Interior de-rattling (2014 S85 w/AP)

[docrice]

I just spent an entire 2 weeks isolating and mitigating almost every rattle I could in my almost-9-year old S85 with the help of posts here, Reddit, YouTube, etc. I remember hearing my first rattle a couple of weeks in after picking up my car at the Fremont factory and after all these years I figured it was time to do something about it.

2023.07.25: Rattle Battle
2023.08.01: Rattle Battle 2
2023.08.01: Rattle Battle 3

There's still some headliner Velcro ticks that I may work on some other time and when driving on aggressively rough freeway asphalt there's still some rattling but I'm at the point where it's good enough and I can tolerate what's left. At least for now. Maybe that nagging voice in my head will persuade me to tackle yet another ghost (because, why not).

The last write-up has a summary of fixes and tools/materials involved. Hopefully someone can find this info useful.

 

[docrice]

Regarding muting headliner noise I should add some notes...

Instead of shoving felt or other dampening material through the narrow openings along the sunroof (as accessible from within the cabin), another (and perhaps better) option is to go in from the outside. Open the doors, slightly pull a small section of the weather seal that interfaces with the headliner away from the frame and the edge of the headliner will be visible. You can't pull the entire seal off unless you remove the B pillar glass cover first and undo the clip that holds it in place there for both the front and rear door seals. Probably unnecessary to go that far anyway. You can pry the edge of the headliner down a bit and insert dampening material, perhaps covering that edge that might vibrate against the metal frame.

I also had to insert felt along the edge contacting the windshield. For that I used those nylon-infused plastic trim removal tools and pried open a section enough to shove some felt in where some wires are located which occasionally bounce against the headliner.

Around the driver's side C pillar all the way towards the back in the headliner there's also some wiring items which can rattle against the headliner inner surface. Be sure to account for this when adding felt or foam as well.