Same here - it emerged after about 11mo. According to the shop foreman they ordered a couple of new fittings and some foam tape. We'll see...

 

Well that was a useless experience. They had it for two days and couldn't find anything loose or an issue. I ended up just using some foam as others here have described around the center break light and deck and it's all good now.

 

I have a 2012 C250 and I've been dealing with this rattle for some time now. In fact, just after I bought it in Dec 2011 is when it reared its ugly head. The rattle came and went and would go away for days on end. Just when I thought it was gone forever, it would return. Frustrating...

So after watching this thread and being inspired by the guy who crawled into the trunk to listen...I finally did something about it. I stuffed some old socks (clean ones) that I use for rags in the garage up in the access holes from the trunk underneath the deck and voila! Rattle gone! I can't believe I put up with it for this long. Thank you mb world for being here.

I detest the dealers and was dreading taking it there for this warranty issue. With the light interior and all, I could just see the dirty hand prints and shoe marks all over the car trying to get the deck out to fix this problem. From the sounds of it, they probably wouldn't have fixed it anyways.

I will buy some proper foam rubber to stuff up in there and remove this old socks. That way it'll look factory!

Happy New Year!

 

~ i had the same noise as well and it was the third brake light assembly... a quick dealer fix and it's no longer.

 

I had this noise come up as soon as I bought the car. Had the dealership fix it, and now it's back again about 8 months later. I have my 10,000 mile service coming up soon. I'll have them fix it then.

 

Since I put a big foam sponge in the hole under the 3rd stop light, no more noise

But it's a weird fix, i'd prefer unmounting the light and understand where the noise come from and fix it properly instead of a random foam filling...

I still don't know how to remove the plastic holding the light from the rear shelf seems firmly attached i don't want to break something by forcing, any idea ?

Pascal

 

I'm taking my car to the dealer tomorrow for the same issue. Hopefully it gets fixed.

 

I picked up my 2014 model last week and i notice the rear speakers rattling on one song: Royals-Lorde.

Try out the song on a pretty high volume but not max.

 

I had the same exact issue.

 

I was wondering if anyone can post a video on "How To" can't seem to find or locate it. Thanks

 

Same issue - 2014 C250 Sedan with 15k miles, so this isn't just a coupe problem. Took to the dealer today, said it was the brake light, and it seemed fixed for about 5 minutes. Once I went over a small speed bump right near my home, whatever was working stopped and rattle/creaking was back. Back to the dealer for round 2! Warranties are what it's all about.

 

My case was interesting. I actually did have a rattle in the rear shelf. Dealer fixed it by putting some foam under it but it came back. I bought a huge peace of foam in Home Depot and stuck as much as I could in there and it went silent again... until it came back. So I though it could be something else. After my third visit to the dealer, the car finally got into hands of one tenacious guy who spent a week with that specialized mic trying to figure it out. And one day he called me and with happy voice said that he has found it - you won't believe it. It was actually coming from the panoramic roof. He said some grease has dried out and it was making this rattle which you could hear very well because it is right next to your ear. But once you move to the rear seat - you can't hear and that was very puzzling (I almost wanted to pull the seat out - I thought my weight on it silenced the rattle). They put grease on it it now it is fine.

P.S. I had to pull most of the foam back from the rear shelf. Apparently, it lifted the shelf so it was touching the rear window and when I played music loud it was making this "plastic against glass" rattle. But now everything seems to be fine in that area - there is still some noise coming from instrument cluster sometimes, but that is a different story

P.P.S. Can't wait for the C205 - hope it will be of higher quality.

 

Got my car back from the dealer after about a week, and all noises are gone - after the attention of multiple master technicians and a MB quality control person.

They said that once they solved one creak or rattle, they just found others. There was an issue with whatever secured the rear speaker deck - which seems pretty fragile/cheap-ish feeling. There was also an issue with the sliding shade of the moonroof that required some felt/foam.

Amazing what a few creaks and rattles can do to make a car seem cheaper, and how getting rid of them makes the car feel new again. Lesson here is it's all about the warranty! I would imagine just the labor to fix this off-warranty would be in the thousands, easily.

 

I recognize this is an old thread, but thought it would be the best spot (since this post is the top choice on a google search) to share how I fixed my 2012 C350 Coupe rattles...

Here is a list of items that I found rattled or creaked on my car and how I fixed them (in order of worst offenders!!):

Interior

1. The panoramic sunroof - after many visits to my dealership to have fasteners secured and re-secured with loctite (which I think may have helped some), I found that the noise was actually a plastic support rod that rattled as I went over bumps. If you look rearward into the sunroof/roof area you will see a black plastic "rod" that runs the width above the rear passengers heads (about finger length into the very rear of the sunroof). Just stuff some cloth/foam/sponge/etc in between the sunroof frame and that plastic rod to dampen it from vibrating and hitting the frame over bumps. One piece (or more) inserted and slid over to a side to create tension should do the job. This was a HUGE part of sound in my car and I can use the sunroof like normal with no problems even with some old cut up rag stuffed deep in this rod area.

2. The rear dash - this thing has a few creaks and rattles unfortunately. Drop the rear seats and fist bump around to hear how your's rattles. I used an old microfiber cloth (a sock, rag, sponge or foam would work also) to cut and placed small rolled-up pieces and stuff them around to stop vibration noises. I especially found it helpful to remove the speaker cover (about a 2 foot long top plastic mesh piece that's held on by 20 small clips) and put two rolls of cloth to insulate the cover from the dash (add tension/sandwich). So basically I put a hotdog size roll horizontally across the center area and a half hotdog size roll vertically on the left side area (promise this will make sense when you pull that cover off). Then just mash the speaker cover back on, being sure to get all 20 pins to reseat. Also consider stuffing another hotdog size roll in under the center of the plastic where it comes over the top behind the seat. Huge improvement in rattle doing these!

3. The seat belts!! - behind two simple plastic b covers (open the door, pull the thick gasket out of the door channel (just enough) to expose the column plastic edges, pop off the LOWER/REAR ARMREST cover first - it is a large piece but not too bad to just pull off, THEN pull off the top b pillar plastic cover where the seatbelt enters - pull starting from the door side and then tilt toward the rear window, slide this cover down into the floor out of the way) you'll find the top where the belt hangs on a triangle metal hanger and a bottom box that the seatbelt coils into. For the top triangle, you need to put some twine or cloth between the b pillar metal frame and the seatbelt hanger, I twisted some old cut up microfiber clothe around behind the hanger like weed-eater winding. If you fist bump while you're stuffing cloth around, you'll hear the vibration and then be able to confirm if you've fixed it or not. MOST important is to be certain whatever you stuff here is SECURE for the future. For the bottom box (where the seatbelt coils down into) stuff cloth/foam/sponge between the outside body wall and the coil box..BUT DO NOT STUFF below the waist of the box or it will affect the belt recoil (learned this by overstuffing already). Once you've fist bumped around and confirmed no vibration sounds, then repeat the install process for the covers starting with the top piece at the window and twist/snapping into the door frame, then popping the armrest cover back on (it's okay to punch it back on..you won't hurt it as long as you've got it aligned with the clip - just look).

4. Child seat lock "lids" - probably the most pointless little plastic tabs that just dangle freely on top, completely out of anyone's site, stupid. Anyways, on the back dash just behind your rear seat headrests you'll find a child carseat restraint pin for each seat. Each of these have a black plastic "lid" that isn't necessary for function. You can either remove these plastic lids by pinching them inward to free their hinge pins or you can stuff some cloth in the little area and close the dinky little lids...I completely removed the little lids from my car because NO ONE can see them missing when the seats are put back up...obviously, the actual child seat restraints are still there for future use as needed.

5. Rear cup holder sliding cover - this thing jingles all inside the center rear seat area constantly. I chose to completely stuff the area with the cover opened to basically freeze it open with stuffing. It helped to remove a very low frequency buzz that I heard a lot. No one ever rides in my back seat so I'm not concerned that they'll ever actually expose any of my stuffing secrets.

6. The rear seats themselves - hopefully as you were fist bumping the top dash area behind the seats in item #2 above, you found that stuffing cloth just under the start of the dash which is actually behind the seats was a good spot. If not, put a couple half hotdog size rolls particularly around the seat lock. What this does is raises the dash plastic enough to insulate the seat from loosely vibrating against the back dash. While I think this is a low risk sound area, I'm glad I did it.

7. The back of the front seat - there is a long body shaped plastic cover over the back of the front seat. I found the very top area vibrated a little, so I lifted the top enough to put some stuffing in there without actually removing any clips. The cover is very quiet now. Note: our cars have a spring in the headrests that POP out when you get in a car wrech to protect you from whiplash. If your headrest pads stand really high or seem to poke out far, you may need to twist/press these back into their locks. I have been rear-ended in a low speed bump and these popped out (no damage to car). If you can't put them back in place (amazing how hard you have to press the seat to get them back in), then take your car to your dealer to help you with this. You most likely don't have this problem, but I thought I'd mention it here for the 1% who may. If your headrests are rattling like crazy, go tell the dealer you've been hit and they'll know how to put the judo move on the headrest to put it back in place.

8. The rear roof lamp controller - not sure what the name of this thing is, but basically it's a plastic housing that's about the size of two passports that houses a lamp controller for the rear interior light. It's at the very rear of the roof lining at the back window and it slides up into the roof lining. This is removed by pulling it back toward the rear window. As it just dangles against the rear window, it's a good idea to find a way to put some stuffing in here, whether you've got a sticky back foam or just some old socks. Try to get this insulated from the window and the roof liner itself.

9. The trunk carpet/spare tire "lid" - is a big flat hard cardboard piece covered by carpet (that you may not know has a tire under it). Well it's really a hard cardboard lid that actually sits directly on the metal trunk frame. I put some sticky sided foam (sold in rolls at Home Depot) all around the perimeter of the metal frame/spare tire compartment where the trunk carpet/cardboard rests on top of the tire/metal frame. Don't worry if it stands tall after you install the foam and put the carpet cover back down, it will settle flat over time.

Exterior

10. License plate - after hours of fist bumping the interior of my car to listen for vibration or rattles, I decided to try the exterior and found the license plate and frame was one of the worst! I removed all the fasteners and put some foam between the car and the first plate/cover to dampen the plate against the trunk body. Super simple, but major improvement!

11. Side mirror plastic covers - if you hear a small vibration sound when you shut your door, it's very likely the plastic cover over your side mirror. I found some small card stock that I stuffed in the tiny crease between the plastic cover and the actual mirror frame. Keep fist bumping and stuffing until it's quiet.

12. Hood - believe it or not, the hood is hard to close because it's long and well dampened. Because it's a beautiful car, I think most people are scared to close it hard enough and it actually looks closed when it's not. Open the hood and use a half-force "slam" to make sure it's really shut. You can verify by pressing on the center after you've "closed it"...if it moves at all, repeat the half-force slam until it actually secures.

In conclusion, my overall strategy was...fist bump and stuff stuff stuff. Fist bump everything in the car and stuff your preferred material in any area until the sound stops! My car sounds so incredibly solid now, I can't believe it. I almost sold this car and am so glad I got over my fear and tried it myself. Once you pop the first cover, you'll know how to do the whole car. Have fun and good luck!!

Take care --

 

Joel, Thanks for this long list. I'm being driven quietly mad by rattles from the rear of the car that I can't localise.. sometimes seemingly from the rear shelf, sometimes from rear roof, sometimes from the boot. I'm going to work my way down your list and do them all. It is amazing how much a rattle can undermine your enjoyment of your car. I have a knackered old ford focus that has zero trim rattles and it feels indestructable. In comparison I sometimes feel like my e63 is disintergrating around me on a rough road surface.

Cheers,
Alex