I don't know if i'm the only one that has this but in my driver's door i have a huge rattle when it's cold outside (subfreezing) . It somewhat goes away when the car warms up but is always there a bit. The guy at the dealer's just "adjusted" my door saying it was a bit loose. (bullshit) . I am sure it comes from inside, anyone has that as well?

 

On my car it's coming from the inner door handle cover. Just press on it and see if it goes away. I pulled mine out the other day and took a look but didn't see anything.

 

I did exactly that last night and indeed it almost disappeared, it seens like there's something loose inside ( a wire, metal thing of some sort) that vibrates when cold (very cold here,-15C) . I will have the dealer look into it, undo the panels and maybe fix whatever is vibrating. It is very annoying in a 2004 model to have that since my 1992 Sentra (winter car) has almost no rattles at all.

 

Don't go where Racer? I am not bashing the 8, i LOVE my car. I can say it is annoying to have a rattle in a brand new car without not loving it. I have had many new cars and this is the biggest rattle i've ever had in one so it annoys me . But i kept the car and took the 500$ because i just can'T stay away from it... but i can point out little things that are not ok !

 

Mine does this as well. It does stop if I push on the door handle area. Mine sounds almost like a piece of foam squeaking. Is the door panel hard to get off?

 

Hey, this is my first post. I work in a car stereo install shop as a salesman and manager. I had my installers pull the door panel apart to see what sort of stereo system we could do. In pulling the door panel off we discovered a lot of things. In regards to your question it could be a few things. On the lower part of the door there is a large hard foam block that is held in with two things. One, 2 plastic pins that a flattened on the end to hold the block in place. Two, a cheap glue that seems to break loose very easily. One large bump and mine broke loose. So mine started rattling with music and road bumps. What my installer did for me was take the door panel off and re-affix the foam block back on with hot glue. No more rattle for me! As far as you doing it yourself that's up to you. I have the luxury of VERY experienced and licensed installers that will pay for anything they break. They did say though that the door panel was of very high build quality. In taking it apart over and over they said that it always goes back together very soundly, and that I shoudln't have to worry about things wearing away and the panel rattling. Anyways, the door panel was not 'easy' to remove, but it was not hard. The thing you have to be most careful about is the panel where the window switches are. It is abnormally thin, and can be broken. I hope this helps!

 

Thank you very much DJfreon, i will show your post to the dealer when i take the car in.

 

yea, I have a rattle in both of my doors... usually after I'm done driving when it rattles I open the rear door up and give it a good slam shut and it seems to go away for a week or two <shrug>

 

Here are the removal steps for the inner door garnish parts:

 

I'm getting rattles from the 'Inner Garnish' I put in some pipe insulator (sticky foam) and it's almost gone.. I think its a bad design though. There is only one tab holding it in place and it is too close to the glass.. Pushing it down or cracking the windows a little seems to make it go away..

 

Very informative guys, this forum sure is helpfull.

 

I forgot to mention a few things. There are a few places that the rattle can eminate from. (maybe that's obvious) My rattle was from the lower portion fo the door, and was worse right after closing the door. You can also get a rattle from the wires in the door. Mazda tried to reduce that by putting foam around most of the wires. My rattle was pretty low pitched, and you could tell where it was coming from. I've heard of other people having rattles higher in the door that came from wires. Any idea what the frequency and location of your rattle is?

 

i think it's from higher in the door and very loud at low temp and not bad when the inside of the car warms up.

 

Well, there are multiple pieces of foam in the door. The dealership or any other shop should have no trouble at all figuring out what is causing the problem. The door really does come apart very easily, and go back together very solidly. So if it is a problem with the foam they can take care of that easily. If it's the wire with the crinkly (is that even a word?) plastic around it then they can take care of that easily too. (my installers originally though it was that wire slapping against the door panel from the inside). So, good luck.

 

The rattle in my car seems to be coming from the driver side air vent. When I put my finger in the air vent and add a little pressure, the rattle goes away. It has been extremely irritating latelely though so I know what you guys are going through.

 

I am a bit disapponited in that particular part on Mazda'swork. The car has too many rattles for a brand new car and the noise level , even though it's a sportscar is too high. I don't talk about road noises which are part of the sportscar issue but the fan is way too noisy and i think mazda should have done better.

 

Honestly, I deal with cars day in and day out. If we install a stereo in a car and something is rattling, 9 times out of 10 we have to go back in a fix the rattle. Even if it is a problem with the car, and not a problem with the install, the customer perception is more important. If they didn't hear it before the install, then it must be caused by the install, right? Right... And as far as my perceptions go this car does very well on the sound side of things. There is very little road noise. When the sun-roof is open there is very little wind noise (esp if the air circulation is pulling in fresh air). And when you are 'taking the turns' there is very little rattle and squeak. I really hope that you can resolve your noise issue because as far as my personal car goes it is VERY quiet. I get to ride in high end cars all the time (my personal favorite was a 600+ hp challenge Lambo), and the RX-8 did impress me. Sure it's no E55, but it certainly is better than the Subi's, Evo's, and Neon's that I have to deal with day in, day out. After my installers took care of my single rattle I've had nothing but silence out of my car.

 

Don't get me wrong i love the car, have 13000Ks on it since august 5th, i'm just a tad disappointed at the rattle thing, and i will have them fix it for sure. Thanks for all the info

 

I have a slight rattle as well in the same area when it's cold. It sounded like my tweeter was buzzing adn sounded like it was coming from the area where the tweeter is but it continued with the stereo off. Very slight rattle though. Guess it is what you guys are describing.

 

Well, the tweeter is not behind the door panel. Nor does it have anything to do with the foam. It's just snapped in by 3 clips. I haven't had mine rattle yet. I talked to my installers and they said that there isn't much up there that can rattle. It's VERY easy to take that tweeter off. Just PRH. Pull Really Hard. Ok, you don't have to pull that hard really. Just pull the housing towards you and it will snap right out. From there you can inspect the housing to see if there's anything loose. You can also check the clip that holds the wire into the housing and see if anything is loose there. If need be you can always get someone to install a foam gasket between the sail panel and the tweeter pod to keep the pressure fit tight.

 

I have been having the "rattle" or maybe mines more of a squeaking sound in the cold as well. It is very irritating and it's coming from the bottom of the door. It is also much worse on the passenger side. However, there is something else I have noticed in the cold weather. My brakes squeal. Anyone else notice that. It only seems to start when it gets down below 30 f. It is irritating though and certainly not what I would want to be drawing peoples attention to my car. Especially not when she looks so good.

 

I had a nasty rattle in my driver's side door -- a distinct glass against metal rattle. In addition, my window made a nasty squealing/scraping noise when I rolled it up and down. I took it in to the dealership and they fixed it (I don't really know what they did).

 

Ok, so I took my car on a 500+ mile road trip today. I drove for a good while without the stereo on (a very difficult thing for me to do). I heard the rattle from the tweeter pod up in the sail panel. I'll have my installers take a look at it when I go back in to work. I hadn't heard it before, but this weekend was particularly cold, and I was driving at 2AM both legs of the trip. (btw, I got 21.7 mpg)

 

Ok, I don't know if you still have the problem, but I think my installers might have figured something out. All you have to do is pull to see the problem. The tweeter pod is held in by one clip in the middle, and one L clip on the bottom. So if you pull the top it will come right off. No problem. There's really not a lot in the pod that can rattle. But what was causing my rattle was just a simple zip tie. Mazda didn't want the wires flopping around up in there so they took the wire, wrapped in all in foam, and zip tied the wire around the magnet. When it got cold the zip tie got ever so slightly loose. So my installers just put a new zip tie on it that was a little more pliable. They also put some of that same foam material around the magnet so when the zip tie shrinks it won't rattle in any way. Other than that there's not a whole lot in the pod that can rattle. You can see if it works for you. I took the car out in our parking lot (lots of speed bumps) and it seems to have taken care of it for me. Hope that helps.

 

Again DJ, thanks alot, it's shame Washington DC is 15 hours' drive from MTL 'cause i would take it to your place to have it fixed ! :-)