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Trying to locate rattle

5K views 36 replies 15 participants last post by  shay2nak 
#1 ·
I have THE most annoying rattle in my 05 Elise. The rattle occurs when momentum shifts to the front or to the back. If I hit the brakes hard, whatever it is flies forward. If I hit the gas, back it goes. It sounds like a handful of dimes moving around. I was hoping whatever it was could be found under the seat, but with carpet there, that's out. I'm guessing that it's either in the piece of aluminum that goes across the car, from driver's side over to the passenger side, underneath the shifter, or in the center console itself. Hard to tell by sound. My guess is that it is coming from the center console because the length of travel is longer. The sliding sound when the pieces are moving seems too long to be in the transverse piece of aluminum. That part is not that large in the front to back direction.

I dont feel confident taking apart my car, but I'm wondering a lot what could be moving around inside there. Parts of the shifter? Or maybe parking brake? The sound is coming from the back of the console so maybe that's where parts might be missing.

 
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#2 · (Edited)
Console removal is not that hard. Plenty of posts here tell you how. It is a good learning experience! You could also use the console removal as an excuse to put a leather gaiter on the parking brake. Get one from Redline Goods. They make them custom with LOTS of color and stitch options... I replaced mine with double orange stitching over perforated black but he literally can do anything.

Another thing to do while you are in there is the shifter reinforcement which will tighten up the shifter mechanism and makes a big difference. See http://www.billswebspace.com/ShifterReinforcement.pdf and you can search other posts by posting this into your browser search " site:lotustalk.com shifter reinforcement " (best way to find anything in this forum!)

Good luck in finding the noise!
 

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#4 ·
My assumption is center console. When I removed my center console, there were pennies, dimes, nickels, and quarters in the center runner. There were so much it didn’t slide anymore [emoji23]. Previous owner left it all for me I guess. Not that difficult to remove at all. Good luck

Gabe


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#6 ·
I looked at older threads on removing the center console and most of them describe the process as quite difficult. I am sure for most here it's easily possible to do the work yourself, but it is impossible to overstate how much I am NOT a gear head. I have not done any significant work on a car in 30+ years. So my confidence level can be accurately stated as "rock bottom". Best left to those who have knowledge.

Anyway, it sounds like an easy fix for those with skills.
 
#7 ·
#8 ·
Interesting. My gut feeling is that this might be the source of the sound, simply because the sound has a very "uncovered" sound to it. I feel like I could reach out and grab whatever it is that is rolling around. I would think that if the sound is coming from the console, it would be slightly muffled, which it is not.

That said, I have no idea how to address the problem and so will leave it to someone not as clueless as myself.
 
#9 ·
The space under the console is pretty tight, it is hard to believe things are really regularly sliding around under there .

Things do slide around under the seats, even with carpet

I wonder if a squirrel has left something in the side sills, they are open at the back to the outside
 
#10 ·
That would be a strange illusion as the sound is 100% underneath the seat and to the right. But I am intrigued by your suggestion, because it does sound like a lot of junk that is moving around. Where is this opening that the squirrel can get in? Is it above the diffuser?
 
#21 ·
Do you store your car outside or in a garage? There have been a few stories about mice chewing wires and such as these cars sit for weeks/months at a time and are low enough to the ground to make access easy. You can pull the side sill (the plastic cover you slide over when entering/exiting the car) easy enough to look in for loose objects. The access holes are not great but big enough to put a mirror in and look around.
 
#25 ·
I think I agree with you. I took a drive during lunch today and heard the sound again. It is 100% for certain coming from inside the car. No chance some critter is storing food inside the cabin so I think the seat is the source of the noise.
 
#27 ·
Here's a quick rundown. Off the top of my head, I believe there will be 5 total screws you will remove.

First, look inside the "cupholder" at the back between the seats connecting over the center console. There should be a philips head type screw to remove in the middle. Once removed the piece will slide out.
Than you should see 2 more screws to remove. Once removed, the panel will still be held by the cig adapter plug. Just unplug and panel will be out of the way.
Now, at the front sides of center console, you should see a screw on both driver and passenger side. Remove those to loosen the center console and should be able to lift up from the back to be able to see under.
You will see a runner in the middle where all the cables and things going thru. I found all the coins in that runner pinched underneath the cables. This may or may not be where your rattle is at but might as well check. If you need more clearance to lift the console, you can remove the aluminum part of the handbrake/ebrake so you can slide it up higher. There are 2 allen set screws on the underside of the handle you can loosen so you can slide it out.

Hope that gives you a little bit of confidence to try it. To note, be sure to set the screws aside so you know where which one goes to where. This may be a good time to start trying the the little stuff as shops could/may charge you a pretty penny for something manageable. We all been there, but on occasion, the satisfaction you get after you complete what your doing/replacing/fixing on your car is awesome. Good luck!

Gabe
 
#28 ·
Feel free to post pictures as you go if you need help. You can even PM me your phone number if you want someone to talk you through it.
Easy as Pie!
 
#29 ·
Huge thanks to you and everyone else for your extreme support. As luck would have it, my Elise is going to head back into the shop, yet again, as I have a consistent check engine light lit. I asked for this to be taken care of last time but appears to have not been fixed. Since it's going to be in the shop I'll have my noise looked at again.

one day I'll get my hands dirty on this car...but not quite yet!

Have a great week.
 
#30 ·
I've resisted adding to the conversation here as I have nothing constructive to add. But I can't help but snicker.

I recently replaced my motor mounts with solid mounts. The whole dang car is a rattle. That's not right: it's a cacophony of rattles, a symphony of rattles. As I run through the RPM range, one rattle will go away and another will start. At times there are 5 or 6 distinctly different ones going on, some getting louder, some going away, in glorious surround sound. Things mellow out a bit above 3500 rpm.

Sorry for the derail.

As you were.
 
#32 ·
Rattle fix

My bet is grease needed in seat rails. I had the same rattle as you described and found it by accident after removing my seat.
 
#34 ·
I'll read this thread tomorrow and the seat rail bearings one...

I've had some sort of loose screw or similar sound coming from under the dash passenger side where the storage trough is. Does the passenger seat have bearings? I mean, it's fixed. ??? I would be surprised if it's coming from the seat area. I hear it mostly at low speeds like 5 mph.
 
#35 ·
I doubt the passenger seat has any bearings due to it be fixed to the floor. I think I actually have two things causing a rattle. The first is a bearing in the drivers seat. That single sound is 100% reproducible and sounds like it is coming from underneath the seat. The second sound is less reproducible and appears to come from the center console. This is a more complex sound, like a handful of change sloshing back and forth under very hard acceleration/deceleration. Both sounds dramatically reduce my enjoyment of this car as they are very very obtrusive. I have not had the chance to get the car into the shop as the dealer is 50 miles from my house. That's a downside to owning a Lotus. Unless you do your own work, skilled mechanics are few and far between. I sometimes wonder if I should have sprung the extra money to get an Alfa 4C. There's an Alfa dealer 5 mins from my house!
 
#36 ·
It's frankly not that hard to pull both seats out. Once you've done that, getting the center console out is another half hour of work, especially if you don't remove it from the car completely. The floor pan is a single flat sheet of aluminum, so once you have the center console off, you're able to see everything. It's also a great opportunity to clean up in there.
 
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