Fellow TL drivers, I want to share my joy with you. I finally fixed my upper door/window trim rattle! Actually, it wasn't what I thought it was. For anyone who has failed to stop the noises, read on.

The 3G Garage has a proposed fix that I'm sure works for many people who have had this rattle/popping noise from the upper door area (driver's side for me). When my car developed the noises a few months ago, I read the thread and put felt tape inside the trim like the pictures showed. But it didn't work, and it actually got louder. For the longest time I messed around with it with no success. Finally, today, I drove around the neighborhood holding my door half open to see if the noises were coming from the door or not. I found out that the noises weren't coming from the door! They were coming from the inside, the area of the headliner above my head where the grab handle is. To be more specific, they were coming from inside the headliner where the side curtain airbag is stored!

Sorry, but I have no pictures to show. I'll try to describe what I did instead. I partially removed the rubber weather stripping (pulled it down) so that I could peek under the headliner. I managed to pry the headliner and pull it down a little bit, and there it was, the side curtain airbag. I squeezed my fingers underneath and around the airbag to feel around, and there I saw some felt tape that had been put there already inside the headliner. The tape was actually under and kind of behind the rolled-up airbag. I guess Acura knew that this, too, was a potential noise generator. Obviously, they didn't put enough felt! The noise was caused by the airbag rubbing, and even sticking to, the headliner (I know this sounds super confusing). Long story short, I stuffed a generous amount of foam in there. I cut up a car wash foam scrub pad and stuffed it all around the airbag where the felt tape was. After putting everything back together, there are no more noises.

Now, when I drive, I can enjoy without distraction the symphony of other rattles and pops coming from weird places. I hope this helps anyone who has had similar issues.

 

Interesting angle...I'm going to print this off and take it to the dealer with me next time I go since my rattles have been progressively getting louder, even after the 2x they've "fixed" them in both driver and passenger side b-pillars / window seating.

 

Good find. I haven't had chance to check there... maybe I should take a look, too. Thanks.

 

Just be careful what you put in the vicintiy of the airbag. I personally wouldn't put anything next to the airbag unless it was secured to something (ie, stuck to the roofliner). If you are ever in a collision and the airbag goes off, all that foam will come out and hit you in the head!

 

what happens if you just messed around with airbag..and now when you get into an accident..your head bashes into window...just because you wanted to reduce some noise...

 

Yeah, you're right, I definitely don't want to jeopardize my safety. I put just enough foam to keep a small part of the airbag from touching the headliner underneath. I certainly hope it doesn't cause any problems later!

 

Thanks for the update!