Rear Deck/Subwoofer Rattle
 

So I took delivery on my TLX V6 Tech at the beginning of September, and since day 1 there has been a rattle in the very back of the car. It is horrible when I turn the subwoofer up and every now and then there's a rattle back there even when music is off. It didn't sound normal so I managed to get the car into the dealership today.

I demonstrated the problem for them and the service adviser immediately said that it's not normal. I left the car there at 7 am, took a loaner to work and came back around 6 pm. A different service adviser helped me when I came to pick the car up. He said that they filled it with all the foam around the subwoofer they could, and that the rattle still might be heard with the music that I listen to. I brought it home without testing at the dealership (dumb thing to do) and then played music and had the same problem.

I always play my audio through USB on my phone and here are my sound settings that might affect the problem: Bass- all the way up, Treble- 2nd highest notch and Subwoofer- 2nd highest notch. These have always been my sound settings and the volume is usually around 13. When I turn off the subwoofer the problem goes away. I've seen a forum with a sock being put in the deck to fix the problem, I just want to know if there are other owners with Tech models (maybe even base owners??) with the same problem?

Here's a video I took near the rear deck, with Bass all the way up and the subwoofer on the 2nd highest setting and volume at 13. I turn my bass all the way up because I'm use to the strong base my 4G TL had, that my TLX doesn't have even though it's ELS. And the 2nd pic is my service receipt, it states, "Technician verified rattle coming from rear subwoofer. Technician installed foam around rear subwoofer and noise is gone," yeah right lol. If all TLX's have this problem, oh well I'll have to live with it, otherwise I want this fixed.

Don't think the video uploaded well, basically it just sounds really bad, maybe a blown subwoofer.

Thought I might as well post pictures of her too lol

Haven't had a rattle, but I also have the Sub at 3 or 4 and the Bass as well. I did get some odd sort of "wapita wapiti" sound from Sub when I played the odd song that had a very deep throbbing bass. Turned out my clips on the back brake light were broken and the distortion was caused by a loose cover directly over the sub. They identified and fixed with new clips.

The strength of the ELS system is clarity and depth. My bass is fine, but the vast majority of my music is classic rock, classical, and folk rock. Not a Rap fan.

Nice car btw! Congrats.

Thank you! With rap it's bad, but I was playing Rolling Stones and The Eagles on my way to work this morning with the subwoofer turned down to 3. It still rattled anytime there was bass in the song so hopefully the dealership will find something wrong.

That's not normal. Keep us posted with what, hopefully, is a fix.

mine rattles a bit too... never bothered to check actually

I posted this issue on a different thread, but the rattle that I am getting is the top part of the roof hitting against the glass and the part of the break-light. If you put some pressure on top of the roof it'll go away.

I got the Acura tech guys to fix it twice and no success.
1) replaced the back speakers
2) added foam

I am fed up and going to a well known audio shop in Richardson, Texas and have a "real" audio tech diagnose the problem (last resort). I'll let you know how it goes.

Have you tried the DIY on another thread to fix the rattle from the sub? It works, I did it and it eliminate the rattling from the rear deck.

Before I did anything myself, I wanted the dealership to look at it and see if they could fix it. I took it back to Mungenast Acura around 4 yesterday, took a loaner home and they called me a couple hours later and said my car was ready. Going to pick it up today. Luckily, the rattle in the rear deck that happens every couple of days even while music is turned off was acting up on my way there and they heard it. The service guy that called me said they attached some clip or something to my Sirius XM cord, I think he said it was loose.

As for the subwoofer rattle, I don't think that is ever going to go away. I went out and tested a TLX Tech service loaner and turned the sound settings to the same as my car (subwoofer wasn't even on highest notch), played songs from all different genres of music and heard the same "bouncing rattle" anytime there was bass. The service adviser heard it too in both cars and even said that's not right?? But I'm not going to make them do anything about it as they've already tried foam, which made it a tiny better. Pretty disappointing that I'm basically gonna have to turn off my subwoofer, the rattle might by from the cheapo plastic rear deck components.

When I get my service receipt for what they did to my car yesterday, I'll post a pic of it.

Just picked up my car. The invoice basically stated that customer and service dept could hear rattle noise from bass in songs and that they padded more around rear antenna in rear deck and noise is gone.

So far it sounds good. I haven't heard a rattle but I also haven't turned my music up very high. Don't want to push the sound system. I got a '15 MDX Tech as a loaner though which was really impressive, just a great SUV. Will be trading in my current MDX when it hits 100k for a 3G MDX. Here's the service invoicehttps://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/acurazi...299ef4259a.jpg

I have a 2006 TSX that I left at the service department over the weekend, because they were backed up. So they gave me a '15 TLX V6 to take home. I have been considering buying one and test drove one last Oct as well. I just wasn't sold on it yet though.

Back to your original complaint....i too noticed the subwoofer rattling. In fact, it was unbearable to me. No way a new car should be sent out into the world with that kind of rattling.

After driving the car for a few days, I just don't like it, and I can say that is is not as well built as my 2006 TSX was. Too bad.

Mine rattles like there are 2 12s in the trunk with a 1000D bumping Bass Mekanik. I'm taking to the dealership before attempting any DIY repairs.

The rear deck rattled like hell in The 3G I had. There were complaints about the rear deck rattling in the 4G as well...IJS

Every one of my 3GS rattled, I even let them screw one rear deck down. My 4G never rattled. My TLX the damn bass is so weak I am not sure yet. I need to dig out one of my bass CDs I created to stress the sub.

I traded in my 2006 TSX for the TLX and have the opposite view. It is an upgrade all around including build quality. So far I don't have a single rattle or squeak. Hope it stays that way.

The rattle is from the rear deck vibrating against the glass. I had it and temp fixed by shoving a blanket over the rear deck pushed back to where the window meets the rear deck. I showed demonstrated to the dealer the rattle/vibration and my fix and they new where to go. They removed the deck and added foam tape. Rattle/vibration is gone and you cannot see the tape. Have had zero issues since.

Cheers
TK

IT'S THE HINGE(S) TO THE REAR SHELF. Same thing happens in Accords. It's a quick, simple fix. Crawl into the trunk and look at it.

That's not what the dealership fixed, between the foam and the antenna they moved it fixed the problem. I wasn't going to bother to fix the problem myself when I had the dealership close by who does it under warranty.

When I got my last new 2015 TLX demo, fresh off the truck this July...it had a TERRIBLE rear loud metal on metal rattle in the rear shelf/deck area. I kept tapping on things, and eventually we took apart the shelf and underneath the rear plastic cover even though it was bolted on solid, the little amp box bolted against the metal shelf was making noise.

We unbolted the amp a bit, added rubber padding between it and the base bolts, and re-tightened. Silenced everything, and was fairly easy to get to underneath the shelf once the seat back sides, pillar covers and shelves were taken out.

It would buzz a loud metal on metal sound even just going down the road without audio playing.

TLX ELS Rattle
 

I just took delivery 2 weeks ago on a 2015 TLX Tech SH-Awd. I have the same rattle happening when listening to music. If I'm in the back seat and hold the rear deck down, where it meets the glass, the rattle/vibrations stop. It makes certain music seem distorted. I have the sub level at 2 below max and start to hear the rattling around 10-12 volume level and I tend to listen to most music around the 15 volume level. It happens to a variety of music, not just rap. For example, the band Live, I have heard the song Ghost and TBD by them and at the 12-15 volume level it sounds horrible. Never like this in my 2012 TL Tech. I do have an appointment on Monday morning, so I'll see what they plan on doing. I might even bring in a can of high compression black racket balls, to see if they can be placed underneath, of course this is along with foam, or any other possible fix. To be continued.......

Got the rear deck bass rattle taken care of at the dealer. They went in from the top and removed the rear deck, then applied thick EPT tape all over. Problem solved for now. Back to Icky Thump!

My dealer ended up using a lot of foam under the rear deck lid. It's 90% taken care of now, but on certain songs there is still a hint. As many have mentioned, even without the rattle for the most part, the bass is still inferior to the TL ELS system. I have turned off the ANC, through the developer screen, but honestly, I don't notice the increased bass as some say they are getting.

Finally have the vibrations taken care of. My dealer ended up removing the rear deck lid and using double sided tape. This finally secured the rear deck and has zero vibration now. They did use a sound sweep disc that runs through all the frequencies and told me that the rear break light was also vibrating at the higher frequencies and removed that to use the double sided tape as well. The sound with out the vibration is much better, but IMO, slightly less than what I had in the TL. Not sure if anyone is still having these issues, but they seem to be aware of it now.

See post here. I had the same problem described in this thread fixed by my dealer under warranty.

How I fixed mine
 

I had that subwoofer rattle and the higher I played the bass, the worse it was. It was really annoying. My dealership / warranty was useless as the local dealership is terrible. However, I decided to take the car to a Car Stereo Shop and the guy said he knew all about it and that it is not just with Acuras. He said that a number of new cars have the problem as more cars now have subwoofers. It cost me 200 bucks and it is definitely fixed. I can play heavy bass songs loud with no rattle now. Here is what they did.

The problem was the plastic rear deck cover vibrating against the metal rear deck underneath it. He took the plastic cover off and used car audio padding across the entire metal rear deck and then put the plasic cover back on and it was done. The product is called Dynamat. It looked like I probably could have done it once I saw what he did. Once I found someone competent (inlike the people at the local Acura Dealership) it seemed logical and it did work.