nosavingthrow
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- John
- Joined
- May 1, 2021
- Threads
- 20
- Messages
- 387
- Reaction score
- 566
- Location
- Seattle, WA
- Car(s)
- 2021 Supra 3.0 Premium, 2022 Mazda 3 Turbo
- Thread starter
- #1
My driver side door had developed an annoying buzzing/rattle sound. It usually only occurred on certain types of pavement, but was frequent (and loud) enough to bother me enough to pull the door apart to try to fix it.
WARNING: I'm only sharing this because it worked - however my choice of materials was basically "whatever was on hand" at the time and there may be some better ways to dampen sound on clips besides electrical tape. It is kind of impossible to know if it was the foam vs the tape that made the difference since the noise wasn't localized enough to identify a single bad contact point or clip. The 1/4 inch foam is likely a correct choice, but as mentioned, there might be something better than electrical tape.
With the issue I had, while driving putting pressure almost anywhere on the door would fix it. However, putting some pressure on the door lock pin did NOT fix it, so I don't think it was the dreaded pin rattle. The noise seemed like it was from the front-half of the door.
I used the following:
1/4 inch foam (leftovers from when I did the subwoofer exhaust ports)
Electrical Tape
Duct tape in one spot
Getting the door trim off wasn't too hard, just make sure you have a metric wrench set for the bottom connector thing. It is probably easier w/ 2 people, as one person can hold the trim and the other can disconnect the wires. Same for getting it back on. That said, I was able to do it solo. There is plenty of good videos out there showing how to take it off for audio upgrade purposes, I used this one:
Anyways, here is the pics:
BEFORE (2 pics for reference)
AFTER - I've tightly covered the metal clips at the top with electrical tape. These clips hook directly into the plastic trim. Farther down, I've also wrapped and duct taped the floppy "tag" on the wire to the trim.
AFTER - 1/4 inch foam applied to a contact point and a known trouble spot where the door lock pin can rattle for some folks.
AFTER - wrapped a couple spots in electrical tape where wire routing clips hook onto the plastic trim.
AFTER - 1/4 inch foam on a couple more contact points. One of them is a peg that I cut a whole in the foam so I could slide it on, similar to the OEM foam on the left-most peg.
When putting the trim back on, you'll need to squeeze HARD (pushing the metal frame and the plastic trim together)to get all those top most clips to anchor. You can tell if everything is hooked back in by inspecting the top of the door - there shouldn't be any gaps (use the passenger door for reference if needed). Mainly calling this out because you can't just "push" the trim back into place as that will put way too much pressure on your door hinge. You've got to push on both sides at once (sandwich it) and squeeze it all back together to lock it in.
One other tip, if you are putting the door back together solo, it helps to stack some boxes under the door so you have something to rest the trim on while you reconnect and wires and get them all back into position.
Anyways, figured I'd share since this seems to have fixed my issue and door rattles seems to be a common development for a lot of folks.
WARNING: I'm only sharing this because it worked - however my choice of materials was basically "whatever was on hand" at the time and there may be some better ways to dampen sound on clips besides electrical tape. It is kind of impossible to know if it was the foam vs the tape that made the difference since the noise wasn't localized enough to identify a single bad contact point or clip. The 1/4 inch foam is likely a correct choice, but as mentioned, there might be something better than electrical tape.
With the issue I had, while driving putting pressure almost anywhere on the door would fix it. However, putting some pressure on the door lock pin did NOT fix it, so I don't think it was the dreaded pin rattle. The noise seemed like it was from the front-half of the door.
I used the following:
1/4 inch foam (leftovers from when I did the subwoofer exhaust ports)
Electrical Tape
Duct tape in one spot
Getting the door trim off wasn't too hard, just make sure you have a metric wrench set for the bottom connector thing. It is probably easier w/ 2 people, as one person can hold the trim and the other can disconnect the wires. Same for getting it back on. That said, I was able to do it solo. There is plenty of good videos out there showing how to take it off for audio upgrade purposes, I used this one:
Anyways, here is the pics:
BEFORE (2 pics for reference)
AFTER - I've tightly covered the metal clips at the top with electrical tape. These clips hook directly into the plastic trim. Farther down, I've also wrapped and duct taped the floppy "tag" on the wire to the trim.
AFTER - 1/4 inch foam applied to a contact point and a known trouble spot where the door lock pin can rattle for some folks.
AFTER - wrapped a couple spots in electrical tape where wire routing clips hook onto the plastic trim.
AFTER - 1/4 inch foam on a couple more contact points. One of them is a peg that I cut a whole in the foam so I could slide it on, similar to the OEM foam on the left-most peg.
When putting the trim back on, you'll need to squeeze HARD (pushing the metal frame and the plastic trim together)to get all those top most clips to anchor. You can tell if everything is hooked back in by inspecting the top of the door - there shouldn't be any gaps (use the passenger door for reference if needed). Mainly calling this out because you can't just "push" the trim back into place as that will put way too much pressure on your door hinge. You've got to push on both sides at once (sandwich it) and squeeze it all back together to lock it in.
One other tip, if you are putting the door back together solo, it helps to stack some boxes under the door so you have something to rest the trim on while you reconnect and wires and get them all back into position.
Anyways, figured I'd share since this seems to have fixed my issue and door rattles seems to be a common development for a lot of folks.
Sponsored
