Thread: What did you do with or to your Disco today

Finished the draws today glued carpet down last night and then put them in today. Stapled carpet along front edge and it looks pox so ill get some ally angle and screw it on

I hate rattles.
I hate rattles you can't locate.
And I hate rattles that you can locate, but can't get too(easily) nor effect an easy solution even if you manage to cobble s tool up to get to it.

Left side central (face)air vent(next to radio) flap spindle rattled on mine. Came in at 1750RPM no matter what speed/road conditions etc.
Finally found the courage to dismantle the dash to pieces again(about 4th time .. and fully over it now) trying to work out a way to stop this spindle rattling and making a pleasant drive the symphony from hell!
Easy-ish solution was to place something into the vent when it rattled and even the slightest pressure on the internal flap(ie. spindle) would stop it. Lost a pen and a straw into the heater box over the period that's it's annoyed me, so something had to be done.
Thought of using a lightweight spring to put a bit of pressure back out on the two way flap to help keep some pressure on it, hook it up to anywhere that would stop it rattling but not so much pressure so that it didn't open close as it should.
No springs(reminder to self to locate a pack of assorted springs too).
Cut a small rubber o-ring in half and using rudimentary tools and lots of patience I wedged the half o-ring between the spindle shaft and the edge of the insides of the vent. One side of the spindle took about 20-30mins due to the lack of access.
Other side now wouldn't shift across as the o-ring now tightened up the side to side slack of the spindle. A bit more sideways force .. noting that more force = success! .. and I had just enough space to force in the other half on the other side. That side fluked it in easier and took less than 10 mins to finally get the o-ring lined up.

No more annoying rattle at 1750RPM .. which coincides perfectly with torque converter lockup and 80k/h on our many 80k/h limited roadwork zones.
While I was at it I also used some rubber finishing bead stuff that clips itself into edges, like a door seal trim but without the rubber seal .. onto the bottom edge of the instrument cowl, and stopped that from making annoying plastic on plastic squeaks and rattles. Now the cowl sits nice and tight with a rubber to plastic surface interface ..

All in all, from the two test drives I've done .. interior rattles are a thing of the past(I'm hoping).

I totally agree about the rattles. My D1 has a couple and they are doing my head in. Going to have to bite the bullet and start disassembling some stuff.

my door handle rattles all the time, always has. the little panel at teh top where i guess the sunroof switches would be does too. both very easy to fix, bot irritate the heck out of me but both still there. i will be doing them as part of my service in the next week or so. there was one very annoying rattle which went away for winter but is back now, which is similar to what ak83 had. starts just under 2000, prob bout the same mark as him and in every gear. i completely forgot about it until it started again few days ago. its inside the black facia. sounds like driver side vent somewhere. i need to pull facia off anyway to do some wiring work, so will have a look then. if they weren't there that would be a 90% improvement in ride quality i think.

I'm scared if i fixed all the rattles my 97 D1 would just stop in protest.

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Originally Posted by Fausto79

.... its inside the black facia. sounds like driver side vent somewhere. i need to pull facia off anyway to do some wiring work, so will have a look then. if they weren't there that would be a 90% improvement in ride quality i think.

Hopefully not that same facia vent flap .. real PITA to get.
Easy way to check it is use a long thin thing(eg. straw, long pen .. etc. .. just along thin thing pop it in the face vents in the centre console when the rattly vibe starts.
If you do get in there with all the facia stuff removed try not o be tempted(as I was) to put your hands inside the vent flap area too much.

1/. they'll get stuck!
2/. if you feel around too much you risk destroying the foam lining the flap and possibly make it worse .. ask me how I know this!

As I removed the main fascia all the sealing foam around it's vents(backside) all turned to dust too, as you squeeze it past the dash shell.
I had some packing foam from a PC screen that I ended up cutting to size to replace it all .. so no problem there, but if you don't plastic on plastic squeaks, you will need the foam.
The other thing I did was wedge small strips of foam between all plastic to plastic faces and plastic to metal areas too. eg. the underside of the top of the dash sits directly on the metal frame, so just jammed in a strip there .. and everywhere I could see such a join.

Other annoying rattles I had that drove me bonkers were
the high/low/CDL lever boot.
It just clips on and off carefully(so not to break the holding lugs) once lifted place four(but only two or three held ok) strips of a very soft foam between the boot surround and the centre console where it clips into leaving a very smal edge poking out. Then wedged the poking out bits in with whatever I had to hand(coins at this point).
Also jammed in foam strips between the centre console at the front edge where it rubs against the lower part of the centre console/dash.

Now that all rattles and squeaks are gone ... I'm sure I can hear more mechanical noises tho

Originally Posted by AK83

2/. if you feel around too much you risk destroying the foam lining the flap and possibly make it worse .. ask me how I know this!

As I removed the main fascia all the sealing foam around it's vents(backside) all turned to dust too, as you squeeze it past the dash shell.

i bought a new facia a few years back because the one that was there when i bought the car was glued back together and basically broken to smithereens. so i put a new sealing foam around the vents. i thought this is where it was rattling from coz i think the foam i put in was too dense and too thin so it was not sealing or seated properly.

ive also put stick foam everywhere when i took my centre console out for the tcase. where the console bolts onto those steel frames, i put sticky foam bits under is and tightened onto those. mostly to give it some kind of suspension to avoid my brand new centre console from cracking again. they didnt rattle.

Fitted a lecky lift pump to the Tdi. Noticed still gettin a bit of air at filter bleed screw. Replaced seals in the sediment trap at the back, which has seemed to solve the air issue. Goes a tad better now, exp at low revs.