Lanzz

OK - I am starting to sound like a broken record, but after two trips to the dealer, replacement of the right rear shock and numerous other steps, I still have a rattle in the right rear.

I am past the point of taking it back to the dealer, they have been patient, but I don't think their business model permits them to make multiple attempts at something as elusive as an intermittent rattle - my choice is to live with it (which isn't really my personality) or figuring it out myself... Seems like an interior noise at this point - concentrated in the right rear under/near the side panel.

Has anyone ever taken this panel off? How difficult do you think it would be and would it even go back on?

chassis

WIS procedure doesn't seem too bad. It helps if you have had experience working with plastic trim components. Work slowly and carefully. Thin flat tools are helpful.

Remove cargo roller blind
Fold seats forward
Remove removable trim panels
Remove cargo roller blind plastic trim covers
Remove center load floor and rear panel
Remove side trim panels

martinlarose

Lanzz i would take it back to the dealer again and leave the car and get them to drive it for more than just a test drive...The service manager should take it home or drive it on the weekend so that he/she will hear it. That's what i did with mine. I told them keep it until its fixed. They gave me a loaner and I drove the loaner home some 200 miles away and kept the loaner for about a week and they finally fixed it. if you hear it intermittently they will too. i know it is very frustrating...

Lanzz

Martin, it is so subtle, I am going to come across as unreasonable (at least I would think that if I were them...) So - I figured I could take another pass at the dealer in the spring, but I would take a shot my self before then... (My confidence, of course, greatly exceeds my ability...)

2012 merc amg

How about if you folded down the rear seat and put somebody back there like a teen kid if you have one and drive down a bumpy road and have them really listen back there to see where it is coming from?
My e450 has the same noise but in Florida I hardly ever notice it as the roads are so smooth. In New England though it bothers me. It sounds like I left a coke bottle in the rear compartment and it’s rattling around but I didn’t. Be interested to see what you find. Maybe a loose sway bar or something ?

Lanzz

Yes, 2012 - like a coke bottle rattling around, but only over certain bumps!! Will let you know what I find... I think it is interior related...they went over suspension with fine tooth comb.

2012 merc amg

[QUOTE=Lanzz;7918626]Yes, 2012 - like a coke bottle rattling around, but only over certain bumps!! Will let you know what I find... I think it is interior related...they went over suspension with fine tooth comb.[/QU

Yep. It does sound kinda interior related with my car too. When I kept hearing last summer I kept thinking I left a tennis racket or bicycle helmet in the backseat and it was hitting against the side of the door. Then when I got out of the car I’d look and nothing there. On mine it really sounds like there is something inside the passenger rear door making the noise. Although it could be further back like you said inside that rear panel behind the passenger rear door.

martinlarose

hi again I still think it is a factory bolt that wasn't tightened enough. As 2012 described it like a coke bottle rattling around on the inside that is the way i felt too...I sure thought it was inside but couldn't find anything loose. I even thought the pull out cover base was not secured but that was not it. It took the dealer several attempts before it found the problem and it was a relatively quick fix once it did...As i had said before leave the car with them for a few days and let them drive it for more than just a test drive to locate the source...

konigstiger

See attachment.

Baltistyle

I removed some of the trim in order to tighten the panoramic roof bolts.

I can’t remember exactly why I started to remove more trim but I recall that the vents, the horizontal part under the window, was wavy as if it was removed before.

Upon further inspection, the car had an old LoJack module under that trim on the passenger side (us model). THIS MIGHT BE CAUSING THAT RATTLE?

To inspect, it is as easy as removing the horizontal screen from the trim with interior tools..the module in my car was not secure and looking at the vmi showed LoJack was installed from Mercedes.

Interior tools really make quick work of it all. I will likely have to go back in next summer for the pano bolts again due to the crazy off-camber entries I make into parking...

Additionally if you have to remove the clips that hold in the rear cargo shade, note the orientation as the driver side will come apart once you remove it.


Good luck

Lanzz

So, I took this panel off and looked all around. Everything looks right (and really nice and neat - I am impressed with the wiring and the craftsmanship in places nobody ever sees...) I even rode in the back with the panel off to see if I could hear anything specific.

Based on that ride, I have concluded that the rattle is outside the car - must be suspension related. I have an appointment on 12/31 to have the suspension looked over again .

Thanks, Balti for the suggestion on the LoJack module, I did not see one of those. And thanks (again!) Konigs - that PDF was super helpful.

SpaceDesign

Hi Lanzz, How did you get on, I have a wagon and on certain bumpy roads I can hear a faint rattle from the rear side, almost like a wooden ruler being flicked on a table top slowly, it happens just after the bump, and its driving me insane. I thought it was the spoiler on the back door, or perhaps the flap on the reverse camera, but the more I listen out for it, the more I am sure its a cable loom behind a panel. All that said, based on reading this tread, it could be suspension outside. I'd be keen to heard how your search goes.

Lanzz

Space, I have not solved it yet - very disappointed in a 6 month old car with 3,000 miles on it that sounds like a NYC taxi over bumps. What you describe is similar to what I encounter - the challenge is that it is not a very loud noise, and the dealer claims not to hear it. (In their defense, you can only hear it from the driver's seat or the back seat, you cannot hear it well from the passenger seat because it originates in the right rear corner.) Once you know the noise, you can hear it clearly and you can hear it over the radio even.

So - in my case, I have had it at the MB dealer twice and also paid an independent tech at the McLaren dealer to go over the suspension - right rear shock replaced by the dealer and nothing else found otherwise.

I have a theory that it is something inside the rear wheel well - something moving around inside the wheel well above the plastic liner. As you said, it is not a metallic noise, and it occurs a split second after you hit a bump. When the weather is a little better, I am going to jack it up, take the wheel off and remove the inner fender liner to look around. At this point, I don't even like the car and I really don't relish any further debate with the dealer about what they do or don't hear - I hope you get a better result than I have thus far.

2012 merc amg

Sure sounds like from the way describe it the same noise that my 2019 E450 Wagon has, although I have not noticed it once since I've been in Florida the past couple of months. I'm sure I'll hear it again once I get back up north next spring heading though New York and into New England. My 2019 E450 Cabriolet I don't get this noise at all, the car seems a little tighter than the wagon. I drive both every week so I can really compare them. Even though the cars are both E450s they really are entirely different driving cars. I wonder though if it has something to do with the AWD drive system, the Cabriolet is just RWD They sit side by side in garage.

SpaceDesign

Lanzz, I'm not stopping until I solve this! The solution will be found by sharing this issue with the community.

Just thinking out loud, you say your sound is on the right side, so have you checked around your fuel filler door? Perhaps drive with the flap open, see if it effects the noice, mine has a lot of play in the flap, a friend has a similar noise in his sedan, and is convinced either the fuel pipe or the Adblue pipe running from the flap to the respective reservoir is loose.

My car is right hand drive and my sound appears to be on the left side of the car....

Lanzz

Space - yes, I am strongly leaning toward the fuel filler neck/pipe as well as the source of the noise - that is the area where I hear the noise. (I don't smell fumes and there's no warning light on, so I do not think there is a leak or serious safety issue.) There's no play in the fuel door itself, but it seems like it definitely could be the fuel filler neck or some adjacent part in the wheel well rubbing on the body. Next weekend looks clear, so I will jack it up and look in the wheel well - will definitely share what I find.

SpaceDesign

Lanzz, did you see the wheel arch photo on this tread? https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...up-blocks.html

Could be worth dropping a wheel to see if anything is loose in there?

Lanzz

Yes, Space - that photo was helpful - there's a lot going on in the wheel well. I am going to take off the right rear wheel and look closely at it this weekend, as long as it doesn't rain. My garage isn't big enough to work in, so I need to do it in the driveway.

Lanzz

Sooooo, the weather finally cooperated and I took a look in the right rear wheel well to look for the source of the rattle - I still have not found the source. Here are the pictures of what all is in the wheel well after the liner is removed - fuel filler neck, brake lines and a bunch of other stuff. All of it looks like it is screwed in pretty tight - there's nothing that even moves or makes the sound I hear when I move it. It's frustrating - but I guess if it was easy to find, the dealer would have found it. I hate this car. If there's a bright side, I now own a nice low profile three ton floor jack and a pair of jack stands.

SpaceDesign

Thanks for the photos, handy to see what's in there. Remember you are not alone, you are not a soldier, rather, all of us thinking together, we are an army.
One of us here will find what's causing it, and then we can all share the solution.
Mine is going into dealership this week for them to look at it. I will let you know if anything comes of this.
There are a few TSBs which allude to something similar and suggest there could be some bushings that could be causing a noise, I am drilling down on this for now, if nothing shows up there then I plan to check the shock absorber top mounts to see how they are. Take a look at this, granted its a W212, but it could be helpful, is your sound like this?

chassis

If you haven't already reassembled everything, can you take it for a test drive to see if the noise is still there? Could the rattle be the wheel arch liner itself?

Did you describe the conditions when you hear the noise? e.g.:

- braking
- accelerating
- cornering
- under throttle
- coasting
- high speed (highway)
- low speed (parking lot)
- smooth road
- bumpy road

Lanzz

Chassis, I considered driving it without the wheel liner in - I probably should have. I am not that comfortable jacking up a car, removing the wheel, etc - so I was trying to avoid doing that more times than necessary. (You will note my non standard jackstand positioning, it was the best I could come up with unless I jacked up the rear using the differential, but the jury is out on that...) The wheel liner does not seem heavy or solid enough to cause the noise I hear - the noise is a very faint "boom" which it doesn't seem that a felt covered wheel liner could cause. The rear end of the wheel liner has a piece of heat shield on it - but that part doesn't make contact with anything, I checked.

So - the exact conditions that cause it are small, high frequency bumps in sequence - they "excite" something that makes a noise a split second after the bump. I think larger bumps make enough "normal" noise that they down out this noise and smaller bumps or sometimes a single bump won't cause it. It is independent of every other factor on your list - and it does not change if the car has 1 passenger or 4. The only other variable is temperature, the noise is more pronounced when the weather is cold. I hate this car.

SpaceDesign

Incredibly articulate Sir, this is exactly how mine is. The split second delay before the noise, the rhythm - relationship to the road surface are always consistent, at this moment I can predict when i will hear the noise before it happens - this is of course is adding to the suffering! Also in cold temperature its more noticeable, naturally this had me focussed on something metal, maybe heat shields....

See item 6 on this link post 31 - https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...ml#post7157854

See item 2 on this link post 38 -https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w213/626112-bulletins-213-a-2.html#post7267331


Currently this is an area of interest that I am focussing on: The rear anti roll bars or sway bar link arms. These are notorious in all Mercedes and to be fair, they fail in most cars just as easily. I had them go on the front of my 911 with 40k kilometres on the clock.

First clip shows you what is happening inside the bushing in the arm, and you can see clearly how you could get a noise.

Second clip shows you where the arm is and how to access it at the back.

chassis

If the noise is as predictable as you indicate, the source should be findable. Agree to investigate stabilizer bar links and bushings. This makes sense if the noise is coming from only one side of the vehicle, as it apparently is being described. The delay that is mentioned by two posters suggests it is related to suspension movement, which is "delayed" by the damping effect of shock absorbers.

Therefore, focus on items that move with the suspension.

bacondude

These descriptions are sounding very similar to what I had on my 2019 e450, albeit in the left front of my car.

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...ml#post7937596

The dealer ultimately put it in their jack/machine thing that enables them to put microphones on the car to locate a sound. You may want to see if any dealer in the area has one and request to have that analysis. I don’t know why they didn’t do it earlier but it found it.

It was a missing shim in the control arm. I was also told those swing arms have a nut at the end that will loosen and rattle in this way if you hit a pothole just right. They originally replaced those but it was missing a shim from the factory that caused it... and to me it started right after I had bought the car.

I hope this helps.