Rattle from door / removing door card

[dave_k]

Hi all. Long time reader of forum, but never posted before!

I've got a rattle coming from the drivers door. A screw seems to have worked its way loose behind the door trim, I think it's one of the screws that fixes the large speaker to the door. Now I get an constant rattle when driving over rough surfaces, and an annoying metalic noise when shutting the door rather than that satisfying 'clunk'!

I've looked at humsk's guide to removing the door car (found here), but I'm too wary of breaking something, as there seems to be a lot of parts to remove.

Does anyone know of an easier way of accessing the large speaker area? Can the speaker grill be removed? - I've tried pulling it a bit but it doesn't seem to budge, and I don't want to snap it.

I guess I may have to end up taking it to a dealership to cure the rattle, although that sounds like a very expensive option..

Thanks for any help

[Guinness]

I dont think it's possible to remove the grille separately, as it is part of the door card.

If you follow the guide carefully and take your time, it's not that difficult to remove. The only thing you're likely to break are the trim clips which can be replaced for a few pence each (or PM me you address and I'll post you some as I have 5 or 6 spares hanging around).

[dave_k]

I dont think it's possible to remove the grille separately, as it is part of the door card.

If you follow the guide carefully and take your time, it's not that difficult to remove. The only thing you're likely to break are the trim clips which can be replaced for a few pence each (or PM me you address and I'll post you some as I have 5 or 6 spares hanging around).

Thanks for the very kind offer, I've sent you a PM.

The bit I'm most concerned about is removing the tweeter grill, door pull handle, and courtesy light due to the potential to mess up the electrics / gubbins. I tried prizing away the courtesy light, but to no avail earlier today. Maybe I just need to be more forthright with it!

I'm thinking I may be able to get away with not removing the tweeter grill, door pull handle and grab handle as I only need to pop off the bottom corner of the door / pop off the door enough to push my hand in to tighten the screw. There again maybe that short-cut isn't possible if the door card doesn't have much flex in it.

[Guinness]

You're right - you may be able to just remove the bottom edge screws and pop one or two clips out just to get a hand in there, although I fear that your rattle may be coming from in the external door skin. You will not gain access to that by removing the door card as it is behind a riveted panel.

Likewise, the speaker is riveted to the door metal (not screwed), so unusual for the fixings to come loose.

Still worth a look in there though probably as it may be coming from something unexpected.

The courtesy light does just pop out if you lever firmly on one or other side. You wont damage the wiring. Tweeter grille also quite easy - just be patient and dont use metal to lever. Try a plastic credit card or knife or even better, get a set of plastic trim removal tools - so useful for many things

[bucksoctavia]

Removing the door card is not as hard as it looks, you just have to be confident & go for it!. As others have said, some clips may break, but you may be lucky as it is not too cold (they get brittle). They just cost a few pence from dealers or halfords do them.

I had a similar sounding rattle from my drivers door. Also drivers door speaker made an awful noise when on loud. My problem was that a pop rivet (which they use to fit speaker to inner door) had been dropped during build I guess & was stuck between the speaker magnet & inner door skin. To get to it I had to remove the door speaker, which is held on with 'big' rivets. I had to drill them out to get to the inner door void. The stray rivet was obvious. Unfortunately my rivet gun was not up to the job to refit. So I just rotated the speaker a few degrees & refitted with self tapping screws into inner door skin (after drilling pilot holes). Hope this helps!

I chose to DIY rather than faffing around at the dealers ( you can guarantee the 1st visit would have been 'no fault found'!)

[dave_k]

Thanks for all the replies, I'll pluck up the courage to give it a go myself.

I managed to poke whatever was rattling with a plastic ruler I inserted behind the door card, so hopefully I'll find it's something simple and easily accessible when I actually take the card off.