Does anyone else have a problem with the dash rattling like crazy? As soon as I drove my '08 Fit off the dealer lot (yes, it was new), the dashboard has rattled like crazy over anything but perfect pavement. It's annoying as all hell. My '83 Mercedes with 240k miles rattled less! Overall this has been a great car, but there are some irritations. The seats suck. I'm 6'3" tall and my legs fall asleep due to the short seat cushions on even shorter drives. A height-adjustable seat would be nice so that my 5'3" wife could drive it on occasion (maybe not). A sunroof option would have been nice (especially a panoramic type). A sixth gear should be mandatory on an '08 manual gearbox! The gear action is quite nice in this car nonetheless, bettter than most cars I've driven. Steering feel is nice, even with the electronic assist. I'm hoping to do some mild mods to it, such as some Sparco seats (hopefully I won't need the seat-deployed airbags), suspension, wheels, tint, intake, exhaust.

 

When its -45 my dash sounds worse than an 82' Lada!
As far as the sixth gear goes. I get fantastic mpg even though the revs are high. And its one less downshift passing.

 

Do you live in a cold climate i noticed such a difference in the winter as apposed to the other seasons. It doesn't rattle that much I even have subs blasting and the only thing rattling so much would be my rear view mirror.

 

Thanks for replying, Ciggy! Well, I live in Oregon, so it's a pretty moderate climate. We don't really get much weather below freezing (usually 1-2 weeks of sub-freezing weather) and no real extended over-100 degree periods. I don't think it's due to temperature, as it has rattled since the day I bought it last July and hasn't subsided over fall, winter, and spring.

 

I'd bring it to the dealer and make some noise about it if it's really as bad as you explained. Maybe there's a few clips/screws missing somewhere.

 

Or a more expensive solution bring it to a custom audio shop and ask them to sound deaden the car.

 

You should post pics sounds like a nice home made modification that could be useful for alot of us!

 

The only ones I used to get were pretty minor but I f*cking hate hearing anything rattle in a new car so when I was parting out my trashed front bumper assembly I ended up using the "Rubber Notifer Strip" that comes on the bottom of the OEM assembly as a rubber wedge between the windshield glass and the dashboard. I just removed it from the assembly and used an exacto to remove the metal reinforcement out of the rubber encasement.

Best of all, the fat part of the rubber strip that is perfect and untouched by scrapes is the only thing visible in the windshield/dash crack--it looks factory, and the tension holds it in. Now the only rattle I hear is over seriously trashed roads, which comes from the metal dash reinforcement bar and the passenger air bag enclosure touching each other. Need more rubber...

 

Thanks for your tips, Ciggy and TekXoID!
I'm somewhat wary of giving my car to the dealer to fix the rattling dash. Who knows what they'd do to it and it may just end up rattling more in the end if they disassemble it. I also noticed a large portion of the foam padding between the dash and windshield is sticking up on the driver side corner. They sure rushed these things out of the factory! There was such high demand for the Fits when I bought mine last summer that I think they just bolted these things together in a hurry and didn't bother quality-inspecting them at all. Overall, I'm quite disappointed in the quality of my Fit. The interior quality seems really cheap and the paint is just plain horrible! I've got tons of chips in the paint and try to be careful of minimizing rock chips by driving at a good distance from cars in front of me. I was so disappointed that I almost considered selling my Fit and getting a used Subaru and old Miata just for fun and to autocross. My wife's '98 Civic seems to be put together with much more care and my old '91 Civic I bought new was of much higher quality as well. It seems the "Honda quality" has suffered some over the years.

 

Thanks man, I made a thread but I think it fell out of recent forum activity and never got any views (it was like 2AM)

Well..the rubber piece is like $50 bux as a new honda part from Bernardi and since you have to remove the metal out of the rubber it's more work than it has to be...basically you just need a strip wedge of forgiving material (preferably rubber) between the dash and the windshield, fantastic results.

I guess Honda was worried about the front end getting curbed more than interior vibrations...seriously the rubber strip just goes right in like it originally belonged there...all I had to do was cut it down to size.

I think I'll use the rest of the unused rubber strip between the airbag and the support. What were they thinking hard plastic right on top of metal???

 

Yup there was a VERY high demand for the fits over the past year but you should have inspected the car further before you bought it and complained about those things rite when you bought it. Hard to fix now, it's mostly up to you. I'd get an estimate on sound deadening the car.

 

Oh yeah dude I totally forgot--my initial rattles were from the A-pillars and I took it straight back in and they put some really juicy rubber tape between the black dash plastic and the grey a-pillar plastic pieces and that alleviated the noises from those areas.

Another important thing to note is that you must have full defrost blower or defrost/feet setting or it's just going to rattle period below 45F. Haven't tested that since my rubber strip at the windshield but hopefully I won't encounter them again next winter.

 

im not sure if mine rattles any more. i dont pay attention.