2014 Toyota Prius "jangling silverware" sound

Whenever I hit a moderate hole in the pavement while going at any speed, I hear a noise that sounds like I have a basket of silverware attached to the bottom of my car. Is this normal?
The Toyota dealer said that this is nothing to worry about.

Where does it sound like it’s coming from? It could be nothing, it could be serious. Do you live in a winter road salt area? If so it could just be a heat shield rusting away

If your Toyota dealer said it wasn’t anything to worry about why didn’t they fix it? Take it to another dealer OR a qualified local independent mechanic.

I agree with the previous response. Take the car to a good local mechanic and have him or her try to diagnose the cause of the noise.

Have you had new front brake pads installed recently? I had a similar problem with a 2000 Ford Windstar that I used to own. The brake shop didn’t replace the antirattle springs between the pads and the calipers. This was a shop that only did brake service work. I took the car back and the shop manager said there was nothing wrong. I had my car at my independent tire shop for some other problem. When I got the van back, they also had repaired the noise in the brakes for free. The technician had the van out for a test drive and heard the noise. He said it bothered him, so he fixed it for free. The independent tire shop has handled my brake jobs since that time.
Kick each tire and see if you hear the noise.

It is probably nothing to worry about, but you shouldn’t have to just live with it. That’s not normal, so something is amiss. I’d guess a problem with the exhaust system, heat shield, broken exhaust hanger, etc. Or maybe you picked up a dangling spoon somehow :wink:

I had a similar problem, but instead of silverware, it sounded like I had someone locked in a trunk, trying to get out. I only heard it on left hand turns, sharp or smooth. Had mechanic drive my 2007 Prius, without any ideas.

Finally months later, doing a real clean-out, I saw, and remembered, the 18-inch length of plumbing pipe I had added to the tool tray above my 2007 Prius spare tire. I put it there to use to get more leverage on tire iron for loosening lug nuts. It was rolling back and forth and thumping! I since have covered it in a cheap foam tubing to minimize any thump. Mechanic said it was a new one one him too.

Not a rerun of “Goodfellas!”

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We all have strange sound experiences. Mine was a bird chirping sound whenever the speed got over about 50 MPH. Turned out to be something in the sunroof mechanism. I applied oil in every place I could think of, that fixed if for about 3 years when I had to repeat.