Buzzing dashboard - Fixed!

[Glenn Langridge]

Here's a quick post that may help someone out in a future search.

I've had a buzzing sound coming from my dashboard since I bought my '03 A6 Avant. The noise originates from somewhere behind the instrument cluster and is definitely vibration related rather then something like a buzzing relay as it seems to only occur within a set rev band when driving. I've had the cluster out before but couldn't see anything that could be the cause of the buzz. I tightened everything I could find and put it back together but the noise was still there.

Anyway, today I had another crack at it. With the engine running and my foot on the accelerator I worked out that the buzz comes in at exactly 1850rpm and is gone by 2000. Holding my foot on the accelerator just at that perfect sweet spot to cause the buzz (not that easy to do actually) I touched, pushed and squeezed various bits of trim to try and home in on the noise. Nothing!

The plan next was to get the cluster out again and also to remove the lower part of the dash so I could reach up into the darker depths. I got my tool kit out ready to make a start.

Then purely by accident with my foot on the gas pedal I touched the driver's side sun visor and stone me ... the buzzing stopped. I did a quick double-check and yes I was right. Either the little mirror or the siding cover in the visor resonates at those exact revs but the acoustics of the car is throwing the noise as if it's coming out of the dash. I would have laid any amount of money on the dash being the culprit, the noise I could swear was coming from there.

What a result and a morning of dash stripping is avoided.

So, if you have a noise coming from your interior, check everything a good arm's length around where you think the noise is actually coming from. Sound seems to play tricks inside cars.

[Redzer]

i think it might be the clip that the visor clips into that makes the noise,
i had the same noise, it sounded like maybe one of the bezels around one of the gauges was loose and vibrating
i was 100% certain that the noise was coming from the cluster too

i was planning to take it out to see what was making the noise until by chance i noticed one sunny morning the buzzing stopped when i moved the visor
and I realised it was it that was making the noise.
when i notice the buzzing moving that clip forward or back a bit stops the noise and generally it goes away for a while.

[Glenn Langridge]

You could be right actually. A little while after I solved the buzzing issue a tiny piece of the visor that sits in the clip had chipped and fell off into my lap.

[NickPicks]

Mine has been rattling a bit recently - it got really loud today and then I realised that there was a flapping around under the windscreen and tapping on the plastic scuttle panel. Noise fixed!