Rattles and Vibrations

[Topher]

I am quite particular about the noises in the car. I’ve dealt with a couple tricky issues I wanted to post to help others diagnose.

1. Vibration from passenger vanity mirror. Lid to mirror was rattling (plastic on plastic)

2. ELS roof speaker mount. Plastic case was rattling on mount/headliner

3. Several door rattles. Passenger side ext & int door handles, arm rest, seemingly the hand well plastic trip at the bottom. Driver side exterior handle I believe is also buzzing periodically

4. I have noticed a very odd buzzing rattle from both rear body panels, the curved ones leading up to hatch. Applying pressure did not fix issue, pretty rare

5. I’ve had this bizarre whining whistle buzzing noise and I’m fairly certain it’s coming from the passenger rear glass but I’ve never been able to pinpoint it. Seems to be happening more and more.

I have noticed while all of these are intermittent (some more frequently than others) the only factor that ever makes a difference is temperature which makes it very hard for me to duplicate for the dealer, for example.

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[ChromaPop]

Giving this some thought today I am thinking that the car interior is made up of an incredible bevy of sophisticated parts for our enjoyment, and we are thrusting these parts about in a sometimes violent manner. Is it really fair for us to expect a perfectly tight silent cabin? Are we just more uber focused on those oddity noises then we are the heavy road noise, the sound of the engine, exhaust, etc?

 

[Themousetrap]

I too am extremely sensitive to car vibrations. I get a painfully obnoxious buzz from the passenger I hit about 3800 rpm.L and another from the trunk space area that is intermittent. I haven’t explored solutions yet, but I’m going to go through your list and see what I can do. I appreciate any solutions others have found.

 

[Victorofhavoc]

Giving this some thought today I am thinking that the car interior is made up of an incredible bevy of sophisticated parts for our enjoyment, and we are thrusting these parts about in a sometimes violent manner. Is it really fair for us to expect a perfectly tight silent cabin? Are we just more uber focused on those oddity noises then we are the heavy road noise, the sound of the engine, exhaust, etc?

Any rattle that can overcome the road noise in this car is impressively loud.

And yes, it is fair to judge it for the rattles. While cars have added a lot of tech in the last 20 years, the quality of plastics has also greatly improved. Any maker should be able to produce a car which fits together well and is silent under hard driving or the even harder stoplight to stoplight city driving. I've driven 20 year old cars with less rattles and buzzing than my its with less than 500mi on it...

I found my hatch rattle recently! Whatever dodo at the dealer installed the black badges before my purchase broke several clips and decided not to replace them.

Given my conversation with the acura service manager near me and what I've seen as I've taken parts of the car apart, there are two distinct issues. Direct from acura, they did a crap job at assembly. Glooped on rtv, poorly aligned panels, and broken plastic seem to be "normal". The other issue are the techs at the dealer. It's not entirely their fault, but the rush they're in leads to lack of respect for customer's cars, and they won't raise their hand when they do something wrong for fear of ramifications and delays in returning the car.

At this point, if the dealer is doing anything for me, I'm asking them to provide a detailed plan and summary of what they're going to do. If they don't have a plan when I'm handing them my keys, then they're not getting them and Acura will get a report from me. Simple.

 

[lumper]

I am quite particular about the noises in the car. I’ve dealt with a couple tricky issues I wanted to post to help others diagnose.

1. Vibration from passenger vanity mirror. Lid to mirror was rattling (plastic on plastic)

2. ELS roof speaker mount. Plastic case was rattling on mount/headliner

3. Several door rattles. Passenger side ext & int door handles, arm rest, seemingly the hand well plastic trip at the bottom. Driver side exterior handle I believe is also buzzing periodically

4. I have noticed a very odd buzzing rattle from both rear body panels, the curved ones leading up to hatch. Applying pressure did not fix issue, pretty rare

5. I’ve had this bizarre whining whistle buzzing noise and I’m fairly certain it’s coming from the passenger rear glass but I’ve never been able to pinpoint it. Seems to be happening more and more.

I have noticed while all of these are intermittent (some more frequently than others) the only factor that ever makes a difference is temperature which makes it very hard for me to duplicate for the dealer, for example.

I must be lucky because I don't hear any rattles or vibrations, the car sounds quiet, solid and together, so far at least.

 

[Victorofhavoc]

I must be lucky because I don't hear any rattles or vibrations, the car sounds quiet, solid and together, so far at least.

Take me for a ride and I'll ruin it for you .

"what has been heard cannot be unheard"

 

[Topher]

Giving this some thought today I am thinking that the car interior is made up of an incredible bevy of sophisticated parts for our enjoyment, and we are thrusting these parts about in a sometimes violent manner. Is it really fair for us to expect a perfectly tight silent cabin? Are we just more uber focused on those oddity noises then we are the heavy road noise, the sound of the engine, exhaust, etc?

I think this is totally fair and I respect the opinion. I do not plan to have the dealership do anything to the car unless I have it pinpointed. Very close relationship with service department but I don’t go there often. I’ve asked them to look at stuff before but it comes down to techs not wanting to take the time. I get it. And I would rather not have someone in a rush ripping apart the car and slapping it back together. So I’ve just been trying to fix what I can on my own because it bothers me and no one cares except me because it’s my car and I drive it lol it’s the truth I’m okay with it. I have some Honda tech friends that help me carefully disassemble and reassemble what I’m trying to inspect.

On my side of the opinion, I am really sensitive to……. Abnormal….. noises so buzzes and vibrations really bother me. I kinda was hoping the Civic would be a rattler and the Integra would be a silent like the g in lasagna. I’ve learned it doesn’t matter! Lol it’s the same car same manufacturer same processes. Acura takes some extra steps but it’s still not perfect. And still not as good as the old days! But that’s never coming back haha

 

[Victorofhavoc]

I took my car in today for a rattle under the infotainment screen and I gave them the civic tsb. They argued that tsb existed before the car was made and brushed me off like I was crazy. Well, then they ate it later and had to own up to fixing it under the same response as that tsb, .

They also looked at the seat belt rattle and claimed they couldn't replicate it, but took it apart and felt taped every area they could. It's noticeably snugger and doesn't make me want to punch the thing while driving over chip sealed roads now. Still rattles, but now it's the actual mounting loop where it's a design problem and will always rattle there, no matter what.

And for my fender that's peeling away on the passenger rear door, they ordered a new fender piece and will be replacing it in a week or so.

 

[creaturemachine]

Giving this some thought today I am thinking that the car interior is made up of an incredible bevy of sophisticated parts for our enjoyment, and we are thrusting these parts about in a sometimes violent manner. Is it really fair for us to expect a perfectly tight silent cabin? Are we just more uber focused on those oddity noises then we are the heavy road noise, the sound of the engine, exhaust, etc?

This reminds me of a chat I was having with a pal who was a Mercedes tech. He was complaining about wasting a day tearing down the interior of some monster AMG in search of a rattle. We both were like, if I owned that car, fucking everything would be rattling.

 

[Topher]

I took my car in today for a rattle under the infotainment screen and I gave them the civic tsb. They argued that tsb existed before the car was made and brushed me off like I was crazy. Well, then they ate it later and had to own up to fixing it under the same response as that tsb, .

They also looked at the seat belt rattle and claimed they couldn't replicate it, but took it apart and felt taped every area they could. It's noticeably snugger and doesn't make me want to punch the thing while driving over chip sealed roads now. Still rattles, but now it's the actual mounting loop where it's a design problem and will always rattle there, no matter what.

And for my fender that's peeling away on the passenger rear door, they ordered a new fender piece and will be replacing it in a week or so.

Infotainment rattle? What’s that Civic TSB if you don’t mind me asking

 

[Victorofhavoc]

Infotainment rattle? What’s that Civic TSB if you don’t mind me asking

21-063

 

[egxflash]

And for my fender that's peeling away on the passenger rear door, they ordered a new fender piece and will be replacing it in a week or so.

do you have a picture of this?

 

[Victorofhavoc]

do you have a picture of this?

I didn't, but I took one for you. It's worse in person than it seems in photos.

 

[egxflash]

I didn't, but I took one for you. It's worse in person than it seems in photos.

Gotcha. I have some issues with paint flaking off on mine. I was looking online for the fender piece as I was almost tempted to get it on my own and have my PPF guy fix it at the time.

 

[Victorofhavoc]

Gotcha. I have some issues with paint flaking off on mine. I was looking online for the fender piece as I was almost tempted to get it on my own and have my PPF guy fix it at the time.

Yeah when I was detailing the car initially I found MANY areas of poor paint application. Some areas are a solid mil thinner than others on the same panel, some have paint defects under the clear coat, dust under the paint and/or clear, and even areas where the paint under the clear gassed out so there's a pinhole.

I would not be surprised at all in a few years to see paint flaking off or UV degradation.

I'd say call the dealer and make them fix it. If it's flaking, they owe you a whole new trim piece, not a repaint.

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