There was someone who posted a fix to what is a headrest of passenger seat noise over bumps. I couldn’t find it. I remember him mentioning he placed felt somewhere. Can anyone find that thread/post?

Might have been this post, I have a vibration on bass hits (I have the 4D) in the drivers head rest. I tried to message the user but there was no reply...

That’s it. I wonder if he just fellted the area where the posts rubs against the seat. I’m a little unsure how that may affect headrest movement.

The noise I have isn’t a rattle per se but it’s more of a thud and if only happens over rough bumps or surfaces. It sounds like it’s coming from the headrest but I’m not certain. The headrest bars rubs up against the plastic seat piece. That’s what I’m going to try and felt first.

its almost as if your noise is something actually loose inside the seat. I believe mine is an issue with the built in bass shakers in the seat. Something is also loose there..

I don’t have the 4D but yes, the sound I have is the same in context.

i believe i have had and maybe still do have a noise coming fron the front passenger seat. My dealer ordered a new headrest and it took a couple of months to come in. The dealer replaced it 2 weeks ago and i can honestly say it is better but i still see the headrest vibrate when the seat is empty and perhaps when the replacement headrest was installed something inside the seat got reconfigured.. When i have a passenger in the seat i do not hear anything. i do believe that there still is something loose inside that seat and my dealer is going to drive the car this coming Thursday with me in the back seat so that he can see and hear it for himself.

I ordered some trim felt. I’ll see if it works on the headrest bar contact area. However, after banging my seat around, I’m leaning towards the noise coming from somewhere inside the seat.

i think the origin of the noise is also coming from inside the seat in my car

Did you have any luck?

I wasn’t able to test it out yet. I’ll try soon.

I tried to install the black felt I purchased and I think it was too thick. It also looked really cheap, even though I tried to trim it down so it wasn’t on the surface. It also started to come off when the headrest went up or down so I just ended up removing it.

I may try something else like a thick tape, but the issue is that the pressure of the headrest bar against the plastic seat is pretty significant and I can see that whatever is placed there will eventually rub off and fall into the seat.

One thing I noticed while doing this, though, is that I can reproduce the sound by swiftly banging on the upper part of the seat or headrest. Even with the ability to reproduce the sound, it’s difficult to pinpoint where it’s coming from. To me it sounds like either the plastic part on the back of the seat and/or headrest is hitting something. I’m not sure how that part is attached to the seat but that could be the source.

hi Frenetic
I am sure I had the same issue. I too could replicate the noise in the same manner as you.. My issue was with the passenger seat and if I look at the seat in areas where I know it will make a noice i really notice the vibration of that seat especially the headrest. My dealer did bring in a replacement headrest from Germany and I would say that the problem is 95% resolved. i can still reproduce the noise but to a much lesser extent than before. My sense is when they took the seat abart to replace the headrest that for the most part fixed my issue. I can honestly say that I am no longer concerned about this issue but it was really irritating me before the fix.Hope this info helps...

I started another thread that I'm back in an S Class ('26 S580) after 7 years in BMW's.I've been back and forth over the years and been fortunate to drive and enjoy a lot of great cars, including 7 S Class's and 7 7 Series.I'm enjoying the drive as I've described on the other thread but I"m starting to encounter the irritating QC problems that have plagued MB and this model in particular.Yes, my headrests and seats rattle.The interior QC is better than the Car Care Nut W223 review from last November,but it's still disappointing that something so basic is not addressed.The headrest supports hitting the plastic casings are one source. The seat interior culpirts are most likely the ventilation fans just as on my 2000 W220 26 years ago!!I'm not even sure it's worth a call to service at this point.Think I'll wait a little bit to see if anything else pops up.I would welcome any other insight from forum members on this issue.I was experiencing an engine problem with my '25 760i and worked an early no cost lease buyout but that thing was solid as a rock!As we all know - no car is perfect.

I know Steve @SW20S has had good luck eliminating squeaks and rattles in his car. Maybe he can chime in here. Having to do this manually doesn't address your frustration with the quality of the parts and workmanship though.

The headrest rattle is, I believe, inside the headrest where the two posts likely end inside the actual headrest.

One thing that helped a little was pushing the button on the side of the actual headrest and tilting it as far forward as possible. This did reduce the frequency of rattles by a noticeable amount, but didn’t completely eliminate it. No other positioning or felt placement helped me.

I have this issue too. This maybe a good fix but horrible for a customer perspective buying this expensive car that we need to a DIY fix to solve this issue.

If Mbenz truly cares, they owe all owners of this generation a proper recall to address all these issues, or replace the entire base of the seat. I am aware of similar rattle issues with other brands wherein the manufacturer offered a proper expensive fix to door rattles or seat rattles. Expensive but very much needed based on my months and months of being in a number of rentals/Turos when I didn’t have a daily sedan and was looking for one. I do not expect them to address my GLS cause it rattles from nearly everywhere when it’s in the mode of rattling, sadly (A/B/C pillars, seats and doors) but maybe for the S it is limited to the seats and a handful of other areas that can be addressed if they care. It’s actually sad that I even have to deal with this in my GLS.

Yeah this is the car's achilles heel.

For the headrest, I second sliding the headrest forward, even a little bit. Also be sure its coming from there, I found that the flaps that close over the rear sunshades also make a rattle noise sometimes, try raising the sunshades and see if that solves it. If its that a simple little felt tape spot under the flap solves it.

For the seats, the rattling/creaking in the seat is all in the plastic around the base. I would put a silicone lubricant in all of those seams and press the plastic and flex it so it works into those seams. You can use 3 in 1 oil, but that has a smell. MB makes a good lubricant with no smell but it is expensive:

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...QaAr0pEALw_wcB

I also took all the plastic off the front of the seats (pops off by rotating down) and put felt everywhere they interact with any other materials. My seats are now 95% tight. That right there is much of the issue.

Certainly not something we should be forced to do DIY, but trying to get the dealer to address this is painful

Thanks!Much appreciated. I've done some squeak/rattle mitigation in my day and guess I'll have to get after it again!Was looking for some experienced advice and I'm getting it.Already kind of lightly torqued/twisted the head rests and the supports seem to be bedded a littlle better. I'll experiment with some of the other suggestions.Thanks again!

Mine has been, for the most part, rattle-free until I hit a really rough patch of asphalt.
While I don't have any rattles or squeaks from the seats, it resonates this barely noticeable noise from either the dash or the head console/light-switch assembly.
I did a road trip to Orlando over the weekend and noticed another rattle coming from the tweeter assembly only on very bumpy roads.
That one is on me though, because it's the aftermarket ebay tweeters

The cabin is super quiet, almost chamber-like, and that makes little rattles more noticeable.
I can deal with little annoyances like this as long as the car stays trouble-free on the major components.

Growing up my parents had an Oldsmobile Delta 88 - it rolled off the showroom floor with rattles. It would drive my dad nuts - he'd bang and fiddle with the dash to get them to stop - never succeeded. Got worse from there. So, my squeaky seat, by comparison, isn't so bad.

This is part of it, the noise floor is so low you hear anything and once you hear one, you are listening for them.

When you take the interior apart though, which I know you have done for your audio installs its really apparent they just didn't give this much thought. Tons of plastic on plastic contact and the physical parts themselves just make noise in how they are designed. The overhead console is a great example of that...inexcusable in a $140,000 car.

I used to be a development engineer for the door panels on a Volvo/Geely program and thought the door cards on the W223 were very well-designed.
The program I was in was for an intermediate SUV, so I guess there could've been quite some difference in complexity.

I haven't had the privilege of owning any previous gen S classes, so I can't tell how better or worse the W223 design is...
How were the W222 dashes compared to the W223?
Better sound deadening (e.g. felt tape)?

I agree with the head console.
While the housing and overall design is decent, the plastic noise creaking when pushed is just embarrassing.

I never disassembled my W222...but then again I didn't have to!

I haven't done anything with the door panels, just speaking to the seat base components and the center console which is what I have dealt with.