To all owners of Bravo, Brava, Marea and weekend!!!

Do you have an annoying rattle coming from somewhere in the back of the car?

Sounds like it could be the suspension or shocker on the rear passenger side??

It isn't!

Fold the back seats down, get some electrical tape, (you can use body coloured tape if you wish!) and wrap it around the passenger side bracket of the rear seat about three times, now replace the rear seats.

Hey presto! Rattle absent!! Hoorah!!!

This is due to the bracket being slightly too thin, and allowing the rear seat to move a bit, although I'm not sure why it's only the passenger side one that causes a problem???

Trust me, this works, I had the rattle on my 96 Bravo for 2 years, and never sorted it. I now sell cars and do this to every model i sell, it saves a P***sed customer coming back to complain. I bought a 99 Bravo in June and did it straight away.

Let me know how you all go on, so I can feel smug

Cheers, Tony.

Tony,

Where is the bracket, from memory I cannot picture it (12:51 and flamin freezing outside to look now) but would like to know as I only noticed this recently when travelling in the back for the fisrt time.

Cheers
Terry

Nice one Tony!!

I know the noise you mean. I just assumed it was the parcel shelf!! Will take a look at that at dinner this afternoon.

Rob D

Re: Re: Annoying rattle!

Me too, I thought I had a suspension problem and even got my local garage to take a look at it who said they could find nothing wrong. I'll try the bracket this afternoon.

Re: Re: Re: Annoying rattle!

Bought my Bravo 2 months ago under warranty, heard the rattle, suggested it was the dampers to the dealer, drove around and agreed, put new shocks on, drove round block, still doing it, drove back drove about again and they realised it was the seat like you said, problem solved!!

New shocks for free!

Re: Re: Annoying rattle!

Terry, its just the point where the seat latches back onto the frame, sort of like a door catch.

P.S. to all others, thanks, I now feel really smug. (might remove the tape when i need some new shocks though!!!!)

T.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Annoying rattle!

Bargain Matt! Hey - ive got that rattle too! i nearly found it having someone sitting in the boot driving round the other day but started pissing with rain so abandoned! Your my new hero now!

Rattle driving me nutts !

Which bracket is it that needs padding, is it the horizontal metal bar behind the 1/3 section of the rear seat or somewhere else... tried padding the bar mentioned but made no difference...

Barakka

Re: Rattle driving me nutts !

no mate, it's the metal u shapped bracket which is anchored to the side of the car, don't just drop the 1/3 seat, drop the entire thing, as though making the car into an estate.

Hi all, just bringing this post to the top, so nige can use it for his guide!

Tony.

a rattle

i tried taping as mentioned. but it was already done by a previous owner (and i added to the tape).
So i still have a rattle from the rear. I secured all the junk in my boot with bunjies so where else is the rattle coming from?

Re: a rattle

Guys,

I also had the same rattle and also traced it to this bracket. In my case the whole bracket wasnt latching in because the spring coil wasnt working (I knew because when I slammed the back seat into the 2 latches, one of them was still coming out when I pulled at it), so i went to the scrapyard and got another one. I had to take the whole seat out as the bracket unit and release are right up against the window. To do this you take off the black felt cover at the back of the seat to get at the unit. Check the unit to see what is / isnt working. In my case the screw holding the unit into the seat was screwed in too tightly and therefore wasnt allowing the spring coil to function properly, and therefore not latch into the bracket. I loosened the screw by a fraction and it was all fine (so I have a spare unit lying around - driver side rear)
Therefore (phew!), before padding up, its worth checking to see if the seat release / lock is actually working. If it is, then pad it up, although there should be spares in the newer bravos for the right "fit" brackets in scrapyards (all early bravos had a recall on this seat rattling problem) - I reckon mine was recalled and fitted with the new units, but an over zealous mechanic screwed it in too tightly.

Hope that helps

Phil

I Hate Rattles

Every car i've had, has had a rattle of some sort. My Bravo is no exception. It has the aformentioned rattle plus the boot liner the headunit surround and a smattering of others. When will Fiat use decent plastic on their interiors a little thicker than fag paper?