Guvna
Active Member
- Joined
- May 18, 2017
- Messages
- 552
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
- Vehicle(s)
- MY17 Subaru Levorg 2.0LTR GTS
So, I’ve had a rattle for a while now. Couldn’t for the life of me work out where it was coming from. I HATE RATTLES! It wasn’t too bad at the start but continued to worsen and change its sound. At first I thought it was the passenger front dash tweeter cover, as I had that problem in my MY15 WRX. Solved that by cutting a plastic washer in half and wedging it in the side, problem solved. This time I simply took the grille cover off and drove it, rattle persisted 
It kept getting worse and louder. Probably stiffer suspension with the Coilovers added to the effect. I then suspected it was coming from the eyesight cover area, it started sounding like less of a rattle and more like a globe bouncing around on the light cover. Took them off, bulbs were secured, not the problem. I then removed the cover around the auto braking and lane departure off buttons on the eyesight cover, took it for a drive, rattle still there, even louder. So I took off the entire eyesight cover thinking it was rattling against something. Unfortunately before I did this I bought some foam tape from Bunnings thinking to use that to stop the vibration. It wasn’t needed in the end. Took it for a drive, still there, started touching bits to see if it stopped with a little success, but not enough for my liking.
Studied it all closer when I got home and finally found the culprit. It was the electric sunroof motor. When I pushed quickly and repeatedly on it it rattled like the speaker grille sort of rattle. Looking further to the drivers side, slightly under the hood lining I found a bolt hole that looked like it had a bolt in it at some stage due to the scuffing around it, but no longer, tried a magnetic stick inside the lining to see if I could pick up the bolt thinking it had worked it’s way loose. No luck. So then the stripping of the interior started. A pillar covers, door rubbers, speaker grilles on dash, sun visors ’oh shit bars’ over the front doors, and sunroof trim surround. Now able to pull the hood lining down a little, guess what I found, a 10mm bolt that used to live in the sunroof motor mounting bracket! Woohoo…Success. So there ended up being two noises, the sunroof motor mounting bracket rattling against the roof, and the dislodged bolt bouncing around the hood lining. All I needed now were my wife’s little fingers to be able to get up in there to put the bolt back in it’s home, she obliged and voila, tightened it up, a little extra torque as I DO NOT wanna strip it all down again.
The only thing left to do now is to put it all back together and hope I haven’t created a different rattle lol
But that’s a job for tomorrow morning. I’ve taken some photos showing how certain trim pieces are removed and of the missing bolt location etc I’ll resize them tomorrow and add them to this thread, as I couldn’t find any info on the web about disassembling Levorg interiors, I found bits here and there on MY15+ WRX’s and Outback’s and went from there, but it was tedious and time consuming and some of the parts are only similar, not the same. The photos were just taken on iPhone and at night so hopefully they will be clear enough to show the important bits, and make it easier for someone else to do it. Most of the stuff I found about rattles from the eyesight area people used foam tape but with only limited success. Will update on how successful I was in eliminating the rattle when I’ve reassembled and test driven, but I am confident it will be gone now that the bolt has been reinstalled. And there should finally be some Levorg specific photos out there now
It kept getting worse and louder. Probably stiffer suspension with the Coilovers added to the effect. I then suspected it was coming from the eyesight cover area, it started sounding like less of a rattle and more like a globe bouncing around on the light cover. Took them off, bulbs were secured, not the problem. I then removed the cover around the auto braking and lane departure off buttons on the eyesight cover, took it for a drive, rattle still there, even louder. So I took off the entire eyesight cover thinking it was rattling against something. Unfortunately before I did this I bought some foam tape from Bunnings thinking to use that to stop the vibration. It wasn’t needed in the end. Took it for a drive, still there, started touching bits to see if it stopped with a little success, but not enough for my liking.
Studied it all closer when I got home and finally found the culprit. It was the electric sunroof motor. When I pushed quickly and repeatedly on it it rattled like the speaker grille sort of rattle. Looking further to the drivers side, slightly under the hood lining I found a bolt hole that looked like it had a bolt in it at some stage due to the scuffing around it, but no longer, tried a magnetic stick inside the lining to see if I could pick up the bolt thinking it had worked it’s way loose. No luck. So then the stripping of the interior started. A pillar covers, door rubbers, speaker grilles on dash, sun visors ’oh shit bars’ over the front doors, and sunroof trim surround. Now able to pull the hood lining down a little, guess what I found, a 10mm bolt that used to live in the sunroof motor mounting bracket! Woohoo…Success. So there ended up being two noises, the sunroof motor mounting bracket rattling against the roof, and the dislodged bolt bouncing around the hood lining. All I needed now were my wife’s little fingers to be able to get up in there to put the bolt back in it’s home, she obliged and voila, tightened it up, a little extra torque as I DO NOT wanna strip it all down again.
The only thing left to do now is to put it all back together and hope I haven’t created a different rattle lol
But that’s a job for tomorrow morning. I’ve taken some photos showing how certain trim pieces are removed and of the missing bolt location etc I’ll resize them tomorrow and add them to this thread, as I couldn’t find any info on the web about disassembling Levorg interiors, I found bits here and there on MY15+ WRX’s and Outback’s and went from there, but it was tedious and time consuming and some of the parts are only similar, not the same. The photos were just taken on iPhone and at night so hopefully they will be clear enough to show the important bits, and make it easier for someone else to do it. Most of the stuff I found about rattles from the eyesight area people used foam tape but with only limited success. Will update on how successful I was in eliminating the rattle when I’ve reassembled and test driven, but I am confident it will be gone now that the bolt has been reinstalled. And there should finally be some Levorg specific photos out there now
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