I have had my tc for about a month now and from day one I had a rattle coming from the right rear corner of my hatch. My friend went back there when I was driving and he said it was because the whole hatch was bouncing up and down. It seemed like when he pushed it up a little bit it stopped. It also seems like the harder I close it the more it rattles. It sounded like one of those shock towers was either loose or it was banging on something. Anyways, I took it in to the dealership and they took a look at it. It took about an hour and a half . They drove it about 3 miles and determined that it was the shock tower mount. They "fixed" it by tightening the shock tower bolts. The dealership said it was loose and they said they turned the bolts like 3 times! I drove away with no rattles. When I opened the hatch and closed it again, the rattle started again. Im not sure what to do now. I don't know where it is coming from, the shock mount or the latch. I was thinking of trying to adjust the metal bumper on the side of the hatch down to push up harder on the hatch. If anyone has any suggestions I would really appreciate it.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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take it to the dealer. they'll fix it for you

 

Check your license plate. And take it to the dealership.

 

I already took it to the dealer and they didn't fix it. "If you need a job done right, do it yourself" I say. If anyone with some real advice about this problem could reply I would be so grateful. Thank, but no thanks for the "take it to the dealer " response. I thinking about adding some type of sound proofing or making an adjustment of some sort. PLEASE HELP!!!

 

good timing in asking this.. i had the hatch making a rattle by moving up and down, basically in vibration with an uneven road..

i attached some 1/4" foam tape onto the hatch rubber bumper stops. These stops are on either side of the hatch itself, that mate up with the ones in the water channel. Not the stops that are along the rear bumper side.. I attached some foam tape to the bolted in bumper stop surface that contacted the water channel bumper catch and tried it out on some roads it was rattling before.. and nothing! No noise! So I finally fixed it! I think if you can't find the foam tape (scion tech gave me some to try), try some weather stripping usually at like a hardware store.. make sure it's open cell type, so it can compress easily.. Talking with the tech there aren't any adjustments to the stops like other cars, so the only option is the foam to take up the space.

So try that on those bumper stops and let us know if it got rid of your noise..

EDIT : Was also thinking about some other noise with the license plate (not that I think that is your noise, just adding this for everyone)..
on the bottom edge of the license plate attach some vinyl weatherstripping (the kind used for home doors, you can get this at a hardware store). I did this with the license plate and stopped any kind of rattle, also protects the paint from the license plate rubbing up against it..

 

This is the best advice I have gotten so far! Thanks for replying. If there is any other details on the exact products you used or if you could provide any pictures of how you did it that would be really cool. Did you just use like a small piece of that black foam rubber tubing type of stuff? How did you attach it, just tape? Does it look like it belongs or can you tell that it is a quick fix? I take it that the Scion tech that you talked to recognized that it was not a dealer repaired problem?

 

If you could PM me pictures.

Thanks a lot!!!!

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the stuff i used was some black foam tape the Scion technician gave me from what Toyota calls a "noise kit" all sorts of different foam and felt tape.. he gave me 4 different kinds.. the one i used was an open cell, black colored foam tape,
I cut about a length of an inch and the cut was 1/4" wide. Then applied it to the bumper stop on the hatch (this bumper stop is on either side of the hatch and has a bolt holding it to the hatch. So basically the foam tape is 1/4" high, cut to 1/4" width, in a 1 inch length.
It is sticky on one side, peel off the protective label and attach it to the surface where you want it.. It's black, so it blends in.. doesn't look strange at all.. most people wouldn't know what it was.. if i cut more length I could've wrapped it further up the bumper stop
(since the bumper stop is in a wide "U" shape) to make it blend in more.. But this isn't something that most people are going to say detracts from the car.

Oh the tech could've repaired it without a problem, but I told him i'd rather mess around with it, so he volunteered to give me the noise kit and let me mess around with it, since he agreed that a tech could spend all day on it and not hear the same noise the customer hears. So I installed it in that location and finally.. no more rattle over rough roads!

I will take a picture tomorrow of it..when I have a chance (didn't have time today).. and i will email you the pictures I take.. I am also posting it on the forum (tC forum here on Scionlife) since two others were willing to host the pictures to link to from this forum.
There is another post on the tC forum that is discussing this as well.. But It's a real simple fix, hope I explained it well enough, I'll give you pictures.. once you see it you'll be like.. oh that's it?!!

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Thank you so much for the detail explanation. I was thinking.... maybe they designed the trunk seals and the latch to support something heavier. A spoiler maybe. Maybe it is not a design flaw after all, maybe we all need to buy spoilers . I am definitely going to take your advice and fix my trunk the
same way that you did. I will just wait to see your pictures so I can duplicate what you did and have the same results that you had. What do you think about spoilers on a the tc? Do you have any other rattles that people have talked about on this forum? My tC rides like a smooth and quiet vault otherwise.

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i think you're right about the extra play in the stops to compress when a wing or spoiler is attached, good idea. That is probably it. I think some spoilers would be fine to match the smooth lines of the tC, it would look great.

The only other rattles that I've had have been from the fuse box panel (below the power mirror controls).. I attached some thin foam to that area, on the main panel, not the panel that comes off.. Put it all around the opening and perfect! No more noise there either. Moonroof pop is what I had, dealer did the TSB on it with adding threadlocker to the bolts and no more noise there either. I am really glad these have been relatively simple fixes! And the tC is very very quiet inside again.. not bad for a first year production so far! just foam tape? not much to complain about..

pics are on this thread on the tC forum... take a look

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/vie...r=asc&start=25

 

Thanks for all the help! Those pictures really helped alot. I will try to do the same thing that you did and I will definitely let you know how it goes. .....Im still debating whether or not to get a spoiler or not. I will probably start a poll and see what other people think. Hey check out some of my other polls if you want, just do an author search on J_Bomb. I think that they are interesting. I will either post a reply here or I will email you back with the results. thanks a lot mark!!!!!!! See you on the forums!