[smileline]

Hello. As mentioned in previous posts rattling can be subjective. A rattle for one, might be a non-rattle for other.

I get worried with the smallest rattles, presently I own a Brezza ZDI + AGS.

My observations.
- The car is rattle free on smooth roads.
- It rattles less after it’s parked in sun for some time.
- Early morning and cold winters it rattles comparatively to greater extent.
- It rattles when the road-joints are sharp and small. Larger speed breakers and large pot holes it doesn’t.
- It rattles more on concrete roads in comparison to good tar roads.
- More the junk in the car more the car rattles. (Junk in boot, sunglasses in sunglass holder, water bottles etc)
- Keep bare minimum stuff in the boot and glove box.

The prime areas of rattle in my Brezza (probably in other cars too) are.
- Rear Parcel shelf
- Glove Box
- Dash board
- Under/over the entertainment system
- Car window glass when not completely rolled down.
- Seat belt
- Door handles
- Doors
- Somewhere near the steering column.
- Number plate.

My armour for rattles
- Double sided tape.
- Single sided foam tape.
- 3M bumpons.
- Rubber sheet.
- Sponge.
- Noodle mats.

I guess more the car is abused more the car rattles. Be gentle on speed breakers and rough roads to decrease or minimise rattles.

The sedans are better insulated from rear boot area rattles but hatchbacks and SUVs are more prone to rear rattles. (Of course along with dashboard rattles)

I sometimes become very obsessed and as penned by few fellow bhpians, I employ my whole family in a lookout for slightest rattle. Have taken care of few rattles, but the dash board rattle, I guess is too difficult to manage and I don’t want the workshop guys to open the dash.

I get annoyed by them but have sort of resigned to the fact that they are difficult to take care. I was the opinion that few German cars would be built to be rattle free but as I see the thread, all cars rattle to some extent.

[E90-E250]

Originally Posted by GTO

Rattles are a standard feature of my Jeep . Came like that straight from the factory! Every time I drive it, it seems that some new rattles & squeaks have popped up, and some have disappeared.

In my 530d too, I have started hearing mild rattles from some corners. But rattles don't bother me as I play my music loud enough to drown them out .

Most cars in India rattle. The single car I have owned that remained rattle-free was the Mercedes C220. IIRC, even at 70,000 km, that car had no rattles at all (and we take our cars out on the highway a LOT).

I second your statement on the Mercedes.

I have clocked 130k km on the W212 E Class (Facelift) and not a single rattle. Still feels solid. Making it even harder to part with it.

[venkyhere]

A peek into the life of a car-lover Husband (H) & his Wife (W)


Scene 1, at home
--------------------
W : how many times do I have to yell ? please bother to listen
H : yes, listening.
W : did you hear what I already repeated more than 2 times now ?
H : something about... about... no I didn't.
W : typical chauvinist. Never listen to what a wife has to say.
H : cut the bullshit drama.... what's the matter ?
W : *^@(%$$$%#@* ...
H : you were not loud enough, I was in the other room
W : No. You can hear easily from there, you chose not to hear.
H : Oh god. what did I get into... This woman... please tell me once more, I am listening.
W : are you hearing impaired ? why didn't you hear me ? not once, but twice...
H : if I didn't hear, I didn't hear. I don't have god's superpower to originate inverse vibrations in air molecules to destructively interfere with the vibrations coming out of your voicebox.
W : Don't justify, you simply wont listen when Im talking. You have trained your brain to treat my voice as background noise.
H : Im not justifying, but that's kind of true, I think. A natural defense mechanism of the human body, I guess..
W : *^@(%$$$%#@* ...

Cut to Scene 2 :
In the car, cruising gently at 80kph on the highway
---------------------------------------------------------
H : whats that sound ?
W : sound ? from where ?
H : didn't you hear, some kind of click-tick-katwaang or rub-dub-katakata ?
W : what are you talking about ?
H : have you been hearing any unusual sound apart from the engine noise, tyre noise, wind noise, intake noise, blow off valve noise ?
W : seriously, what the hell are you talking about ?
H : You see, there is a phase-mismatched low frequency, pseudo-periodic rattle coming from somewhere
W : Its a car, there will be noises. Btw are you crazy, why are you talking like a guy wearing a labcoat ?
H : DID YOU HEAR OR NOT, ANSWER THE QUESTION
W : what the hell ? I dont tune my ears to your stupid car's noises. I have better things to think about and listen to.
H : Oh, its a "stupid" car now ?
W : I know. Its always been like that. I'm a second class citizen in your life, right ? Your car is your true love.
H : ??? what ? seriously, what ???
W : Yes, I know, otherwise why would you be so rude to your wife and so caring with the car ?
H : my god. Why the hell did 'love' appear into this conversation ?
W : Of course, it has to. You are deaf when Im talking, but hear everything else in the world.
H : what are you on about ?
W : I can prove it.
H : then prove.
W : See, that day at home you were saying you were hard of hearing, and wasn't able to hear, twice, what I wanted to say. But today, you are able to hear some 'sound' that I was not able to hear. You pay more attention to the car than to me. It's as clear as daylight.
H : hold on. My head is spinning. When was that ?
W : when was what ?
H : the day I was not able to hear you
W : 2 years and 3 months ago, on a Sunday afternoon after lunch.
H : GGRRR... this is nonsense.
W : Oh, so Suddenly I am nonsense, but your car is full-sense ?
H : Oh my god. Please kill me. Really, just kill me.
W : nghee...nghee... (weeping)
...
...
weeping continues for 5 more minutes
..
W : I'm fine, just that I feel alone and disappointed.
H : ok, fine. I am sorry. I am sorry that I was not able to hear you 3 years ago, but am able to hear the rattle in our car, today (god, give me patience). Actually, there is no rattle or sound. It's my imagination (shit, this new rattle will need 1 week minimum to figure out, just fixed the plastic panels near the B pillar last week, it's definitely from behind the front seat. Probably C pillar or rear left door. Last time the service center guys had opened it to fix the window winder motor).. anyway, I was wrongly imagining it. You are more precious to me than the car.
W : Really ?
H : really.
...
...
..
W : btw, it was 2 yrs and 3 months ago. Not 3 years ago.
H : oh, yeah, I think I am starting to remember it. I think I had a headache that day. Must be why I wasn't able to hear.. (finally, excaped)
W : ohh.... anyway, we are fine now, right ? no more fighting in the car ? no more yelling at your wife in the car ?
H : but I didn't yell.. it was you who...
W : what ? what ?
H : nothing. I told you sorry. Will pay attention to you always, my love. (kill me already, dear god).

and they lived happily ever after. But the rattle never showed up again. The husband is still tearing his hair out, trying to reproduce the problem from that fateful day.

[shivamk11]

Swift 1st gen diesel- rattle queen, every part rattled and the A pillar cover even fell down on sharp bumps.
Tiago AMT- not bad, but still random rattles pop up which I force the TASS guys to remove but some are too stubborn to go.
Brezza- honestly surprised by how less this rattles being a Maruti. Most of the rattles are from boot area which also started after some body shop work. So overall a very good experience even after 1L km.

[--gKrish--]

2001 Maruti Zen

• Rear parcel tray rattle - fixed with rubber strips, 3m tape and packaging foam blocks to support the tray in the middle.
• Center AC vents rattle occasionally when blower is at full speed. Living with it because speed 2 does the job and blower noise is also less. For an almost 2 decade old Maruti, it is surprisingly rattle free otherwise.

2010 Fiat Linea

• Front door rattle - fixed - window motor mounting screw was loose.
• Inside door unlock lever rattle - cotter pin was dislodged-fixed
• Speakers were cracking at moderate volumes - the vapour barrier in the door was touching the speaker - fixed. (infact it is the reason why fiat stock speakers start jarring, they are 20w paperweights at the end of the day).
• Turn signal stalk rattles when going over rough patches on roads. Not fixed - buying a new combination switch to stop the rattle is out of the question. Looking for DIY fix.
• Rear parcel tray or seatbelt assembly rattles very very rarely only when I'm too busy to locate the source of sound.-Not fixed.

[ts1506]

Right now we have three cars in the family.

2017 Elite i20 - The best put together one. Still rattle free 3 years down
2018 S Cross - Started rattling along window, door and dashboard about 1 month in. Nothing major or worrying though.
2019 EcoSport - Has a weird rattle when playing audio at high volume on the left B pillar. Otherwise, its pretty rattle free overall.

[i74js]

Punto 2013 at 85k absolutely no rattle at all.

Ford Escort 1997 at 240k, minor rattle from boot when fully loaded over potholes. Quite when partially loaded.

EcoSport 2016 at 16k, front passenger door / B piller rattles, no courage to let the guys open and fix it.

[arindambasu13]

In these days of deteriorating roads across cities in India, it is a difficult ask for a car to remain rattle free - given the consistent and regular battering that it gets on each and every trip. I am one of those who baby my cars over bad roads to the extent possible, and till date, both my present cars (Brio and City) have remained largely rattle free. I have no doubt however, that if I were in the habit of flying over bad roads, this might well have not been the case.

Jap cars have traditionally had a bad reputation when it comes to rattling parts, but of late, I have noticed that rattles have become relatively lesser as compared to cars from 8-10 years back.

[Neversaygbye]

Well, we have had a number of cars over the years and one of them rattled and the others didn't. I suppose there is a bit of luck involved along with driving style, quality of roads, etc. as some of my friends who had the same model as me had an experience that was diametrically opposite to mine.

Daewoo Matiz (1998-2011) The car did over 115,000 kms before it was sold and in the last five years of ownership was full of rattles and squeaks. Never tried to get them fixed and lived with it. Two of my friends had the exact same car at the same time as me and their cars didn't rattle at all. I suppose my proclivity for not slowing down enough for speedbreakers probably contributed to the rattles

Tata Indica V2 Diesel (1998-2013) We exchanged this car for a Vista and while it had done over 120,000 kms, there was not a single rattle anywhere, although the overall NVH levels were quite poor.

Chevrolet Beat LT LPG (2011-) This car in its LPG avatar is costly to maintain but other than that it's very smooth and doesn't rattle at all despite having done over 100,000 kms as on date

Tata Vista D90 (2013-) This car is built like a tank and handles like a tank whatever abuse I throw at it, including not slowing down for speedbreakers. A minor rattle comes from one of the left front dashboard speakers at times especially on bad roads but it goes away on smooth roads. Had tried to get it fixed a few years back but the service centre guys had said that it was better to live with it rather than fiddle with the dashboard, and I had listened to them. However, in the last 3 years of ownership the NVH level has increased a bit - I think it may be because some of the noise dampening material has hardened over time. Also, sometimes on the highway at night with the windows rolled up, I can hear some of the windowpanes rattle. Again this depends a lot on the quality of the road I'm on. Anyway, the car has done over 65k kms till date and I intend to keep it for the next few years as the overall experience has been extremely fuss free and low maintenance.

[Beerus]

I was so proud and happy when I bought a Polo in 2016, that this is a solid machine and things like rattle will never be an issue. Fast forward to 2019, all the doors rattle!
Which door rattles depends on how the chassis is flexing over our amazing roads. The 1.2L 3-cylinder motor is not very helpful either as it is unbalanced due it's design and at idle rpms, it just gives everything an amazing shake.

[DicKy]

Maruti Omni - There shouldn't be anything to rattle in it, but the rear jump seats would squeak, jiggle and rattle even in the smoothest surface.

Tata Indicab - one-off instance where my dream car was bought. Dreamt of dark green Indica DLS, bought a white Indicab DLE for taxi business. The third day of ownership, the whole interior rattled. Dashboard, doorpads, boot, parcel shelf et al.

I was squirming since I was the one who went ga-ga over Indica and Tata as a whole.
Thankfully it settled at 10k kms. Leave interior rattles, the body and mechanicals started creaking at 50k +km. That too, since it was a taxi, we treated it with more care and kept it in tiptop condition.


Maruti WagonR F10D - Can't think of any persistent rattles. Any tiny rattles went away either within 100kms or with a slap on the specific area

Toyota Etios '16 - Had that infamous (for Etios owners) squeak near the passenger airbag panel, but it went away after the 10k km service.
Another persistent one is the right side driver A/C vent. Rattles when it is positioned vertically. Goes away when positioned horizontally.
Another one is the driver seat rattle when we try to shift our bum while sitting. Guess the seat upholstery guys didn't install the seats properly.

For all Toyota's fast, efficient, cheap after sales service, ask for anything like "check the A/C vent squeak" or "please reinstall the driver seat"
The standard robotic reply, " Sir, please leave the car for two days, we will sort it out "

[Simha13]

Our Previous Car Santro Xing 2007 was a musician, new rattles and squeaks every day whose decibels increased with each passing year. Music finally stopped after it was sold after 11 years of ownership.
My Baleno surprisingly is completely rattle free even after almost 4.5 years of ownership.
Our other car Grand i10 which is one year old, throws some faint squeals sometimes!

[sgm]

Originally Posted by venkyhere

A peek into the life of a car-lover Husband (H) & his Wife (W)

and they lived happily ever after. But the rattle never showed up again. The husband is still tearing his hair out, trying to reproduce the problem from that fateful day.

I can very well relate to this

Once I reported a rattle from the front seat of our Altis and it took two days for the showroom guys to figure it out but I think the fix was simple and it has never occurred again. It used to happen only under certain conditions and I had to explain them to reproduce the same.

Slightly off the topic but related to NVH.
I am so paranoid of any rattles or road/wind/tire noises and but I love the sweet engine sounds.
During our last car purchase, I made my wife make a chart of sound levels at various speeds using sound meter app

[Mlanuk]

My first car was the Swift Diesel, used for 8 years. It probably started rattling pretty soon into the ownership experience but it definitely lost it's NVH after it was rear ended once. In fact, it was one of the biggest reasons that forced us to get rid of it and pick up the Honda City. Around 1.5 years back, we opted to hire the services of a driver and the traffic noise (incessant honking) of Mumbai roads was so terrible that we could barely make out the lyrics of the songs on the radio.

After ruling out the Marutis and the Germans, I went with the Honda reliability promise. Unfortunately, from day one I can hear a soft rattle somewhere from the roof. It is either the map light assembly (one of the plastic covers over the bulb came off in my hand when I tried to investigate - no breakage), or the IRVM or the sun room. Made sure the service engineer made a notation of the complaint during the 3rd free service and was told that a loose bolt had been tightened and the issue had been resolved. For paucity of time, I could not verify this claim (noise is apparent beyond 20-25 kmph) and ended up with the same issue continuing. By this time (8 months into the ownership), I've mostly resigned to living with it. But it still catches my goat every drive.

[Ravi_CK234]

I believe, the build quality post 2015 has been compromised by many car manufactures. We have a 2014 Verna and 2017 (new gen) Verna at home. 2017 Verna definitely rattles more inspite of the these being addressed during each service. My 2014 Igen I20 was a charm. Never had any rattling issue with it in my 3.5 years of ownership. Bad roads are also to be blamed.