Hope someone can help offer some advice. Yesterday, while I was driving, I heard a knocking sound that appeared to be coming from the dashboard area. After about 2 or 3 mins the knocking stopped and I continued to drive for about 40 mins. The car seems fine, no warning lights or malufunctions and - apart from the knocking - everything else sounded normal.

However, when I started my car up again, about 4 hours later, the knocking came back. The strange thing being that even I after I switched my engine off the knocking continued for about a minute.

Today, the same problem, I start the car and I can hear the knocking for a couple fo minutes while driving then it goes away and everything appears to be normal.

Anyone else experienced something similar or could maybe provide some insight?

Thanks

 

A quiet bunch in this forum aren't we? In 1 day my post has had 95 views and 0 replies.

Come on enthusiasts - see if you can make someone's day or at least suggest a way forward.........

 

Not sure if my problem is the same as yours. When first starting car there are 7-10 loud clicks/clunks from the dash and the heat/AC seems to be pulsing from the vents. From my research, I have concluded the noise comes from a broken arm or regulator that controls the automatic venting behind the scenes(dash). It may involve a lot of labour and tearing apart of the dashboard to fix it.

 

Thanks for the reply. Yeah I'm coming to the same conclusion that it's something to do with the AC system and will probably require the dash board coming out. The clicking noise only happens on startup and lasts for approx 2 mins. The sequence is very consistent actually: start engine, 3 clicks, then around 20 seconds later 2 mins of constant clicking, then it goes away altogether. It's bloody annoying but seeing as it isn't crucial to the performance of the car (cf. an engine problem) I'm tempted to leave it for a while...

Can you give me an idea of how much you paid? It seems that labour will be the big cost here rather than parts.

Cheers

 

I happened to be at MB today and asked my 32 yr veteran SA and he told me it is fixable but it could take 7-8 hours of labour and a complete teardown of the entire dash to get to the broken arm. I (actually my wife ) has lived for the problem for two years now and based on the cost will live with it until the car goes to junkyard heaven.

 

Wow - that seems extraordinary for such a trivial (but annoying) problem. I may end up just living with it too