Noise in dash area somewhere!?

[Redhouse]

Hello all, I\'ve got some noise problem. It sounds like it\'s comming from the front of the car almost inside the dash. The sound is a bit of a \'twang\' when i go over bumps or crevices. I heard it the other day VERY strongly while going over a section of the 401 while heading east near avenue road (they had ground up the top layer). I can\'t seem to find where it is comming from, and I was wondering if anyone has had this problem before. It doesn\'t seem to be the glovebox, but I\'m no expert. I\'ve removed everything from everything and the sound keeps comming on.
Today while parking i noticed that if my shift knob was thrown into park i could hear a similar \'twang\'.
I cracked open part of the dash on the weekend to see if i could figure this out, and i thought i had found it with the large baffle/valve for the main ventilation but that doesn\'t seem to be it (put the vents to legs only and the baffle is closed shut).

Maybe I\'ll record it and make a posting of the actual sound, but if anyone has had a similar issue please chime in.

[Redhouse]

I just came back from lunch and I had a hard time reproducing the sound when the car was HOT. Sitting in the sun, ambient outside temp 33 degrees celcius, interior was probably 5-10 more.

[TheProfessor]

That\'s a tough one.....perhaps have a friend go for a ride with you and try and locate the sound while you\'re driving? I would definatley mention it to the dealer, though I doubt it\'ll make the sound while they\'re road testing it.

[Redhouse]

Originally posted by TheProfessor


That\'s a tough one.....perhaps have a friend go for a ride with you and try and locate the sound while you\'re driving? I would definatley mention it to the dealer, though I doubt it\'ll make the sound while they\'re road testing it.

Hehe yeah, that\'s the problem with customer support.

I was driving home today and the car was super hot when i got in. All the plastic dash bits and the center console with the shifter/p.brake etc were very soft. So i started to gently nudge them to see what sounds might be made. It turns out the sound is very similar if not the same. I\'m guessing it\'s the squeak of plastic on plastic. That doesn\'t help me fix it though. I\'d go in there with silicone or some rubber stickies but I think there will be too many joints.

Anyone ever \'tightened\' up their dashboard components at all like that?

[Redhouse]

fixed this.
after taking out a bunch of major dash components i found the most vibration comming from the passenger side panel that is between the glove box and the radio. also the vent thing inside was a bit shaky since they secured it at the factory with some foam tape. The tape was all depressed and useless so i replaced it.

I also put foam tape between almost any plastic-plastic joint to help soften minor squeaks.

ah, feels nice now. :D

[Gmac123]

I\'m also have a similar sounding problem, and have only taken the radio out to investigate the noise. Can you elaborate a bit more about the vent thing that you secured with foam tape. Where was it located? Below the radio in the hvac unit, or between the radio and glovebox?
Thanks

[Redhouse]

I only took the stuff apart once, and I made a few changes, so I can\'t be certain what fixed my problem. But I\'m pretty confident it was the gap between the glovebox and the main middle column.
There is a vent under the glovebox for passengers feet, and it\'s held with only one of those expansion plugs. I put foam on the inside flared lip of it that mates with the rest of the HVAC system so it would fit more snugly. I also put some foam on the main structural crossbeam under the glovebox to tighten that vent also.

The vent behind the radio didn\'t seem to be a problem really. My original problem was a \'twang\' kind of noise, with reverb. I still get squeaks from around the radio but that can\'t be helped until i can find some sort of very thin tape to prevent squeaking. I have teflon impregnated fibre weave but that didn\'t help the squeaks in some other areas. I\'m thinking that something similar to the fabric tape that mazda uses on close contact parts would work well, I don\'t know where to find it though.