Rattle/noise issue number .... 12 on the RDX? Yep, Acura build quality and quality control absolutely suck. But I digress.

So, one of the newer irks while driving is a buzzing/crackling noise directly above my head while driving. The noise will go away if I press up on the headliner in that spot, so I can isolate it to that being the problem area. I tried to look into a way to get at it, but I didn't want to start breaking/marring plastic pieces without know what's removable and what isn't. There's a round plastic clip, does that pop out without an issue? How about the plastic speaker grill?

 

Acura’s build quality doesn’t suck, every car model made will have cars with quirks, quite happy with my build quality. If your that unhappy with it go trade it for something else

 

leomio is actually one of the better owners...will actually dive into problems head first, no hesitation.


leomio, can you take a pic of the round clip? and speaker grille? most items do pop out.
on most cars, the interior pillars have to come out first, before the head liner can drop....so if that's your goal; to drop the headliner, start with the pillars first.

 

And take a $10k+ hit on depreciation? That's asinine. Seems the only thing Acura can match the Germans on is their depreciation rates. Regardless, the build quality is poor. With the low membership numbers on this specific sub-forum, you hear about plenty of quality issues. I've dealt with more interior build quality issues on this car alone than any other car in our family, including American vehicles. Yes, the build quality sucks.




I'd prefer to not drop the entire headliner, tho I guess being able to pull it down some would work as well. I've taken off the A-pillar a few times already to deal with a previous rattle coming from there. I was hoping I could have enough access with just pulling off that plastic speaker guard and maybe sliding something between the headliner and the ... whatever's above it. Applying light pressure to the round plastic clip to the left alleviates the crackle coming from there. I initially thought maybe it was something with the noise canceling until I decided to press up on that area and drive around, looking like a crazy person, and found it rectified the problem, so I'm gonna try going after it with some felt or thin foam sheets if I can.

 

oh yeah, they both pop out....if you dont have plastic pry tools, you can use a butter knife wrapped in a cloth to help pry.

 

Thanks! Have the tools, just didn't want to start prying on it if they weren't meant to pop out.

 

i'm not an engineer, nor a mechanic, just a hobbyist with a curious mind.

the way it looks like it was installed; those plastic pieces look like they were installed AFTER the headliner. so, someone went in there and popped them in. and exactly how they come out, pop back out.
where the clips are, is anyone's guess. what kind of clips, is anyones guess.

I'll try to look at the diagram and even look at the spare parts to find the location of the clips.

 

Maybe you could check an online parts listing to see if it shows any screws or just clips for that speaker mounting? Based on the listing below which I think is the roof speaker it looks to just be a clip in...

https://www.curryacura.com/parts/ord...RpYw%253D%253D

 

They're both clipped in. Used my plastic interior trim pry tools and popped them out easily. One word of caution on the speaker, do not pry on the front portion (the part towards the front of the vehicle, duh) of it. It slides into the headliner, while the sides and rear portion are where it clips in. The round clip pops right out. Unfortunately, once removing them, there's no access to anything. It looks like if I want to get behind the headliner, the one thing is going to have to come down - or at the very least, unclip the front D/S portion so I can pull it down some and add some insulation. I'll see how much the noise bothers me down the road. I just hope it doesn't become more pronounced.

 

good job on not breaking anything lol