Interior Rattle from Driver Dash Cause Possibly Found

[Vulnox]

I wanted to post this because there was another thread on here I saw a while back where we all seemed to be running into this, or at least something similar, and weren’t sure the cause. Since we got our 2022 MME, we have had a rattle from behind the instrument cluster that you could mainly hear between 30-50 MPH on rougher roads. On highways you typically couldn’t hear it, either because of road noise or just less constant shaking. It was super annoying and the only issue we have had with our MME.

I tried to track it down/tackle it before without luck. But today I decided to take off the plastic cover under the frunk closest to the windshield, like if you were trying to get at the battery. Everything seems well secured/cushioned except this odd plastic piece that seemed to be holding some other connector, but it was easily movable with my hand and when it moved it would hit against bare metal right under it. I was able to move it quickly and recreate a rattle, it moved so easily. I couldn’t see how it was supposed to fasten, it was a tough spot to see, but I suspect it’s just held by some clips and maybe if installed incorrectly the clips don’t hold very well. I took a small piece of double sided tape and just moved it in place between the plastic and the body piece it was knocking against and put everything back together and went for a test drive. You could reproduce the rattle every time just by pulling out onto the main road outside our neighborhood as it’s 45 MPH and a bit rough in areas (Good ol’ Michigan). I took it on a four mile trip around all the bad spots I could, not a single sound. Cab was as quiet as good be aside from normal road noise.

Anyway, testing will continue and it would be great if that was it. This rattle was just loud and persistent enough to be really annoying, and even with the radio on you could lock onto it. If anyone else has something similar with your MME, I hope it helps.

The blue circle is to show the piece in question. The red arrow is the spot where the plastic meets the metal that I put a small piece of double sided tape. If you have something else that is rated for higher temps (just in case) that can act as a buffer, that should be fine, but while the piece moves enough to rattle you don’t have tons of space there. Also, you are clearly working near the negative terminal of the 12v battery and next to this piece is the high voltage line from the charger inlet. So make sure your EVSE is disconnected and be careful while working in this area.

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[COACH CHRIS]

Big if true. Very curious to see if this solves the problems described. (I have a persistent vibrating noise that I swear is coming from the sunglass holder area who actually knows.)

 

[txaggies07]

Big if true. Very curious to see if this solves the problems described. (I have a persistent vibrating noise that I swear is coming from the sunglass holder area who actually knows.)

The little thing on the left side of the sunglass holder that is the mechanism that it latches into is a source of one of my two or so rattles. Drives me crazy.

 

[Vulnox]

So far so good, wife took the car to work as usual and didn't hear a sound. Getting more confident that was the cause as this thing was persistent.

 

[J&S K]

I had wrote a post awhile back asking if anyone had experience this deep dash annoying rattle. Have taken the MME to two dealers with no luck. Actually took my MME to have the speaker replaced, but also asked them to look for and then resolve the rattle. Thanks for the 411.

Hopefully this is the solution for my rattle. As it is very annoying and has been impossible for me to duplicate the rattle in order for the dealer to resolve. Joe

 

[Mach-Lee]

I wanted to post this because there was another thread on here I saw a while back where we all seemed to be running into this, or at least something similar, and weren’t sure the cause. Since we got our 2022 MME, we have had a rattle from behind the instrument cluster that you could mainly hear between 30-50 MPH on rougher roads. On highways you typically couldn’t hear it, either because of road noise or just less constant shaking. It was super annoying and the only issue we have had with our MME.

I tried to track it down/tackle it before without luck. But today I decided to take off the plastic cover under the frunk closest to the windshield, like if you were trying to get at the battery. Everything seems well secured/cushioned except this odd plastic piece that seemed to be holding some other connector, but it was easily movable with my hand and when it moved it would hit against bare metal right under it. I was able to move it quickly and recreate a rattle, it moved so easily. I couldn’t see how it was supposed to fasten, it was a tough spot to see, but I suspect it’s just held by some clips and maybe if installed incorrectly the clips don’t hold very well. I took a small piece of double sided tape and just moved it in place between the plastic and the body piece it was knocking against and put everything back together and went for a test drive. You could reproduce the rattle every time just by pulling out onto the main road outside our neighborhood as it’s 45 MPH and a bit rough in areas (Good ol’ Michigan). I took it on a four mile trip around all the bad spots I could, not a single sound. Cab was as quiet as good be aside from normal road noise.

Anyway, testing will continue and it would be great if that was it. This rattle was just loud and persistent enough to be really annoying, and even with the radio on you could lock onto it. If anyone else has something similar with your MME, I hope it helps.

The blue circle is to show the piece in question. The red arrow is the spot where the plastic meets the metal that I put a small piece of double sided tape. If you have something else that is rated for higher temps (just in case) that can act as a buffer, that should be fine, but while the piece moves enough to rattle you don’t have tons of space there. Also, you are clearly working near the negative terminal of the 12v battery and next to this piece is the high voltage line from the charger inlet. So make sure your EVSE is disconnected and be careful while working in this area.

That is the PCM mounting bracket. It's also loose on my car. I haven't really noticed a rattle however. Will investigate further.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Mine still seems fairly tight, but lifting up and down on the PCM bracket did make a slight rattle due to there being a slight gap under the black plastic support foot on the backside. Inserting a gap filler under the foot would take up the gap and eliminate the potential rattle.

Is that foot what you were talking about @Vulnox? I think you shoved the tape in from the front side instead, I think accessing it from either side would work.

The PCM is also slightly loose in the bracket, but that seemed secure enough not to rattle in my opinion.

 

[Vulnox]

Mine still seems fairly tight, but lifting up and down on the PCM bracket did make a slight rattle due to there being a slight gap under the black plastic support foot on the backside. Inserting a gap filler under the foot would take up the gap and eliminate the potential rattle.

Is that foot what you were talking about @Vulnox? I think you shoved the tape in from the front side instead, I think accessing it from either side would work.

The PCM is also slightly loose in the bracket, but that seemed secure enough not to rattle in my opinion.

Yeah I came at it from the front of the car, the hood overhang and the other trim piece that more meets the window made it tough to get from the other side. But yeah, ours was more than a little loose, at least in my view. There are plenty of pieces that move because they are just secured by clips so it’s understandable, but I was able to move this enough and easily to get a solid knock. I’m guessing there’s some variance possible in the install, hopefully very limited occurrences.

My wife confirmed still no noise on the drive home. She said it’s never been so quiet. So we’ve put about 30 miles between us on all side roads since the fix and not a peep, where before we heard this every time we pulled out on the road.

So if it’s limited to just us that’s great, of course, but hopefully if someone else runs into it and wants some guidance hopefully it helps, and I greatly appreciate you identifying the part. I could see the connector and was being extremely cautious, now that you’ve identified the module involved I’m glad I didn’t damage anything in the fix.

 

[azerik]

I've also had what sounded like suspension rattles, I was able to remove some of that rattle by keeping the center piece off the car (the piece in the frunk at the top of the car, that covers the battery. Mine is missing 2 of the clips. I'll find the part number and get some extras ordered. My finding aside I havn't looked at the area you found but I'm going to assume it's probably happening on mine as if I hit a sharp bump I get rattles from a couple different places up front (which was why I always thought it was my sway bar endlinks.) I have some fake DynaMat that if I pull on it just right I can get basicly a small ball of tar, perfect for this kind of stuff.

 

[leeman]

When I get rattles like this the dealer asked me to turn up my radio while driving

 

[Vulnox]

When I get rattles like this the dealer asked me to turn up my radio while driving

Ha! This is actually why I went car spelunking instead of just taking it in. Our dealer has always been good about making solid attempts at fixing stuff like this, but it's understandably a tough one.

On my 2021 F-150 there was a rattle that anyone would think was coming from the area on the driver side where the window controls are. It was a fairly common complaint on the F-150 forum. I took it to the dealer who also thought it was from there and put some foam and that under the trim piece and thought that was it, but it didn't fix it.

Imagine all of our surprise when it was actually caused by the driver side mirror and someone on the F-150 forum discovered it and how to fix. Ford wasn't tightening the bolts for the mirror enough (they were enough to be safe/secure, the mirror didn't feel loose) but not enough to prevent this odd rattle. So you had to take off a small trim piece a little bit ahead of the window up/down controls and tighten these two bolts that secure the side view mirror, and rattle never returned.

It was one of the more common issues in the 2021 and some early 2022 F-150 builds. It seems Ford eventually figured it out though because later 2022 and so far 2023 models haven't had the issue.

 

[txaggies07]

My most annoying rattle sounds like it is from the cup holder if I have a cup in it. I think the plastic things that hold the cup tight in place are rattling something behind them. Anyone know how hard it is to get that opened up to see the mechanism?

 

[dj_stang]

My most annoying rattle sounds like it is from the cup holder if I have a cup in it. I think the plastic things that hold the cup tight in place are rattling something behind them. Anyone know how hard it is to get that opened up to see the mechanism?

Yes I have the EXACT same issue! Somehow only when there’s actually a cup in it too. Drives me crazy and makes me not want to use the middle cupholders.

 

[methorian]

My most annoying rattle sounds like it is from the cup holder if I have a cup in it. I think the plastic things that hold the cup tight in place are rattling something behind them. Anyone know how hard it is to get that opened up to see the mechanism?

My right cup holder has started doing this (only while there's a cup in the holder) within the past few months as well. Rather annoying, but I haven't looked too much into it yet.

 

[Mike G]

I've also had what sounded like suspension rattles, I was able to remove some of that rattle by keeping the center piece off the car (the piece in the frunk at the top of the car, that covers the battery. Mine is missing 2 of the clips. I'll find the part number and get some extras ordered. My finding aside I havn't looked at the area you found but I'm going to assume it's probably happening on mine as if I hit a sharp bump I get rattles from a couple different places up front (which was why I always thought it was my sway bar endlinks.) I have some fake DynaMat that if I pull on it just right I can get basicly a small ball of tar, perfect for this kind of stuff.

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