vtechbrain

Buy 1/4 of an inch foam insulation tape. Remove the speaker grill and speaker (they are one unit) Put a single layer of the tape in the bed of the grill. Presto, rattle gone, price $1.25, time 15 min.

Lore

What's the easiest way to remove the speaker grill and speaker without damaging the side trim (the dashboard)?

Xpditor

Yeah. What he said.

vtechbrain

It comes out pretty easily. Use a small screw driver with a piece of cloth in between. Actually the plastic there is quite tough so you can use the thin screw driver carefully by itself. Personally I used a knife blade lengthwise an pried it up.

Lore

So what you're saying is to take the speaker and grill out, put the foam on the very bottom (where the speaker would sit) and that quiets it down? What sort of rattle were you getting prior to the fix?

vtechbrain

Yep. I was getting a mild high pitch jiggle on bad roads (spring is here!). The the grill sits in a hole with direct hard plastic to plastic contact so any amoumt of movement between the parts would give me a annoying jiggle. As we all know the car is so quiet any little noise quickly becomes a real sore. :smokin:

Stu E.

I have heard of a paperclip trick that some people use to pull up o the grille, but I have never heard if this was verified or not.

Any other ideas?

vtechbrain

Will work, but beware, the speaker is attached to the grill. It also tends to damage the hole you use. Prying it carefully by the sides works fine since it is held in by slip clips, therefore, it is meant to be removed safely.

Lore

Are there actual clips that we have to pry off before we can remove the grill? Or can we slip in the small screwdriver anywhere we like?

vtechbrain

Dont worry about the clips they are slip fasteners under the assembly, you wont have to mess with them at all.

Professor

Oh Elliot, say it ain't so...

kefler

I tried this last night and so far it seems to have worked! I took pics too, let me know if I put the foam in the wrong/nonopttimal place. Maybe this will help someone else with the same noise.


I used these items: 1/4" foam tape stuff, flathead screwdriver, thin cloth thing to protect the plastic.




I covered the screwdriver and then pushed it in the crack on the right side of the center speaker and carefully pried up. The right clip gave way and the right side came up. very easily, not much force. I then used my fingers to pull it out of the other clips (I think there are like 4). Left no visible scratches at alll. The center speaker wire was long enough so I could rest the speaker on the dash (I put it on something so it wouldn't scratch).



The speaker rests on two metal shelves on each side, I think the middle part just hangs freely. so I figured it was rattling against the metal.



I put two foam strips on the metal where the speaker rests. I then pushed it back into all the clips and it fit just like before.




The speaker no longer vibrates. It used to vibrate over bumpy roads and when first starting from a light if I bogged the engine a bit (6MT) it would rattle quite a bit. I'm happy so far and it was really easy. I'd much rather do this than take it to the dealer and have them scratch/scuff something.

Now does anyone know how to fix the rear deck massive rattling on even low volume (level 6 or so) bass?

MSF2

kefler-thanks! The photo's are a great help. I have a vibration from the console/dash area when I accelerate-I think it just might be the speaker. I'll have a go at it in the morning. I will use felt because that's what I have. I used that to fix headliner squeeks and it worked pretty well. I'll report back......

TLGator

Nice pics, thanks. So now we have really nice, fairly easy, do-it-yourself solutions for a rattle in the center speaker and for a drooping headliner. Great forum!

Lore

Very nice photos! Where do you find foam tape in that sort of roll? I could not find it in any of the hardware stores here (Orchard Supply or Home Depot).

kefler

I got the foam tape at ACE Hardware near my house.. Seems like it should be anywhere though? It was in the section with weather stripping and stuff like that, for exterior doors in a house.

Lore

Ah okay, thanks! I'll look for it when I get my car back from the dealer.

neuronbob

I wonder if this works for the rear shelf speaker too? I just started getting THAT rattle.

Goldglv

Kefler, great pics, that helps out a lot!

Lore

You should also check your center seat belt's fastening bolt. The center seat belt might actually be clanking against the metallic rear deck, so you should look into that. Within a month of buying my car I had that weird buzzing noise at the rear deck that simply would not go away.

Turns out it was the seat belt's steel mechanism vibrating against the rear deck. They put some foam tape around that and solved that issue.

Ken7

Do you guys verify that the center speaker is actually causing the rattle by placing your hand on the grill when you hear it? Kefler, great pix!

JetJock

Kefler, GREAT Pictures!! This is how this forum should work. People like Kef help each other with problems. I for one am sick of people constantly complaining about small things wrong with this great car. If other people would do what Kefler has done, this forum would be much better for everyone. Again...Kefler, thanks for the great pictures and help. GOOD JOB!!

Lore

JetJock,

Unfortunately many of the reasons we complain are because the rattles we bitch about are NOT DIY pieces. How easy is it to replace a door panel with a new one when it's rattling? Not very. For one, you wouldn't even have the right parts.

It's even harder to isolate a rear deck rattle as that involves taking apart the entire back seat and removing the side trim where the curtain airbags are. Not an easy feat either...

Believe me, if I felt that I could fix every rattle problem myself, I would! That said, for the problem I did fix myself (moonroof rattle) I did post pictures for everyone.

moved on happy joy joy

so sad here u payed how much and uhave to do a minor fix. i commend intreped souls who can handle this please the fact this car company acura does this crap right along with the rest of car companys. this sucks hard or blows howevery u want to look at it . ex owner of a very nice 03 tl that blew up a tranny later .p.s. check the 04 solara sle loaded navi and endless goooody 235hp 3.3 liter good luck every body

Lore

Yep -- $35k and I had to buy $4 worth of felt tape to install on the interior. Sucks, I know, but the dealer would 1) have never found the problem or 2) found the problem but tried replacing the entire moonroof assembly.

geminis2

Now does anyone know how to fix the rear deck vibration???????? With Pics??? Great write up for center channel.

Xpditor

And, 3) gotten greasy fingerprint all over the headliner, and 4) my car would pick up some anonymous battle scars during its open-ended incarceration in service...

XP

Goldglv

Did they have to take anything apart to apply this foam tape? Do you have any pics of what they did? I'm having this horrible vibrating sound coming from the rear deck and I don't know how to fix it. Even with the car off, I tap the rear deck, near the speaker and I'm getting that rattle/vibrating noise. Thanks for your help.

Lore

Yes, they took out the rear seat, took off the back panel, and put the thick foam tape around the seat assembly. No pictures to show, unfortunately!

Bonedoc

OK, an update, this was a VERY useful thread. Works just as advertised, thanks to vtechbrain and Kefler for initiating and optimizing this thread. I just performed the center speaker fix, and it (so far) is silent! I also filled the side trim on all 4 doors around the windows (another thread), and that seems to have worked well, too. Thanks for the good ideas guys!

dcarlinf1

Mine still rattles a little bit. Even after I doubled up on it.

kefler

dudes,

forgot to update everyone but.. I had to double, then triple, then add some more foam under there. Its foam strip wonderland underneath the center speaker.

That still didn't work so I finally took out the speaker again and just shook it back and forth in my hand and sure enough that connector clip was rattling.. So I wrapped foam around the connector to the speaker and its been good since june. Every once in a while it "tick tick tick's" but its nothing like it was.. If it got worse again I think I would add electrical tape around the edges of the speaker so it fit more snuggly in the space its in. I think thats the last source of rattles.


Essentially we have a big hollow plastic thing (dash) that is directly connected to the frame of the car so it shakes with every bump. We then place a hard plastic rattle device with hard plastic clips right in the center of it and subject it to heat and cold every day. no wonder it rattles.

Lore

I actually put really thin foam tape around the edges of the plastic grill so it's more snug - I think that's the real source of the rattles, frankly. Without the foam tape around the edges (or electrical tape, in your example) the grill has space to move around.

dcarlinf1

Mine is more of a buzzing sound than a rattle. Same or no?

IL_TL

I put 3/8" foam tape all over my center speaker and went out for a test drive. I can still hear the noise (sort of a uzzing rattle) when I "lug" the engine. I then remember a similar noise on my S2k, which had an easy fix. The sun visor on S2k's have a small pad that is supposed to keep them from bumping against the front frame. Adding a small self adhesive foot to the visor prevented the noise.

In the TL, I noticed that the vanity mirror has a hard plastic cover, and when the visor is up, touches the vanity light. I pulled the visor down a little and tried lugging the enging, noise was gone. The problem is that I do not see a place to put a rubber foot, possibly making a rectange of adhesive felt and putting it on the outline of the vanity light would help.

Another solution, that would look tacky, would be to put an adhesive rubber foot on the vanity mirror cover so it would be kept apart from the light.

kyle-wdp

I'm on it as soon as The Ivan passes......Thanks dude!

Lore

I was going to add a little rubber foot (one of those clear ones) to the frame of the vanity light - that makes it hard to see and pretty effective!

tonyg24

i am not hearing vibration from front speaker , trble is with my back speaker like the subwoofer

Goldglv

IL_TL,
Thanks for this post, this was my EXACT rattle that I've been hearing for the last few weeks! It sounded like it was coming from behind the instrument panel but it wasn't, it was the vanity light. I just tested it out by driving back and forth on the bumpy road, the neighbors probably thought I was crazy but this confirmed the rattle. Thanks again!

IL_TL

No problem, my dealer thought it was coming from the mirror cover against the mirror frame. I watched at the visor folds up and the warning label hits the vanity light lense in the headliner. You can replicate the noise by tapping upward on your visor or flipping it down slightly and letting it bounce back up to the headliner. While driving it sounds like it is coming from the dash, not the visor.

It took me over a year to find it in my s2000, as I swore it was coming from the dash...