GC8 Impreza WRX – Rattle Fixes

Rattles are a common feature of older cars, where the attention to Noise, Vibrations and Harshness (NVH) was a lesser focus. Whilst rattles don’t annoy some people, I have found them to be very frustrating, and went looking for the cause.

In our WRX, one of the major sources of rattles quickly became clear, and this was the wiring loom connectors. In many cases they were sitting free, floating against the metal and plastic pieces of trim. The slightest bump in the road would quickly cause these to create a symphony of rattles.

The fix? Very simple. Felt tape. This special tape is commonly used by car builders, and is an adhesive backed felt used to wrap audio looms and connectors. Not only does it stop rattles, but also keeps the looms looking very neat.

The pictures below show just a couple of locations where I had applied felt tape. The first were the connectors found in both B-Pillars, that float next to the seat belt harness. Considering I don’t ever see the need to disconnect these, wrapping them entirely with felt allowed me to completely fix the rattle noises I had been hearing from the pillars.

GC8 WRX Rattles

Felt tape applied to the connector

Another location was under the centre console. Here, a spare connector seen in-line was loosely floating around under the coin trays. I took this opportunity to secure this spare connector, and wrap the entire loom for neatness.

Fixing rattles isn’t complicated, once you can identify the source. We had our car somewhat dismantled recently as part of ‘The Deep Clean’ and took the opportunity to rectify many sources of possible rattles.

GC8 WRX Rattles

Felt tape applied to the entire loom and spare connector

WRX Roadmap:

  1. Underbody / Mechanical Inspection
  2. Bye Bye Brant
  3. The Deep Clean
  4. Rattle, Rattle, Rattle
  5. Parts Delivery!
  6. The MY99 MAF Sensor
  7. Let’s Talk Fluids
  8. Theft Prevention
  9. Go Fast. Stop Faster.
  10. Body Restoration
  11. To Be Continued…