Okay,

I've broken over $65 worth of sun-baked mazda plastic trying to find a rattle up under my dash in my '89 TII. It sounds like a casette tape rattling in it's plastic case and it's coming from the passenger dash/a-pillar area on broken asphault or other 'roughed-up' street surfaces. Not speed dependant, not temperature dependant.

Out of the car:

Passenger A-pillar trim
Dash cap
Demisiter grills (in pieces)
Glove box / door
'Triangle Trim' for passenger door mirror
Door vent outlet on dash
Passenger knee-pad
Passenger foot heater duct
Passenger door demister grill & duct

Pulled blower motor out of housing, nothing in there is out of place, so re-installed.

I've banged on things but it's pretty hard to get the cowl shake going that excites this damn rattle without driving around.

Anyone found an obvious rattle trap in this area of the car that I havn't already pulled out?

Thanks!


Note to self & anyone who's keeping score:

To unplug the other connector on the Logicon that disappears up into the dash, simply remove the dash cap, the connector is right underneath it!

 

Man I FEEL your pain! My 89 T2 has the same damn rattle. It sucks a fat one! If I find it I will let you know and you do the same if you find it.


Josh

 

I had a horrible squeak that might be the same as the one youre describing. I took off the dash cap (if youre talking about that piece with the vin plate and junk) and theres 3 screws (10mm one in the middle, one on each side almost at the a pillar) holding the dash onto that metal piece. the screws, even though they may seem tight, you might want to try tightening them more. it got rid of my problem

 

how do you take taht dash cap piece off? I have the same rattle on my 1991 TII and I tried to take the dash cap off by pulling up on it, but stopped in fear of snapping something as it didn't want to come off. How did you get the dash cap off? I bet I have the same bolts loose and the sound drives me crazy. Thanks

 

Are you sure its coming from inside the car. I had a rattle sound and a like a chirp sound. When I replaced my cats i noticed that the air tube going to cat was loose underneath and straped it down and the sound went away. It used to drive me nuts. I always thought that it was insided until I straped it.
HTH

Al
87 Beatup N/A

 

Chaos7,

Okay, I'll give that a try today, easy enough since the car is still apart. Thanks for the suggestion!

Spool Up,

The dash cap is removed by popping up the plastic cover between the two demister grills and removing the screw underneath. I would also pull the A-pillar trim to make it easier to remove the cap. Finally, the edge that's next to the dash (not the widnow edge) has clips that hold the cap down. It takes a bit of pressure to pop those up, but don't worry too much as the cap is actually metal. I destroyed the demister grills trying to remove those first, they come off after the dash cap is out so don't make the same mistake I did.

Everyone else,

If I find it I will post it, thanks for your feedback!

 

Your demister grills, do you have the clip that connects them in place? If the grills are in pieces you might have lost the clip somewhere in the abyss.

 

Xentrix,

I do have all four clips, but there are numerous 'shards' of plastic that exploded to loactions unknown. The demister grills were already in bad shape when I purchased the car, so there's no telling where these fragments went.

However, it still seems like something with more mass than a shard of plastic is making the noise. If I had to guess right now I'd say it was the evap core rattling inside the housing.

Chaos7,

I cranked on those three 10mm's even though they wer tight. No changes. Thanks for the help though!

 

Ok, I have one of those clips floating around in my car.

Have you tried the screws that hold the glove box together?

 

All I know is that the center vents above the heater controls rattle like a ****.

 

Xentrix,

The glove box is not currently in the car.

Flobb,

The center vents above the logicon? Those are quiet for me.

All,

The sound is definately on the cabin side of the firewall if you ask me. Does anyone have any experience disassembling the blower motor cavity, evaporator box, and associated hardware? I bet this requires dash removal. I don't know if I can justify pulling the dash at this point, especially considering how fragile all this 13 year old plastic seems to be. The further I go into it the dash, the more I break, and trust me I'm being gentle!

I guess that's why there's a volume ****........

 

Okay guys, are you ready for this? CoolAl gets the prize. The rattle is coming from two things that work together OUTSIDE of the cabin: The hood hinges and the rubber cowl seal that the rear edge of the hood rests on.

To those who suffer:

1) Walk up to car, push down repeatedly on the rear edge of the hood closest to the window. Squeaky sound comes from tired rubber pillows that support the rear edge of the hood. Have a look at the top of the firewall near the middle of the car. You'll see two rectangular blocks that look like styrofoam. It's actually 'Squeakyfoam'.

2) Now that you are standing next to your car, pull up and down on the very rear corners of the hood and note the riveted hinge pin is rattling around. Yes this riveted joint is worn out. I guess the fenders must come off to replace these tired hinges...

A quick test:

1) Open the hood and prop it up.

2) fold up two small shop rags so they are about an inch thick and lay them across the top of the firewall at the rear corners of the engine bay, parallel to each hinge.

3) gently lower the hood and let it rest in the unlatched position

4) check to see that the rags are not pushing the rear of the hood way up high. If so, prop the hood again and re-position / re-fold the rags until they just take all the slack out of the rear of the hood without over-stressing the hood or the hinges.

5) Latch the hood firmly and take her for a spin. As a mid-80's band once said "Enjoy the Silence".

So now what you ask?

I'm going to order a new rubber fire-wall 'cowl' seal for my '89 T2 and look into hinges too. Maybe some home-made rubber bumpers in the right place can restore order. In the mean time I guess I should put my dash back together!!!!

P.S. Removal of the cowl seal gives instant audiable access to many engine sounds you've not heard before: Inake wooshes, louder turbo noises, pumps growling, valves switching, etc. Very noisy but neat to listen too!

 

HOLY $hit!!! I am going outside now to see if that is my problem!!

Thanks,
Josh

 

there is a rattle coming from my dash somewhere it's annoying man, i understand.

 

i have that same annoying rattle, it seems to be louder when im driving then when im idling, it happeneed after a spritited drive throught he country and i cant figure it out either, it sounds like its right behind my cd deck, just squeaking and squeaking... horrible sound.

 

Bringing this back from the dead. My car developed this noise a year ago and I thought it was the relay packs I put in for all my aftermarket stuff. I would get a tick tick tick that sounded almost like a relay clicking on and off. Turns out it was my pass hood hinge. I put a piece of cardboard between the hood and the hinge and the sound is gone. Now I just need to find a more lasting solution.

Thanks everyone