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Faint rattle in drivers side door?

22K views 39 replies 25 participants last post by  12cylinders 
#1 ·
Anyone else notice a very faint rattle which sounds like its coming from the drivers side door?

Sounds almost like its coming from inside the door.

thanks
Alan
 
#6 ·
Could it be the seat belt hanging and banging against the door?

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Bimmer App
 
#8 ·
Nothing in the compartment in the door and its not the seatbelt. Sounds like its internal and its very fain't which you could only hear the rattle if the radio was off.

Going to investigate the lock mechanism to see if i could tighten it up a bit.

Alan
 
#9 ·
Nothing in the compartment in the door and its not the seatbelt. Sounds like its internal and its very fain't which you could only hear the rattle if the radio was off.

Going to investigate the lock mechanism to see if i could tighten it up a bit.

Alan
Good luck Alan. If you are like me, any kind of rattle is a major annoyance and makes me not like my car as much. Luckily, no rattles so far on mine, except for passenger side seat belt when seat is not occupied. But I fixed that by sliding the latch up so it didn't bang against door post.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Have you noticed if it disappears with window up/down?

I've been elbows deep in all my E46 door panels to do the window regulators and install speakers and there are all sorts of wonky cables, clips, brackets and gunk in there that could be loose or even slightly rubbing on each other. I assume the F10 has even more stuff in there.
 
#14 ·
I also have a very, very faint rattle coming from the driver side door by the pillar where the seatbelt comes out. It's so faint that I likely won't do anything about it. I'll take it in if it gets worse, but I've not had the best of luck having the dealer try and fix rattles. When they take the car apart to fix one rattle, they almost always inadvertently create a new rattle or squeak. I had that problem with my E90.
 
#17 ·
yeah when the dealer takes apart the car it always causes more rattles. Has every time for me. My F10 had no rattles and I loved that about it.
 
#18 ·
ok, i have confirmed that my rattle is coming from the headrest button.

while driving, if i depress the button with my right hand, the rattle goes away.

now i need to find a way to keep it depressed all the time, since the head rest back and forth movement is not something i ever use.

Any ideas DIY Gurus?
 
#19 ·
I have a few annoying rattles that are coming from both sides of the car. Two sources from the driver's side. The first is the lock post that rattles against the the opening collar of the door trim. That one was easy to find by simply placing my finger on the lock post when it is occuring and it goes away (car manufacturers used to line the collar with felt for a reason). I can't pinpoint the other source on the driver's side except I can suppress it by placing my elbow on the driver's door window sill and pressing hard on the upper window frame with my hand. Both rattles (static type sounds) wil occur under different road conditions. They both occur when I drive on gravel roads. The passenger side noise is a different story. I never sit on the passenger side (unless my wife acts as DD after a party and I'm in no shape to hear the rattle let alone try to figure the source) so I can't trace its origin but it does sound just like the second rattle described above so it may be the same issue manifesting itself on the passenger side.

The problem I have is everytime I go to the dealer the the rattle mysteriousl go quiet.
 
#22 ·
Yep, I just noticed the faint drivers side rattle a few days ago on a long highway cruise. I first made it go away by rolling the window up and down but that only worked once.

I'll check the following:

1. Headrest posts
2. door lock thingie
3. door latch assembly

....and also Gummi all the seals just the heck of it. If none of that works I'll think about pulling the door panel.
 
#23 ·
Most all the noises in my bmws have come from the rubber seals.


Sent from BimmerApp mobile app
 
#24 ·
I'm bumping this as I notice the faint rattle every time in the car now. Checked all of the following to no avail:

1. Headrest posts
2. door lock post thingie
3. door latch assembly
4. door seals
5. seatbelt mount

I don't feel like pulling apart the door but that's the next step as I doubt the local dealer will do anything besides enter "cannot replicate" into their service system.
 
#26 ·
Two years into owning my 2012 535i I have a rattle coming from the driver side front door at the top, near the lock button, I think. I also hear a faint clicking near the seat belt opening on the driver side front. I made an appointment with the dealer for next week so we will see if they can fix it. I hate rattles!!
 
#27 ·
I have a faint rattle from my passenger side door. I try dealing with it but since reading this post I'm going to let my SA know about it on my next service. I usually try to let my music drown the sound but. it still annoys me.
 
#29 ·
KC1953 I had the same thing and was able to fix it myself...and it hasn't been an issue since. My problem was exactly where you mentioned, the lock button/plunger. It rattled around in the little cut-out/molding (shaped like a square but with rounded corners...right?). I removed the small molding around the plunger (lifted gently with plastic molding removal tool). Once it was out, you'll see the mounting clips and plunger guides. I formed the plastic guides so the plunger wouldn't have room to rattle around in between them. Once that was done I reinstalled. The plunger doesn't move around now (even in its unlocked position) and certainly doesn't rattle either.

BTW, I did this on the passenger door too.

I hope this makes sense! If not, let me know and I'll take some pictures.
 
#30 ·
F30 rattle in doors

Hi everyone, I too had a faint rattle/something loose in the drivers door. while driving, I put pressure on the door trim near the speaker and the noise would stop. I pulled apart the door trim, (do a youtube search on how to do this) and I found that the wiring harness and door latch cable were the problems. You can even avoid removing the whole door trim by grabbing the map pocket with both hands and yank on it very hard to unclip the door trim at the bottom side (If you haven't removed the two screw behind the door handle don't pull anymore, otherwise you will snap the door trim). Pull back the door trim with one hand and stick your head underneath and have a look at the wiring harness and door latch cable, I put sponge between the door trim and the culprits making the noise. I also used silicone to keep the sponge in place. No more noise. I then started to hit the other doors with my hand and guess what, they all make that dull sound from inside, damn, so now I have to do the other doors. The only reason I noticed the drivers door is because I'm the closest one to it. Good luck everyone.
 
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