[fujisan]

.. and about half an hour of your time.

After going through its first Canadian winter (and ice drifting and doing donuts at the winter driving school!), and getting acquainted with the related potholes, my 08 XT began ratteling.

After driving me crazy for a couple of weeks, I thought it was time to do something about it.
I found a bit of info here and there, so I thought I'd give it a try.

It works perfectly!! The ratteling is gone!!

I had no idea how to remove the trim, so I thought I'd share a few (sorry, big) pics for those who want to do this and avoid breaking some of the plastic things that hold the trim in place.

Here it goes:

1. Go to you local hardware store and pick up something like this (I had some 3/16" and it was just right) :

2.Remove the handle and the visible plastic nuts:

3.pull gently on the trim placing your fingers close to each of these blue and green plastic holders and they should pop out easily:

4. Pull out the lateral side trim pieces (careful with these, this is where I broke one: the grey one seems more fragile than the other):

5. This is what the interior of the tailgate looks like for those interested:

6. Cut small pieces of the foam tape and stick them around the plastic trim beginning with the lateral trims:

7. Put everything back in place and get your sanity back!

 

[2.5x_sleeper]

All right! It's hard to beat a $5 fix! Thanks for sharing this with the forum!

Bobby...

['07 FSXT MODding Journal] ['03 X MODding Journal]

 

[vicali]

:woohoo:

exactly the thread I was hoping for.
Thanks

 

[fujisan]

^ Glad this is helpful!
:icon_biggrin:

 

[Tuned200]

Awesome. I will give this a try.

 

[redevil]

Haha,

I had the same problem too! Quick fix for me was to put a piece of cardboard along the trim piece in the middle of the hatch where it bulges up a little. The foam thing was what my plans are for the summer. Didn't really want to be doing this in the middle of winter and risk breaking some plastic pieces and freezing my fingers off.

I know what you mean about Canadian winters!

 

[fujisan]

^ good point!
It's probably best to do this when it relatively warm; less risk of breaking the plastic pieces.

 

[-RC-]

Will give it a try in my '04


Done

 

[Tuned200]

I did this on my 07 and it still had noise. So I adjusted the rear latch and now I have no noise in the rear!

 

[Nasarog]

I have 2 rattles that drive me nuts. One esy to get to, one not so much. This thread gives me an idea of what to do when I decide to get at them rattles.

 

[sirwilliam]

Not sure if this is the noise I hear or if it is from the car seat latch attachment points or overhead latch attachment point. I will be hopefully be sound deadening the car this summer (I have only had the RAAMmat kit for what 4 years now :icon_redface so I will look more into it then.

Thanks for the nice write-up, BTW

 

[2point5awd]

Glad it worked for you too!

 

[sirwilliam]

I was in the car today and the rattle/noise is very apparent from the rear area and driving me batty.:icon_frown:

The time to try this fix can't come soon enough.

 

[ducati2]

I was in the car today and the rattle/noise is very apparent from the rear area and driving me batty.:icon_frown:

The time to try this fix can't come soon enough.

I just did this fix and although it fixed the rattle, I am now looking at the foam pieces in my rear view mirror. Thinking about taking it all apart again and go with a continuous stripe of foam, as i think it would not be so evident of an attempt to fix something.

 

[lh0628]

It's not working for me. I had the whole hatch deadened and foamed, and it still rattles when going over bumps etc. I took all the plastic trims out and it still does it.

 

[Bassmaker]

I filled all the cavities in the trunk with the hollow fiber stuffing from cheap pillows after applying a lot of RaaMmat type sound deadening to the inside and outside skins. This made a big difference to general noise and the trunk closes solidly with a good thunk and now no rattles, but those trim pieces around the edge are a pain and I never though of using draft tape. I guess the solution to the problem Ducati pointed out is to try and find a tape close in colour to the trim in your car but, if it's applied all round the plastic panel base, there's a good chance the molding will be too far raised from the door skin and the clips won't re-seat into their holes properly.

 

[chris crow]

my suby has a rattle too but i cant locate it, i think i will put a mate in the boot and let him check where its coming from lol

 

[shane_c]

I did this on my 07 and it still had noise. So I adjusted the rear latch and now I have no noise in the rear!

How do you adjust the rear latch?

 

[shane_c]

Haha,

I had the same problem too! Quick fix for me was to put a piece of cardboard along the trim piece in the middle of the hatch where it bulges up a little. The foam thing was what my plans are for the summer. Didn't really want to be doing this in the middle of winter and risk breaking some plastic pieces and freezing my fingers off.

I know what you mean about Canadian winters!

I put some cardboard in a few spots and it certainly helped. There are a few more rattles between the trim and rear window. is it safe to put cardboard against the defroster wires?

 

[userjeff]

Thanks for the detailed pictures and instructions. I turns out that at least in my case there is a simpler and cleaner solution. I used similar but black colored foam tape and put it only 3 locations, none of which are easily visible. The first two locations are on top of the two white plastic forms located on each side of the tailgate trim piece:

The 3rd location is on the top hump of the trim piece:

It was not necessary to take the side trim pieces off.

I've driven a couple hundred miles on paved and gravel roads since I implemented this and have not heard any rattle from the tailgate area. Try this before doing anything more involved like adjusting the latch.