I own a 2024 C180 which has persistent creaking noises coming from the car door frames. The noises appear when driving up or down a ramp or going over uneven roads. The noises seem to be coming from all 4 doors.

I have searched online for remedies and most owners have suggested using gummi pflege (by Sonax), silicone lube spray or even Krytox oil. I have tried applying all these on the door and car body rubber seals, including the felt strip on the top edge of the door windows. But none of these worked for me.

I eventually gave up and decided to clean off all these lube stuff from the rubber seals. I used a couple of cotton rags which have been rinsed in diluted dishwasher detergent solution and wiped down all the rubber seals and car body panels. Strangely, most of the creaking noises disappeared!

I’m pleasantly surprised but also really puzzled why this worked. I thought removing the lube stuff from rubber seals and car body would have made the noises even worse due to less lubrication…

Has anyone else experienced this ? Is there a permanent solution to the creaking noises?

Thanks in advance!

Glad to hear it disappeared!

Just wanna give an update to close off this issue, hopefully once and for all…

The creaking sounds came back again and the sounds seem to come from the door plastic panels/cards, rather the rubber seals or door frame. The creaking sounds are plasticky, like plastic parts being stretched or pushed against each other. This happens on uneven road surface or turning up/down a ramp and I suspect the chassis flexing causes the car doors to shift slightly in relation to the overall car body frame.

my friend recommended me to try kryptox again. So again I got some kryptox GPL 105 and this time I made sure that I applied it to ALL the rubber seals. Previously, I applied it to only the rubber seals on the door frames because I thought that was the culprit. This time I also applied it to the rubber seals on the car body frame. These are the rubber seals which press against the door plastic panels/cards when the doors are closed. I suspect if these rubber seals are not well lubed, they will stick and rub against the door plastic panels. This causes the car plastic panels/cards to move slightly and make plasticky creaking sounds when chassis flexes.

In short, kryptox does work but you need to apply thoroughly to all the rubber seals. Finger crossed this works permanently. Hopefully this info is useful to other owners who are facing the same issue

Thank you for sharing OP, hopefully that helps other forum members that come across your thread in the future.

Just to share, the door frame creaks came back again. But this time, I’ve finally resolved it once and for all.

Turned out the creaks were caused by the velvet felt strips on top of the door window frame. With the doors closed and I am standing outside the car, I could produce the creak sounds by pressing hard on the top part of the door window frame. This is where the felt strips are pressing and rubbing against the car frame.

Thanks to posts by BMW owners who had similar creak noises and suggested using anti friction tape, I took the dive and bought the APT tape from Amazon (see below link). I got the 0.5 inch wide, 5 mil thick version which was flexible to stick around the car frame because the tape is thin (5 vs 10 mil) and narrow (0.5 inch vs 0.75 or 1 inch which some people recommended. The 5 yards roll was just enough to cover the car frame for all 4 windows.

for those who are keen to try, my key advice is to thoroughly wipe clean the car frame surface which I used diluted isopropyl alcohol. This is to ensure that the surface is free of wax and contaminants. Hope that this helps those who are also plagued by same door creaks.

Good job.

I stopped the creaking noises by applying this to the velvet parts of the door seals

No , what you want to do is realign the window as perfect as you can untill the factory glue reseals it's some weird kind of glue that expands and contracts changing its viscosity with the temperature in my case this happens in the winter after where it is cold in new England I have to realign it but the the factory glue will in time re seal itself when it is warm enough I wouldn't put anything in there except what they use at the factory

I tried the one made by Sonax. Worked for a while but the creaks come back after a while. Hope this lasts a lot longer for you !

Sent the car in 5x for warranty. They even send it to a smash repairer. Whatever coating gets put on, will only last a short few months then the creaking will return. If you compare the rubber quality with W204 model, mb have cut corners from w205. The seal material is far far inferior even compared to a cheap kia.