I thought I was so fortunate to not have any of the sunroof or hatch rattles that many people on here complain about. But at 9,500 miles that all suddenly changed. I hear rattles over any uneven or bumpy roads. It is driving me crazy. I tried moving everything in the trunk around (ie. spare tire, tools), but nothing worked.

My question is to those who have had their tCs serviced for this hatch rattles. What do the dealerships typically do? Is there one fix that is commonly used over another? Did they require you to leave your car overnight?

 

There is one guy on here that had his Hatch rattle serviced , and according to the post it was the hatch glass rattling . In his post he said the dealership had put Felt and foam in the panels of the rear hatch . He said that it didnt fully elliminate the prob but greatly reduced the rattles .

 

i have the same problem, i have 8k miles on it and i just noticed the rattling but only when the sunroof is opened slightly in the back. that is when it's most noticeable. *bump

 

Yeah, its especially noticable when driving in NYC's bumpy roads. My sunroof is fine though. No noises there. Just the hatch. I bet you I just jinxed myself. I suppose thats what I get for buying a first year model. Hopefully you 2006 people will have better luck.

 

i used to get rattles from my sunroof when it was open during the first week i had the car. now it doesnt rattle anymore. (i hope i didnt jynx myself there)

 

the plastic panel inside at the top of the hatch seems to make alot of noise if you push on it by hand
I wonder if this is a source or alot of the hatch rattles

 

I have a little rattle but it only seems to happen when I open my trunk up (something loose in there) but I don't hear it on the road. I just (in the last week or two) started to get a sunroof creak. I'm kinda ____ed but it's pretty infrequent right now. I'll take it in if it happens more often, but I thought I was gonna be a lucky one - I guess not!

 

welcome to the club. my rattles started at 700 miles, and have been driving me crazy ever since.

 

I just hate the thought of the techs tearing the car apart to find out what is rattling (which they probably wont). And the car will end up worse than it was before I took it in. I hate dealerships and I avoid them until absolutely necessary.

 

Totally - the service folks are often not much better than you and they definitely care about your car less than you do. I'll try and isolate the area myself and I'm not letting them take things apart until it gets worse or I'm pretty sure I know where it's coming from.

 

I have the rattles too. i have just under 3000k, and its starting to get annoying. I'm pretty sure I have both of them

 

I have rattles too. I listen to my music loud so I don't care too much. But if a TSB comes out, I'll be one of the first to get it fixed.

 

I got rid of my moonroof rattles with lubricating almost every joint/track with a spray bottle of wet lithium (found at every auto store). The hatch rattle is a different animal. Sometimes it is worse than others and I think it is due to how "good" the hatch is closed.

One thing I am testing now is to take an old sweatshirt and cut the sleeves. Put one sleeve on the plastic molding next to where the latch connects. The sleeve should go from the the center to where the plastic molding ends. Put the other sleeve on the opposite side. Close the hatch. The add'l layer of material gives it a better seal plus gives a little cushioning for any parts that might be rubbing together. This has seemed to help a lot. I think the main problem is that the latch just does not latch as tight as it should.

If you try above, please write back to see if that helped.

Kevin

 

Thanks for the tip. But I feel putting a sweatshirt to close the hatch on a brand new car is ridiculous. I'm just ____ed that I even have to deal with this, especially since it is a toyota. I am starting not to like my scion as much as I use to.

 

From talking to the Toyota mechanics, all rattles are vey difficult to pinpoint. Sometimes they can fix and most times it is the car owner who does something to fix. Hasn't been as bad lately either because I have fixed the problem to some degree, turned up the music, gotten used to it, or all of the above!!

And rattles are not unique with the tC. I had a Highlander which had a constant rattle in the back which nobody could ever find or fix.

Kevin

 

i figured out a very cheap way of sloving this problem.....crank the radio past 50

 

i think some of us are too obsessed/**** about the rattling. sure it is annoying, but you gotta expect these little quirks from a $17K entry level compact. Now if this were a $45K Lexus, then I'd would be more upset. For a car this size and price, i'm very surprised how quiet it is. Maybe Toyota made a bad move by putting so much sound deadening material in the TC, that any sound seems worse than it really is (i read in the FAQ that the tc has the most amount of sound deadening for a non-lexus). Coming from owning VW's, I'm so used to faulty coilpacks, faulty window regulators (leading to shattered windows), faulty sunroof tracks, rattling heatshields, rattling interior panels, etc. We TC owners really have it good, rattling and all.

 

Thats the annoying part, finding the rattle location. It sounds like its rear right to me. But my front passenger says it rear left. And my back passenger says its rear top. ARGH!

I dont agree with the price comparison replies. There are many brand new cars in the same price range (many lower) that are problem free. And 17K really isnt all that cheap the way some people make it sounds.

 

Hello, I am currently considering tC. I wanted to provide a tip regarding the hatch rattle. There is a very simple FIX!
I used to own a Nissan Pathfinder and after some 30K miles I noticed some very annoying rattles from hatch when running over bumps or rough patches. For the life of me I could not figure it out where it's coming from, I removed loose things from truck and checked and make sure everything it tight. Until one day I complained to Nissan service guy. So here's something to try to see if this works,
does the tC hatch has ANY RUBBER FEET on the inside of the hatch that cushiones the hatch to the frame of the car??
If so, all you do is buy some silicon spray and run some silicon onto the rubber feet and the squeaks rattles will be GONE!!! This worked like magic on my Pathfinder. But you will have to repeat this every month or so or until the squeaks rattles start to appear again, that's it! TRY IT

 

Cascade audio has some products for sound dampening; does anyone know if these will work? They're not asphalt-based like dynamat, so there shouldn't be any risk of odors developing. Just a thought.