I have had this annoying rattle in my dash for 2 years. It was driving me nuts!!! The rattle would only rattle with the truck idling in drive. Therefore, the rattle would rattle every time I stopped at a stoplight, stop sign, etc.

I thoroughly searched this topic and tried all of the easy things but did not attempt the dash tear down or the sunroof drain line. Nothing I did helped. So I went to the stealer. The stealer charged me $90.00 for diagnostics, told me it was my front anti-sway bar bushings. They special ordered the bushings for $15.00 each and then installed them for $90.00. At the time, I did not know what anti-sway bushings were. Now, after reading the tech section I have come to realize what a good bargain this was Anyway, my new $210.00 bushings did not solve the problem.

Since the stealer guarantees their work for a year I returned to them three times to diagnose the rattle. Today, they finally sent one their best guys out with me. He adjusted my brake lines and the rattle vanished. There is a little black clip that holds the lines onto the fire wall directly in front of the driver. This was the source of the rattle.

Since I did not see this clip as a rattle source during my searches I thought I would add it to the list of possibilities. Hope this helps

 

man....everything in my junk rattles!!!!! EVERYTHING!

I cant find the source b/c its everywhere! Sometimes I just want to drive my junk off a cliff!

Thanks for the info, and sorry about your $$$$ bushings...O hope they used lube

 

Bout the only way to fix MY dash rattle, would be to tare the MF'er out and toss it. My plastic dash is so cracked and warped with so many missing screws its NOT even funny!

 

I have A LOT of rattles too...

Dash, console, both door mechanisims, rear hatch area, rear seat mounts...my head.

 

What year? 4Runner?

 

nice. I have an annoying dash rattle and I couldn't figure out what the hell it was. So imama look at the brake lines tonight.

but I still have hella door panel rattles, and rear hatch paneling rattles

 

1996 4runner

I have other rattles too but those just rattle when I go over bumps which doesn't bother me.

 

there is a TSB for the dash rattle on the 95.5 and up trucks etc

customtacos.com has a write up on the fix
you have to disable the pass side air bag to make the fix, the air bag is returned to normal operation after the fix!
it is a few hours worth of work, all to wire or zip tie two braces together

I have the rattle and it drives me nuts, happens when the truck is cold or if someone is in the pass seat.

 

I only found this: http://customtacos.com/tech/index.php?article=134

and this: http://customtacos.com/tech/index.php?article=77

I didn't search very hard for it though, because my rattle is gone

 

My 97 4runner dash rattles bad around 70mph... hmmm?
I tried the shotgun method and it didn't work only made the vent bigger...

 

i hope you insisted they reimburst you for those.

 

My heap rattles so bad it's funny, but I don't mind. I just think of not having a payment on it, and the insurance is 300.00 bucks a year, makes it easy to ignore the rattles. I won't hear them anymore once I get a stereo in it.

 

Thanks for this post. I am going to check some these possibilities out. I just started having this same rattle a month ago or so and was planning on checking it out this weekend! Great timing!

 

any thoughts as to what could be rattling near the passenger vent side?
I keep trying to isolate the spot but can't, it must be inside somewhere.

 

i had the most anoying rattle in the world, it sounded like my brake drums were full of marbles. after 2 months of pulling apart the entire rear axle (twice) :MAD: I could not find it and it was steadily getting worse. One day while playing with my kids in the front yard, my 3 year old hit my rear tire with a stick and I heard that darn rattle! I let her proceed to wail on my tires with the stick (great fun for her) as I searched under the truck. turns out the leaf spring alignment loop had loosened up on it rivot mount. a quick blast with the air hammer in the center of the rivot was enough to musroom it out and tighten it up! a week later I am still rattle free!. The vibration from my MT tires was enough to hit the right resonance to make a really horrid rattle from that stupid little bracket...

 

This is so not on topic but I was just trollling and saw the thread...A week after i got my current 4Runner (not my first one mind you) I kept hearing a 'click' every time I hit the brakes. I drove home in silence lisening to that click for an hour trying to figure out what it was and why it was happening. Really upset me being that I had only been in the truck foir such a short time and the wife had used it the day before.

I searched high and low and finally on the second day I found the problem...

(dramatic pause here)

The wife had stopped at the gas station and bought something and had put her change in the change holder in the center console. Turns out it was a quarter and a nickel placed just right that made that annoying click and that is why it only happened when i hit the brakes.

Moral: Sometimes the most annoying problems have the simplest of fixes.

 

Speaking of rattles, my 4Runner has developed the under-dash squeak that I've read about before. I seem to remember that it had something to do with a steel reinforcement bar under the dash, passenger side. Does anyone know where a write-up may be concerning this?

Andreas