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Driving on the trails we call roads in Houston, my rear hatch was rattling something awful. I read through the forums and generally followed up on the good work of @DragonRR , @xbox and @Alexfor8 . Have to say I was surprised that the small plastic "points" which MB leaves for contact in the rear hatch area had etched through the paint on my 12k mile car (in all locations except for where the handle screws down . Installed sticky back microfiber at all the "point" locations. Even more surprising was the scratching on the sheet metal from the back of the metal clips in the middle hatch cover piece (the rearmost panel has prongs which fit into the metal clips). I'm stunned that the hatch lining/interior fitting is better designed and quieter in my short wheelbase rough riding stiff coil over Golf R (even with 19" P Zero shod R8 wheels on the corners). The door panels on my 2014 E63S have better contact point design. Geez MB at least install little clear plastic bumpers on the painted panel where there's purposeful interference (the point locations). The back of the metal clip being so close so as to be able to scratch the sheet metal is just poor design.
And of course I had the 3rd brake rattles (window ledge on housing and between the 2 covers). Now all is quiet on the hatch so time to empty the rear quarters and C panels and chase down the basics there too. And there's one in the drivers door panel. Everything else about the car I love and, as my wife can attest, I do love getting into the guts of a new car and tweaking things here and there. Plastic Point 1 Plastic Point 2 White spots where paint rubbed through at top of hatch White spots where paint rubbed through at bottom of hatch White spots where metal clips on middle plastic cover rubbed through Metal clips on middle plastic cover
When pulled apart the rub points are really obvious. Although you could cover the points on the plastic inside pieces I elected to put small rectangles on the body panel (including where the metal clips on the middle piece make contact). I feel it will be more durable and look a lot cleaner.
Also make sure your rear deck adjusters are unscrewed to make sure they aren't loosing contact when jostled (turned mine a full rotation). Lastly look at the lip around the third brake light both by the glass and by the top panel. A few small pieces created some spacing and provided a gap wide enough that it didn't rattle anymore.
My car was missing a few things from the trunk area and that's allowed some rattles there and the surround sound back speaker has something loose (that's for tomorrow if the weather's decent).
Houston-istan ... I love it. See you on the trail!
Thanks for this, @cward2 . The problem with adjusting the spring elements/bump stops, is that it raises or lowers the closed position of the hatch. So it will no longer sit perfectly flush when closed. If you turn them counter-clockwise, as I think you did, your hatch will sit too high when closed.
I agree that the design is poor here. You can see they tried to remedy it by adding a piece of clear plastic film to the bump stop contact points...
I have a slight rattle that I can’t get rid of — I’m going to try replacing the bump stop.
Thanks for this, @cward2 . The problem with adjusting the spring elements/bump stops, is that it raises or lowers the closed position of the hatch. So it will no longer sit perfectly flush when closed. If you turn them counter-clockwise, as I think you did, your hatch will sit too high when closed.
I agree that the design is poor here. You can see they tried to remedy it by adding a piece of clear plastic film to the bump stop contact points...
I have a slight rattle that I can’t get rid of — I’m going to try replacing the bump stop.
Sorry just saw your reply. The rear bump stops are spring loaded with a pretty wide adjustment range. Accordingly the vast majority of the adjustment range doesn't actually change the height (until spring bind locks it up). The rear height seems to actually be set by the hidden latch adjustment. At lease on my car.
Mercedes SLR McLaren 722 S Is Extremely Rare Example Modified by McLaren
Slideshow: A one-of-one U.S.-spec Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster became even rarer after a factory-backed transformation at McLaren's headquarters.
