1994-2002 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
In general, Saabs and Volvos rattle more than any other car I've been in. I think Saab has gotten a lot better about preventing rattles than they were in the past. My 89 900t had so many rattles that people would comment on them when they were in the car. It was, and still is, actually quite loud in there. Because of my experience with that car, I never expected the 9-3 to be rattle-free, and I'm actually quite pleased at how quiet it is. I'm a perfectionist, though, and I tend to complain the loudest when something is almost perfect, rather than when something is a dismal failure.
I've had five rattles in the 9-3 so far - the dealer took car of one, I conquered three, and one just appeared this weekend. I consider myself lucky in that all of these rattles except one has been easily identifiable. 90% of the battle is finding out what exactly is rattling. Here's a list of what rattles I've had, and how they were fixed:
1. Glove box - easy, just a few felt pads around the perimeter to keep it tight and to keep the plastic from touching.
2. Dash speaker - rattled at low frequencies. "Luckily" the speaker went out a few weeks after I got the car, and the dealer fixed the rattle when they replaced it.
3. Rear seat bottom - easy to locate, difficult to fix. This one is an out and out design flaw that a lot of people complain about - the pins that hold the seat cusion are loose fitting. Some stick something under the seat (towels, tennis balls, etc) to push it up - some wrap the pins with tape. Neither of those worked for me. I ran 2-3 zip ties through the holes to tighten it up and to keep the metal from touching. Worked like a charm. Some felt pads along the back keep the seat from rattling or squeaking against the metal.
4. Rear seat beam - this one drove me nuts, but I finally figured out it was the plastic cover on the beam. A few felt pads and it was gone.
5. Hatch - others complain about this, but it only appeared on mine this weekend. Adjusting the stops doesn't help, so I'll see the dealer for this one.
I gave the dealer a chance to fix each of these (except the glovebox, that was too easy), but I realize the difficulty in tracking these down and finding a solution, so I don't mind playing hide and seek along with them. I like to tinker with the car anyway, so things like this give me an excuse. I'm lucky, so far, in that I haven't had a rattle in the headliner or inside the dash. From reading other posts, those seem to be the most difficult.
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