Front doors rattle when playing music. Honda Corp. won't insulate under warranty. WTF?

[Alim_N]

What a garbage post, over dramatize things much? I don't blame the guy, they weren't even inclined enough to attempt to look into the possibility of something simple going on. My Type R doesn't rattle and it doesn't have special magical insulation so how is that going to for sure fix dude's issue? Honda wasn't inclined to fix their rsx/civic si transmission issue for years either, if we want to indict Honda's general attitude towards dealing with definite and admitted problems.

I have seen a youtube vid of at least one dealer who was inclined to help fix someones rattling pillar. Honda doesn't generally feel inclined to fix a lot of issues and the attitude trickles down to the dealers IMO. I would probably just try and solve the issue myself, but I do not agree with the "Turn the volume down" or "You didn't pay 80 thousand so fuck you, you deserve to drive a rattling shit box" mentality. These are the little things that influence people's future purchase decisions and it can go a long way doing something in good faith for your customer. Or maybe they'll say something profound like, "just turn the radio down". What a joker.

Wow. Thank you for actually seeing the situation from my point of view. This is my first brand new car, my dream car (people will laugh, but I don't care) and I'm having to deal with not being able to listen to music on my 'premium' sound system.

I will be getting dynomat installed at my car audio guy who worked on my Celica if Honda decides not to at least try and add the stock insulation that comes in the other civics.

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[Alim_N]

You miss the point of the "ATTITUDE" in my post.

If you go to your Dealer with a WTF attitude, and demand they fix something under warranty that typically Honda will not re-reimburse them for,( as it is NOT a warranty item), then what do you expect "Most" Dealers to do ??

Yes, so might take the time to try to help you, but really, they are not even set up to be able to ADD extra sound insulation. 1st obstacle for the Dealer's Tech is "Whats the Part number" and what is the "Honda Repair Procedure" - neither of which exist

If the "Standard" car finish (as far as sound Insulation) does not meet your expectations, then its probably not just the Doors that has issues, there are many other items in the car that can hit resonance at certain frequencies, and create rattles.
To remove all these, would probably require some significant sound Insulation, and that is certainly not something that your typical Honda Tech is Trained to do.

The Civics are Econoboxes, designed to meet the expectations of the AVERAGE car owner who is in the Market for a car that fits a given budget.

If you want more, the neat thing about the Civics is that there is plenty of potential to Customize, add and improve, to whatever level you feel like (and can afford).

That is what a lot of this forum is all about -- sharing and discussing GenX mods.

Just because you bought a Civic (even an R), does not mean that you "OWN" Honda or the Dealership, and can demand anything you want, however "unwarranted" (Forgive the Pun).

That's NOT how the world works, and it takes some growing up, and maturity to realize that, and that you cannot always get what you "WANT" in this world, (Unless you are prepared to spend the Money to BUY it) .

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A Finally more "POSITIVE" thought: -- It's not that difficult to add the sound Insulation yourself.- many have, with excellent descriptions , both on this forum, other forums, and in Youtube Videos.
Consider this, especially if you want to turn your amp up high and play music that is a "Challenge" for the stock speakers.
OP. Consider upgrading your door speakers, and while doing that, that is the ideal time to add the sound insulation. The extra cost of adding that material at that time is minimal.

So why are you assuming that I had attitude and demanded anything at the dealers?

I asked kindly and I set up an appointment. The techs at the first two dealers wouldn't even let me replicate the rattle for them. They just turned the radio on and said 'it's all good, not sure what you're talking about'. So after I dealt with that, I said to hell with those service departments because that's just poor customer service.

Once again, even when I called corporate (after the third dealer opened my doors and found the rattle culprit and said they wouldn't fix it), I was kind and considerate. I just requested they ask a supervisor to look into it for me. So while I'm a bit upset in my post on an online forum, you assume I have some stupid attitude in person.

 

[Civics4Ever]

Maybe one of the speaker mounts are loose? Only way to tell I think is to remove the door panels.

 

[Alim_N]

That went sideways quickly...

As for the OP.. Sorry to hear about the rattles. But I have to confess this will be an out of pocket fix for you if you want it done right.

Thank you for the civilized advice. I have been talking to my car audio guy about doing it, bc I am assuming Honda Corp. won't touch it.

 

[Alim_N]

Sorry, no rattles here except a dash rattle when the car is cold that goes away when it's warm.

This might seem stupid, but you don't have anything in your door storage areas right? When I hear a rattle around the doors, it's usually something banging around in the door pocket.

Otherwise, your best bet might be to hunt down the rattles yourself with some foam tape.

The dealer opened up both doors and isolated both rattles. It's the same metal part on both sides, which would regularly have insulation against them in a normal civic. They said the R is stripped of insulation to save weight, which confused me bc if you're saving weight then why add the premium sound system? I asked if they would put that same foam into my car since they would just have to copy the layout from a normal civic, but they refused unfortunately.

 

[Alim_N]

I didn't miss a single thing from your post. You weren't there, you don't know how the interactions went down and you just went off on the guy and decided to berate and make him look like a total asshole because he said to himself "fuck them, they wont even look at it, Ill take it somewhere else". I cant imagine the guy walked in yelling and screaming profanities saying fix my problem, like you seem to assert. Its dealer to dealer whether they will help sometimes with grey area problems like this so whats wrong with trying another dealer?

Again, Honda has shafted plenty of people who tried to solve their legitimate problems with honey and hid and skated out from responsibility for years until many of the original owners no longer even owned the problem cars. You get further with kindness than being shitty to people, obviously, but I can't say I blame people for being suspect of and short with Honda with how they have handled past issues.

Exactly. Thanks man.

 

[Alim_N]

Maybe one of the speaker mounts are loose? Only way to tell I think is to remove the door panels.

Already done at the dealer. Rattle culprit was isolated and everything. They just didn't want to add any insulation to try and remedy it unfortunately.

 

[racer]

Already done at the dealer. Rattle culprit was isolated and everything. They just didn't want to add any insulation to try and remedy it unfortunately.

In the "its not my job" mentality and litigious society, had the dealer done the mod, it would have opened them up to further repairs (ie, different rattles as they reassemble the door, non factory approved materials etc). They would have the backing of Honda Motors because the car was as it was created and delivered. Sound system is a concession to the buyer. The sound deadening is apparently where the line was drawn by Honda in terms of "performance" and "comfort". Crazy isn't it. Plus, it saved you an extra $.75 in costs by eliminating the sound deadening.

 

[Alim_N]

In the "its not my job" mentality and litigious society, had the dealer done the mod, it would have opened them up to further repairs (ie, different rattles as they reassemble the door, non factory approved materials etc). They would have the backing of Honda Motors because the car was as it was created and delivered. Sound system is a concession to the buyer. The sound deadening is apparently where the line was drawn by Honda in terms of "performance" and "comfort". Crazy isn't it. Plus, it saved you an extra $.75 in costs by eliminating the sound deadening.

The worst part is, they admitted that the regular civics have insulation against that part, yet they wouldn't even install it the same way to see if that would help. Sucks.

 

[NoHonor937]

It's not really about being able to afford it. I'm a doctor, so that's not an issue. It may sound silly, but this car has been my dream car since they announced it in 2015. I just love that it's a daily driver with some awesome upgrades. And a 4 door hatchback. I'm planning to keep it for 15 years.

The issue for me is that I can hear the rattle at even 12/40 vol and it's louder than the song. I am playing bass music but the stock system isn't very bassy at all, yet there's still a rattle. I installed a $5000 clarion set up in my Celica with dynomat and all that so I know that the stock R system is pretty flat when it comes to low frequency.

Some example songs to test if your doors rattle: Mr. Carmack - this is america (instrumental), Troyboi - OG, Luxage - Todays the day.

I really just wanted them to put the insulation that normally comes in the civics, since I'm not too concerned about stripping weight (which was their reasoning to me). They already had both doors taken apart and everything.

Kill-shot Eminem! That songs shakes my cat on medium bass lol

 

[NoHonor937]

So I got a couple things to say:

1. Honda isn’t going to add something to your car and put it under warranty. Otherwise everyone would be exploiting that feature.

2. In what world does a 35-40k car constitute as a econbox? That’s as much as a mustang or charger. So I think that the ctr should’ve already been insulated fully just for that.

 

[gtman]

2. In what world does a 35-40k car constitute as a econbox? That’s as much as a mustang or charger. So I think that the ctr should’ve already been insulated fully just for that.

I said the Civic is basically an econobox at heart. And in the world of cars in 2019, it is. It's a great econobox though. And remember, even in Honda's lineup, it's only one step above the Fit. The $35,000 Type R is still a Civic albeit an amazing performance version of a Civic.

Honda intentionally designed the Type R according to the OP to have less sound insulation in the doors for weight reduction. Realistically, if his car is to spec, dealers aren't going to throw in insulation from another model to "fix" it. Like another poster mentioned, that would open up another can of worms.

I'm sorry the OP's is getting this rattle. Sorry he feels like Honda isn't handling it properly. But the bottom line is, just take it to an audio place or add soundproofing yourself and be done with it.

I spent $25 grand on my EX-L and have a few rattles here and there. I know from owning many cars over the years that taking my car in to fix rattles is a waste. My solution ironically, is to crank the stereo up.

 

[JayDiem]

So I got a couple things to say:

1. Honda isn’t going to add something to your car and put it under warranty. Otherwise everyone would be exploiting that feature.

2. In what world does a 35-40k car constitute as a econbox? That’s as much as a mustang or charger. So I think that the ctr should’ve already been insulated fully just for that.

I agree with point one, but lets be honest. The Honda Civic Type R is a regular 20K Honda Civic with a turbo (add 5000) Big Brakes (add 5000) Full Aero (Add 2000?) Nicer Interior (Add 1000?) Suspension (no clue how much more that costs) and few other more expensive upgrades. Still kind of tacky that Honda won't do something so simple, but They definitely don't want to open themselves up to 1000 people demanding the same thing.

 

[Alim_N]

So I got a couple things to say:

1. Honda isn’t going to add something to your car and put it under warranty. Otherwise everyone would be exploiting that feature.

2. In what world does a 35-40k car constitute as a econbox? That’s as much as a mustang or charger. So I think that the ctr should’ve already been insulated fully just for that.

While I do agree with your first point, the regular civic already has foam installed in the doors. So I don't understand why they wouldn't at least try to install that "stock" foam to see if it helps. If that doesn't do the trick, then I would be happy to have it taken care of. If they were to have said "we opened up the doors and all the insulation is stable so we're sorry but we can't add aftermarket sound dampening like dynomat" I would have been fine with it. But instead, they admitted that the insulation was stripped during the design phase and that a normal civic would have the part that is rattling sound dampened. Is my request to have that stock foam installed in the doors really that absurd?

 

[Alim_N]

I said the Civic is basically an econobox at heart. And in the world of cars in 2019, it is. It's a great econobox though. And remember, even in Honda's lineup, it's only one step above the Fit. The $35,000 Type R is still a Civic albeit an amazing performance version of a Civic.

Honda intentionally designed the Type R according to the OP to have less sound insulation in the doors for weight reduction. Realistically, if his car is to spec, dealers aren't going to throw in insulation from another model to "fix" it. Like another poster mentioned, that would open up another can of worms.

I'm sorry the OP's is getting this rattle. Sorry he feels like Honda isn't handling it properly. But the bottom line is, just take it to an audio place or add soundproofing yourself and be done with it.

I spent $25 grand on my EX-L and have a few rattles here and there. I know from owning many cars over the years that taking my car in to fix rattles is a waste. My solution ironically, is to crank the stereo up.

I get where you're coming from, but why can't they put the foam in to see if it stops the rattle? If they were to tell me that the doors are appropriately insulated and that's all they can do, I would be fine with it. But they basically told me it has no door insulation, and since it's the same door as another civic why couldn't they offer to add the stock foam just to see if it helps. And if it didn't help at that point, I would be very pleased that they at least tried to help.

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