DIY: Rattle Hunt
 

DIY: Rattle Hunt 2006

That’s right its come to this, my aim is to annihilate every goddamn rattle in this car and im gong to give you the blow by blow so you can do it yourself. Even though The Hunt doesn't start until 2006 I figure that I would give you a taste of what’s to come. We'll start with the most dreaded rattle in the car......

THE PASSENGER AND/OR DRIVERS SIDE FRONT DOOR RATTLE

There is 3-5 possible places your front door can rattle, my car happen to exhibit all of them, so while playing basey music or around 3750 WOT I would get one hell of a vibration rattle.

Tools Required:
Blank CD + CD burner
Hot Glue Gun
Latex Gloves
Tiny Screw Driver Set Similar to THIS ONE , invaluable for taking off wiring harness and prying up pieces of the dash without marking it up.
Pages from the service manual HERE
10mm/screwdriver the basic stuff.


Step 1: Go to my server and download this mp3 and burn it its an ideal song for bringing out all of your cars lovely rattles, just the right frequency right at the beginning. http://www.polakgraphics.com/images...ting%20Line.m4a

Step 2: Begin disassembly of the door garnish and door trim according to the attached service manual. I will make comments/modifications to the directions now.

1. Do not disconnect the battery you will need it to turn on the subwoofer in the door to discover your rattles, no issues here as there is no airbag in the doors.
2. After you take out the tweeter do not disconnect the harness it’s also useful for finding rattles.
3. When pulling off the courtesy light, pry off the cover with a small screwdriver and then press down on one of the black plastic tab holding the bulb holder in place, and pull it out backwards not like how the service manual says.
3. When you start to take off the door trim, after removing the 2 screws pull from the side where you removed the tweeter, you’ll get a better grip and it will come off easier, although you still need to pull very hard.

STEP 3: After removing the door trim you will be able to see first 3 sources of rattle.
A) Turn on your burnt mp3 CD, decent volume, and watch this piece of plastic rubber insulation on the door handle spring jump around and produce a High End buzzing noise, promptly remove this insulation with a razor blade or scissors. (See picture)
B) From the Door handle run 2 cables, they have foam insulation on part of the cable and a plastic clip in the door; hot glue all these in place. (See picture)
C) Look on the back side of your door trim you will see 2 large Styrofoam blocks, hot glue them in place so there is no give these tend to give off a Low End vibration.

STEP 4: Now begin disassembly of door speaker/sub, the door window, and the door unit (big black plastic piece) according to the service manual I will make comments/modifications to the directions now.

1. You may possible notice that the nuts holding your window in place may be finger loose and even start to spin when you play the music, this is because when you roll down a wet window water tends to get to these bolts and rust forms and looses them, when reinstalling the window use lock tight or torque them properly.
2. The window will take some effort to get out wiggle left to right while it’s halfway down and you've removed the screws to get it out. (Wearing latex glove of course) PS this is a great time to get your window REALLY REALLY clean.
3. Once you remove the sub/speaker from the black plastic unit, take the wiring harness through the hole of the black plastic and rest your sub against the metal hole mount for it in the door plug in the harness like this. (Useful to have a friend at this point to hold this and that)
4. It is unnecessary to remove the entire black plastic unit by fiddling with the harness at the closing groove of the door, just remove all the screws and nuts, and it will give you plenty of room to play behind it. (See picture)

Step 5: After getting the black plastic unit off far enough so you can work behind it and mounting the sub/speaker against the metal door frame, you will see the last two sources of rattle.
A) Behind the black plastic there are 2 black and pissyellow foam blocks if you turn on the song again you will notice that the black one is most likely what caused the loudest rattle in your door, hot glue these guys in place so they do not move. (See picture)
B) Next move your eyesight line parallel with the door (see picture) You will see the outside door handle and the metal rod that allows it to function, there is a bit of play in the metal rod so it tends to bounce within the door handle apparatus (see picture), force some hot glue in there move the rod with your fingers so to make sure it gets in the hole and your done (see picture).

When you reinstalling, the window will take some effort to get back in use your latex gloves so you don't get finger prints all over it, also this is a great time to clean that piano black window switch/door lock garnish, rubbing alcohol works very well. Also a great time to clean your door trim with back to black.
PS you should check if the window goes up and down, and the door locks work properally by pluging that harness back into the piano black piece before putting the door trim on.

Lock and Load :shooter: Which sould I tackle next? Steering wheel... Center Dash Speaker?

I think the rear doors or the rear parcel shelf would be a good candidate. I might take off my passenger side rear door trim because I have a rattle there that's only happening when it's cold outside.

This thread is a great idea - maybe others should also add to it if they found and eliminated a rattle that wasn't tackled yet.

Great idea and GREAT job on the thread so far Mark. Only thing is, my car is still rattle-free. :D:

Or your just to old/deaf to hear them :icon_no2: Merry Christmas old man go open up your new hearing aid :rofl:

The dash pod...please. Everyone has a rattle there.

damn why dont you rub it in
lol

Quoting PoLaK:
"Or your just to old/deaf to hear them Merry Christmas old man go open up your new hearing aid"

If you keep listening to music at a volume so loud that your whole car rattles and vibrates, you're going to be joining Omicron's hearing aide club soon, PoLaK! :cwm27:

nice idea, though... can't wait to see what you tackle next...

My rearview mirror rattles. I've been trying to make it stop for months.

The sunglasses compartment always wants to rattle when I've got a pair of glasses in there. I'm forever bumping it with my hand to get it to stop. I keep meaning to put some self-adhesive felt or fuzzy-sided Velcro in there to tame that one. Yeah, 2006. That's the ticket! :)

Fix for Driver Seat noise when cornering
 

I frickin' hate annoying rattles and noises. So here's a few I've had to deal with since owning this car...

1) Fix for Driver Seat noise when cornering:

1. Put the seat back as far as it will go
2. Find the plastic piece that is covering the bolt at the front side of the
drivers seat nearest the transmission. Pull it off to remove.
3. Loosen the bolt (14mm socket) holding the seat to the chassis of the car.
4. Wiggle the seat about.
5. Tighten the bolt and replace the piece of plastic.

Rattling noise going over bumps at speed
 

This one was posted by Syntrix

2) Rattling noise going over bumps at speed
https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...threadid=13410

Fix for Sun Roof rattles
 

And I posted an explanation and pictures in this thread about the sunroof...

3) Fix for Sun Roof rattles
https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discussion-3/sun-roof-rattles-63348/

Rear view mirror is way too loud...

My passenger side rear deck was making noise, and I isolated it to the plastic cover for child seat attachment thing. If you pop open the plastic cover and just leave it laying not quite closed it will rattle a lot less (for me, anyway)

Side Mirror Rattle
 

Listen for it with the windows down. Only one of mine did this, but my fix is still working:

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-trouble-shooting-95/rattle-noises-coming-l-f-mirror-78286/

Does the noise come from the seat back (the part your back rests on)? I noticed a noise from the shoulder area. It makes noises when cornering/my back is pushed into the seat. Thanks in advance.

Rear view mirror rattle info...

I had the rear view mirror rattle. I could squeeze the housing and get it to stop for a while (a day or just a few minutes). With the squeeze, you could feel that the bezel for the glass was loose.

Anyway, I worked with my dealer (parts guy) and found out that the HomeLink rear view mirror was updated in 2004, somewhere around serial number 140xxx, I'm at 133xxx. Dealer replaced the mirror...no more rattle and the mirror is noticably more solid.

I noticed the rear tail light housings rattle pretty bad on mine, as well as the rear window. I think i may have a small rattle in the driver side door, but i usually have too much junk in the door pocket to tell if its the door or all my crap in there

Excellent diy Pollak!

Thanks!!!

hey polak, how are your rattles now? all gone?

You mean the stereo? I have a rattle where the mp3 / tape deck is suppose to go ( I have neither) and it drives me frickin INSANE.

I would a write-up on how to fix this. Once I have some free time I'm going to tackle it myself if there's nothing here.

steering wheel crickets!!!!Help!!!!

Rear view mirror rattle fix
 

Here's how to stop the rear view mirror rattle:

Tools needed:
Torx screwdriver
Small flat screwdriver
Old credit card
Rubber cement

1) Take the mirror out of the car. To do this, unplug the wire from the back of the mirror, then take the torx screw out from the spot where the mirror hooks to the glass.

2) Once the mirror is out, take it apart. On the top of the mirror, put a thin screwdriver in the slot that runs around the mirror. Push the screwdriver down, and lever it towards the glass. You should then be able to slide the screwdriver into the housing. Now take the credit card and put a corner of it in near the screwdriver. Slide the CC around the edges- this will release all of the catches. The catches down near the buttons can be tricky and just pulling it apart once you get down here works.

3) It will all now come apart in three pieces- the back shell, front bezel, and the mirror/electronic assembly. There isn't anything loose in here. Keep the mirror and front bezel together. Make sure that the little clear bit that lights up green/red stays lined up in the hole in the bezel.

4) Take the rubber cement and paint around the whole edge of the back half of the case. You might want to do a few coats, but do it semi quickly. Click the whole thing back together.

5) Put it back in the car and you're done. Works great, gets rid of the creaking between the two halves, and it's reversable if for some reason you ever want to open it up again. You could use epoxy, but that will never come apart again...

Rattles kill me too, so here is the rattles I have had to add to the knowledge base here...

I had a rattle in my dash, dealer replaced something in the airbag system that was rattling... rattle in dash went away, but something started again when it got cold out... took me a month to find it (sound seems to bounce around in the car hard to figure out the direction where it comes from). Stupid rattle seems to be the change compartment left of the steering wheel. Does anyone else think this compartment is the cheapest thing in the car? Not solid and very crappy?...

Anyways the button to release the door seems to rattle when it is closed, i drove around with it open and also holding the button while driving to get rid of the noise... I don't have a fix but if anyone does feel free to let me know...

Thanks for the other fixes, especially the moonroof... :D

Same rattle here. Don't focus too much on the parcel shelf as mine has exhaustively been covered with damping material with no success. It's in the rear door or behind the C-post trim.

Good luck,

Fabrice

I had what I would describe as a "creak" over uneven surfaces during cold weather. At first I thought it was coming from the rear deck/shelf area near the rear glass where the pieces come together at the seam. After removing all three rear shelf pieces and insulating extensively, rattle still there. I had someone in the back on my last test drive and the noise seems to be on the right side, then the left, then the middle, etc. I got out and pushed sideways on the corner of the back glass, (not the suicide door the one with the defroster grid) and was able to duplicate the noise. I beleive the glass isn't bonded properly or perhaps there is a plastic guide piece to aid in positioning of the window during assembly that may be rubbing. If anyone else has any ideas, please let me know.

On other makes I am familar with, the manufacturer uses plastic locating or guide clips or nubs so that when the window is lowered on the urathane adhesive, it is centered properly and also the plastic guide prevents the glass from being pushed in to far and squeezing out the urathane. After the glass is installed, the guides really serve no purpose, but often make noise during periods of body flex. Does anyone know what the rear window looks like before it is installed.

Maybe this will help.

I have a colony in mine. I have to honk the horn to push down on the airbag cover and make it stop temporarily.

rear glass noise fixed
 

I have the same issue about noise at the rear glass over uneven surface. After looking at this diagram, I go ahead and find my WD-40 and lub where the clips labeled 3 &4 in the diagram. Basically using the straw that come with the can and spray underneath the area between the rear glass and the white plastic panel where the rear side airbag is located. I believe that is where those clips labeled 3 and 4 are located from inside the car. just spray from the bottom of the headliner down to the bottom of the rear glass. haven't heard one "creak" in three day. I am very :mdrmed: . See if it helps you.

This picture should help understand what i am saying.

Fixed mine!
 

I couldn't take it anymore. I took all the the panels out once again and drove the car without the back seats, rear tirehouse trims, and all three panels on the rear deck. The noise was still there. Has to be comming from the rear glass. After looking at your picture above, I took off the small plactic cover right next to your drawing. Its the one with the SRS cap on it. You have to take this cap off by popping it out from the top first. There is then a bolt under the cap that you have to remove. After you remove the panel, the clip you pointed to # 3 is actually a small stud (bolt) that is attached to the glass with urathane adhesive. It fits into the edge of the window frame and is held in place by a 10mm nut. I removed these nuts and then retorqued them to spec. The spec is 23 - 30 inch lbs. Don't try this if you don't have a torque wrench capable of this small spec. as I assume it would be very easy to break the rear glass if overtorqued.

Anyway, I put everything back together and haven't heard a creak or noise in 3 or 4 days........!!!!!!!

thanks again....

(just goes to show what we can do if we work together.....)

Tom

i tapped around and found that the rear right deck produces the similar sound while i drive...none of other decks produce any sound when i tapped them...so maybe my rattle is caused by a loose deck? does anyone know how to take it off so i can fasten it or insulate it??

anything for the steering wheel.. ???

I found the "Driver's Side Air Bag Rattle" TSB on the Rosenthal site. It seems to be where my steering wheel rattles come from. In fact, just putting my hand on the left side of the padded air bag cover in the center of the steering wheel eliminates my rattle most of the time.
Just haven't had the time to take it in and see if they'll still take care of it. I thought I read somewhere rattles were only covered under warranty for the first 12,000 miles?

WHAT....thats rediculous...i just made 12,000 yesterday...lol, it would be rediculous if they didnt cover it cause i hit 12,000 while i drove it there... :shocking:

This could be a safety issue IMHO, so there would be no such warranty limitation.

I had a bad rattle from one of my rear decks. Getting it off was fairly easy. There is a post on this site about it. Type in Rear Speaker Removal into the search feature and that will bring up the thread that tells you all that you need to know.
Once I got my rear deck off, I found that the rear plastic clip (the one beneath the rear window) was broken. I glued that back together with lots of epoxy glue and clipped the deck back into place. No more rattles from there anymore. I wish I could solve the rattle in my door as easily!

my latest on a long list is something from the shifter area, and my passenger seat reclining mechanism apparently now has enough slop in it so the entire seatback can move enough to cause the mother of all rattles.

I have an occasional rattle from the passenger dash...I can't tell but it seemed like it may be the glove box. It only happens sometimes when the car is in gear and I'm at a stop light (yes, I have an AT). Putting the car in neutral does the trick, and the idle of the engine is much smoother, but that's fixing the symptom, not the problem.

steering wheel plz, its driving me nuts. (Buzzing sound from steering wheel @ highway speed or going over jittery bumps)

The rest have been hugely helpful, btw. I think I also have the passenger door rattle Polak mentioned in starting the thread.. but its hard to place among the rest of them.. only 18kmi too.

i had the drivers airbag rattle, took me a while to narrow it down to that. while searching for this rattle i pulled up on the horn cover at the back by the plastic column cover and it stopped.

So what i did was cut some foam i had around the place and pushed it up iunder the back of the cover and its been good for a couple of months. the rattle only happened in mine on idle, i guess due to the lapping you get in a rotary. hope this helps!

Well I still have a driver door rattle after yanking it apart and hot gluing every F'n piece in there.. it's insane.. I followed Polak's DIY to a T and it still does it. It's killing me.

For anyone with rear rattles try taking off the bulb cover for trunk light.

I noticed last night while I was looking in my trunk for a rattle...that the light cover was lose. I will take it off, of try and remedy this tonight.

Has anyone noticed that when playing certain music with bass, that their DRIVERS side door handle rattles on the outside? Simply touching it will stop the rattle...

bumpety bump...

I just noticed the front door rattle and sunroof rattle this past week...

bump.
I am having the worst trouble with some rattles on my rear deck. I pulled the panels off and it still rattled beyond all belief. It sounds like a metallic rattle. don't know if it is the metal cross beams or something else. but when i was knocking around with my hand to duplicate the rattle, was never able to. all i know is it is coming from the back and i can't find it. so if anyone my know what it is, i am all ears. thanks.

Had the same problem, brought it into the dealer and they replaced the seals on the rear glass. I believe it went away... for now at least...

Good luck.

happened to me as well, but on the passanger side. the solutipon was rather simple, getting a little roll of black achesive tape into a roll and fitting it between the handle and the door. stopped the problem. however i'm thinking of removing the bass completely from the doors and placing some mid-high there to ease the stress on our poor doors.


one rattle that's been getting on my nerves for several weeks now is, i belive at the left suicide door. more then once i've been close to stopping the car and yanking the whole cover out. any pointers on how that can be done safely?

The only rattle I've noticed seems to be located in the passway from the seat to the trunk. If I open and close it, it goes away for awhile; but, when I go over a bumpy road, it returns. Has anyone else had this rattle? I'd like to find a more permanent solution other than removing the passthrough cover itself.