Door Panels-The Rattle and Pounding Fix

Have you been hearing a clunking sound every time that you close your door? Has your electric window been sticking a little, jumping around as it goes up? Have you found that your door panel is coming a little loose? Let’s discuss a little bit about how to take off the door panel, inspect, clean, and replace the door panel.

Every car is different, but for the majority of the vehicles out there you can use a screwdriver to take off the door panel, although some will require a Phillips, a Flat, or a Star screwdriver. First you need to find out where these couple of screws might be. As you look over the door, there is often one or two right in the middle of where you hold onto the door to close it. The screws are usually hiding under little circular or square decorative inserts. There will not be as many screws in your door panel as there are plastic inserts that ‘pop’ into the door in self.

You can undo the little pieces of plastic that are being held into the door, by wiggling them around a little, and prodding with the screwdriver if need be. Be careful not to break any of these plastic clips you may find that your door panel will rattle even more than it did before you started working on the door! You most likely will have to pull apart the plug for the electric door locks or the electric window if you car has these features. Simply having one hand on each side of the plug and pull apart to disconnect. After you have taken the door panel off, be sure to place it and the screws somewhere safe so you can put all the pieces back on together correctly.

Now you are looking at this car door, which most likely has plastic or some type of board covering all the little holes you are going to want to look in to inspect what is rattling around, or to grease any parts that are making your window stick. Carefully remove this covering, you will want to put it back on when you are finished, or you can possibly order a new one if it is available. Not all inside door coverings are available, it depends on the year and the make of your car.

Sometimes you will find a bolt inside the door that needs tightened, it could be for the door panel, for the window crank, or for the window guide that is causing your rattle. There are other door ‘rattles’ that you will find that answer to in side the door, which are simply a piece of the plastic connector that broke off of your door panel, or from the covering on the inside of the door panel. You can clean out the bottom of the door with your hand, a cloth, or a sweeper if you are careful. Often, the holes that allow you to work on the door window, the door lock, or the door guide are small so a sweeper part might not fit in there either.

After you have tightened all the bolts, nuts, screws and pieces that clip together and hold the window, the door crank and the window guide, you can grease any moving parts that might be noisy or slow working and then start putting your door back together again.

Be careful to make sure that you put all the pieces back together tightly with out breaking them, if you have something loose, or broken, this is often the source of a ‘wind’ noise you can hear in the door when traveling down the highway.

Also see:

Your Car's Interior

Hauling Trash and the Sponge Game - Cleaning your Vehicle’s Interior

Airbags: More Than Just a Lot of Hot Air?

5 Great Entertainment Options for Your Car

8 Steps to Interior Car Care

This webpage is brought to you for general information purposes only and there are no warranties as to accuracy, completeness, or results obtained from any information posted on this or any linked website.

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