08 A4 plastic rattling noise

[fashr001]

I have an 08 A4 quattro S-Line and have been noticing plastic rattling noise recently. It seems every time i start my car and drive there is some kind of rattling happening. Every time I drive through a pothole it sounds like the plastic is cracking. Has anyone else come across this issue. I bought my car from a dealer and is a CPO. If I want the dealer to fix it will it be covered under my CPO?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Tanner]

I got rattles in the seat latch in the back. Rattle in the centre console. Rattle under the passenger seat. I gave up on trying to address all these rattles :)

Your rattle - where is it coming from? I don't think CPO warranty covers it, there should be a pamphlet on what CPO covers and it's also available on the web somewhere.

[funky_snowman]

things just rattle more in the fall and winter. it'll get better when the temps go back up. It's not worth it to try to do much about it unless it's a visibly easy fix.

[Adub-Drew]

Can you tell if the noise is from inside or outside the car?

[Sreddington]

Might sound ridiculous but check your belly pan and side underpanels, sounds like you might be dragging one.

[fashr001]

things just rattle more in the fall and winter. it'll get better when the temps go back up. It's not worth it to try to do much about it unless it's a visibly easy fix.

Like Tanner mentioned it rattles in the seat latch in the back, rattles in the center console and by the middle frame bar. I am guessing like funky_snowman said it might be weather related. I didn't notice any noise during the summer time. I'll be take it to the dealer on monday to see if they have a fix for it.

Thanks for the replies.

[ThaVerge]

Check the place where your bluetooth mic would be, near the sunroof controls. That rattles for me in the winter.

[Jay-Bee]

I get the rear seat latch squeak, but only on one side, I tried to play around with it, and ended up wrapping the pin it latches on with black tape, it kept it a bit tighter for a while but now it's cold again and it's back. I just unlatch the seat, i never have back seat passenger.

My ashtray lid vibrates at certain times too, very annoying, gonna try to get a foam strip on it or something.

[Smoothie104]

Might sound ridiculous but check your belly pan and side underpanels, sounds like you might be dragging one.


I changed the oil in my ex GF's Trailblazer a few years back, she called me a few hours later, pissed off and all upset, saying the truck was making some horrible grinding sounds, and did i do something wrong? She said she pulled over in a parking lot and it only stopped when she shut the car off. I told her not to start it again and drove out there.. She said no smoke, no CEL, no oil light etc..

I'm thinking "no way I could have F'd this up, no way" so I was curious more than anything else.

I get there and open the hood, everything looks fine, oil is fine, engine temp fine, I start the truck its just fine. But I smell some burning plastic. so I look under the truck.

Somehow.. somehow... she ran over a milk crate, and it was trapped under the engine and was griding itself down on the asphalt.

[Tanner]

I get the rear seat latch squeak, but only on one side, I tried to play around with it, and ended up wrapping the pin it latches on with black tape, it kept it a bit tighter for a while but now it's cold again and it's back. I just unlatch the seat, i never have back seat passenger.

I tried everything like what you mentioned to address the rattle as I had this happen on both sides. Fortunately the entire locking mechanism was replaced under warranty but the other started to rattle a year later after the warranty expired. Somebody a while ago did mention that there is a way to adjust the latch to get rid of the rattle other than using these workarounds but the steps to do this was never posted.


Check the place where your bluetooth mic would be, near the sunroof controls. That rattles for me in the winter.

It's the trim piece. I just folded up a piece of paper to make a shim and jammed it in the crack which solved it. Took the thing apart when the weather got warm (or if you got a heated garage) and putting things back together the noise didn't return the following winter.

[4SHRNGS]

Check behind the trim pieces in the front driver doors. All you need is a flat screw driver (Cover it with t-shirt or something to avoid scratches) to remove the trim from the door jam side first. There are 4 screws with washers. Make sure they're all tight. There are also 4 "floating" metal clips which receive the "trim guides" to help the trim properly fit in place. Because these "door trim clips" float, they can rattle. I did my best to add a couple drops of "crazy glue" to each of the (4) floating metal clips while they were centered in place as much as possible. Wait at least 5, 10 minutes for the Crazy Glue to dry before gently placing the "door trim" back in place. When putting the door trim back, you'll notice it requires you carefully fit the door opening side into the door first and then gently line up the trim guides into the metal clips and everything should quiet down. I also found the center console reading lights where the sunroof control is, was designed with 2 plastic pieces on the inside, closest to the Sunroof, vs. Windshield. You need to carefully remove the plastic cover to remove 2 screws before you can drop that whole piece down. I took some strong outdoor weather proof carpet tape I picked up from Lowes to place a piece of tape in between the 2 pieces of plastic as well as placing a skinny piece of tape overlapping both the floating plastic piece and the main console plastic to keep it locked in place and unable to vibrate/rattle. Before all this I had a terribly annoying intermittent noise coming from under my dash. I found it was a wire tag label that was in just the right place to touch a squared off metal bracket that would resonate like a buzzing fly or mosquito. All that took to fix was a piece of tape to keep the wire tag on the wires and away from the metal bracket. Hope you all enjoy some more melodic sounds from your cars and audio instead of foreign noises.