Some of you have the dreaded sunglass holder rattle, even without sunglasses in the compartment. If you have a subwoofer in your car you've probably noticed the rattle even more. It's an obnoxious rattle, and the fact that it's so close to your ear makes it even worse. The good news is, it's easy to fix, and despite the long process you'll see here, you can even fix the rattle without taking anything apart!
First I had to find the source of the problem, so I disassembled the overhead console to have a closer look (if you need instructions on that, let me know and I'll add the step by step for that too). Again, as you'll see, you won't need to take apart anything to fix this. I took it apart because I needed to figure out how what the problem was, and because I had bigger plans than just fixing the rattle (you'll see).
After a quick inspection the source of the rattle was obvious. One side of the lid has a molded in protrusion that acts as a stop, the other side does not have the same protrusion.
Side 1 (with):
Side 2 (without):
There is just enough play in the lid, due to only having a stop on one side, that all it takes is a rough road, or bass heavy song to make this bastard buzz like crazy.
The solution is to add a protrusion on the other side to eliminate this play. Simply add a dab of hot glue and be done, or...
I'm a nerd, so I have scrap model car parts in a box, so I used the tie rod off of some long forgotten plastic sports car. All you need is a thin rod made from whatever you can find around the house (for other activities a thick rod is preferred, but we will not be covering such activities in this thread ). A toothpick, or similar should work. A toothpick will likely be a bit thicker than what I used, you'll either need to thin it down (with fine sandpaper, or whittle it down with a sharp blade), or you can attach it further away from the corner of the lid where it will fit the gap better.
Lightly scuffing the area with some fine sandpaper will help to ensure the adhesion is good. Use some superglue, and a tiny clothes pin to clamp your rod down while the glue dries.
If you're thinking "damn, I don't have any tiny clothes pins. I guess I can't do this project!" Don't worry, all you have to do is make sure your new piece gets glued in place, if you were careful with your super glue you can even pinch it between your fingers. If you're not careful with your superglue, then you'll glue your finger to the lid and think "damn, I wish I had used a tiny clothes pin."
Let the glue dry, then either reassemble, and reinstall. If you left it installed while you did this, then you're done, close the lid.
At this point you're probably saying "hey, GIJOE why didn't you do this in a fraction of the time with a small, carefully placed blob of hot glue or something?" To which I would probably reply, "mind your business, smarty pants." (for most of you, fixing this rattle can be that simple, but I took it a step further.)
Coming up is why you may want to remove the entire sunglass holder from the car, instead of leaving it installed. If you want to actually use the sunglass holder for sunglasses, you certainly don't want the sunglasses themselves clunking around causing yet another rattle, so do this...
First I had to find the source of the problem, so I disassembled the overhead console to have a closer look (if you need instructions on that, let me know and I'll add the step by step for that too). Again, as you'll see, you won't need to take apart anything to fix this. I took it apart because I needed to figure out how what the problem was, and because I had bigger plans than just fixing the rattle (you'll see).
After a quick inspection the source of the rattle was obvious. One side of the lid has a molded in protrusion that acts as a stop, the other side does not have the same protrusion.
Side 1 (with):
Side 2 (without):
There is just enough play in the lid, due to only having a stop on one side, that all it takes is a rough road, or bass heavy song to make this bastard buzz like crazy.
The solution is to add a protrusion on the other side to eliminate this play. Simply add a dab of hot glue and be done, or...
I'm a nerd, so I have scrap model car parts in a box, so I used the tie rod off of some long forgotten plastic sports car. All you need is a thin rod made from whatever you can find around the house (for other activities a thick rod is preferred, but we will not be covering such activities in this thread ). A toothpick, or similar should work. A toothpick will likely be a bit thicker than what I used, you'll either need to thin it down (with fine sandpaper, or whittle it down with a sharp blade), or you can attach it further away from the corner of the lid where it will fit the gap better.
Lightly scuffing the area with some fine sandpaper will help to ensure the adhesion is good. Use some superglue, and a tiny clothes pin to clamp your rod down while the glue dries.
If you're thinking "damn, I don't have any tiny clothes pins. I guess I can't do this project!" Don't worry, all you have to do is make sure your new piece gets glued in place, if you were careful with your super glue you can even pinch it between your fingers. If you're not careful with your superglue, then you'll glue your finger to the lid and think "damn, I wish I had used a tiny clothes pin."
Let the glue dry, then either reassemble, and reinstall. If you left it installed while you did this, then you're done, close the lid.
At this point you're probably saying "hey, GIJOE why didn't you do this in a fraction of the time with a small, carefully placed blob of hot glue or something?" To which I would probably reply, "mind your business, smarty pants." (for most of you, fixing this rattle can be that simple, but I took it a step further.)
Coming up is why you may want to remove the entire sunglass holder from the car, instead of leaving it installed. If you want to actually use the sunglass holder for sunglasses, you certainly don't want the sunglasses themselves clunking around causing yet another rattle, so do this...
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