Rattle from driver's side dash?

[caus]

TL;DR -- me too.

I've got the same issue as OP. My FR-S was purchased in Feb. 2013, and I've noticed the issue ever since then. It's most noticeable when driving on a highway.

Someone in this thread described the noise as "a bee buzzing between sheets of paper" -- that's exactly it. Also, the buzzing is intermittent. Might last for a few seconds, pause, -> loop.

I have 16,000 miles and the only reason I've not looked into a solution was because I really don't want a stealership to dismantle my dash and potentially do more damage working on their non-solutions. We need a damn TSB already.

[conekiller]

I can confirm this buzzing noise is coming from the electric power steering assembly on the steering column. I have only investigated this myself to determining the point of origin. I am a subaru technician and this noise existed on my 13 brz aswell my 15 aozora brz. I did mention the noise to our technical department but I never received an update. I actually forgot about it myself until the 15 when I was completely my break in procedure. Usually i run with some form of audio noise and didnt notice it above that. I will pursue it next week and see if I can come up with my own solution to remedy the noise. ill get on techlines ass again about it to lol

[Turbo95eg6]

Originally Posted by conekiller

I can confirm this buzzing noise is coming from the electric power steering assembly on the steering column. I have only investigated this myself to determining the point of origin. I am a subaru technician and this noise existed on my 13 brz aswell my 15 aozora brz. I did mention the noise to our technical department but I never received an update. I actually forgot about it myself until the 15 when I was completely my break in procedure. Usually i run with some form of audio noise and didnt notice it above that. I will pursue it next week and see if I can come up with my own solution to remedy the noise. ill get on techlines ass again about it to lol

Post pics too please! But does it seem to you like it's coming from the driver speaker/pillar like the most of us? You may have hearing a different noise.

[conekiller]

I have seen the the A pillar to speaker cover buzzing noise on just about every other subaru model except the brz. Usually a simple felt tape repair. Although the brz isnt huge in our market so i only see them maybe once a month. The noise im hearing is more of an electrical buzzing noise. Like a bad relay in a sense.

[Prog]

Hi all...OP here again. I know I said I planned on taking my car back in to the dealership soon, but here we are like 2 months later and I still haven't done it. I had a couple of small trips planned as well as a vacation, and I wanted to wait until all of that settled down before giving up my car for however long they'll have to keep it.

All of that said, my trips are done and my vacation is over, so I do plan on doing this soon (for real this time!). Planning on bringing it to them on a Monday so they'll have all week to work on it (and I want my car on the weekend instead of some boring ass Forrester loaner), which means it's not going in this week (too late) or next week (because of labor day).

edit: Looks like I spoke too soon, have another trip coming up in a couple weeks. By then I may as well just wait till it's time for an oil change. :\ I swear I'll bring it in eventually...

[sam69]

Originally Posted by zuko

Not sure how similar this is to what everyone else is experiencing, but here's 2 short videos I took of a rattle I've been having in the ~dash area. At first I thought it was that the speaker wasn't level, because I was able to push it down and have it click, but driving around with it depressed doesn't solve the issue. In fact, it sounds as if it's inside the dash more than anything...

You might need earbuds to hear it, was taken on an iphone. The rattle can be anywhere from slightly noticeable to pretty significant (can hear it over the radio) depending on the road (or how the car feels that day apparently).

(second is still processing)


Also, sitting at a light this morning it was rattling the whole time, which leads me to believe it's not necessarily related to rough roads. Perhaps there's something bouncing around inside? The inconsistency of the rattle also lends itself to that theory, where that piece or whatever it is sometimes finds a resting place where it can't move around as easily.

Anybody seen/heard anything like this?

I have the same sort of rattle as zuko and it's driving me nuts like everyone else
Any updates on this before I take it to the dealer or start looking for it myself ?

[Prog]

Update: I brought my car to the dealership this morning. Will let you guys know what they find.

[Prog]

Day 2 update: They are currently unable to reproduce the problem. I instructed them to remove the wool the previous mechanic (who no longer works there ) put there so that the issue would return in full force. We'll see what happens. This is why I waited to bring them my car on a Monday - they've got the whoooole week to work on it.

[Prog]

Day 3 update: They won't remove the wool that the previous mechanic put there, and they won't take the car more than 5 miles from the dealership without me riding along. So now I have to take off of work to go ride with them until we can replicate the noise. I get that they can't troubleshoot an issue without replicating it first, but this is already turning into a hassle...

edit: Update again - Took the mechanic for a ride, reproduced the noise, sounds like the ball is rolling now. Now that they've heard it, they're willing to remove the wool that the last mechanic put there so that the noise will be easier to reproduce. They've also got a field engineer in-shop starting today, so that should work in my favor as well.

[Prog]

Update #4: Well, bad news. There's currently no fix for this noise. The dealership called me and said the field engineer is aware of this issue in other BRZ's and FRS's and that there is a TSB for it. I don't know what the number is, but maybe they'll tell me when I pick up my car later. Since there's a TSB, it should get fixed eventually, but it could be months or I guess even years. As long as it's documented in their system, even if the car is out of warranty, they'll have to fix it once the fix is available (dealership told me this).

If/when they give me a call for a fix, I'll update here.

[Erci]

Originally Posted by Prog

Update #4: Well, bad news. There's currently no fix for this noise. The dealership called me and said the field engineer is aware of this issue in other BRZ's and FRS's and that there is a TSB for it. I don't know what the number is, but maybe they'll tell me when I pick up my car later. Since there's a TSB, it should get fixed eventually, but it could be months or I guess even years. As long as it's documented in their system, even if the car is out of warranty, they'll have to fix it once the fix is available (dealership told me this).

If/when they give me a call for a fix, I'll update here.

You da man for being persistent with this and for keeping us updated!!

The thing I find odd: if removing the felt from under the gas pedal (that's the one you're talking about, right?) makes the sound more pronounced, isn't it dead obvious that it must be coming from the gas pedal assembly? If that's the case.. how can it be so difficult to fix?

I too have this rattle.. have had it since I drove over the 1st bump few months ago when the car was brand new. Have not bothered to take it in, but would love to fix it myself.

Once again.. thanks for documenting this here!

[the new guy]

Originally Posted by Prog

Update #4: Well, bad news. There's currently no fix for this noise. The dealership called me and said the field engineer is aware of this issue in other BRZ's and FRS's and that there is a TSB for it. I don't know what the number is, but maybe they'll tell me when I pick up my car later. Since there's a TSB, it should get fixed eventually, but it could be months or I guess even years. As long as it's documented in their system, even if the car is out of warranty, they'll have to fix it once the fix is available (dealership told me this).



If/when they give me a call for a fix, I'll update here.

Well damn. Could you get that TSB for us so we have it?

[Prog]

Originally Posted by Erci

You da man for being persistent with this and for keeping us updated!!

The thing I find odd: if removing the felt from under the gas pedal (that's the one you're talking about, right?) makes the sound more pronounced, isn't it dead obvious that it must be coming from the gas pedal assembly? If that's the case.. how can it be so difficult to fix?

I too have this rattle.. have had it since I drove over the 1st bump few months ago when the car was brand new. Have not bothered to take it in, but would love to fix it myself.

Once again.. thanks for documenting this here!

So here's the strange thing - they removed the wool felt the previous mechanic put under the accelerator assembly and concluded that that was a completely different noise. So apparently I had two separate buzzing noises, the first of which is fixed with the wool, and the current one which has no fix and sounds exactly like a lighter version of the noise I originally had and posted the video of.

I called and emailed Subaru of America about this. I'm gonna keep doing that every month until there's a fix because if the fuel pump chirping is any indication of how long it takes them to fix annoying noises...

And speaking of the fuel pump, the guy at the dealership told me that there's an out of warranty fix for that - apparently a fuel pump from a 2015 WRX... but I want an in-warranty fix.

[Prog]

Originally Posted by the new guy

Well damn. Could you get that TSB for us so we have it?

Forgot to ask. I'll try to remember this evening to look at the documentation they gave me to see if it's written on there somewhere.