[1ESK19]

It is a hose connection up to the left and behind the glovebox. Removed the glovebox reached up ad to the left and found a plastic hose connection to be movable. I wedged a styrofoam pad between it and a support rod to prevent it from moving. Did it by feel. Perhaps if there is clamp holding it in place it can be tightened. I chose to wedge it and prevent any further movement. Styrofoam pad is 1.5” thick. Wedged it tight.

I’m 72 years sold and have found over the years that many dealers are sloppy when doing these types of corrections. So I tried it myself.

I love the car. Mine is a stick premium hatch.

could you share how you removed the entire glove box on the 2019? i'm getting super fed up with loose stuff back there

 

[Leonardo Po]

Wow! I hv the same experience.
Its the hose. Tech wud not know despite several test drives. He got the job done when I showed your post.
Fr: The Philippines here

 

[1ESK19]

Wow! I hv the same experience.
Its the hose. Tech wud not know despite several test drives. He got the job done when I showed your post.
Fr: The Philippines here

@Leonardo Po what did yours sound like? is it like a plastic 'tick tick' sound? or a rubbery diving board sound? i want to be sure before i go tell them to look at that hose. i really need someone's help to identify the sound profile because this dashboard airbag issue has been through multiple visits. even the glovebox ceiling panel is starting to make noise from constantly open/close by the service guys, who don't seem to hear a thing

 

[[email protected]]

@Leonardo Po what did yours sound like? is it like a plastic 'tick tick' sound? or a rubbery diving board sound? i want to be sure before i go tell them to look at that hose. i really need someone's help to identify the sound profile because this dashboard airbag issue has been through multiple visits. even the glovebox ceiling panel is starting to make noise from constantly open/close by the service guys, who don't seem to hear a thing

I have something going on there too. The noise is usually quite faint or even intermittent so I have been reluctant to bother with the dealer even though at the worst of times it's very annoying. Seems worse in warm weather.
Pulling off the ceiling panel of the glove box and wedging my hand up there, I can indeed feel a loose hose. Trouble is noise persists even after stuffing soft foam around it. Gotta find a way to take out the whole glove box to expose what's going on back there.

 

[1ESK19]

I have something going on there too. The noise is usually quite faint or even intermittent so I have been reluctant to bother with the dealer even though at the worst of times it's very annoying. Seems worse in warm weather.
Pulling off the ceiling panel of the glove box and wedging my hand up there, I can indeed feel a loose hose. Trouble is noise persists even after stuffing soft foam around it. Gotta find a way to take out the whole glove box to expose what's going on back there.

same. i've never had a quiet ride since i got my car. its very difficult to diagnose sounds in the passenger side. i have 3 that i want to squash, one of them being something in the corner near the windshield (at least thats where the sound seems to echo from as i drive). it is a tap-tap-tap sound as i take it over concrete bridges. my suspicion is that my airbag rattle is acting up again but i'm not feeling good about going about this repair again, since my glove box is starting to rumble too now from the last time they repaired my car. so do be careful

 

[[email protected]]

So I finally took mine to the dealer. As it's a worse problem in warm weather, I waited till late spring, having put up with it since purchase in January.
They didn't fix it. They told me they had foam wrapped some components over the glove box and that stopped it . I was skeptical, as I had already tried that and told them so.
No matter, they said, as they were more thorough. Seemed ok till I got 20 miles from the dealer and it started in again. Intermittent as always.
Taking it back next Tuesday, this time insisting to talk with attending tech.

 

[zx6rrdan]

This sounds similar to an issue I had with my 18... dealer fixed it. Issue was inside the air track near blower. Worse when warm/hot. Open the empty glove box see if you here it from near cabin filter

 

[[email protected]]

I left the car at the dealer for the second time yesterday. Showed the tech how tapping on top of the dash could produce the rattle. That was 930am. I texted the service rep at 2pm today for a status report. He said the tech is working on it now but to not count on it being done today. It seems he had to consult Mazda USA for the tear down procedure to get deep enough into the dash to get to the rattle. OMG.

They gave me a CX3 loaner, so I'm ok with the delay.

 

[[email protected]]

An hour after I made the above post, they called and said it was fixed. Near as I can tell from the 30 min ride back it is.
Here is what the service invoice says:

"performed noise diagnosis with chassis ears"
"rattle at pass air bag area"
"contacted Mazda"
"told to reposition dash frame brackets at pass air bag area & retorqued bolts"
."..ck ok"

 

[zx6rrdan]

Thanks... another area to work at for the dealer... I don't like taking apart dash... everything else no prob

 

[1ESK19]

@[email protected] believe it or not i had this repair done last summer. the heat causes the passenger airbag to vibrate like a diving board. it took 2 visits for corporate to send a guy out and tell the techs about re-torquing the airbag bolts. but surprise-- that thing still vibrates at a much lower volume in the summer sun.

i went back to them about it. they couldn't hear it. bullshit. i am pretty fed up with it. but it makes little sense for me to bring up the same problem and expect a different solution from the 'experts' who don't quite seem to know what's rattling back there.

 

[[email protected]]

@[email protected] believe it or not i had this repair done last summer. the heat causes the passenger airbag to vibrate like a diving board. it took 2 visits for corporate to send a guy out and tell the techs about re-torquing the airbag bolts. but surprise-- that thing still vibrates at a much lower volume in the summer sun.

i went back to them about it. they couldn't hear it. bullshit. i am pretty fed up with it. but it makes little sense for me to bring up the same problem and expect a different solution from the 'experts' who don't quite seem to know what's rattling back there.

Don't know if it will be any use to you but just to update. After a long day trip my wife and I did notice there was still some rattle in the air bag area, but on fewer bumps and of a lower volume. I would say it had been about 85 to 90 percent reduced and it was no longer bad enough that I would have brought it the dealer in the first place.

This morning I went back to trying stuffing foam material around components at the top of the glove box. Though not effective before the dealer visits, this in combination with whatever they did seems to have gotten rid if it 100 percent. But I only drove it ten miles on rough roads on a 70 degree morning.

So as you say, conditions such as temperature variation can play a part as well, so I'll just have to wait and see if this works over the long run.

 

[zjwffff]

I got same boat as you // i had it repair at around last Nov2019 and dealer cliamed that the rattle was gone in 10km of test drove // somehow, i noticed it recently again when it passed some bump on the road // like said, it might be isseued related to temperature // thank you for everyone for keep posting

 

[1ESK19]

there are a lot of temp-related rattles on this car. @zjwffff you're going to stop repairing it now?

 

[sashakaz]

Hey Mazda 3 Gurus...
OK, I finally found the annoying dash rattle and got a little video of it. It happens when I drive over any road that is less than perfect, and yes it drives me nuts.
It occurs right under the top of the dash on the passenger side only. If I make a fist and lightly tap the top of the dash on the passenger side, I can recreate the annoying sound. It seems like right under that area it is "hollow" and some kind of wiring loom might be moving around.

A point of interest though is that if I press on the dash (in the hollow area) (see pic below) and tap on it again - the rattle is pretty much gone. I think that the top of the dash pad has to come out so something can be taped down. Anybody know what is directly under there?


I will take it to the dealer to have this sorted out but I wish I could remove the side panel on the dash to peek inside and see what is going on. Anybody know how to do this?

Here is the video:

Your video is private, can you please share it?

 

[arek_4k]

I've fixed a rattle in the passenger airbag area. This is what I did: I removed the glovebox compartment, then I had another person to drive the car on a bumpy road. I placed my fingers under the dashboard randomly sticking them in any gap that I could find until the rattle stopped, then I placed some foam in that place, never heard a rattle in that area since.

 

[BilboBaggins]

I've fixed a rattle in the passenger airbag area. This is what I did: I removed the glovebox compartment, then I had another person to drive the car on a bumpy road. I placed my fingers under the dashboard randomly sticking them in any gap that I could find until the rattle stopped, then I placed some foam in that place, never heard a rattle in that area since.

This is exactly how I fixed it as well. I made sure the foam was on the side of the assembly and not on top as it is the airbag after all. It not soft foam, but more like medium soft/hard foam that I used. I cut a little block. It's caused by that assembly rubbing against the dashboard cover. If you "Knock" like you are knocking on a door on top of the dashboard cover in that area, you should hear the same rattle. I only ever had trouble with the rattle when it was hot outside or the sun was beating on the dashboard. I also tightened the bolts at the bottom of the airbag assembly.

 

[arek_4k]

I only ever had trouble with the rattle when it was hot outside or the sun was beating on the dashboard.

Same here.

 

[[email protected]]

Don't know if it will be any use to you but just to update. After a long day trip my wife and I did notice there was still some rattle in the air bag area, but on fewer bumps and of a lower volume. I would say it had been about 85 to 90 percent reduced and it was no longer bad enough that I would have brought it the dealer in the first place.

This morning I went back to trying stuffing foam material around components at the top of the glove box. Though not effective before the dealer visits, this in combination with whatever they did seems to have gotten rid if it 100 percent. But I only drove it ten miles on rough roads on a 70 degree morning.

So as you say, conditions such as temperature variation can play a part as well, so I'll just have to wait and see if this works over the long run.

The above solutions have held up. To summarize, it can be fixed with pad stuffing around components under the bag or re torqueing the air bag mounting bolts or both. I still do not feel the 3s dash as a whole is as solid as that in my CX 5 which never vibrates over large bumps the way the 3 does. The fact that the three has a less compliant suspension probably contributes.

I find the surrounding sheet metal deflection behind the fuel filler (hatch) each time you close it disgusting, but that is another off topic story.

 

[Sticky BKK]

My 2020 Mazda3 has this same annoying rattle. I have looked up under the glovebox and this is what I see. Am I right in thinking that the yellow hose is what needs to be secured and prevented from hitting something else? Where do I place the foam - is it up at the "other" end of the house i.e. as far as my fingers can reach? I guess I need to stuff it in so that there is no movement with the hose. Is that right? Any help / tips much appreciated!