Anyone removed grille at front of dash? Rattle driving me nuts.

[Reid]

I keep meaning to sit down with my trim tools and start trying to lift the speaker grille-like trim at the base of the windshield. I've got a high frequency rattle coming from the base of the windshield on the passenger side that's driving me absolutely batty on rough concrete. Wanted to know if there's any trick to lifting this, or if I'm even going to find anything once I do.

It's relatively subtle, I don't think my wife even notices it, but it's the one noise the car has, and I've gotta silence it!

 

[THX723]

I inadvertently removed the front dash speaker grill last night, while attempting to disassemble the A-pillar for a radar detector to VC-left 12v line routing. All I can say is, "What a nightmare it was putting the grill back!" It was especially frustrating since speaker grill removal wasn't necessary for the intended job, but I digress.

Removing the grill is extremely easy. Use a quality pry tool and work along the front edge, where a series of snap clips come undone quite easily. Once all of the front clips are freed, tilt the front edge up then pull towards you to completely detach the grill. You see, the rear edge is not held down by snap clips, instead they are held down by poorly thought out hooks and anchors.

To re-installing the grill, you essentially work in reverse. First is to re-engage the rear hooks to the anchor points. Naturally you’d hold the grill with an angle of approach just as you did when pulling out, so the hooks will reach the anchors. Easy enough? Not exactly. In addition to the angle you’d also need generous amount of compression from the top, so the hooks actually reach the anchors. Once the hooks are in, you’d push the grill forward (towards the windshield) while simultaneously pressing down on the front edge and hopefully engage the front snap clips. All is well and done if you can manage all that.

For me, a few front clips simply won’t slip right in. While continuing to coax the stubborn clips in, the unthinkable happened. The metal insert where the front snap clip drives into dislodges and falls through into the abyss that is the air vent cavity. Yikes! Missing one attachment point to the grill; I can live with. Ending up with the ultimate rattle noise maker; I would go insane. Desperate time calls for desperate moves. I managed to MacGyver my way out of the mess by jimmying up a strong magnet attached to the end of a long zip tie and miraculously fished out the piece. This btw happened 3 more times! Luckily by then, I've become proficient at fishing those suckers.


Hope you've had better luck.

 

[Dana1]

I keep meaning to sit down with my trim tools and start trying to lift the speaker grille-like trim at the base of the windshield. I've got a high frequency rattle coming from the base of the windshield on the passenger side that's driving me absolutely batty on rough concrete. Wanted to know if there's any trick to lifting this, or if I'm even going to find anything once I do.

It's relatively subtle, I don't think my wife even notices it, but it's the one noise the car has, and I've gotta silence it!

You know how a blonde fixes the car, right? Turn up the radio...

 

[Reid]

I actually did the same thing removing the dash grille; lost a clip because of the way you have to angle the nub into place. of course it's just right to push the tab on the clip and then force it to fall into the abyss. Fortunately, I have no new rattles, but I was not able to locate the source of the rattle bothering me.

I thought it was coming from the side panel on the dash that you have to remove in order to remove the A-pillar trim; I put a rubber bumper on it but it did not cure the rattle. I'm gonna have to finally get around to making that service appointment finally. Got a few little things I'd like them to look at.

 

[BerTX]

So the Service Center won't fix rattles on the Model 3 dash? Did you ask?

 

[mswlogo]

I keep meaning to sit down with my trim tools and start trying to lift the speaker grille-like trim at the base of the windshield. I've got a high frequency rattle coming from the base of the windshield on the passenger side that's driving me absolutely batty on rough concrete. Wanted to know if there's any trick to lifting this, or if I'm even going to find anything once I do.

It's relatively subtle, I don't think my wife even notices it, but it's the one noise the car has, and I've gotta silence it!

If you do find it, please share.

 

[THX723]

I actually did the same thing removing the dash grille; lost a clip because of the way you have to angle the nub into place. of course it's just right to push the tab on the clip and then force it to fall into the abyss. Fortunately, I have no new rattles, but I was not able to locate the source of the rattle bothering me.

I thought it was coming from the side panel on the dash that you have to remove in order to remove the A-pillar trim; I put a rubber bumper on it but it did not cure the rattle. I'm gonna have to finally get around to making that service appointment finally. Got a few little things I'd like them to look at.

@Reid, So you left the loose clip inside the vent abyss? Doh! :O

You know what could help you better locate the rattle is a tone generator app for your phone. Stream the tone as BT audio and run through a range of frequencies. You'll be able to pin point the exact frequency that excites any rattle. Good luck.

 

[firebat]

I wish I had discovered this thread earlier. I disassembled my grill too and thought it was easy, but reassembling the thing was an absolute nightmare. Took me several hours to put it back together (and I had to disassemble it again halfway through because while driving I suddenly heard one of the clips move around, which meant it was dislodged!)

I found a way to make reassembly easier:
1. Move the grill into place and make sure the angled plastic guides are inserted into their slots.
2. Now lower the grill into place. The nubs won't fit into their slots because of the angling.
3. _Without_ applying downward pressure onto the grill, use a flathead screwdriver to apply pressure to the nub to slightly nudge it back.
4. While pushing the nub back, slowly start applying downward pressure on the grill to slide the nub into the slot. It should not require a lot of force.

The key is to not use too much force. If you you apply downward pressure in step 3, it can cause the nub to be in contact with the clip, and as you push with the screwdriver, it will actually dislodge the clip. Also, you don't need to significantly move the nub back, so don't apply so much force that you break the thing. Using the screwdriver to push the nub replaces the effort needed to somehow warp/flex the entire grill into the right shape to insert the nubs.

I have small hands so I was able to manually retrieve most the dislodged clips without too much effort. But the one clip you absolutely don't want to dislodge is the center speaker clip. Turns out, it can actually fall _into_ the hole for that clip, and you have to remove the center speaker in order to retrieve the clip. Removing the center speaker requires unscrewing 3 torx screws, and one of them is so close to the windshield that the only approach I found that would work is to use a plier and grip a drill bit. Incredibly tedious and took a really long time.

 

[Watts_Up]

I wish I had discovered this thread earlier. I disassembled my grill too and thought it was easy,
but reassembling the thing was an absolute nightmare.
Took me several hours to put it back together (and I had to disassemble it again halfway through
because while driving I suddenly heard one of the clips move around, which meant it was dislodged!)

I found a way to make reassembly easier:
1. Move the grill into place and make sure the angled plastic guides are inserted into their slots.
2. Now lower the grill into place. The nubs won't fit into their slots because of the angling.
3. _Without_ applying downward pressure onto the grill, use a flathead screwdriver to apply pressure to the nub to slightly nudge it back.
4. While pushing the nub back, slowly start applying downward pressure on the grill to slide the nub into the slot. It should not require a lot of force.

The key is to not use too much force. If you you apply downward pressure in step 3, it can cause the nub to be in contact with the clip, and as you push with the screwdriver, it will actually dislodge the clip. Also, you don't need to significantly move the nub back, so don't apply so much force that you break the thing. Using the screwdriver to push the nub replaces the effort needed to somehow warp/flex the entire grill into the right shape to insert the nubs.

I have small hands so I was able to manually retrieve most the dislodged clips without too much effort. But the one clip you absolutely don't want to dislodge is the center speaker clip. Turns out, it can actually fall _into_ the hole for that clip, and you have to remove the center speaker in order to retrieve the clip. Removing the center speaker requires unscrewing 3 torx screws, and one of them is so close to the windshield that the only approach I found that would work is to use a plier and grip a drill bit. Incredibly tedious and took a really long time.

some pictures would be helpful....

 

[firebat]

Take a look at

for a visual of how to remove the grill. As for pictures for the steps I listed, they don't exist. I was pretty frustrated after spending hours trying to reassemble the thing (the clips popped off 3-4 times), and just wanted to sleep at 2 am.

 

[rickdogg82]

A guy in a Facebook group posted a video of a fix for a rattle in the door tweeters. Any chance this could be where your rattle is coming from? Basically, the tweeters are loose in the mount and a small drop of super glue was the fix.