Paul106

Hi all,

it has been almost 2 months of fighting rattles in the rear deck area of my 2013 C250C. Dealer had the car 3 times and even though they got rid of a rattle in the rear deck itself there is still noise coming from passenger side rear deck / seatbelt / headliner area. They have tried to stuff it with some sound deadening material but it does not help. So I decided to try to take the trim off and see if the sound goes away. The sound is specifically bad when I drive into a driveway or a plaza - it seems like the car body bends a little bit and I hear this plastic / trim material hissing / squeaking sound.

I have been trying to search for instructions on how to remove the headlined / seat belt cover and I could not find any. Has anybody of you guys done this before? I am really afraid to break some plastic clips by just pulling the headliner, especially near the rear dome light.

I will keep trying and if I manage to to do it i will definitely post the DIY instructions (or prices of things I broke in the process )

Paul106

I managed to take the rear seat belt cover off and I know how to take the rear deck cover off as well (didn't need to do it today - will test drive tomorrow to see if the rattle is still there). I can post some pics if anybody is interested.

Paul106

By the way, I pulled out the piece of foam the dealer stuck under the seatbelt assembly cover in hopes that it would help stop the rattle. Look at it. I mean, seriously?

Paul106

And here is how my rear deck area looks right now:

Paul106

Okay, the next day of my "project" - I took off the rear deck cover. I pulled a whole bunch of foam put there be the dealer during "fixes". Here are some pics. Rattle test drive is tomorrow....

Paul106

And here is the dealer foam....

grizzly111

Wow good work! I have the same noise from the rear. How did you remove the rear deck cover?

Did you find the source of the rattles??

Paul106

I am sorry for the late reply - have been pretty busy lately.

Unfortunately, I have not found the source of the rattle yet. The only good news is that I can say that it is not coming from the rear deck. I think it is something in the headliner (the next step for me).

I assembled the rear deck back and I was surprised how easy it actually is. It took me less than 20 minutes. Now I can probably take it apart in 20 minutes since I know how )) I bought 2 pieces of 2 inch bulk foam in Home Depot ($5 each), sliced it and stuck everywhere I could.

So, in order to take it off, you need to do the following (This is the W204 coupe):

1. Fold down the rear seats

2. Using credit card or your nail open plastic covers which have "Air Bag" written on them on seat belt assemblies on both left an right sides of the car

3. Unscrew the two T25 screws from under both of them

4. Pull the seatbelt covers toward you - they will slide back from the rear deck and will be hanging on a hook and a clip attaching them to the trim under rear side windows

5. Pull the trim under the rear window firmly to unclip the top of it. There are 3 clips on top of the trip

6. Unhook and unclip the rear seat covers - now they will be hanging on seat belts. It is the hardest part - the hook there is tricky - but after rotating the seat belt cover a little bit you will see

7. Remove the rear seat attach points (of whatever they are called) from the rear deck. You can do it with your fingers - just pull the 2 round shaped rubber things

8. Now just pull the rear deck cover toward yourself - it will slide on plastic holders (you can see them from the trunk) and then lift it a little bit to take it out

This is pretty much it. They key here is that you need to pull out the rear seat belt covers before you can remove the rear deck cover.

Paul106

Here is the rear seat belt cover from inside. You can se the "tricky hook" and the clip on the top.

grizzly111

I have a rattle, well it's more of a creak coming from the roof area. I thought it maybe from the pano roof. Seems to go away when I lube the seals but comes back quickly.

I had a rattle from the rear but I stuffed the bottom of the deck brake light with foam and that seems to have helped it.

Paul106

Okay, finally the noise has been eliminated. This may sound pretty crazy but the it was not coming from anywhere near the rear shelf (yup, that was a good exercise to put it apart and back together).

I decided to take the car to the dealer again and it spent more than 10 days there. But they found the problem - it was coming from the panoramic sunroof! And since it it right behind your ears it really sounds like something in the rear headliner / shelf. So, for now the noise is gone - will see if it comes back. But at least my quest is over I am enjoying the car again!!

Riviera

Thanks for the tips ! I'll keep it in my mind if the rear rattle i had comes back (fixed by filling a lot of foam under 3rd stop light but it's a really ugly fix...)

Paul106

Yeah, I stuffed as much foam as I could there after disassembling it just to avoid future headaches