I've seen multiple reports in owner reviews of rattle problems with the TL interior (RL too). Is Acura's interior assembly lacking for the 05-08 years?

 

If you do a search, there are numerous threads on this topic.

 

It'd be from 04-08 if you're asking about 3G TL owners. But yeah mine does sometimes. Depends. Mostly only heard when going over bumps.

 

I get a little rattle sometimes when the temps are cold. when it warms up after driving a few minutes, it stops.

 

There are many threads regarding this, and I voted for option #3.

 

Mine rattles sometimes but I just turn on the radio. Every car rattles. My dad's 06 MB E class rattles just like mine. It's funny though because my 06 TL rattles more than my old 02 Pontiac Grand Am.

 

All modern day cars have the tendency to rattle with the wide range of materials used, and as well the way the are held together. In the TL, the most common rattles are from plastics SLIGHTLY expanding due to heat or contracting due to cold and thus touching something else.

Take for example the under-radio compartments, the back of it heats up because of the radio over time and it slightly expands and then rubs against the bottom of the radio frame. A little bit of electrical tape and foam and your done!

Acura has done a LOT to help curb the rattles, for example on the under radio compartments they added a material covering on the 2007+ years to help combat it. As well they made some other minor changes such as using velvet like material under the headrests on the 2007+ TL and placing felt under the shifter piece on automatics.

Even a 140,000 dollar car can rattle, my pillar in the 760 was rattling because the vent became loose over time. Something even more annoying is that the kick panels are peeling! You can't fix that with tape or foam!

Let me put it this way, lets be happy that in today's day and age with all of these "exotic" materials being used that it is this simple to repair the car while keeping it together at an affordable cost. Remember the use of every clip vs. a screw saves honda about 10 cents, that among nearly a million cars can add up to quite a bit!

 

Let's see.

The rear shelf rattles when listening to songs with a lot of bass. Doesn't bother me.
The passenger side sunglasses holder rattles while cruising and listening to music at a moderate level. Bothers me.
Driver's window rattles but not all the time. Bothers me.

I think that's it.

 

I've taken mine in for several rattles and the dealer has fixed my 07 without too much fuss. Sometimes they like to pretend they can't hear them though.

 

my glove compartment rattles. always has since i got it and its annoying!!!!

 

I installed FATMAT in the trunk, rear shelf and all 4 door. That took care of all my rattles and makes my woofer sound great!

 

Something on or inside my drivers door rattles but only when I'm going high speeds. Also there is some damned rattle coming from the back right of my car like the back right window or seat or something in that area and I have no clue wtf it is from... annoying.

But also, I always drive with the radio/CD player on so I really can't hear those rattles much anyways

 

It is not just 05-08 acuras or acuras only. Every car i have driven or been in has rattled besides the mercedes really. Cars use more plastics now and when you have plastic contacting other plastic, metal etc you will have rattles. I have taken the whole inside of my car apart, pretty easy to do and fix my own rattles. My car is semi-gutted tho and i remove any plastic pieces and weight that i dont need. Btw my 01 cl rattled and my 03 cl rattled also. nothing major just fixed the rattles myself. Also about acuras quality lacking, that has been an issue ever since the legend acura is going down hill doing money saving stuff adding cheaper parts more plastic etc. All car companies are doing that now besides exotic cars. When ppl go to buy a car they look at numbers horsepower etc not whether a car rattles. Rattles is only something ppl worry about after the fact, never a deciding factor in a purchase.

 

Its the damnedest thing with Acura. My 06 TL had absolutely no rattles in it what so ever and was quiet the entire time I had it, but when I turned it in for my 08 TL, this second one has been the polar opposite with several constant/annoying rattles in different places all over the car. Have tracked down all of them but would require taking the entire car apart to fix them all and I'm not doing that. Spend a couple bucks at Home Depot and used a whole bunch of furniture cushions which has eliminated about 70-80% of the rattles/noises so it will have to do.

Have been in four different 09 and 10 TSX loaner cars, all of which did not have any rattles that I could hear when I had them, yet had a MDX one time that had several rattles like my TL.

So I guess the lesson here is, rattles are car specific and it really depends on what day of the week/time it was made for these to be so infrequent between Acura models. My suggestion is, test drive at least two times the Acura model you plan on getting with the radio off, ask the salesman to close his or her pie whole and listen for these rattles while driving the car and various road surfaces. If you hear any during the test drive, don't get the car!

 

stock sub rattled a little bit...i was really worried when i installed my JL 12w3 last week that it would sound horrible with rattling...acutally the JL doesnt make the car rattle really at all...sounds amazing i am really glad i installed it...

 

I see most of the posters have pre 07 and someone mentioned they made changes staring in 07 to reduce rattles? That is encouraging - until I read the person that had the opposite experience going from 06 to 08? I wonder if the stiff Type-S suspension just makes matters worse? I test drove an 07 Type-S with 50K miles that the dealer just took in and had not detailed yet so they couldn't have fixed any rattles. I head one rattle once somewhere near the driver side window or high on the door, then nothing else for the rest of the hour that I beat the crap out of the car. Well not really, just drove in a spirited fashion. I got lunch through the drive-through and noticed a short little groan right when you come to a complete stop - Noise Brembos?

The thing that freaks me out is I'm looking at giving my my 05 Volvo S60R because of little annoyances and worried about future out of warranty service issues as the car has not been as irritation free as my 02 Type-S was. But to be honest, rattles are the least of my issues. I've got two, one is the sunroof shade which goes away when I reposition it a little and another is a new one that only happens at certain speeds and temperatures that I have gotten around to yet. So yes, I agree, most cars have a rattle or two that you either fix or live with, our 04 Honda Pilot gets a rattle in the dash once in a while but it isn't bad and we just never got around to telling the dealer about it but nothing other than that.

I think the fact there are so many different materials is not a good excuse. These companies, like Honda, have been around many many years and put billions of dollars into engineering. Honda/Acura is known for rock-solid reliability and build quality as is Lexus. The beat the crap out of these cars when designing them. I don't think there should be any rattles as they should all be worked out in the testing phase, or addressed in subsequent model years by keeping tracking of dealer warranty claims.

I think on my Volvo the warranty covers rattle to only 20,000 miles or something so even though Volvo builds pretty much rock solid interiors, they acknowledge that it is likely you'll get a rattle or two as the car ages.

However, what it appears to be the case is that while in general the Euro cars (BMW, Audi, Volvo, Mercedes) trail the Japanese makes in mechanical reliability, from all the owner reports/reviews I've read (and I have read a couple hundred just in the past 2 days), they seem to have a better track record as far as interior quality/fit/finish/no rattles than a lot of the Japanese makes. So maybe it is a trade off. I never had a single rattle in my 02 Type S but I did see a lot of 3rd gen owner reviews talking about how their 3rd gen doesn't compare to how rock solid their 2nd gen was as far as no issues. That's a shame that Acura/Honda seems to have taken a step backwards in the interior assembly department. But it isn't common for car manufacturers to eventually have a bad streak with an aspect of their cars. Mercedes went way down hill in the 90's and look at Toyota right now.

 

i hate mine it rattles all over the place when i fix one rattle another one starts man sometime i just wanna punch it j/k

 

Most of my rattles seems to come from under that middle speaker in the front....07 tl-s

 

I'm not sure if BMW, Audi, and especially MB are immune to rattles issues. The problem is, all the auto manufactures, maybe with the exception of Infiniti and Audi who seem to be using higher quality materials to appease past critisms, most are switching to much cheaper, crappier quality plastics throughout the interior. I had this conversation twice with two Acura Techs, one who worked for BMW before he came over to Acura and another for MB and Lexus before coming over to Acura. What happens is, all this cheap plastic leaves gaps behind the panels, pillars, dash, console, etc (which we do not see) even on the best fit/finish cars and allows them to flex and move while the car goes over bumps, etc in the road which then produces noises when the pieces touch each other or other stationary componenets. That is why, the dealerships solution is either with replacement of the entire assembly, or fill it with foam, sealants, etc to get rid of these gaps and prevent the flexing from occuring. I haven't heard this happen as much with BMW and Audi but I know MB has begun having some rattle issues because of the amount of cheap plastic they are putting into the interior, as confirmed by the Acura Tech who previously worked for MB for several years!

Apparently, Acura is aware of these rattle issues and is trying to address them, by I keep seeing 4G after 4G owner on here complaining about rattles and noises so I don't know what to tell you.

As I said before, I think it is a very car specific thing and that your best bet is to test drive it and listen for rattles and if it has any, don't get it! It's a clever sales ploy the salesman use by wanting to have the radio on during the test drive so that you can listen to "how great and better the audio system is to anything else in the business" but they do this so that you have a harder time hearing any noises coming from the car!

 

Sounds like a rattlesnake in my glove compartment.

 

There's a really easy fix for that. Search for it and you will find it. Less than $2 and 15 minutes and it will most likely be gone.

I had this rattle and have two other main ones- The drivers side dash rattles at high speeds- sometimes near the vent, sometimes by the tweeter. And my passenger side door rattles. I've heard the rear deck rattle once I think. I fixed my center speaker rattle, but the other ones are driving me nuts! :thumbsdow

 

if i hear a rattle, i take my car to my audio guy we ride around for a bit diagnosing it, then apply sound deadened as needed, or wanted. my third brake light is sound deadened, and has a gasket that seals it to the window better, homelink/sunroof console deadened, the taillights, license plate, license plate frame( the part that holds the plate lights, rear garnish thing, u know where the plate screws in.) Ive prolly added 200 lbs of sound deadener throughout the car. if you don't like rattles this is the best route to go otherwise get used to it every car has them.

 

I just had mine at the dealer for 4 days because they couldn't find a rattle/ticking sound that I had reported. It ended up being the top of a bolt in the passenger rear strut that was tapping against the body bracing/tubing up inside the car. They put new bolts in and padded the area and now that's gone.

Couple days later now and I have the same fricken plastic type of slapping sound coming from the rear passenger deck lid area when going over bumps.

BTW, they already fixed my front center speaker and the sub woofer rattle as well. I know no car is absolutely silent but some of the obvious rattles are quite annoying.

 

My center console rattles when i apply steady pressure to the gas, so does my driver side window/door. I blame my suspension for causing it because after all those heart aching bumps over time.. yeah.. lol

 

my freakin glove box started to rattle yesterday and it keeps doing it now. driving me crazy!!!!!!

 

Rear deck rattle, sunroof shade rattle, thats about it....
Dealership fixed the rear deck rattle twice, finally got it right, very pleased now

 

As of right now I don't hear any rattle in my car. But maybe in the long-run I will

 

I just bought an 06 with 40k on it and i haven't heard any rattling....yet...

 

Gah mine was doing it this past winter and I couldn't stand it. I found that taking the glovebox out and putting it back in fixed it. Weird.

 

I stopped caring. Nothing fixes my rattles and the car has 65k or so on it now so I learned to live with it.

 

you guys need to get a pack of sticky backed felt and foam these are all easy fixes!

 

been there done that Roger. Even added dynomat to the rear, the shelf still rattles! The rattles will only increase as this car gets older.

 

My car rattles, maybe my rockford t1000 and JLw6 have loosened everything up!

Turn the music on to volume 15, problem solved. If your radio don't work, open the window and stick your head out and listen to the wind.

 

well obviously you didn't find the source of the rattle lol everything rattles for a reason they are not sounds out of thin air!

 

Shin Etsu for all of the rubber seals kills the chatter from the sunroof and door glass.
Felt for the child seat anchors on the rear shelf, door and glove compartments and most other areas with "impact"-type rattles.
My 06 with 60K+ is nearly rattle free.

 

I hear a thump in the right rear. It sounds like the spare tire could be loose and it thumps when I go over a sidewalk tapered to the street or most bumps.

 

I'm quoting myself since I'm guessing you didn't read this. Had the same clunk/bang every time I hit a bump. Dealer had never seen it before, took 4 days to find.

 

Funny, my dealer can't seem to fix my rear deck. That's the only rattle I have besides the occasional sun roof tilted up rattle.

 

Mine especially rattles when it's hot out.

 

Shin Etsu is amazing.