jmatero

Can anyone assist with how to remove the center brake light cover on the rear deck? I identified it as the source of a rattle and can't figure out how to remove it in order to install some felt tape. The forward edge does pry up and "un-clip" easily but the back appears to be secured differently and I don't want to break it.

Many thanks!

christophsky

Bump.

I too have a crinkling noise that is intermittent, coming from this area. Seems to be triggered by temperature changes.

Arrie

The light cover is not a cover. It is the whole thing with light and all.


The light assembly is held in place all around with plastic "hooks" that hold against the edge of the cutout in the rear sun shade assembly. Don't pull the hooks up too many times as they will wear in the flimsy weak material and they will not hold at all.


I don't think the light assembly has enough room to be removed without taking the shade assembly out meaning the whole rear deck covering has to be removed, which i did three times actually to get it right.


Also, felt tape will not do any good. Rattle comes from the two plastic parts that are held together with "weld pins" rattling against each other. The fix is to glue them together, which I did.


If you place felt tape between the light assy and the shade assembly the hooks will not catch at all.

jmatero

Ugh... They already replaced the light assembly and that one squeaks too.

Arrie

Like I said the problem is with the design of the part. If the new part is made the same changing it will not help.


This thing is build by sandwiching two plastic parts together. For this they use "welded pins", which is to melt pin tops down on the other part.


The rattle comes from a seam between the two parts under the brake light itself. To see this the light must be removed. This seal is loose as the pins are too far away from it.


I first glued this seam using hot melt glue gun BUT it worked only a few days. Turns out it is so hot where I live that the hot melt glue melted and ran down from the seam I was trying to glue.


Then I went at it again and used 2-component epoxy. This seems to hold better.


The third go was because I did not get all of the hooks in the right places when installing the main big rear shelf cover. Now it is ok and the only thing I hear from rear is the rattle from the seat belt rollers when I hit a hard bump. I hear nothing going over the reflectors on the road any more, which is 80% improvement for me. I'd still like to get all rattles fixed but it is not possible with this car.

christophsky

We may be talking about two different noises. Mine is a "crinkle" or a "ticking" that happens when the interior temperature changes, usually from direct sunlight. Imagine someone with a bag of chips who deforms the bag in very short and discrete movements.

I believe the intermittent noise is coming from the rear-most speaker grille, which includes the integrated third brake light housing. I pried up the front of the speaker grill using a trim removal tool and put felt tape along the edge. I didn't hear any noise today, but it has been overcast. Will report back in a few days.

Arrie

What do you mean by the "rear-most speaker grille, which includes the integrated third brake light housing"?


If you have the rear window sun shade the speaker cover is the big one on front side of the shade. The smaller one behind the shade has nothing to do with speakers. It is only for the center brake light.


If you have this setup then your problem is with the brake light assembly that is part of the rear sun shade assembly. All I wrote in my earlier post apply.


And yes, the rattle is less when it is hot.

christophsky

Sorry, you are right, it is not a speaker grille, it's just made to look like one. As you can see, my center brake light is not attached to the sun shade in any way, so I am wondering if I can remove only the light assembly without having to remove the entire rear deck. Since the back of the assembly pops up so easily, wouldn't it stand to reason that the front (the part nearly touching the rear window) would also pop up with a little bit of upward force? I don't want to break it.

Arrie

It will pop up the same way as it is held down with the same plastic hooks.


It just is so close to the window that it may not fit out as it has to come straight up about an inch (could be more) to come out.


The other thing is that there is a wire harness for it and I'm not sure how it comes out with the light assy.


But you can always try.

christophsky

I successfully removed the center brake light without removing the whole rear deck. After popping up the front of the assembly, it took some considerable pulling force to remove the rest of it. I put some felt tape on the plastic parts that are causing the noise, but now I can't get it back in! I pushed very hard to get the tabs on the back if the assembly to slide into the grooves in the rear deck, but it just won't go in. I fear I may need to remove the rear deck, like you did, in order to get it reinstalled correctly.

Arrie, since you have done this before, do you have any pointers on where I should start?

christophsky

I was able to get the light back on. I had to use "scary" amounts of force, but eventually the plastic tabs flexed enough to find their way back into their grooves. I also had to press down on the shelf to help bring the grooves down away from the window.

christophsky

Arrie, using the attached picture for reference, which part did you apply the epoxy to? Was it a particular part of the LED array, or the larger black piece that holds the array? I'm not sure what you mean by "pin tops."

The reason I'm asking is because today I heard a few "ticks", so the felt tape did not completely eliminate the noise.

Arrie

If you look inside the curved channel where the light module itself mounts to, with the module removed like in your picture, in the inside curve at the bottom of the channel the two sandwiched parts have a seam between them. You can open the seam by slightly pulling them apart. This seam is the main source for the rattles from this light assembly.


I first glued it with hot melt glue gun but in the summer heat that glue melted and rattle started again as the glue ran down from the seam. I redid the whole job and this time used 2-part epoxy. You can use quite thick bead of epoxy as the light module has the corned that goes to this corner of the mounting "channel" chamfered.


You can test for the rattles before and after glue job by lightly tapping the part in your hands. Gluing this seam makes a huge difference.


I had a problem when gluing this seam as the epoxy ran thru the gap between the parts and then thru the holes of the top part. I cleaned it off with a high pressure washer and then glued it again making sure epoxy does not run thru the gap.


I first thought using super glue and I'm happy I did not as if that would have run thru like the epoxy did the part would have been ruined.


It is a job but very doable.


The pin tops are the tops of the pins that have been melted to fuse the two parts together. The top part with the holes has pins that come thru the holes in the lower part. Then these pins are welded and they are supposed to get tight against the other part. As added tightness I used a soldering iron and re-melted all of these pins to make sure they indeed are tight but this may not be necessary at all. If you do the glue job and then test the assembly for rattles you will hear if anything else need to be done.


Then one more thing:


If you go about this job again without taking the whole rear shelf apart (why not?) it might help to loosen the two bolts that hold the shade assembly in place. These bolts are in the "sealing" of the trunk. On both sides about 6-8" from the side there is a bolt (10 mm head) that goes thru a "key-hole" shaped hole. These two bolts hold the shade assembly down on the rear deck. It may be easier to remove / install the light assembly when these bolts are loosened so you can tilt the shade assembly. After the job just re-tighten the bolts. Do not over tighten like I did one of them and stripped the thread. Not a biggie as a 1/6" replacement bolt fit perfectly to the 6 mm stripped hole...


This job is really worth every penny. It totally improved my driving experience as I absolutely hate rattles inside a car. And you would not think having a problem with this in a car this expensive.


-1000 points to MB for this!!!


Good luck with it!!!

christophsky

Thanks a lot Arrie! I greatly appreciate the completeness of your response. I will tackle this again when I have some time this weekend.

Arrie

No biggie. Just report back how it goes.