2012 Camry Hybrid - Door Passenger Rattle?

[Level380]

Anyone else noticing a rattle in the passenger door of the 2012 Camry Hybrid HL?

As always when it was at the dealer they cant find the 'issue' and took them for a test drive and of course it didn't rattle, but now that I've left its rattling again.

Sounds like its coming from within the passenger door.

[viper33]

To be fair, the dealer can't exactly spend hours trying to diagnose a problem they can't even hear or see

Try and get someone to sit in the passenger seat with a torch, go for a long drive, get them to figure out roughly where its coming from, get them to put pressure on the areas/parts where the rattles coming from to see if it helps

Most commong problem with rattles especially in new cars is **** rolling around in the centre console/boot etc, or a coin hiding somewhere or a peanut under the carpet or something similar

So be sure to empty anything that can roll around first, have a look under the seat and get rid of anything thats loose or can rattle

[Level380]

Yeah I've taken everything I can out of the car and its still there. I've tried pressing on the door panels, but can't seem to find a spot to make it stop. The only thing that can sometimes make it stop, as crazy as it sounds is to put the window down and up again!

A quick google found that the US camry had a similar problem on the 'drivers' door aka our passenger door. But I would have thought this issue would have been fixed for our builds. I didn't really want to pull my brand new car apart to fix it!

[viper33]

Any idea what the problem was with the US camrys?

I would say take the door trim off and check all bolts but like you said its a brand new car and sometimes you can break things if you don't know how to take it off

[Level380]

Lots of complaints online about the rattle, seems the dealer over there can fix it and there is a TSB out for it, but I can't find a copy. Some say its a plastic sheet in the door, some say its a door clip as per the video below the poster says the dealer determined that the sound was coming from a loose door panel clip.

In this video, the sound sounds 100% like the sound I'm hearing in my door. but of course its a video that shows the sound in the USA camry for the drivers door, its funny that the same door in Australia has the same fault. The video shows the sound best between the 15-25 second mark.

While not major, its very noticeable when you are driving once you hear it and I don't really think that for a brand new car I sound have to pull the door part to fix a problem.

Do you know of the process in removing the door trim?

[viper33]

Can't hear that very well, but even if i could i wouldn't be able to tell where the noise is coming from

Yeah I don't think you should have to pull the door trim apart on a brand new car either, but if everytime the car is at the dealers they can't hear it on a road test then theres not a lot you can do

You could request them to take the trim off and have a look for anything loose

I've never had to take the trim off new model camry's but should be similar to other cars and its generally a fairly simple processs

First look for all the visible screws/clips and take them out

Generally almost always one behind the door lock/handle, have to take the little plastic bit off first that goes over it

Then theres usually one or 2 screws under the plastic bit on the door handle

Normally a clip or 2 somewhere around the outer side of the door trim

Generally have to take the triangular shaped cover off on the inside above the door trim which covers the nuts/studs for the mirror

Once all thats off, pull the bottom of door trim out, the clips can be fairly tight

Then if the whole bottom feels free theres usually nothing else holding it on, if it feels tight, try and see if you can find any other screws or clips

Once thats done, lift the trim up at a slight angle(pulling the door trim towards you slightly and lifting it up)

It should pop off, but will probably need to disconnect the window switch and if theres a door light at the bottom before you can move it away completely

Sounds more complicated then it is

Oh also might be easier to do if the windows all the way down

Edited August 30, 2012 by viper33

[coolscan]

Rattles can be very hard to isolate. In mine the trim above the glove box was badly fitting at the console end, and had a 2-3mm gap. Was loose there and rattled. Worth a check.

[Level380]

Thanks guys for the tips. I know rattles are hard to track down and not the easiest to find. Was hoping someone else has been down this path before me and knew the 'fix'.

I'll check the globebox out today and see how it goes. I might even remove it from the car to rule it out!

[Level380]

Well the car went in for its 15k service and I raised the issue of the rattle again with them. This time they seemed to think that they found the fault. 3 of the clips holding the door panel on had been deformed. They replaced these.

So far so good with the rattle, but I've only been in the car for about an hour or so. Fingers crossed they fixed it this time!

[whynot]

Yes, I've noticed mine also has rattle from the front passenger's door too, only noticeable if I sit as an passenger, my wife hasn't noticed at all :) From my past experiences, these things are so hard to pinpoint and fix. I used to own an i30, Impreza and an Xtrail (all from new) and all of them had rattles at some point before I traded them in. I used to spend lot of time taking them back to the dealers to have them fixed but most of the time they were unable to solve the problem. My wife used to tell me 'why bother to find these little rattles , the less you know the happier you will be' :) so these days I just ignore these little rattles and enjoy my music while driving :) By the way, I've had the Camry hybrid for only a few days and I have to say it is the best car I have ever bought so far. The fuel economy is amazing for such a big car, also very comfortable, quiet and has more than power than I expected. I hope one day they will sell the hybrid RAV4 here, I will be happy to trade my Corolla for it because I miss my high driving position of my Xtrail. Thank you for the information about the deformed clips I will mention this to them if I have time to drop in my car next week.

Edited March 8, 2014 by whynot