dante2086

How do I remove the rear subwoofer grill, so I can see the speakers. I've tried everything to get rid of the rattling, but now I need to examine the speakers. Took it to the dealership, and as I expected, they were clueless. Is the woofer grill the one with the stop light attached? And if it is, how do I remove it? Thanks a lot.

thekurgan

Search is your friend

https://mbworld.org/forums/5441920-post113.html

Arrie

I did take mine of by this instruction. It comes up when just prying on it but I noticed something that is better to do.

It has plastic hooks every 3" or so around it. The deck itself is some kind of cheapo material and when forcing the hook up it can wear in the material, which means the hook might not hold again when you put it back.

Each hook is built like a gate with the hook in the middle. If you press on the hook itself in the middle of the gate the hook will release without force against the deck material edge. I used a credit card corner to press against the hooks and it worked fine.

But there is really nothing under this speaker cover. You can see the speakers but I could find nothing rattling that I am after. My next plan is to take the whole rear deck cover off as I have a rattle in there somewhere and there is no access to it thru the trunk. Hope someone had instructions how to do this as it seems a bit more challenging job to do.

brauhaus313

Arrie, did you find instructions on how to remove the rear deck cover?

dante2086

They were sent to me by Konigstiger, and I can tell you, it's not easy stuff. Though I'm not sure I have the right tools though.

Arrie

See Thekurgan earlier post. I started like he says but after popping a couple of the hooks up I saw how they are made and started pressing the hooks with a corner of a credit card. The hooks release very easily this way.

dante2086

I saw the earlier post, but the pic looks like the rear speaker grills. I'm assuming the woofer grill is the one behind the window shades, the one connected to the brake lights.

brauhaus313

Yeah, I'm talking about the rear deck cover, not the grill that you already removed.

BTW, under that grill cover, are the wires to the subwoofer visible?

Arrie

There was one wire harness visible but I'm not sure what speaker it goes to. I would think it is for the SUB in the middle but not sure.

dante2086

So, I've found the offending speaker, the rattle is coming directly from the speaker when it vibrates, and it's biased to one side. If place a finger on the side of the speaker, with a certain amount of pressure, the rattle is gone. I place placing a piece of foam on that part and locking the grill back in place, but that damn piece of cheap plastic bent instead of exerting the pressure. Disconnected the speaker, but then music sounded like crap, so any suggestions?

thekurgan

Sounds like a blown speaker.

dante2086

Blown speaker? Wow, that was quick. Mercedes and Harman Kardon need to have a chat.

thekurgan

If you're describing touching the surround while playing music, and the rattle is stopped, the voice coil is probably toast. Disconnecting the speaker itself eliminates the rattle, but you lose sound quality; also sounds like the speaker itself. Have you tried fading to the front, reducing bass and see if the rattle moves around?

dante2086

The rattle is gone. I took the car to the dealer again, and told a friend of mine there to remove the rear shelf and remove the woofer so we could inspect it. We found a piece of white plastic inside the speaker assembly, took it out, re-assembled, and voila. Played bass heavy music at a bass level of 10 and a high volume level, and the lack of the rattle was music to my ears ( Pun sadly intended ).
Thanks guys.

BM2BZ

good to hear the it's gone but where did that plastic piece come from?

dante2086

That's what I've been trying to figure out. And it didn't seem like a speaker component that broke out. It looked so outta place in there. Weird.