Hi all, using this post to introduce myself and hopefully get some help. After lusting after an E63s wagon for years, I finally made it happen this past May. The car is a thrill to drive, and I love the sleeper aspect of it. The double takes you get from passerby struggling to reconcile the docile wagon body with the growling muscle car sound are always fun to see. And my many years of lurking on this forum have given me a great idea of what to expect when it comes to common issues and their repairs - thank you all!

However, one issue that I did not anticipate is the poor interior quality. I am definitely more sensitive to rattles than most (my wife, for example, says she doesn't hear anything), but to me, there are buzzes and rattles everywhere. When passing over heaves and expansion joints, every panel in the car seems to resonate for a second. But more annoying are the small little buzzes that occur when driving on older, textured pavement. They're driving me crazy. Given the extraordinary cost of these vehicles, I was definitely expecting more of the "hewn from a single piece of stone" feel, and have been disappointed in that department. I don't want to feel like the car is shaking itself apart over every bump.

So far, I've attempted to minimize the rattles by:

1. setting tire pressures to 41 front, 38 rear, per the gas flap sticker, vs. the ridiculous numbers suggested by the door sticker.
2. setting suspension to Comfort even when in the sportier modes
3. (see pics below) removing, improving, and reinstalling the door panels (per this video:
   You Tube
   ), specifically:
   1. applying window weld to all the plastic clips, and anything that can jostle around
   2. applying sound deadening mat to any larger flat portions

These measures have certainly improved on the rattles, but far from eliminated them. I still hear several buzzes in the doors, and the dash and center console remain host to many vibrating components. I'm thinking of tackling those areas next, but given their relative complexity, figured I'd ask the forum for their solutions before diving in.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and suggestions!

Some pics:




Door panel with sound deadening mat and window weld applied

 

I share your disdain for any rattles or squeeks. I have a 2019 S63 but I have driven the E63 Wagon and I was stunned at how harsh the ride is in the E63 Wagon. I think they actually softened up the suspension in the FL versions that came later. Non the less, here we are. You are off to a good start but what I have found with my car is that almost all of the rattles can be attributed to hard plastic parts that are rubbing up against each other ever so slightly. I went through my car and applied Tesa Tape to all plastic butt joints everywhere I could find. Tesa tape is the fabric like tape that most german car companies use for interior wire loom material. It is a very thin fabric tape with a slightly stick backing that sticks well to stuff and creates an insulator between these plastic parts. You can find it on Amazon. The curse of these cars is that they use a ton of tricky fasteners in an effort to stop this noise so it is a PITA to take anything apart. I had one rattle in my headliner that was driving me batty, I could not get access to that area so i just stuffed a sock in that spot with a pick and the noise is gone. I am guessing it was a loose plug for something. Don't know, don't care, the car has not burned down and it is now pretty vault like. The other thing I would suggest is if you have the airmatic suspension, get with the Benz Ninja and see if he can program the suspension to be the same profile as the E450 wagon suspension in comfort mode. I know he can do that with the S63. The ride quality of the wagon would make it a no go for me as I daily my S63 and in comfort mode it is great and very S class like. Oh, and welcome to the jungle that is MB ownership. Have you heard about the RMS drama yet?

 

98% of the rattle in my car was from the door seal, specifically the velvety part of the door seal that rubs against he paint. After I lubed that up, along with all the other door seal surfaces, all is quiet. It usually happens when I wash the car and finish it with a ceramic quick wax or ceramic spray detailer, sounds like bunch of stuff inside the door is loose and squeaking.

There is a tiny rattle at the triangle coat hanger shaped plastic piece where the seat belt comes out from the pillar near my ear, but I push on that piece and the sound disappears for a few days.

 

Thank you both for the suggestions.

@taphil what would you recommend for lubing the velvety seals?

@superpop thankfully I am well aware of the RMS issues. Over the years, I've attempted to buy several of these things. This car was the first semi-reasonably priced one to not have an active oil leak during its PPI. But, I've budgeted accordingly for the likely scenario it does fail, and I've been in contact with Trenton re: the Fidelity warranty, still considering it. I've also been driving it hard, in case the theory here that consistent high temps helps clear the separators. "But officer, I was just doing some preventative maintenance!"

 

Seems the be the go-to. Also small and convenient to keep in the glove box.

 

Doing a long cross country drive so have had a lot of time to ponder the rattles. I notice rattles the most coming from the door panels, seems others find the same. They mostly go away when I leave my arm on the door armrest. I will look into lubing the seals as suggested.

 

Update: tried the door seal lubricant but didn't notice much of a difference in terms of the rattles. But, it feels like a good thing to do to maintain those components. Will reapply every once in a while.

I also applied tesa tape, and more window weld where appropriate, in the door panels and center console. This SIGNIFICANTLY improved the rattles, to the point where I essentially only hear them when going over expansion joints or big bumps/dips in the road. Critically, the rattles are almost entirely gone when just driving along, even on older, more textured pavement. I think switching to a tire with more forgiving sidewalls will eliminate them entirely.

Some progress pics and pro tips:

Couldn't find a way to unclip the wires from the ambient lighting. So I removed the ambient lighting. Easy enough to just pop out and back in. Also discovered that a previous owner must have spilled a soda in the car, some drops of which ended up in here. Was glad to be able to clean that up.

I put a layer of tesa tape between any two different plastic pieces that had even a remote possibility of coming in contact. The cupholders seemed to be a big source of noise. Even when clipped in, they sit pretty loose in their cavity. Lining every edge with tesa tape helped immensely.

By far the biggest source of noise was this gap...

...and these clips. These are at the top of each door panel, and the rattles were especially bad from the rear. If it makes a difference, my car is equipped with peasant blockers for the rear windows.

I put window weld in each of the clips, really shoving it down in there, and layered tesa tape over the long gap. Used a pick to push the tape somewhat into the crease. Afterwards, no noise!

Next steps are to dig into the dash, and try to find some other rattles coming from the rear center. Could be the back of the center console near the dual air vents. Or worse, the headliner. We'll see. In the meantime, I'm loving the car all that much more now that it doesn't constantly sound like it's shaking itself apart.

 

Before and after of the door panel tops.

Before: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CDb...ew?usp=sharing
After: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eNi...ew?usp=sharing

 

Respect. 🙏🏾