2012 Subaru Forester Rattle

Hello,

I have a 2012 Subaru Forester with 27,000 miles on it. It has a rattle that started out in the glovebox area, and has migrated to areas around the dash, center console, liner by the sunroof control etc…I have had the car in the shop 5+ times, the last time being a week and a half. Everyone is baffled by this rattle. It seems to come and go. The glovebox liner was replaced, and other areas insulated, yet it still rattles, although it is not consistent.

Has anyone else experienced this? It is very frustrating.

Thank you

Try an experiment on a dry day. Remove the plastic splash panels from underneath and see if the rattle disappears. These tend to cause rattly noises that people spend inordinate amounts of time trying to chase down. They act like diaphragms and push their noises everywhere.

I had one of those rattles a while back, and when I removed my splash panels to install driving lights and resecured them the rattles went away.

That is a good idea! I will try that. Another idea I saw online was that the panel underneath where the wipers are (it is really 3 sections) might be making the rattle. I did check them and they do have some wiggle in them.

Thanks

I neglected to add that I meant this as a test only. The panels should not be left off permanently.