aday
22-04-2007, 10:44 PM
My Euro's done about 25,000km, and in the last thousand km or so it's started to develop a very annoying rattle that makes itself heard when I drive on corrugated surfaces. It's coming from the front/front-left of the car, and sounds like metal-on-metal. It's not very loud - radio on 10 or above will usually obscure it - but it sure is annoying. It sounds like a bar or similar that's secure at one end but vibrating at the other, against a metal support. That's what I imagine anyway. :p
Coarse roads and large bumps tend not to set off the rattle - it usually needs a good spread of corrugations to get it started, after which it tends to return over light undulations.
Initially, I thought it sounded like something loose in the lower suspension or engine bay, but I've had a decent look around and can't see anything obviously loose, and nothing feels wrong from the driver's seat (and I do push the car from time to time). I can't hear it with the window open either, so I suspect it's more likely to be something muffled deep inside the dash (but I could be wrong).
Has anyone else encountered a similar rattle, and/or know a likely cause? I'll be taking the car to the dealer in the next month or so for its next service, but I'm concerned that it may be difficult to reproduce the rattle on the brand-new tarmac by my dealership, and that even if it does appear, the dealer will be tempted to put it in the too-hard basket.
Coarse roads and large bumps tend not to set off the rattle - it usually needs a good spread of corrugations to get it started, after which it tends to return over light undulations.
Initially, I thought it sounded like something loose in the lower suspension or engine bay, but I've had a decent look around and can't see anything obviously loose, and nothing feels wrong from the driver's seat (and I do push the car from time to time). I can't hear it with the window open either, so I suspect it's more likely to be something muffled deep inside the dash (but I could be wrong).
Has anyone else encountered a similar rattle, and/or know a likely cause? I'll be taking the car to the dealer in the next month or so for its next service, but I'm concerned that it may be difficult to reproduce the rattle on the brand-new tarmac by my dealership, and that even if it does appear, the dealer will be tempted to put it in the too-hard basket.