Rear deck rattle SOLVED (plus front dash rattle) - PICTURE
I recently have had my rear deck rattling more than usual. Suspecting that another thread I read was correct I went about disassembling everything to see what I could find. Laying on top of one of the 10" subwoofers was a small plastic clip that had broken off from the speaker grille as well as an old, dead fly carcass. At the time, they were stuck to the speaker cone, but I suspect as the speaker gets busy, it heats up and they become dislodged and start to rattle around.
Upon further scientific investigation, which principally includes heavy pounding on the deck with my fist, I discovered that the sound deadening foam that BMW used back there, while good, has an underside that is harder than the foam and as it lifts off the shelf and then hits the shelf again on its way back down, can create a buzzing sound. I proceeded to lift various parts of this foam and place either the fuzzy side of some velcro or some adhesive felt that I had left over between the metal deck and the sound deadening foam.
Overall, the rear deck is whisper quiet now. The entire job from start to finish was only about 2 hours. That included a lot of time for inspection, fumbling around, listening to the radio, and general "checking things out."
Here is a slightly less than studio quality photo of my hand holding up the foam described above:
As an additional bonus for all of you loyal readers, I had a nasty rattle coming from somewhere in the dash as well. Yesterday I was trying to pinpoint it while driving (hard to do, but that's the only time it rattles) and I found the source - it's the small plastic vent on top of the dash near the windshield, triangular in shape. Pulled that sucker out and voila', the car was like a new car again.
I have a few other, lesser rattles and annoying sounds that I will be tackling as my motivation picks up.
I hope this is helpful to someone.
__________________ Brian - CCA #273611
Tarheel BMW CCA Street Survival Chief Instructor 03 540iT Sapphire Black - 01 M5 LeMans Blue - 02 330Cic Orient Blue - 94 M3 w/S50B32 Imola Red 08 F800ST Blue
SOunds interesting and thanks for posting. I've never had to go into my rear deck, but I'm sure it is only a matter of time. While it is fresh in your mind would you please document what it takes?
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I have fold down seats. Models without may be slightly different.
First I removed the seat bottom by just pulling up at the front edges. It comes out easily.
Put something over the large metal retaining tabs and then fold the seats down. Remove the side cushions by taking out the 10mm (I think?) nut and pulling out at the top until you hear it release, then slide it up and out.
Remove the C-pillar alcantara covers by popping the reading lamp module out from the top and disconnecting the wiring. Then remove the two 8mm nuts and pull the C-pillar away from the outside of the car (there are two plastic push-pins holding it in after you get the 8mm nuts out) and then towards the front of the car. Don't pull too hard but pull hard enough to get it out.
Remove the plastic trim that connects the rear deck to the car with 6 plastic push-pin type connectors. Be careful not to break them.
Pull the rear speaker grilles out. Be very careful - but I suspect if something is not already broken, now is the time it will break. The attachment clips are not intuitive, so just try to work them out slowly and carefully and without much force using your fingers - work your way around the grille until at least a portion of it comes out, then keep going until it's fully removed.
My car has the baby-seat tie-downs so I removed those next. Pop off the plastic cap with a flat-blade, then remove the 13mm bolts using your socket. The entire assembly (tie-down with bolt and several washers) pulls out all at once. Place it aside for later.
My car has no sunshade so this part also might differ. You may need to disconnect and unbolt your sunshade if you have one.
My next step was to pull the deck out. I pulled slightly upward and straight toward the front of the car. Working back and forth from side to side - it eventually will come out. The seatlbelts will still be slotted through the rear deck itself so I just laid mine down in front of the folded down seat opening and worked above it. Slightly awkward, but I'm not old enough to know better.
Use a flashlight if necessary to carefully inspect the speaker cones. My guess is you'll find at least dust and various hair and other small particles there. One of my subs (I have M-audio) had a dead fly and plastic clip broken off from one of the speaker grilles stuck to it. I pried them off and used a vacuum to remove as much hair/debris as I could get.
I would then suggest taking a large torx (I think T-30 but I didn't really check) as well as a screwdriver and flashlight and tightening all of the screws and bolts you can see back there. The ones holding my subs in (four phillips head screws) were quite loose. Do the same by laying inside of your trunk (or, if you are less acrobatic and flexible, have a child or wife do it?) and finding any screws or bolts and making sure they're tight.
You will then see the dark gray foam I mention above. It easily lifts upward and you can then put some felt or soft velcro under there to keep it from rattling.
I have a smAll dash rattle also, I'm going to try that small triangular vent you suggested. Thx for the great info! Just curious did you have to re-position the vent or modify it in any way?
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2000 Silvr(354)/Blk(M1SW) 65k miles
Dinan Cans
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Redshift,
Thanks for the post...my rear deck rattles and one of the subs vibrates under certain loads. It sounds more like loose stuff than a blown speaker. I may give your fix a try this weekend!
You will then see the dark gray foam I mention above. It easily lifts upward and you can then put some felt or soft velcro under there to keep it from rattling.
Went through this ages ago with my wife's 540i, think I posted something about it back then (sometime in 2001?)
If you want to kill the problem flat dead, go get a roll of roof flashing at Home Depot. It's about 8" wide and sticky on both sides. Cut strips to suit; if you've got a fold-down back seat you're going to want to do something just under the lip where the shelf cover turns down over the bulkhead. May also want to hit it with a hair dryer to soften it a bit before pushing the shelf cover down on it.
Note: once it's stuck for a couple months, it's a cast-iron ***** to get back out. If we keep the car I need to pull it out again to swap in the M5 rear spring/shock bits that came out of my car when I put the Dinan stuff in, and I'll probably change the sun-faded shelf cover anyway.
Ok, you steered me back to this thread from another post today. You are now our "rattle guy".
How about creaks? I have a creak coming from the rear deck area. It definitely sounds like a plastic trim creak of some sort. It assaults my consciousness when the car undergoes just about any perturbation. It does not 'rattle' per se. It might even creak when I'm on a perfect smooth road and I give her some gas to accelerate.
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