Help! My front doors rattle!

[Titanium2.3]

And it's driving me nuts! I have the 6 speaker stereo w/ 6 CD and the front door panels vibrate during songs with moderate bass. I know it's not the speakers themselves because if I grab the door handle and hold it, it stops. This is with only +1 bass on the EQ and at a volume as low as 12! Anyone else experience this with their 3? Should I try Dynamat? I already tried tightening the screws that hold the panels to the doors with no real difference. I'd like to eventually replace the speakers and maybe add an amp but am hesitant to do so with rattles that can make expensive speakers sound like crap. Thanks in advance for any input you guys have on this.

 

[GimmeA3S]

Welcome to the world of the 3. The only thing I can determine is that there's a piece of metal inside the door that's mounted too close to the inner door skin...when I remove the door panel, I can tighten and loosen various bolts that hold the inner door panel on and the noise goes away...but after a few hundred miles of driving, it returns. There's a clearance problem inside the doors, and I've all but given up trying to fix it. I started to remove the innner panel, but when I noticed that all the inner workings of the power window were attached to it, I said 'no way'. There were cables and pulleys and all sorts of crap attached to it, and I'm sure one false move could screw it all up.

Now that I've had the door panels off several times, I doubt the dealership would be inclined to fix this under warranty. It's a widespread problem, though..one that I'd think the service departments would be aware of by now.

 

[fam]

Ive found that if you leave the car in park the door doesnt rattle as much. This car has the potential to be better than a cheap beamer in every way, but we forget that for the price that we paid for this car, there are some annoyances were gonna have to bite down and bare unless we wanna pay 5k more for sound deadening and better materials.

 

[AzMz3]

Ive found that if you leave the car in park the door doesnt rattle as much. This car has the potential to be better than a cheap beamer in every way, but we forget that for the price that we paid for this car, there are some annoyances were gonna have to bite down and bare unless we wanna pay 5k more for sound deadening and better materials.

Bottom line is Mazda tried too much to make the car look like it is worth alot more than it is and skipped on some of the normal luxuries. Like not having any rattles.

It will get worse mine was so worse that it would rattle with the radio off. This made me install a 10" sub and amp to either drown out the rattle or hopefully make the car fall apart.

It is a little issue and I like the car alot, I'm sure if I open the doors up it is an easy fix.

 

[Tonys3]

I dont have these problems, but just take the speaker out, and go buy some sound dampening sheets from best buy for 20 bucks ,put them behind the spearker and problem is solved !

 

[fam]

you will have these problems eventually, mine difnt really start till after 10k miles and a nice pothole, and I thought about a sub to drown it out too.

 

[funnylittlman]

Wear headphones

 

[blizz81]

Yeah, both my front doors.

If you took things apart far enough, you could probably get away with sliding a folded-up piece of paper in the right spot. I was going to take the panels off when it got warmer out and see if I could find anything, but Gimmea3S's testimony basically nullifies that.

I figured I'd just put sound deadening material in if I ever upgraded the speakers.