Help: Insane dashboard rattle on mild washboard roads

[SoCal Rob]

Seriously, this is old airport courtesy shuttle levels of bad and the Service Center says that nothing can be done about the dashboard. The short videos below the text are from our Gen2, and our dashboard looked almost this bad on our Gen1. The first 7 second video is regular speed and the other 22 second video starts in slo-mo to really get a feel for the amount of movement, then ends at regular speed.

I don't expect bank vault levels of solidity, but none of our last 3 vehicles driven on this road did this: 2006 Land Rover LR3 with 249,000 miles, 2012 Kia Soul with 217,000 miles, and 2021 VW ID.4 with 72,000 miles. The Kia was front wheel drive and the VW is rear wheel drive. Both were designed for on-road driving and both were just used as commuter cars, so our Rivians should be doing this on a road with relatively mild washboard given the adventure vehicle marketing.

Coincidentally, when I was picking our Rivian up from service for this issue, someone was dropping off for the same issue. I find it hard to believe that Rivian didn't catch this before launching the R1 Gen1s and even harder to believe that based on complaints they couldn't do anything to mitigate it for the Gen2s.

I'm pretty sure the issue is the relatively heavy center speaker hanging from the plastic dash pieces which join near the speaker leaving the dashboard even weaker in the unsupported center. Does anyone have experience with getting this truly fixed: via service center or DIY?

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[silverxlb]

Service center fixed mine, a very common issue. Now I only get it rarely, it'll still rattle but only once or twice instead of repeatedly on the roughest washboard.

 

[SoCal Rob]

Service center fixed mine, a very common issue. Now I only get it rarely, it'll still rattle but only once or twice instead of repeatedly on the roughest washboard.

This is nearly constant. Do you happen to have a past invoice in the app which shows what was done to fix it? That may help the service center perform the right fix.

If the car wasn’t so new I’d try to remove the dash top parts and install a brace or possibly remove the center speaker if that’s what it takes.

 

[ndmiller]

So common it's actually a defining feature of the vehicle. SC should fix no issue, I had mine fixed in the first month of ownership. Sounded just like that.

 

[DaveA]

They put some tape here and there on my Gen 1. Sounds better, but if this wasn’t rectified in Gen 2, then no sense in “upgrading”. That full length wire mesh is just a bad design decision.

 

[socaladam]

Mine does the same thing. SC can’t replicate and won’t try to fix.

 

[HaveBlue]

Somewhere I had a post of how I fixed it. Basically removed the speaker from the floppy grill (Gen1) and zip tied it to the mounting brackets that Rivian opted not to use. Not perfect but much much better. I drove 60 miles of wash board in Rally mode and that's the only place i got a gentle reminder that the dash isn't perfect.

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/dash-rattle-mitigation-dash-disassemble-diy.27010/

 

[SoCal Rob]

Somewhere I had a post of how I fixed it. Basically removed the speaker from the floppy grill (Gen1) and zip tied it to the mounting brackets that Rivian opted not to use. Not perfect but much much better. I drove 60 miles of wash board in Rally mode and that's the only place i got a gentle reminder that the dash isn't perfect.

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/dash-rattle-mitigation-dash-disassemble-diy.27010/

Thanks, I would rather have service do the fix than tear into our new Rivian. This is an objectively bad design might have made it to Gen1 due to time constraints with launching a new vehicle but there is no excuse for this to continue on in Gen2.

 

[tjsainsb]

It took them two tries to fix the dash rattle on my Gen1 R1S. The first time, their mobile service put a new baffle under the grille in which helped a little, but the tech said he was "out of tape". I had them back a 2nd time, and that service tech completely took the grille out, put a LOT of double-sided foam tape and electrical tape on "every surface he could see that could possibly contact" between the dash and the grille. Never a rattle since. I would say it would be scary to start prying, but after seeing the tech pop off the trim pieces, I could have done it myself. I'm wondering if there's a YouTube video out there showing it since I didn't record the tech doing it

 

[MS Seal Beach]

I had my 2014 "fixed" the first time by a Rivian remote tech who placed foam tape under the speaker grill. That worked for a month and then the annoying vibration came back. Then I took it in to a SC whose tech said the the issue are the clips themselves and he replaced them with a newer clip design. As for DIY, yeah I'd give it a try. The tech first took off the pillar covers and then proceeded to take off the dash. There's a lot of clips, but no biggie. Good luck!

 

[Jason C]

@SoCal Rob
Curious where you in Joshua tree? Looks like the road leading to Geology Trail. I experienced the exact same issue with my Launch edition Gen 1 R1T a few years back. I literally thought the upper dash pad was going to separate from the dash. If I remember correctly, I even tried to lower my tire pressure down to 36 psi which didn't help.

I now have a Gen 2, Tri motor. I'm actually heading up to Joshua Tree these weekend. After my first experience and now your video. I'm probably not going to take my new Rivian on that trail.

 

[SoCal Rob]

@SoCal Rob
Curious where you in Joshua tree? Looks like the road leading to Geology Trail. I experienced the exact same issue with my Launch edition Gen 1 R1T a few years back. I literally thought the upper dash pad was going to separate from the dash. If I remember correctly, I even tried to lower my tire pressure down to 36 psi which didn't help.

I now have a Gen 2, Tri motor. I'm actually heading up to Joshua Tree these weekend. After my first experience and now your video. I'm probably not going to take my new Rivian on that trail.

Close! This is in the Pioneertown area, northwest of Yucca Valley. We have land up there and we’re having a cabin built so we are up there a lot. I’d love to hear from one of the Rivian designers or engineers if this is really what they intended, if some specification got changed, or if there is an issue with assembly. They have to know this is an issue and they made so many other nice improvements* to the Gen2 that I’m left scratching my head about this.

*Even little things like the divider bar between the upper/front and lower/rear washer buttons which makes it easier to verify what you’re pressing, the nicer trim around the front cupholders, and the front camera washer. As much as I like these changes, I would’ve prioritized better door weatherstrip / wind noise mitigation / active noise cancellation and a center dash brace.

 

[Beanejar]

Had nearly the same sound on my gen1 at delivery. Mobile replaced the dash as there was a missing foam gasket of sorts from around the speaker grill. New dash had it, original didn’t. Been great ever since. I recall tech relayed that it was not an uncommon omission, at the time.

 

[Ironcitijc]

Mine wasn’t nearly that bad but very annoying and there is absolutely a fix for it as others have mentioned. Mine was done by mobile tech and here’s a picture of the invoice description. Hope this helps.

 

[electruck]

They put some tape here and there on my Gen 1. Sounds better, but if this wasn’t rectified in Gen 2, then no sense in “upgrading”. That full length wire mesh is just a bad design decision.

The mesh grill isn't a problem. But hanging a heavy speaker off of it was a colossally stupid idea. I suspect this was done for assembly considerations but the speaker should have been mounted to a structural element, not a trim piece.

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