Dash Rattles

BMW i3 Forum

Help Support BMW i3 Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

kylemcooper

Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2015
Messages
14
Location
Houston Heights, TX
Has anyone else experienced dash rattles on their i3? I just took delivery of mine last week, which had just over 3k miles on it, as it was one of the extended test drive models (got a great deal). I didn't notice them initially during the very limited time I test drove it at the dealer. It is almost more of a plastic creak/plastic on plastic sound over rough pavement or bumps. It seems to be coming from either the hinge on the glove compartment, or from the nav screen area (I have the NAV professional/large screen). If you did have rattles, what was the cause and remediation by dealer. I'm not real keen on the idea of the dealer tearing the dash apart, but the sound is driving me bonkers. I expected a much more solid build/sound!
 
My glove box lid rattles over bumps. If you open the lid it goes away so I suspect that it has to do with the dampener.
 
Since I suspect the damper as the source of rattle I took it upon myself to remove the damper and then put it all back together. I'll report back tomorrow and see if that eliminates the rattle.
 
jelloslug said:
Since I suspect the damper as the source of rattle I took it upon myself to remove the damper and then put it all back together. I'll report back tomorrow and see if that eliminates the rattle.

Ok, cool... let me know how that goes. Looks like there is 6 screws holding the whole insert/glove box in.
 
kylemcooper said:
jelloslug said:
Since I suspect the damper as the source of rattle I took it upon myself to remove the damper and then put it all back together. I'll report back tomorrow and see if that eliminates the rattle.

Ok, cool... let me know how that goes. Looks like there is 6 screws holding the whole insert/glove box in.
You have to remove the vent assembly also. It just pulls out though, grasp it under the vent and pull it toward you (not up) and it just slides right out. When you remove the glove box assy put a thick cloth or this rigid piece of plastic between the glove box lid and the leather dashboard at the hinge edge to protect the material. When you pull the box out it has to rotate toward the windshield and there is a risk of scratching the material.
 
jelloslug said:
kylemcooper said:
jelloslug said:
Since I suspect the damper as the source of rattle I took it upon myself to remove the damper and then put it all back together. I'll report back tomorrow and see if that eliminates the rattle.

Ok, cool... let me know how that goes. Looks like there is 6 screws holding the whole insert/glove box in.
You have to remove the vent assembly also. It just pulls out though, grasp it under the vent and pull it toward you (not up) and it just slides right out. When you remove the glove box assy put a thick cloth or this rigid piece of plastic between the glove box lid and the leather dashboard at the hinge edge to protect the material. When you pull the box out it has to rotate toward the windshield and there is a risk of scratching the material.

Great, thanks for the info. Did the dis-assembly/re-assembly take care of the rattle for you?
 
On the right side of the dash lid is an arcing piece of black plastic that holds the lid up. It is vibrating against the glove box when closed. I took some adhesive velcro (soft, fluffy part) and attached it to the entire arm and the vibration is gone. Hope this helps. Also check your frunk latch as that is loose on many of the vehicles and you will hear some noise from the frunk which is easily fixed by tightening the bolt on the male part of the latch.
 
kylemcooper said:
Great, thanks for the info. Did the dis-assembly/re-assembly take care of the rattle for you?
I have the damper out right now and I do think that fixed it. There is a different rattle in the area now but I think it is the disconnected plug for the glove box light switch bouncing around. I will tape it down and see if that takes care of it.
 
NoMoreGas said:
On the right side of the dash lid is an arcing piece of black plastic that holds the lid up. It is vibrating against the glove box when closed. I took some adhesive velcro (soft, fluffy part) and attached it to the entire arm and the vibration is gone. Hope this helps. Also check your frunk latch as that is loose on many of the vehicles and you will hear some noise from the frunk which is easily fixed by tightening the bolt on the male part of the latch.
In the end if all it needs is something to dampen the parts on that side removing the glove box won't be necessary. Once you remove the vent on the passenger side you have good access to the side of the glove box. I'll take some pics tonight.
 
jelloslug said:
NoMoreGas said:
On the right side of the dash lid is an arcing piece of black plastic that holds the lid up. It is vibrating against the glove box when closed. I took some adhesive velcro (soft, fluffy part) and attached it to the entire arm and the vibration is gone. Hope this helps. Also check your frunk latch as that is loose on many of the vehicles and you will hear some noise from the frunk which is easily fixed by tightening the bolt on the male part of the latch.
In the end if all it needs is something to dampen the parts on that side removing the glove box won't be necessary. Once you remove the vent on the passenger side you have good access to the side of the glove box. I'll take some pics tonight.

I put some velcro on the arc piece and it seems to have helped the rattle/creak a bit. That being said, I think part of the noises are coming from the thin bezel around the professional NAV screen. It seems like the screen/mount is flexing over bumps/rougher pavement that is making the nasty sounding plastic-on-plastic going-to-fall-off sound. Since that piece just snaps on over the screen, I don't even know how it would be remediated... and I hesitate to touch it given what it is. I am going to put a couple pieces of tape over the bezel to prevent it from flexing to see if this is a contributing factor, but that obviously is not a long term solution.
 
kylemcooper said:
jelloslug said:
NoMoreGas said:
On the right side of the dash lid is an arcing piece of black plastic that holds the lid up. It is vibrating against the glove box when closed. I took some adhesive velcro (soft, fluffy part) and attached it to the entire arm and the vibration is gone. Hope this helps. Also check your frunk latch as that is loose on many of the vehicles and you will hear some noise from the frunk which is easily fixed by tightening the bolt on the male part of the latch.
In the end if all it needs is something to dampen the parts on that side removing the glove box won't be necessary. Once you remove the vent on the passenger side you have good access to the side of the glove box. I'll take some pics tonight.

I put some velcro on the arc piece and it seems to have helped the rattle/creak a bit. That being said, I think part of the noises are coming from the thin bezel around the professional NAV screen. It seems like the screen/mount is flexing over bumps/rougher pavement that is making the nasty sounding plastic-on-plastic going-to-fall-off sound. Since that piece just snaps on over the screen, I don't even know how it would be remediated... and I hesitate to touch it given what it is. I am going to put a couple pieces of tape over the bezel to prevent it from flexing to see if this is a contributing factor, but that obviously is not a long term solution.

At least on my car, when you open the glove box the rattle goes away completely. I'm going to do the Velcro trick on both sides tonight as just removing the damper did not completely stop the noise.
 
If you go velcro crazy and do all sides (even the skinny sides) of the black piece the rattle stops. 100% gone in my case.
 
NoMoreGas said:
If you go velcro crazy and do all sides (even the skinny sides) of the black piece the rattle stops. 100% gone in my case.

Going velcro crazy on the dash arc, combined with putting a couple small pieces of black felt under the corners of where the professional nav screen meets the leather/dash mounts, seems to have eliminated about 90% of the rattles and creaks. :) There is so much flex with this car..... especially with the dash being somewhat non-traditional/floating there isn't a lot of cross lateral support on some of the components.

Thanks everyone for their input!
 
kylemcooper said:
NoMoreGas said:
If you go velcro crazy and do all sides (even the skinny sides) of the black piece the rattle stops. 100% gone in my case.

Going velcro crazy on the dash arc, combined with putting a couple small pieces of black felt under the corners of where the professional nav screen meets the leather/dash mounts, seems to have eliminated about 90% of the rattles and creaks. :) There is so much flex with this car..... especially with the dash being somewhat non-traditional/floating there isn't a lot of cross lateral support on some of the components.

Thanks everyone for their input!

Ugh... I might have spoke too soon.... It's back to being a rattle monster (all over the dash). Maybe I just have to come to terms with that's how it is.... Has anyone had any luck with addressing this with their respective service team?
 
When I drive over potholes and other broken pavement and the wheels begin to skitter it sounds like there are wires rattling against the CFRP of the structure. Almost like tapping an acoustic guitar, but more brittle of a sound. Short of disassembly I cannot think how to fix it.
 
I will bet you that your frunk latch is loose. Open it up and look at the male part on the "hood". There is one bolt. Tighten and if you are really nuts (like me) place some adhesive velcro around the receiver and cut so it just forms a protective wrap around the bottom of the metal assembly so that if you go over a bump and it is tight there will still not be a metal on metal noise. Worked great for me.

And I can't imagine your potholes could touch what I am driving over in NYC everyday. At least I hope not.
 
kylemcooper said:
kylemcooper said:
NoMoreGas said:
If you go velcro crazy and do all sides (even the skinny sides) of the black piece the rattle stops. 100% gone in my case.

Going velcro crazy on the dash arc, combined with putting a couple small pieces of black felt under the corners of where the professional nav screen meets the leather/dash mounts, seems to have eliminated about 90% of the rattles and creaks. :) There is so much flex with this car..... especially with the dash being somewhat non-traditional/floating there isn't a lot of cross lateral support on some of the components.

Thanks everyone for their input!

Ugh... I might have spoke too soon.... It's back to being a rattle monster (all over the dash). Maybe I just have to come to terms with that's how it is.... Has anyone had any luck with addressing this with their respective service team?
Have you driven around with the glove box lid open?
 
jelloslug said:
Have you driven around with the glove box lid open?

Yes, and sometimes it seems like that helps and other times ehhh. My partner has deemed it the "Hunt for creak-tober"! Some days it doesn't bother me as much....

NoMoreGas... I saw your suggestion about the frunk latch on another post and tightened that a while back.... I do think it helped from that perspective, so good catch.

WoodLandHills... Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if it's ultimately a bouncy wiring harness for the airbag or something as you suggest.
 
kylemcooper said:
jelloslug said:
Have you driven around with the glove box lid open?

Yes, and sometimes it seems like that helps and other times ehhh. My partner has deemed it the "Hunt for creak-tober"! Some days it doesn't bother me as much....

NoMoreGas... I saw your suggestion about the frunk latch on another post and tightened that a while back.... I do think it helped from that perspective, so good catch.

WoodLandHills... Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if it's ultimately a bouncy wiring harness for the airbag or something as you suggest.
I doubt it's wiring harnesses. All the harnesses are covered in fabric wrapping.
 
Back
Top