Annoying Passenger Door Rattle

So Mike,

The rattle is definitely coming from the silver piece and not from behind it? I ask because the wires that run to the power window could be rattlin' 'round...

Taking the door apart is easy. It's essentially the same as taking the driver's side door apart. But, if you're sure that it's just the silver piece, you can pop just that piece off. To do this, the silver piece pops straight up. If you have strong fingers, you can hang onto the edges of the silver piece and pull upwards. There are some little clips on all four sides that will release. Hang on... I've got a photo of this around here somewhere.... Oh, here it is: It's off the driver's side but it's identical except for the obvious. Ignore what the finger is pointing towards...

If that doesn't work, wrap some electrical tape around a standard screwdriver. The tape keeps the screwdriver from marring the plastic. Pry up the front of the silver piece first for two reasons. The Toyota Manual says so and if the screwdriver goes flying around madly, it's in a location where you won't notice the scratch (as much). Actually, I'm making light of this. It's real easy to pry and pull off, once you pop the front off, you're 99% there. Or, if you are worried about marring, remember those discussions a couple of years ago of people using hard plastic spatulas to pry the vents off of the dash when they put in XM radio? You could use one of those.

With the silver piece off and the wires to the window unplugged, look carefully to see if there are any rub marks. The silver plastic readily shows wear. From there, it'll be up to you as to what the best fix is. Maybe just a little foam with an adhesive back placed on the plastic trim of the door. you'll see some there already that Toyota laid down. This type of foam is available at a hardware store.

If you decide to take off the whole door, here's the big picture stuff that I cut and pasted form another thread on stereo upgrades:

I was a novice (and still am) when I put my upgrade in. Just pick a day when you have time and not rushed. Just go slow and you'll be fine. The good news is that you can door one door at a time before calling it a day....

The tweeters and the rest of the door trim pops right off. Yuo'll be pulling hard enough that you think you'll be breaking something. As Bill mentioned, most everything is held in place by these white plugs that attach the pieces to the metal door panel. They are the equivalent of crabs in the sea world: It takes some doing to get them to release. Once you pop the tweeter off, you'll see. Some of them will not come off with the tweeter and other trim pieces. No big deal, you'll be able to pop them off with a screwdriver afterwards.

To do the job right and not break anything, dig up the pages out of the toyota repair manual to see what each piece looks like and what the clips holding them on look like you you'll know where to pull/pry. This will save breaking stuff and unsightly pry marks. Most people go to the techinfo.toyota.com page and for $10, you'll have 24 hours of access in which you can download all the pages on door panel removal and wiring diagrams. I think I saw once page of this posted on the LED signal mirror thread under mods.... It's been a couple of years since I did this, but I do recall it was all pretty easy going. Do tape up your screwdriver before prying. This really helps in avoiding pry marks on the plastic. I seem to recall that the place I was most concerned was right behind the door release handle. There is a screw behind there so you have to pop that little plastic piece off. I was concerned with prying and gouging the plastic. It comes off like a breeze if you have the picture of what it looks like so you know where to go at it. Just take your time. Oh yeah, keep the windows up.

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I spaced on mentioning one thing in that thread: After taking the two screws out, run your hand along the bottom edge of the interior plastic door trim. You'll feel a gap between the plastic and sheet metal. It's near the middle of the door. It'll feel similar to the handle for closing the rear hatch. Start pulling from there. Once you start pulling, you'll be on a roll. The most important thing, is there's one bad spot. On the rear edge of the door, where the bottom piece of the interior door trim meets up with the black trim that runs along the window, you need to stop pulling and use a screwdriver. Here's why: You'll be pulling on the bottom section of the door panel and as you move up along the back edge of the door towards the black trim, the next clip to come off is on the black piece but you'll be pulling on the bottom piece. The result is that you'll break the bottom piece free of the black plastic piece, which will stay in place. So, use a screwdriver instead to poke in between the black plastic piece and the sheet metal to pop that one clip...

I'm making this out a lot harder than it is.... Maybe a couple more photos will help....

Cheers,

-bob

 

I had a rattle from the passenger's side whenever there was a lot of bass in the music. I popped the window control part off and found a small black box. I wrapped a couple of pieces of paper towel around it and that stopped the rattle.