I hate rattles!

 

You and me both. I'd rather have any other problem. At least with most other issues, there's a clear problem and solution.

 

I'm baack, probably with another idea that won't be the cure. Could something have fallen into the defroster outlet duct? Or could something in that area be loose? Maybe put the HVAC in defroster mode and turn the fan on high and see if that changes the rattle.

 

I will definitely try that tomorrow. With all of my monkeying with the HVAC controls, I never tried the defroster. Worth a shot.

 

Well, turning on the defroster doesn't make the sound change at all so I think I can rule that out. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

I think the next step is to pull out the passenger air bag and see if anything is loose on that assembly or if I can see or feel anything loose behind or above where it came from...

 

Well, that about narrows it down, but I wouldn't want you to be fiddling about with airbags just yet.. because I no longer have a license plate on the dash, and I heard rattles today while driving. Turns out, the shorty antenna I got from American Muscle inevitable loosens itself and it was the cause of the rattling. I had to pull over and tighten it again by hand. You may have a similar case to me here, your rattling sound could be the same simple "Why didn't I ever think about it?" problem I faced. I sure hope that you didn't have to go to the extent of removing your dash to get to the bottom of it! Cheers!

 

It sounded like my right most vent was rattling/vibrating. It has been driving me nuts for months. I tried to remove the air bag to get behind there. Getting the two bolts out was easy but getting all the clips...hmmmm... All I wanted to do was remove that one vent. I decided to try something easy instead of damaging my panel. I was able to remove the vent partially pulling from the right side. I then had an expired proof of insurance paper laying next to me. I folded it up a couple times and stuck it between the vent and the dash and pushed it back in place. Rattle gone. I put the air bag screws back in and called it a day. Just don't try to remove that vent completely as I believe there are two bolts holding it in place behind the air bag cover.