Rattles and
Vibrations
One
of the few common complaints about this car is a mysterious vibration noise
that begins to appear after a few thousand miles. Mine sounded like a bumblebee in a paper cup. It seemed to be coming from nearby, but you
could touch everything and the vibration was unaffected. Some have reported noise coming from the
instrument trim rings shown above, where the speedometer lens presses into the
notches circled above. My car already
had a fiber tape around the speedometer protrusion, and that wasn’t the problem
-- I drove around with the trim rings removed and the noise was still there.
To
remove the trim rings, lower the adjustable steering column, grab the rings at
the left of the speedometer and below the gas gauge, and pull straight
out. The whole thing should pop off
toward you. To reinstall, carefully
thread the odometer button back through the hole as you push, then press
directly on every latch to be sure each one is seated.
My
noise seemed to be coming from near or beyond the gas gauge, most often at
about 2900 rpm, but also sometimes near 1500 or 4000. It is gone now. I can’t
be certain what fixed it, since I made a few changes and even the removal of
the dashboard alone could have changed something. But I’m reasonably confident that it was the cruise control
module shaking on its single-screw mount.
This is a shiny metal box mounted high in the dashboard directly ahead
of the driver. If you are a
contortionist you may be able to silence it without removing the dashboard, but
it is mostly obscured from below and I can barely get a couple fingers on
it. To see how to remove the dashboard
and get to it that way, click
here. If you have a slow
connection, be patient -- there are some big photos.
Thanks
Nick Simkins at GenVibe.com for the photos above.