So I've had my Ambiente 1.2HTP Since may and I am quite satisfied with the car overall. This is actually my first car but that's besides the point. I've read topics on the forum about rattles here and there but none have mentioned what I hear in my car.. It's quite bad. Unfortunately I have to drive over a lot of potholes and uneven surfaces and I think they've had their toll on the car. I get rattles coming from the door panels whenever I turn/go over a pothole and they're really starting to get on my nerves. Apart from this whenever I reverse down my drive way which has a short steep ramp I can actually hear the door panels flex. This is the exact sound it makes when I turn. However over uneven surfaces it sounds as if theres something banging against the plastic. I figured it might be the wiring loom inside? Apart from this I've got the 8 speaker system, and over potholes if I have the volume turned down to low (1-10 on the swing radio) I can hear the front tweeter on my side give a faint "bzzzzzt" noise as if some wire's touching inside, the same noise comes from the rear tweeter on my side as well but only when I turn left sharply. I'm willing to bet the tweeters on the left side of the car do this as well although I can't really hear them, also some bassy tracks tend to rattle the door panels like crazy. Lately I've also started having rattles coming from inside the glove box but I'm not sure if its the dash or the contents.. need to check that out

Is there anything I could do about this? I was thinking of trying to find a manual to take the doorpanels off and see what's what, also see if its possible to try and mute the sound rattle by putting some soundmat/dynamat behind the panels. Not sure how to deal with the front tweeter though. I really wasn't expecting the car to do this. I don't recall the -95 felicia we had coming anywhere close to the amount of noise this car makes. The '08 toyota yaris that replaced said felicia is also dead silent inside, and both drove over the same badly conditioned roads the fabia does.

I got used to my rattles - can't be bothered anymore and in any way I was probably was fussing too much.

Regarding the flexing of the doors probably the rubber seals are dry and need some care. I get the same thing when the car goes over uneven surfaces or when accelerating very hard. For that I got this product "Gummi-Pfledge" and found it from this site http://www.micksgarage.ie/proddetails.aspx?pid=1140596&pk=060FC (in case you can't find it in your country). Apparently it has worked for many people including a friend with a Fabia on this forum. I haven't applied it yet as I want to first clean the car thoroughly but for the price it doesn't hurt to give it a go.

So I've had my Ambiente 1.2HTP Since may and I am quite satisfied with the car overall. This is actually my first car but that's besides the point. I've read topics on the forum about rattles here and there but none have mentioned what I hear in my car.. It's quite bad. Unfortunately I have to drive over a lot of potholes and uneven surfaces and I think they've had their toll on the car. I get rattles coming from the door panels whenever I turn/go over a pothole and they're really starting to get on my nerves. Apart from this whenever I reverse down my drive way which has a short steep ramp I can actually hear the door panels flex. This is the exact sound it makes when I turn. However over uneven surfaces it sounds as if theres something banging against the plastic. I figured it might be the wiring loom inside? Apart from this I've got the 8 speaker system, and over potholes if I have the volume turned down to low (1-10 on the swing radio) I can hear the front tweeter on my side give a faint "bzzzzzt" noise as if some wire's touching inside, the same noise comes from the rear tweeter on my side as well but only when I turn left sharply. I'm willing to bet the tweeters on the left side of the car do this as well although I can't really hear them, also some bassy tracks tend to rattle the door panels like crazy. Lately I've also started having rattles coming from inside the glove box but I'm not sure if its the dash or the contents.. need to check that out

Is there anything I could do about this? I was thinking of trying to find a manual to take the doorpanels off and see what's what, also see if its possible to try and mute the sound rattle by putting some soundmat/dynamat behind the panels. Not sure how to deal with the front tweeter though. I really wasn't expecting the car to do this. I don't recall the -95 felicia we had coming anywhere close to the amount of noise this car makes. The '08 toyota yaris that replaced said felicia is also dead silent inside, and both drove over the same badly conditioned roads the fabia does.

Hi alcom, I am also on my first new car, it is a Fabia 1.2 htp pre facelift. I am also from Malta, and like yours, my fabia tends to rattle a lot. My car is now two years old and the rattles started after 1000 km or so. I had a lot of minor rattles scattered around the dashboard which used to bother me a lot. At first I have let the car to bed in and let the parts to settle n their own. This has helped a bit as some of the minor rattles disappeared on their own. So before doing something to your car, I suggest to let the car to bed in. After that you will know which areas of the dashboard need some intervention.

For instance, I had rattles coming from the eight speaker system as well. Fortunately this has almost disappeared on its own. However I never had that buzzing from the tweeter which you described.

Regarding the buzzing and rattles from the door panels: I also had those coming from the passenger door. Initially , I told my dealer who told me that all fabias have some faulty door clips which need replacement. After they replaced them (under warranty) the clicks I used to hear subsided substantially, however I still had a buzzing sound coming from door panels which was evident when I steered the car hardly to the right. The only thing that helped eliminate this sound was a small cardboard which I inserted between the door and the plastic indoor trim. I also covered the cardboard with a couple of layers of black tape. This made it almost invisible whenever the door is opened.

I also have rattles coming from the upper glove box (which seems to be a bit problematic considering all the topics found in briskoda on rattling upper glove boxes...). At first I spoke to the dealer about it who merely took out the glovebox and re-installed it. This actually made the rattling worse. Thus I took out the glovebox myself and applied some window insulation rubber to the edges. It is very similar to what another member of this forum did to his:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/804/img20111112161052red.jpg/

However I have applied less rubber than that shown in the above photo. I think that the amount of rubber needed varies from case to case. However this seems to almost eliminate the rattles completely.

Unfortunately I now have a new rattle coming from around the ventilation area. It seems to be coming from the small plastic rectangle found to the left of the ventilation panel and it is revealing itself to be harder to eliminate than the other rattles...

I wish you the best of luck with your car but I think that ultimately you will need to get used to some of those rattles, something which I am now doing. Especially when you consider the quality of Maltese roads....

...Thus I took out the glovebox myself and applied some window insulation rubber to the edges. It is very similar to what another member of this forum did to his:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/804/img20111112161052red.jpg/

Yep, that was me, however, after some quite days of drivin' which I believed were due to me having applied this insulation tape, the sound came back... Now this time I think I have found the actual responsible for this subtle rattling I was describing all along.

I couldn't understand how this came back since the contact between glovebox and plastic frame had been stiffened with the insulation tape so I took the box out and inspected the plastic frame that keeps the glovebox in place. Some quick pulling and pushing of the plastic frame inside out finally revealed where the sound was originating from: It's the quality/composition of this plastic that makes a small "creek" everytime you apply some force it, either pushing it or pulling. Try to do the same thing, take the glovebox out and try to bend this plastic frame inside out fairly quickly, simulating its move when you go over potholes or rough road and you will hear this "creaky" sound.

Now my ideas are just these two on this one... It's either a bad quality plastic which creeks every time its bending so in that case you can't do much about it, OR, it may have been dried out with time (6 months!) and can use some "Gummy Pfledge" to bring it back to life... I really hope it's the 2nd one as I had bought this some time ago, just to have it handy if there ever appeared a problem with the cars plastics. I will probably apply it during the weekend and report back... Any ideas/views on this are welcome...

Edited 2 December, 201114 yr by newbie69

Yep, that was me, however, after some quite days of drivin' which I believed were due to me having applied this insulation tape, the sound came back... Now this time I think I have found the actual responsible for this subtle rattling I was describing all along.

I couldn't understand how this came back since the contact between glovebox and plastic frame had been stiffened with the insulation tape so I took the box out and inspected the plastic frame that keeps the glovebox in place. Some quick pulling and pushing of the plastic frame inside out finally revealed where the sound was originating from: It's the quality/composition of this plastic that makes a small "creek" everytime you apply some force it, either pushing it or pulling. Try to do the same thing, take the glovebox out and try to bend this plastic frame inside out fairly quickly, simulating its move when you go over potholes or rough road and you will hear this "creaky" sound.

Now my ideas are just these two on this one... It's either a bad quality plastic which creeks every time its bending so in that case you can't do much about it, OR, it may have been dried out with time (6 months!) and can use some "Gummy Pfledge" to bring it back to life... I really hope it's the 2nd one as I had bought this some time ago, just to have it handy if there ever appeared a problem with the cars plastics. I will probably apply it during the weekend and report back... Any ideas/views on this are welcome...

Yes it is exactly my problem. The creaking sound was not coming from plastic to plastic contact. It is a quality issue with the dashboard plastic frame. If I pull the plastic frame out(specifically the upper right corner of the frame) it creaks, but if I push it in it stops creaking. So I have put rubber only on the affected corner. When I re-install the glovebox, the plastic rubber pushes the frame down, reducing the rattles significantly.

Unfortunately a slight noise has reappeared as lately I have run on a huge pothole, (pothole is euphemism really lol). So I will be re-applying this procedure shortly. However, I am interested in newbie's 69 new solution, that of applying Gummy Pfledge. I hope that would be a more permanent solution than the rubber I have used till now.

Edited 2 December, 201114 yr by fabiamt

Yes it is exactly my problem. The creaking sound was not coming from plastic to plastic contact. It is a quality issue with the dashboard plastic frame. If I pull the plastic frame out(specifically the upper right corner of the frame) it creaks, but if I push it in it stops creaking. So I have put rubber only on the affected corner. When I re-install the glovebox, the plastic rubber pushes the frame down, reducing the rattles significantly.

Unfortunately a slight noise has reappeared as lately I have run on a huge pothole, (pothole is euphemism really lol). So I will be re-applying this procedure shortly. However, I am interested in newbie's 69 new solution, that of applying Gummy Pfledge. I hope that would be a more permanent solution than the rubber I have used till now.

I think the pushing of the "rubber" (it's not actually a true rubber) to the frame is what reduced the noise the first time as it was brand new. However, as its not as strong as a rubber and can change its shape after long time of pressure, I think it started to allow the plastic to make the same noise again. So, this isolation tape will only provide a temporary solution which will need changing every now and then. The use of gummy pfledge in order to make it more flexible when bending and stopping the creaky sound is not yet tested by me, just an idea as I have read that it helps all rubbers to regain their form, so maybe it can be used on this plastic frame too? Maybe not as the frame is not made of rubber, but we have to test...

Edited 2 December, 201114 yr by newbie69