Passenger side dash, speaker cover, side lid rattle and vibration noise RESOLVED

Well the sound is back
It just goes away after a few hours
I have to drive the truck in the morning to hear it

I'm getting real tired of it and toyota is not helping me
I hate my truck right now

 

Really, if you haven’t padded between the A-pillar and the speaker grille, do that. Pop the bolt covers. Pull the two bolts. Wiggle the pillar cover free. Felt tape the seam. Reassemble. If you have done that already, I’m sorry. You might check the auto lights plug in speaker cover also. FYI - You need to pull pillar cover before pulling the speaker cover. Good luck.

 

Thanks guys
So the a pillar is off and the tweeter cover and I have a toothpick on the side
It still rattles
It does it mostly in the morning
Sounds like it's lower than the a pillar
Running out of options here

 

Well it made the tapping noise really bad today so I tried shoving paper towels in the corner again
It seemed to work this time
Fingers crossed
The tapping sound seemed to come and go at 1500 rpm bumps and temp changes
The plastic vibration was the air filter door not snapped into place

Use paper towels instead of little napkins
The napkins can get stuck

My Tacoma started making the tapping noise around 3000 miles

 

Hopefully you have tracked down your rattle but I’m curious where you have the toothpick placed if you have the speaker cover and the pillar cover off. Maybe I misread your post. Typically people have wedged the toothpick between the speaker cover and the pillar cover as a test to see if creating a little space there will silence the rattle. It sounds like maybe your noise is coming from somewhere else, though. Good luck.

 

Well that didn't work
The sound is back
Happens in the morning
If toyota can't track it down then I'm out


Thinking Chevey Texas edition

 

Yes, definitely weather related. Or at least temp related. On colder mornings, below 50f, it rattles and taps like a shithouse rat. If it's warmer than that or the inside of the truck has been baking in the sun, it goes way. I have ANOTHER appointment set up for next Tuesday to drop it off with them. I didn't buy it from my local Toyota store (CarMax was to the rescue on this one) they give me a loaner each time because I leave the truck with them. They have tried to "felt tape" trick twice with minimal results. I'll let them try again. They don't build them, but I'm hoping they can fix it this time.

 

Felt tape isn't going to cut it, need bigger foam type material, I also put some CLD material and haven't had a problem since. Think of all the time you've wasted with taking it to the dealer to have them put on some shit felt tape in one spot.

 

I think I fixed my “dash speaker ticking”noise! (Read on) I was hearing that irritating noise since I bought the new truck September 2017. The shop manager heard it too and “reinsulated” it. Short story,... the ticking remained when cold out. I just had my tacoma in on Thursday for the 47,000klm service and told them about the ticking. Two techs went out with the truck and of course “could not replicate the noise”. They explained its one of this mysteries and if Toyota was to get their engineers involved I’d have to take off ALL MY MODS and put the truck back to factory. Not doing that. Come hell or high water I’ll fix it myself. (One clue here folks) those of us that press down on the speaker cover to experience momentary silence is pressing down on the tweeter. In my case BOTH BOLTS HOLDING DOWN THE TWEETER WERE SLIGHTLY LOOSE hence when I pressed on the windshield end of the tweeter, it made the ticking noise and was ever so slightly loose. This is what I did...
Opening the passanger door, there is a side panel that came off so easy with a thin pry bar or paint scraper tool. I took it off to see if I could look in there while pressing down on the speaker cover. There was a faint ticking noise. (There is no need however to take that side panel off.) The next thing I did was take off the APillar. 2, 10mm bolts at the handle come off and with some gentle wiggling, it comes out at the top then slide it up toward the roof and out it comes. Now you can see inside the right side of the speaker cover and you will see a red tab. With a flat head screw driver, gently lift up on the red tab until it releases through its hole. DONT LIFT IT OUT YET. The next tab is on the left corner closest to you. Gently press on the tab with the flat head and gently lift that corner until the tab lifts out. DONT LIFT THE COVER OUT YET. There’s one more red tab just down the left side of the speaker just past the air vent. Place the flat head just in there and lift gently. The last tab will release and the speaker cover can now be lifted out. Undo the light meter sensor wire and the cover is out. This is where I noticed my tweeter was loose and ticking when I pressed on its frame. I tightened both bolts and no more ticking!! So easy and got it done in 10 min. Looks like I have to YouTube them then link it.

 

I’m very happy to report that I went on a long drive after doing this fix and not one single ticking noise came from that speaker. The tweeter was just a hair loose on both bolts to make the ticking noise during bumps and vibrations while driving. It was worse when cold when the metal actually shrinks slightly and the ticking would go away during the hot months when the metal would expand. I’ll try and post my YouTube vid
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&ar=1&video_id=GSdQNKExE5Q

 

This vid is how to remove the speaker cover without breaking tabs
https://youtu.be/bqQhYxRFsas

 

I’m happy to report today being Sunday, October 21 and it’s freezing cold this morning in Calgary, AB, I drove around doing my regular stops for coffee and driving over some rough roads and bridge decks then drove to work about 50kms away that there was zero ticking noises. (I normally have to crank the tunes to drown out the noise)

Here is a vid taken of the original ticking noise from the tweeter right after I removed the speaker cover. The tweeter frame and where it bolts down are both metal with no bolt hole gaskets in place so you have metal to metal contact and my thought is because so many of us are experiencing this ticking noise, ...1, bolt hole gaskets are missing and 2, the bolts aren’t torqued down tight enough at the factory and 3, you will notice at the tweeter frame bolt hole closest to the windshield is a small tab on the frame that goes down and acts as a stopper to prevent the frame from moving but if the bolts aren’t torqued tight enough, that metal tab is going to vibrate against the metal thread casing! It’s a no brainer and that’s the irritating culprit right there!
https://youtu.be/0q48gnLSrE0

 

Nice work! You gotta be pumped to be done with that. You’ll enjoy driving again.

 

FULL DISCLOSURE folks: My excessive hyper inflated glee and happiness has deflated like a old party ballon.

The tic noise came back this morning as I got half way to work.

The hunt for what’s causing it however is not over! I’ve got a great idea. You all must have heard the term “process of elimination”. Well, there’s an easy solution besides getting rid of the truck. There’s 4 things this noise could be. 1, the APillar cover and the sticky foam bits; 2, the speaker cover with the tabs and removable light sensor; 3, the tweeter with bolts that get loose and the metal tab thing on the tweeter frame and 3, windshield adhesive failing at that corner.

So, I can’t drive too well without a windshield but I can drive with these other things removed to see if the noise goes away. The Toyota techs can’t do this so it’s up to us to figure it out! Who’s with me to try this out too?

(I feel like Braveheart rallying the troops)!

 

I took my passenger side cover out last night in hopes of finding the rattle. I have a base Sport model with no auto lights, etc, and I think I've found the culprit. There's a round "blank" snapped into the cover near the windshield. I found that it was loose, and very loose in fact. I place two small strips of electrical tape on the perimeter of the hole and folded it beneath the hole. I snapped the blank back in place, and it's now very tight. It was 36* this morning on the way in, and it did not rattle. Might not be the same culprit as yours, but appears to be my cause...for now.

 

Is it possible to take a photo of that “blank”? Thanks for the post.

When you say “cover near the windshield” are you referring to the APillar cover or the speaker cover?

 

Sure, I’ll try to get one tomorrow. I’ll google in the meantime.
Speaker cover.

 

Found an example online. I believe it’s the auto headlight sensor on higher trimmed trucks. It’s a blank flat snap in cover on my truck.

 

I believe I have the same damn issue unfortunate for me, it started after we had our first frost about 3 weeks ago, its coming from the passenger side up near the tweeter for sure, once the trucks internal temp gets to around 50-60 degrees it goes away, its quiet annoying since i drive to work at 5 am every day. I'll look into this for sure..
Thank you for all the info glad you resolved your issue as well.

 

It’s crazy how many of us are hearing that same noise and how many countless people who hear it and have said nothing or tried to have it fixed to no avail.
Today I decided to start removing these pieces and covers and drive to work. I took the APillar cover and speaker cover off but left the tweeter in place and did a bunch of driving. A vibrating noise was coming from the tweeter that was bolted down tight since last weekend so I took out the tweeter and drove out to work in the next town. It was the quietest ride I’ve ever had since getting this truck new September 2017! I’m thinking of looking at a tweeter upgrade. I’ve got a bunch more driving to do today so we shall see...