETTA...NIL,even after 300 000 kilometers.
1993 VW Jetta...NIL
1995 VW Jetta...had rattles in the left front door after someone tried to steal the car by breaking through door handle.Eventually insurance agreed to a brand new door,but the c ar was almost brand new at the time.
2000 Holden Astra...NIL
2006 VW Jetta...had about 4,and took a long while,and 2 dealers to completely sort out,was then told mine was the quietest Jetta in Australia.
2010 Honda Euro...nil.
One of the reasons for changing brands was that I could not spend another 2 years putting up with spending every Monday at the dealership sorting out these annoying things.

My Parents own a 2001 Toyota Corolla sedan Ascent,and not a single rattle.

I feel sorry for all of you good people who have rattles,when they occur,it is a real let down...almost drove me INSANE.

[night_flight]

Things to try.
Night_flight: Wind your pax seat back as far back as you can with the bottom of the seat as far forward as possible, then wind the backreat up the the normal position. Might pay to run your pax seat back and forth a couple of times in the runners too...


Hope this helps.

Turbo wastegate control rod buzz fix coming soon...

YOU ARE A LEGEND GTICam your tips worked just fine!!!! THANK you a lot!!!!

[elephino]

2000 Pulsar - No rattles
2001 Impreza - 1 rattle that took 3 dealers to fix (loose bonnet hinge in the end)
2003 Corolla - No rattles
2006 GTI - Many rattles (top vent, rear outer seatbelts (solved by plugging in), driver's side seatbelt height adjuster, centre cup holder cover, mysterious never solved one near passenger seat, mysterious never solved one somewhere in dash unrelated to top vent, driver's sun visor light, strange inconsistent thunk from somewhere beneath the gear lever, similar thunk from front of car (which turned out to be a headlight back cover that had fallen into the bumper) - pretty sure that covers them all)
2010 GTI - none so far after about a month

[ConR]

DIY's?

sorry for this, I'm sure there are a bunch of posts that are scattered throughout a hundred other posts.

alas, I'm almost giving up on dealerships sorting out my rattles..none of them seem to care. I've also confirmed with multiple friends that the rattles are not in my head, but are coming from the passenger side of the dash.

so, I want to check it out myself, although I have never worked on a car in my life. How do I take off:

1. Glovebox cover
2. Air vent
3. Seatbelt buckle harness (the sliding mechanism)

any help is appreciated!

[GTICam]

sorry for this, I'm sure there are a bunch of posts that are scattered throughout a hundred other posts.

alas, I'm almost giving up on dealerships sorting out my rattles..none of them seem to care. I've also confirmed with multiple friends that the rattles are not in my head, but are coming from the passenger side of the dash.

so, I want to check it out myself, although I have never worked on a car in my life. How do I take off:

1. Glovebox cover
2. Air vent
3. Seatbelt buckle harness (the sliding mechanism)

any help is appreciated!

Hi Ktrianta,
Have a look at Maverick's my-gti.com website for info on how to remove trim.
A couple of cautions with the seat belt adjuster. The "airbag" plastic logo on the upper part of the B pillar trim covers a screw you need to remove to take the trim off. The "airbag" plastic piece will usually break when you take it out. Also, it can be quite fiddly getting the adjuster mechanism to align with the trim when you put it back together. Lastly, if you take the adjuster off, you'd want to be certain that it is correctly refitted with the anchor bolt torqued properly.
I'd also recommend you persist with trying to get a dealer to sort it out...
Cheers,
Cam.

[ConR]

Thanks Cam, I'll be bringing it back to a different dealer. I don't really want to be playing around with things. I find the rattles become less when it's warmer outside..so think it's temp related.

[triode12]

Looks like the claims of the MkVI being a better built car over the MkV are false. This thread is evidence that MkVI also suffers from the dreaded rattles!

My Pirelli (MKV) doesn't have rattles and GT (MKV) doesn't have them too (although it did have one rattle which only occurred over 80km on B roads that was sorted by the dealer).

[ConR]

I have to partially attribute the rattles to the conditions that the car is put up against day in, day out. NSW roads are just brutal. Banging your suspension over them every day is bound to loosen things up.

At the same time though, I expect to be able to bring it in to a dealer and get them resolved. I also expect them to do whatever they need to do to fix them...not turn around and tell me that that's just how the car is, and it's going to rattle. I give them the benefit of the doubt in that they can be a pain in the a** to locate at times.

Julia Gillard, if you're reading this, please repave Pittwater Rd!!

[triode12]

Yes I agree, NSW roads are crap.

I don't understand why councils just patch up potholes (which come undone when it rains) instead of resurfacing entire stretches of road (when it is cheaper in the long run to do so).

And you have councillers being paid $200K a year just to do FL.

[satz]

having had my 2008 3-door GTI for just 4 weeks, I have to say it has the most trim buzzing, rattles and also the rubber squelching noises from all 3 doors. Very dissappointing and have never had the door flexing noise on any other car I've had, even ones with sunroofs...

Had buzzing over the passenger vanity light. Realised it was the ceiling trim/inner wiring buzzing slightly. Removed the light and stuffed a small 1 inch piece of foam in there to dampen.

The sunroof has started rattling when tilted open....saw some instructions somewhere about cleaning all the edges. Will try that

for the door squelching, I'll try to clean the rubbers and felt and see if that helps

Got to say, it's been pretty harrowing experience, after coming from a 3 year run with a Mazda with absolutely no trim/body/sunroof squeaks or rattles
I don't think it's a case of buyers expecting too much. Even if VW is the cheaper end of German building, it should still not have such bad body squeaks after just 23,000km!

cheers

S

[MurphyTheElf]

having had my 2008 3-door GTI for just 4 weeks, I have to say it has the most trim buzzing, rattles and also the rubber squelching noises from all 3 doors. Very dissappointing and have never had the door flexing noise on any other car I've had, even ones with sunroofs...

Had buzzing over the passenger vanity light. Realised it was the ceiling trim/inner wiring buzzing slightly. Removed the light and stuffed a small 1 inch piece of foam in there to dampen.

The sunroof has started rattling when tilted open....saw some instructions somewhere about cleaning all the edges. Will try that

for the door squelching, I'll try to clean the rubbers and felt and see if that helps

Got to say, it's been pretty harrowing experience, after coming from a 3 year run with a Mazda with absolutely no trim/body/sunroof squeaks or rattles
I don't think it's a case of buyers expecting too much. Even if VW is the cheaper end of German building, it should still not have such bad body squeaks after just 23,000km!

cheers

S

So this would be a MK5 GTI then?

[anthony]

So this would be a MK5 GTI then?

Yes.......

[REXman]

Is it true the 2dr MKV GTI's were built in Germany, and the 4DR was built in South Africa? What was yours?

[Corey_R]

Yep, that's true REXman

[Maverick]

Is it true the 2dr MKV GTI's were built in Germany, and the 4DR was built in South Africa? What was yours?

3 door Golfs were all built in Germany, most 5 door Golfs were built in South Africa with the exception of early 5 door GTI's and all R32's.

But there is no difference in the build quality between those made in Germany and South Africa and both can have problems with rattles.

Just like there is no difference between the build quality of a base model Golf, a GTI and a R. They're all the same car ($25k Golf) with different bits on them and any ideas that a GTI or R will be magically better because they cost more are just based on fantasy.