Vibrating noise in gauge cluster

[NorcalPB]

Hi, ever since i've had my car I would always hear an annoying vibrating noise, almost like the sound a fly makes, behind my gauge cluster and recently it has gotten a lot worse. I have a tip a4 and it only gets really loud when I would take off pretty hard and take it to about 3k. Can anyone help me out here??

[Vito Roma]

kill the fly

[Blown01NJ]

I had the same noise man. Pissed me off for months. Try pounding with your fist on the dash. Do you hear the sound? Open the panel covering the fuses. Hit the dash again, this should enable you to pinpoint the sound. Mine was a piece of metal that was vibrating back there and I just pushed it and it stopped.

[Sly Raskal]

My car is brand new, only 1700 miles on it thus far and it started to do this, but doesn't do it all the time. I'm interested in knowing what you find as the cause of it.

[NorcalPB]

I had the same noise man. Pissed me off for months. Try pounding with your fist on the dash. Do you hear the sound? Open the panel covering the fuses. Hit the dash again, this should enable you to pinpoint the sound. Mine was a piece of metal that was vibrating back there and I just pushed it and it stopped.

I started banging on the top left corner of my cluster dome thing and finally I heard the noise do you remember where exactly the loose piece was?

[montess2001]

OK I HAVE A QUICK SOLUTION!

1. Remove kick plate below steering column

-3x 8 mm bolts hold it in place (one near hood release, one in fuse panel towards the bottom and the last one on the right side of the steering column adjacent to the one by hood release) Now pull the panel straight back towards the drivers seat and it will come right off.

2. Insulate!

-notice the 2 rectangle shapes molded into the backside of the panel you just removed. There are coresponding flat metal "braces" that protrude from under the steering wheel that fit into these "rectangles." the vibration comes from the metal braces not fitting snugly into the panel and thus grazing it and causing the noise. you must now insert some sort of insulation between the "braces" and the "rectangles" (I cut pieces of an old synthetic foam chamois

3. Reinstall the newly insulated panel

-SOUND IS GONE!!



Try it and let me know what you think.

This is what I did...and it cured the problem

[NorcalPB]

Ok I took some pics is it ok that I only used one layer of a chamois rag? I just assumed the lower compartment was vibrating up and down and not side to side. Before I even tried what you said I looked inside the fuse box and pulled the black crossbeam towards me and that made it quieter...sort of it came right away though. Anyways here are the pics sorry for the terrible quality but is this ok?

[montess2001]

perfect! that is exactly what i did and it cured that annoying noise completely. How did it work out with your car?

[NorcalPB]

Ok so on the way to work I noticed the sound to be completely gone . However once I started heading back towards home the sound started coming back more and more . So I decided to investigate it further and I noticed that even with the panel off and banging on the dash I could still hear the noise. I found the noise was coming from the right "bracket" and you can reproduce the noise just by flicking it. Is this attached to any other piece of metal? I noticed there were two screws holding this piece in and I was wondering if there would be any repercutions to taking this piece out. Also do you think that if I add even more insulation as an option on the right side that the bracket will be less likely to "jiggle"?
Thanks in advance.

Note: Left bracket does not produce the sound when flicked theres a barely noticeable low pitch vibration but not nearly as annoying as the right bracket that is causing the problem.

[audibehr]

just take it to rector, have roger fix it for you, he's genious!!!

[montess2001]

Also do you think that if I add even more insulation as an option on the right side that the bracket will be less likely to "jiggle"?

That should do the trick I put 2-3 layers of chamois to make tight contact b/w panel and the "jiggly" metal piece.