UW RL

My shift gate silver trim was too noisy so the dealer replaced that piece. Then after that my center console is creaking more than ever. There are noises coming from the area below the nav screen and around the silver trim of the center console, especially when there is a change in momentum of the car.

For those that have brought their RLs to the dealer for noise problems, did they replace any trim pieces at all? Will they keep fixing it until all noises are gone?

jfprl

I just had the same problem. When I pushed on the center console near the "not an ashtray" it sounded like a creaky door. I popped off the trim piece around the silver shift plate and put some adhesive back felt along the top ridge of the center console where the trim piece fits into. The felt was less than 1/2 inch wide and fit right over the ridge(lip). So far so good.

miner

Same problem. I suggested to my dealer the fix above....what do I know...they replaced the cup holder. Did nothing else. Creak still there.

2007AcuraRL

I've got the same creaking. It seems to be the silver shifter trim bezel rubbing against the larger trim piece that fits around it. There is almost no space between these two parts. I may take a file and ever so slightly enlargen the opening of the larger trim piece, and then put felt around the side edge of the silver shift bezel and hopefully it will resolve the creak.

slawek65

same problem last year with my 05,dealer put some felt around coin tray( not shifter bezel) and it's done.I was 100% sure creaking its comming from shifter area but I was wrong.

jfprl

One more step in my fix. I put a thin layer of white grease between the silver shifter plate and the surrounding trim piece.

UW RL

You put the grease after you put the felt tape right? What kind of white grease was it?

jfprl

The grease and the felt tape were not in the same place. The felt was near the "not an ashtry" underneath the trim piece. The grease was between the silver plate and the trim piece along the very edge of the trim piece. It was a white teflon based bicycle grease. I am sure any type will do. It was a very thin layer.

2007AcuraRL

I popped off my trim panel (the larger piece that the heated seat switches are mounted) and the creaking stopped. Then if I wiggle the silver plastic trim around the shifter, I get it to creak like mad again. What it turns out to be is that silver trim peice snaps down around yet another piece of plastic and the rubbing of those two pieces is the origin of the creaking. Some felt between those parts should stop it. The larger piece contributes to the creaking only in that it presses against the silver trim piece, which in turn causes the silver trim piece to rub and creak against the plastic which it mounts over.

UW RL

Would you say it's a faulty design?

Frenetic

Thank god for this post. Ever since I purchased my car in 2006, the center console has been creaking and moaning and driving me nuts.

I'm going to try out these fixes.

One thing I've noticed is that temperature seems to affect it, at least for me. I live in California and when it's warmer outside, the creaking is more pronounced and occurs with a higher frequency. And it seems to occur primarily during acceleration from a dead stop.

Can anyone post a picture of the area where they placed the felt? Or is it obvious once I take it apart?

Thanks again!

Frenetic

May I ask how you removed the silver shift bezal? I popped up the larger center console piece with relative ease, but I wasn't able to remove the silver bezal.



On a side note, as soon as my lease is up I'm fleeing Acura and going back to BMW. I leased two BMWs prior to this Acura and decided to try something new this time around, but these creaks (as minor and inconsequential as they may seem to some) are driving me absolutely ballistic.

I never heard so much as a peep on any of the BMWs I've owned. I hate my Acura!

miner

The majority of my creaking seems to come from under the "Not an ashtray" pocket. I can press down on it and recreate the creaking.

TampaRLX-SH

This console creak was my only RL creak. Felt on the rear sunshade cradle cured the slight and only rattle I have had.

Mine was cured about a year ago, and has not returned.

My tech addressed 3 areas for the console creak. I am unsure if any one was the source, but better safe than sorry.

1) 'Not an Ashtray' was removed and was insulated with felt & packing foam.

2) The shifter metallic trim plate was felted around the circumference. I did hear creaking from this area when I pressed down on the surrounding plastic console trim, and it was a tight fit. Hot and cold weather did affect this area.

3) The metallic trim pieces that flank the center stack were removed and feleted underneath. Theses are the vertical trim pieces on either side of the center stack, that have a bronzed look, not silver as the center stack is.

These 3 areas have cured my RL from its only creak.

My RL is now 19 months old and no creaks or rattles have returned. I am very pleased.

Frenetic

I "press" probed all around the center console (including the "ashtray" area) and the bezel was the only item that "creaked" and badly might I add.

Someone had mentioned that they were able to remove this item. I was just curious how they did it (I'm afraid of breaking anything).

I'm also experiencing center plastic pillar dash cluster creaking as Tampa mentioned above, but it's not as prevalent as the silver shift-gate bezel.

God, Honda plastic makes me cry

UW RL

I too have noises coming from the 'Not an ashtray" area when the car is stopping or moving. I will tell my dealer to look at this area closely. What exactly was the packing foam that you mentioned? I have never seen a car dealer use it to remove noises..

TampaRLX-SH

It was just simple foam typically used for packaging, almost the density of a memory foam. I believe he told me he packed some under the compartment cavity beneath the 'Not an Ashtray'. Elsewhere the usual felt tape was used.

miner

Fixed mine this weekend. Took center console cover off and used sticky-backed felt on some of the contact areas. The aea were most of the noise was coming from was the silver bezel unit. It fits over two pins near the "Not an Ashtray" pocket - as was mentioned earlier, it was plastic-on-plastic causing the noise. All is quiet now.

Frenetic

Dumb question, but did you just pry up the silver bezal with your hand/fingers or did you resort to using a tool?

miner

I could not figure how to get the bezel off - did not want to force and crack something. I lifted it enough to get the felt under the edges and around the two pins.

2007AcuraRL

I've still got some creaking so I'll be taking things apart again. I'll take a few pics as I go in case anyone needs a guide.

Rob144

If you keep dismantling your car like this, I won't even need the shop guide! I'll just come here for photos and guidance.

Actually, I already "felted" my center console and "not an ashtray", as well as the back of one of the bronze stereo trim stacks. Been pretty quiet ever since. Now if only they would make quieter water bottles for the cupholders.....

Rob144

UW RL

Do you have any photos for demonstration?

Rob144

No pics. I did all this before I thought about photographing anything.

If I recall, for the console, you take out the Not An Ashtray cubby (under the lid), and then remove the 2 screws underneath and take out the whole "NAA" contraption. You then kind of pry up on the center console and it will pop up. There are wire connectors attached to the seat heater buttons and the 12V accessory port, only one of which I could unplug so as to fold the panel away. I then put some felt under the leading edge of the console.

For the radio stack, I wedged some gray fabric between the back of the plastic where it made contact with the dashboard material. I did not have the guts to pop those off.

My descriptions are to be used at your own risk. Looks like 2007AcuraRL will post some photos, so you might be wise to wait for those.

Rob144

Frenetic

You are the man (or woman)!

Thanks!

2007AcuraRL

I did a little experimentation tonight and the creaking is in fact coming from the two plastic pins in front of the "Not an Ashtray" pocket as Miner indicated. The pocket has two tabs that attach at this location, which is the front part of the shift selector bracket. Pressing on either the pocket or the shifter trim bezel (both plastic) gets the thing to creak because the two parts are joined at these pins.

Rather than trying to get some close up photos on how to access this area, I've scanned the relevant pages from the shop manual which shows how to get things apart. Besides, I need to get a little more felt and won't actually 'fix' mine until Friday evening.

To see where exactly the pins are located, scroll all the way to the bottom of the drawings and look at the last illustration. The pins are identified as "B" in the picture.

miner

Thanks for the scans. I still have a small amount of noise. I think if there was some way of actually covering the pins it might help. I currently have two small squares of felt between the 'C' & 'B' in the above illustration. I think I will reinstall the small squares of felt but this time leave a 'hole' in the middle of the squares for the pin to fit through. Why can't Acura Engineers foresee these kinds of problems?

2007AcuraRL

try covering the pins with teflon plumber's tape.

miner

Brilliant!!!

dwboston

That's what I did on my previous 05 RL. Two little squares of felt tape with a hole cut in the middle for the pins. It worked pretty well. I actually had felt tape all around the perimeter underneath the rectangular plastic shifter trim.

One of the biggest sources of creaking is the front part of the plastic trim piece that meets the front of the "not an ashtray". It is completely unsupported underneath - it's usually fine until the first time someone puts their hand there and presses down and the pieces flexes. It will creak non-stop after that.

UW RL

These photos are from a few months ago when I was trying to fix the problem.... obviously it wasn't successful because I didn't put felt between the pins...

Frenetic

Very very nice! Thank you everyone, who posted pictures and schematics!

I'm about as mechanically inclined as a doorknob, so these really help!

miner

Thanks for the pictures. In the last photo where his thumb is resting seems to be the culprit of most of the creaking/noise (where the "NAA" pocket rests). It is unreinforced plastic so I am not sure how that can be fixed.

2007AcuraRL

Well I pulled my console apart again today and this time I think I've gotten rid of the creaking. In addition to putting the felt in between the two parts that meet up by the pins, I also ended up putting felt on the top of each pin. Aparently the center console panel (the piece with the heated seat switches) makes contact with the top of the pins. I also put teflon plumbers tape around the silver gear shifter trim. There was some wear marks at the front of the part where its been coming into contract with the center console panel. There is almost no gap between the two parts so thats why I opted for teflon tape instead of felt. I applied double sided scotch tape first to hold the teflon tape in place.

2007AcuraRL

I my RL, the NAA pocket does not come into contact with the console piece where his thumb is. While pressing in that region was causing creaking, It turned out to be the console piece rubbing into the two plastic pins from underneath. A few pieces of medium thickess felt from the Home Depot placed at the top of the pins eliminated the creaking noise.

2007AcuraRL

Interesting, Acura knows about a creaking from this region because the sides of my pins were covered with felt tape from the factory ('07 RL). In the pic UW RL posted, no teflon tape can be seen in the photo. Meaning Acura added it to the pins for my model year RL. Unfortunately there was no felt in between the utility pocket housing and the shifter bracket where two plastic pieces that contact one another at the pins.

miner

I revisted my 'craking' this weekend and I can now say they are gone. In the attached pic the 'pocket' that holds the "NAA" needs to come out (remove two screws and remove little bulb - twist and remove). I put felt all along the bottom of it AND also on the area that sits just below it when reattached. I replaced the felt patches on by the pins with thicker felt and cut a hole fro the pins to fit through. I did not put any felt on the center console cover directly above the pins though as mentined in the above post.. My console is silent now.

UW RL

And you didn't take any pictures??? j/k Do you have a least pics of the felt?

miner

I picked up the felt, a 12" x 8" sheet of sticky backed material, from Micheal's. I am sure it can be found at Hobby Lobby or any other hobby store.

Frenetic

Much thanks to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts and especially to those that posted pictures and schematics!

Thanks to this post, clumsy me was able to fix the creaking!

Bravo!