Door Panel Click

RedGiant217

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Yesterday, I noticed that my door trim makes a distinct click when I go to push the door open.
In the video, I am barely pressing on the door panel. Not even enough to move the door.
Passenger door does not do this.

I will be stopping by the dealership today and will follow up.

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davemarco

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I have this. I’ll go you one further though - my drivers side door also clicks rhythmically on its own. While stationary.

What’s up with that?
 

racer

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Normal. Its just a $35K civic.. just a regular one ;)
 
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RedGiant217

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Seems like it mostly went away before I could get it into the dealership. I showed it to them when I made the appointment and the guy there made it seem like he didn't think it was normal.
It's right by the door handle which makes it pretty annoying when opening the door. If it's normal, so be it. But if it's not, I'd like to get it fixed.
 

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I have this. I’ll go you one further though - my drivers side door also clicks rhythmically on its own. While stationary.

What’s up with that?
Oh man, does yours also clicks from time to time too? I noticed that to me it looks like mine is coming from the pillar above the seat belt mount to your left. I was wondering if that can be related to the airbag which sits there.
 


mjchristian

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Oh man, does yours also clicks from time to time too? I noticed that to me it looks like mine is coming from the pillar above the seat belt mount to your left. I was wondering if that can be related to the airbag which sits there.
I've noticed this click in mine as well. When it happens, I hear it like clockwork every 3-4 seconds for about 30 seconds or so.

From what I've observed: it happens only when the car is warm (usually after sitting in the sun), and it starts while accelerating from low (city) speeds to highway speeds. <pushed glasses up nose> I have decided it's caused by the pressure gradient between interior and exterior atmosphere (exterior being lesser at higher speed), combined with a gasket that has been softened by heating. I hypothesize that this allows a very regular amount of air leakage and when the pressure gradient is great enough, this results in a rhythmic "click" or "tick" as the gasket lets air through. This continues until either the gasket is cooled by the rushing air, or until the gradient is no longer large enough to overcome the seal.

All of which is to say - It's a Civic, so I'm not going to fuss too much about every creak, squeak or click. Even the CTR is, at its heart, based on a 20-something thousand dollar car. Honda's are pretty reliable and well-sorted, but you're not paying for the (cough-pointless-cough) R&D that companies like BMW do, making sure every switch and lever feels like it's worth about 400% as much as it is.
 
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mjchristian

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Yesterday, I noticed that my door trim makes a distinct click when I go to push the door open.
In the video, I am barely pressing on the door panel. Not even enough to move the door.
Passenger door does not do this.

I will be stopping by the dealership today and will follow up.

Having taken my door panels off, I can tell you this is nothing to worry about. The door panel is attached by a bunch of clips around the edge and 1 screw, which is it's only real hard point (it's underneath the button panel). This means that when you push on the plastic anywhere between the screw and the edge, you'll flex the panel enough to touch off on something, or cause the joined pieces to creak/click.

I've noticed the same exact click as you recorded. I can also tell you that the coupe (used to have a 2017) has no such click, and feels a lot more sturdy. This is because it has 5 screws holding it on, with several hard attachment points where it's screwed into metal. That's something I miss about the coupe... but not that much.
 

K20C1CTR

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I've noticed this click in mine as well. When it happens, I hear it like clockwork every 3-4 seconds for about 30 seconds or so.

From what I've observed: it happens only when the car is warm (usually after sitting in the sun), and it starts while accelerating from low (city) speeds to highway speeds. <pushed glasses up nose> I have decided it's caused by the pressure gradient between interior and exterior atmosphere (exterior being lesser at higher speed), combined with a gasket that has been softened by heating. I hypothesize that this allows a very regular amount of air leakage and when the pressure gradient is great enough, this results in a rhythmic "click" or "tick" as the gasket lets air through. This continues until either the gasket is cooled by the rushing air, or until the gradient is no longer large enough to overcome the seal.

All of which is to say - It's a Civic, so I'm not going to fuss too much about every creak, squeak or click. Even the CTR is, at its heart, based on a 20-something thousand dollar car. Honda's are pretty reliable and well-sorted, but you're not paying for the (cough-pointless-cough) R&D that companies like BMW do, making sure every switch and lever feels like it's worth about 400% as much as it is.
Hi there, I have the exact same issue with my car. Here is the original post I have on the Civic XI forum. Do you know if I can do something to eliminate the noise? It happened pretty frequently during the day and it could get old very quickly. Thanks in advance.

https://www.civicxi.com/forum/threa...p-left-corner-or-the-panels-next-to-it.53053/
 

mjchristian

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Hi there, I have the exact same issue with my car. Here is the original post I have on the Civic XI forum. Do you know if I can do something to eliminate the noise? It happened pretty frequently during the day and it could get old very quickly. Thanks in advance.

https://www.civicxi.com/forum/threa...p-left-corner-or-the-panels-next-to-it.53053/
I was never able to fix it - I just learned to ignore it. Not something that makes you feel great about the build quality of the vehicle, but at least nothing is broken/not working s as designed. I’m pretty sure of my “pressure differential” theory - basically just a slightly leaky gasket.
 

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I was never able to fix it - I just learned to ignore it. Not something that makes you feel great about the build quality of the vehicle, but at least nothing is broken/not working s as designed. I’m pretty sure of my “pressure differential” theory - basically just a slightly leaky gasket.
Are you referring to the seals for the door/window which might be leaking? Would replacing a new seal fix the issue though if that's the root cause?

Honestly for me, it's very hard for me to ignore since it's right next to my left ear. My car has other rattle/creaks too which I can ignore because it's not next to my ears.
 


mjchristian

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Are you referring to the seals for the door/window which might be leaking? Would replacing a new seal fix the issue though if that's the root cause?

Honestly for me, it's very hard for me to ignore since it's right next to my left ear. My car has other rattle/creaks too which I can ignore because it's not next to my ears.
I was never really sure which seal was the culprit. Could be the door gasket, but I lean towards thinking it was the window seal. I don’t think replacing parts will change the issue. Since others have had the same thing, I hypothesize that it’s probably a slight weak point. If it is air pressure-related, that’s where it will try to equalize.
 

K20C1CTR

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I was never really sure which seal was the culprit. Could be the door gasket, but I lean towards thinking it was the window seal. I don’t think replacing parts will change the issue. Since others have had the same thing, I hypothesize that it’s probably a slight weak point. If it is air pressure-related, that’s where it will try to equalize.
I see. It's just strange that other cars that I own in the past never had this noise. So the conclusion is that the OEM seals from Honda are not in good quality?
 

mjchristian

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I see. It's just strange that other cars that I own in the past never had this noise. So the conclusion is that the OEM seals from Honda are not in good quality?
I don’t know if this says anything about the quality of Honda’s OEM seals. I think the noise we’ve experienced is a minor design flaw, but not one I’d lose too much sleep over since it doesn’t seem to affect safety or functionality. While I wasn’t pleased about any audible issues, I also tried to remind myself that this is not a luxury vehicle. It’s a budget car with generally pretty budget construction; the odd noise is not huge a surprise, and also not worth spending too much energy worrying about.
 

K20C1CTR

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I don’t know if this says anything about the quality of Honda’s OEM seals. I think the noise we’ve experienced is a minor design flaw, but not one I’d lose too much sleep over since it doesn’t seem to affect safety or functionality. While I wasn’t pleased about any audible issues, I also tried to remind myself that this is not a luxury vehicle. It’s a budget car with generally pretty budget construction; the odd noise is not huge a surprise, and also not worth spending too much energy worrying about.
Thanks for all the responses. Appreciated it.
 

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I accidentally found out the OE snap fasteners aren't that strong. I changed the speakers in my front doors and just happened to order door snaps from Amazon, and when I reassembled the door panels the upper window curved piece wasn't staying tight against the window seal. I disassembled it again and found out that the snaps were wimpy. So i replaced them with the green ones from Amazon and BAM it was tight as hell. So, having quite a few I went around and replaced any snap that seemed to be "weak" or letting the door wriggle or seem loose. I fixed a couple of places that were buzzy or noisy when music was playing or even driving down the road.

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