The number one thing that frankly ticks me off about any car are stupid rattles. While some are inevitable the plastic bits also shouldn't rattle to the point where it feels like you're driving a maraca.

For some reason German marques are particularly bad about this - I've been in Audis, BMWs, Porsches and VWs that all had really nasty rattles, yet the interior of a GM Suburban is a sea of cheap plastic and the interior is blissfully silent of trim rattles... go figure.

On a test drive I noted that there was a rattle coming from between the doors as there really isn't enough holding the front and rear doors together where they meet, thus they squeak/rattle a bit on rough roads.

Someone else here mentioned their rear shelf rattled really badly on poor roads.

Any others?

I've seriously lost around $30K trading in various cars because I couldn't stand the rattles over the past few years and really don't want to have to sell my RX-8 six months after delivery because it too has a variety of rattles the service department can't/doesn't care to fix.

Thanks in advance...

The door "rattles" were explained to me as dry striker plates on the door locks. As a minor inconvenience you need to keep a light film of oil on them because the marginal flex causes door movement.

The cure worked like magic on mine. I have no other rattles (nor does my car).

It's likely that very early production vehicles will have more issues, I'd imagine Mazda adopt some form of continuous improvement with the 8.

Originally posted by Kev
The door "rattles" were explained to me as dry striker plates on the door locks. As a minor inconvenience you need to keep a light film of oil on them because the marginal flex causes door movement.Thanks - I'm well familiar from striker noises from several past cars, though the noise on the RX-8 sounded more like the weatherstripping on the doors rubbing.

Anyone else? I hate to sound weird about this, but IMHO nothing makes you feel like you're driving a Kia rather than a nice car more than having a rattle on bad pavement coming from "somewhere" in back...

I haven't had any weird rattles yet, knock on wood....the one time I thought I did it was my cds in the side compartment on the passenger door.

I know what your talking about with other cars, we have all had them, its the norm anymore. All my other vehicles I would only notice rattles when the music was to low, the fix all was to turn up the radio. I drive my RX-8 without the radio on more than any previous car, mainly to listen to the engine. My experience tell me I should hear a lot of rattles and noises, but I do not. 3000 miles and still rattle/whistle/click free. I have owned at least ten brand new cars, and I think thats a record for me. Being a new car there can be something loose that missed QA. Give it a good once over, moving and shaking things that are not tied down to see if they move. Good Luck.

Thinking about it - my wife's new Mazda 6 is amazingly rattle free. It replaces an A4 Avant 2.4l that was quiet - but not perfect. My Audi TT Quattro had rattles till the day it lost my love and my Z3 before that always had rattling seats!!!

Mazda quality seems pretty good to me.

My '93 RX7 was the KING of Rattles. I was actually emabrrassed to drive a date around in a $36,000 car due to the rattles. It was in for rattle repair every other month.

So it was with some trepidation that I bought the RX8. But with 2,600 miles this car is amazingly rattle free. One popped up in the passenger seat but then cured itself and none have appeared since. Seems to be a much better put together car than the previous generation.

My BMW 330Ci had two or three irritating rattles that were fixed at the shop. The Audi A4 I test drove had a bad one in the dash area. The Mercedes was dead quiet.

I have heard a few odd rattles from the exhaust, but thats about it. I have seen a few posts regarding the issue hough.

Had mine back to the dealer 3 times for rattles already... and there's still another one, sounds similar to the door one listed above.

Originally posted by pepe
Had mine back to the dealer 3 times for rattles already... and there's still another one, sounds similar to the door one listed above.

Maybe your dealers not up on the circulars?

I remember back years when I'd even driven around with a dealer mechanic in my car - I could hear the rattle plain a clear, but he couldn't - task about frustrating :(

Originally posted by pepe
Had mine back to the dealer 3 times for rattles already... and there's still another one, sounds similar to the door one listed above. Where were the rattles, and did they fix them?

Originally posted by Kev
Thinking about it - my wife's new Mazda 6 is amazingly rattle free. It replaces an A4 Avant 2.4l that was quiet - but not perfect. My Audi TT Quattro had rattles till the day it lost my love and my Z3 before that always had rattling seats!!!Funny you should mention the TT - that's one of the cars I took a depreciation bath on because it seemed everything on the interior was rattling; I know I had rattles from, at the very least, the radio cover door, the glove compartment, the light above the console storage compartment, the ashtray, the driver's door where it and the dash came together, the fuse panel cover, the shelf below the glove compartment and the rear hatch plastic trim. Rattles the dealer fixed included the entire passenger seat, the passenger seat headrest and the door striker, multiple times, not to mention the windows squeaking against the weatherstripping unless you applied silicone spray to the seals at least monthly. Of course the "privacy shelf" that covered the hatch got ripped out on day one because of its squeaks and rattles as well...

After 3,100 miles, the only vibration noise I had was coming from sunglasses placed inside the glove box.

Squeak-Free for me.

I'm not trying to start an argument, but on a car with sporty, tight suspension I would anticipate rattles. I mean, think about the things your car goes through it's not like you're driving over a sheet of glass unless you have better roads than I have ever seen. I know they may be annoying but it's kind of like getting pissed at that dog next door barking all the time. It's just gonna happen.

Score:
RSX - No rattles
Falco - No rattles
Spyder - Almighty king of rattles
RX-7 - rattles

3200 miles on my '8 and nary a rattle. My wife's 323, that cost $10K more, has got rattles up the yinyang. Seems like the Germanic quality is taking a nosedive.

I hesitate to post in this thread because it may jinx me, but I'm pleased with the quietness of the '8' so far. The only time I've noticed any "rattle" has been on very rough pavement, I hear a kind of rubbing noise. Almost like rubber stuff rubbing together or something. But on reasonably smooth roads, like most I drive on, no problems yet.

I absolutely HATE rattles, so this has been a huge relief for me. My 2000 Accord coupe had rattles from the first day I owned it. They would come and go and come back again. I just learned to live with it. So, that's why I'm cautiously optimistic about the RX-8.

I had a very slight rattle from my sunglasses (not the sunglass holder, but the glasses themselved). Solution: took them out and put them on...lol

Sitting at a red light one day I noticed a ratl coming from the pass door. I leaned over and pushed on it and I heard the snap, ratl gone. I'd say that there are not enuff "snaps" holding this inner panel to the door, and/or they are weak. So, don't pull the doors shut to hard or its on.(ratln hum) :o

2900 miles and not a single rattle, buzz or tic yet.

Over 4200 miles on mine and the only rattle I have is the key fob bouncing around on the keychain when driving over rough pavement. So I guess that's nothing to complain about. :D

Originally posted by 8_wannabe
3200 miles on my '8 and nary a rattle. My wife's 323, that cost $10K more, has got rattles up the yinyang. Seems like the Germanic quality is taking a nosedive.

Seeing as BMW has not made the 323 for 3 years I'll assume the wife's car is ast least that old. Cars tend to rattle after 3 or 4 years, German or not.

I've only got one little squeek! The dash vent on the drivers side.

Do you think a little WD40 will cure it?


In all other respects save one the car has been great. Mileage last two tanks was 20mpg. I feel the car leap at 6250rpm's not die. The intereior is not suptuous but comparing it to similarly priced cars it's low key but well done,(relatively).

The only complaint... the cabin heat, a casualty of the engine type and location. I find I need to run the a/c more frequently. The A/C while not "refrigerator" quality is adequate and I've only been warm on 95 degree plus days.

I'm satisfied with the value.

I was rattle free until this week. An annoying rattle has developed on the drivers side door. I have tried to pin-point it, but have not been able to yet.. I worry that if the dealer takes the door apart, I might now get three rattles instead of one.
It seems to come, and go. at times, I just have to hit the CD volume to a higher number, or it just drives me bananas..

Im happy to say the only rattles I get is from the vibration of my 2 subs I've added

I get a little bit of rattling from the driver side door. Don't know if it's the door or the window not being completely sealed shut, don't really notice it cus I play my music loud all the time.

Heard a rattle coming from the center console the other day... got quite annoyed. Noticed it only when on rough and unfinished roads. Had the ashtray lid open and noticed it was the plastic nicotrol cigarette inside the ashtray!!!!! DOH!

2000 miles and still noise free... except that really nice zooooming sound when it gets above 5500 rpms :D

i have one rattle thats not constint.its coming from the rear package tray and it moves around if that makes any sense.i drive the same roads everyday and one day it will rattle and next day tight as a drum.4200 miles,20 mpg,pulls hard from 6000 to the buzzer and this rattle is the only issue ive had so im happy.

Originally posted by BillK
Where were the rattles, and did they fix them?

Twice for the front seat that was creaking like it was about to fall out of the car (every left turn for some reason would make it creak really badly)

The last time was for both of the rear windows vibrating... now there's just the noise which seems to be coming from where the doors meet, very similar to what was mentioned earlier this thread... I'm a bit picky I guess, the car costs nearly $70,000AU so I want to make sure that it's flawless.

My Audi TT was around $40K US and rattled like a maraca inside, so price is, unfortunately, not a guarantee of anything, including lack of rattles.

Yeah, I've got a very small, intermittent rattle that seems to be coming from the seal at the top of the driver's side window on rougher pavement (and when some heavy duty lows kick in from the Bose). I can just crack the window and it goes away. I'm gonna try greasing the striker plate (?), as that worked on my Tribute when the back hatch was rattling.

Also have an intermittent tick on bumps and rougher pavement that seems to be coming from the middle console area... around the ash tray or so. Haven't been able to pinpoint it yet. Seems to only happen once the car gets warmed up. When I open up the ash tray cover, the acoustics of the tick changes, so I'm thinking it's got to be somewhere inside the console around the ashtray. Anyone else have this and fix it?

I, too, am afraid to let the dealer try to fix these, for fear of them making it worse instead of better. I'm starting to get used to them, so they don't really bother me as much any more. Also, I kind of agree with a pevious poster... this is a sports car, and the suspension is a little firmer than most, which causes a little more of the road to be felt and reach the cabin, so a few rattles might be expected.

All cars will eventually rattle. There is only one solution.

300 watts of audio power.

I can see the commercial...

Hello, this is Nigel Tufnel for Bose. When my RX-8 squeaks and rattles I reach for my Bose 9-speaker car audio system. It goes to 11!

milo

Originally posted by Genom
2900 miles and not a single rattle, buzz or tic yet.

Ditto

"I haven't had any weird rattles yet, knock on wood....the one time I thought I did it was my cds in the side compartment on the passenger door." - Elara

same thing except it was change grinding against my cologne bottle. Thought id have something to post about, but i was wrong lol

dead quiet when i turn off the radio button, god i love it
oh, and just about 3k on the odo, gunna go in for first service this weekend (if im at the miles)
________
Blowjob Black (http://www.fucktube.com/categories/332/black/videos/1)

Two months old....nary a squeak nor rattle in mine. Matter of fact, this is one of the best assembled cars I've ever driven (including BMWs, Toyotas, Hondas...which are considered "build quality" benchmarks).

5K miles and no rattles.

This is all very good to hear! I talked to my sales guy about financing and things the other day. I'm pretty close to buying one off the lot :)

Rattles bug me a LOT and this is one thing i was really worried about with this car. But i guess mazda did a good job!

Finally, the suspension shouldnt' be an excuse to have rattles on this car. It's really not that stiff. My Prelude has a custom setup and (even though it's not nearly as hard as a full race setup) it still quite a bit rougher than the RX8, and it's probalby had 40,000 miles with that suspension on and only has one tiny intermittant buzz inside the interior.

I posted too soon as I now have a noise maker. The plastic surrounding my cruise control buttons on the steering wheel is not completely tight. So now when I drive over bumpy roads, I get an annoying plastic rubbing plastic sound. I am debating whether or not to take it to the dealer to fix.