[djmcs]

My car is two days old and has already developed an annoying "buzzing" noise coming from the passenger side door panel, which has been pinpointed to the grill surround area of the Harmon/Kardon woofer (bottom of door panel).

The noise is apparent sometimes more than others, but is especially apparent when playing music with moderate to high levels of bass. I have not adjusted the bass settings on the stereo (still in the middle), and do not listen to bass heavy music.

Is there any way to stop this annoying rattle? It is driving me crazy and completely ruins the entire stereo experience.

I also have a slight RPM dependent buzzing rattle coming from the passenger side of the dash...any ideas?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
DJ
'03 MCS DS/B

[GTT 280]

I also have this problem and took the car to the dealer to have the door panels refitted. This didn't really do it for me as there are still rattles.

Saying that though, if you hold your hand on the door panel on what you think is relatively low bass volume (not frequency) you will probably find that the door panel is reall vibrating, so I think they doo fairly well not to fall to pieces.

I do however plan to strip my doors and remove any loose items and secure any rattling ones.

[scotter]

I have a 2003 S with the same problem. Noticed HK rattle sound 3 days after delivery (passenger door). Dealer replaced speaker first. Still rattled. They found a broken door clip and fixed that. Still rattled. Current idea is that it is a loose HK speaker ring (the silvery plastic ring that is supposed to lay flush with the door). That piece is on order.

Any other ideas would be appreciated.

-S

[brett]

Check that it is all tight as you can possibly get the speaker. If it contines common problem is the wire is loose and touches the speaker cone which creates a rattle.

Or check that there is nothing loose on or in the door, such as leaves, spare screw, or something else. also check that the speaker doesn't touch the silver grill

Hope this has given you some ideas
Brett

[nickheatheruk]

I have exactly the same problem with my HK system in my April 03 Cooper S, but on the drivers side. It seems to rattle at medium volume levels, and sometimes even with the stereo off. It's been in to the dealers once to be fixed, but it's still sounds as if a wasp is caught in the door!

Let me know if you figure out what it is, as it is driving me nuts.

[MINIDean]

I had this same problem and removed both of my door panels to investigate. I fixed the problem! The silver trim rings are "melted" to the door panel, so you can't just remove them. They are permanetly bonded to the door panel and can't be tightened down. On the inside of the door panel where the trim ring lays flush are 4 gaps. These gaps are on the inside of the trim ring. I cut equal lengths of felt and "stuffed" it in these gaps. This eliminated all buzzing!!! Try it.

[tavis1]

I have this same problem too. I Had in to be fixed twice. No luck. MINI Division of NA is going to be flying out a tech rep for the problem next month.
Tavis1

[StevePSB]

Bloody annoying isn't it? Can totally relate with the first post in the thread, as exactly the same has been happening to my car - nsf lower speaker buzz with any kind of bass, or even without any music on whilst on certain types of road surface and conditions!

Had a look myself and eventually realised it was the speaker grille. Annoying that it can't be removed to refit seeing as it's melted on, so I got some rubber (contact type) glue and masked off the outside of both the outer ring and the door card, forced the outer ring up and squirted some glue under the outer ring going around the 360 degrees.

Put it back on to bliss - silence for half an hour, then it buzzed as bad as ever. Got annoyed, kicked it a couple of times then put the car away.

Since then it's been mostly OK actually and I've not had enough trouble to warrant getting annoyed. Hoping it stays like that else I'll be reaching into my own pocket to buy a new speaker grille and surround (quite expensive I'm afraid to inform!) seeing as I've killed any chance of it being looked at under warranty again.

[whovous]

I just found this in another thread:
http://www.jwardell.com/mini/hkdoor.html

He seems to be on to something.

[tomasso]

I just bought a new cooper one week ago.... same problemo!
Saw the site of http://www.jwardell.com/mini/hkdoor.html
the one whovous is talking about. But as I have the new model
I just don't know how to remove the rubber handels in the
door panels. This is necessary for the new model to get to the
thorx screw. Any ideas how to remove this. The manual from
http://www.jwardell.com/mini/hkdoor.html says something about
some plastic to remove it from the clip. I already used some force
but still no luck. I'm afraid that I brake something.

Any help is much appreciated!

Tomasso

[mczinn]

Does any one else's H/K sound distorted on some songs? I had one dealer tell me that the speakers need to be replaced and the other dealer tell me that they are just vibrating to make the noise. I think it is the latter. That seems to make more sense since it is on both side (worse on passenger like everyone here).

Anyone else solve the distortion problem? Or at least know that cause for sure? I may dynamat in the future, but I thought I would give the dealer a chance to fix first.

[jwardell]

For the '05s you need to release the tab holding the armrest by sliding something between it and the plastic tube it rests on. I don't have an 05 so I can't include a pic on my site of it.

If you're not sure what it is, or get mixed reports from the dealer, simply turn it up so it is distorting, then press hard on the door panel. If it stops, it's your panel and just follow the simple fix.

[BRMCooper]

do u play the music loud cuz if os it sounds like the speaker is blown or falty i have h/k and have no probs with it so ill go to your mini dealer and ask them to cheak the speaker for falts!

[whovous]

I have felted around the main drivers and put a wedge-pack of Dynamat Extreme on each door. As a result, my bass goes much deeper than before, but it still sounds quite bad at random moments.

First, the bass line is occasionally just too loud. Its like the band got together and no one realized the bass player was hard or hearing, or at least no one had the heart to tell him to turn his amp down when he was drowning out the others.

Second, they did not have the heart to tell him he was slightly off the beat as well. You know how a karaoke singer sometimes fails to keep time with his back-up music? Well, I dub this the "karaoke bass" problem. This too lound player always seems to be a fraction of a beat off from the rest of the band.

Third, the problem is not even remotely consistent. Last night, I put in Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive CD. The intro to Jumpin With Symphony Sid had way too much bass, and it was just a little bit off, too. It went fairly deep, but it was just not right. Over time I have gotten tired of playing with the tone controls and the various EQ settings, so I just left it on HK with all controls set to flat. I eventually reached the end of the album and out of curiosity let it play again. This time, the bass fit in just fine with the rest of the music.

There seem to be two possibilities here:
A. I am crazy and/or do not know how to listen. Perhaps I heard the same bass levels both times but was not bothered by it the second time around.
B. The problem really is intermittent. If it is, it seems to me that perhaps it has to be electronic, and not in the interaction between speaker and door. The HK system supposedly does a ton of signal processing, and perhaps it does not do it as well as it thinks it should.

Thoughts?

[SiNNeD]

To all that have this issue with the passenger door rattle. I had the same thing on my 05 MCS and had taken it in to get it replaced or fixed. select a really low bass setting on your stereo to where you can hear the vibration real well. then push in on the door panel around the silver ring that covers the speaker up. the noise will go away. how to fix it on your own you cant. take it in to the dealers and take them by the hand as i did and show them exactly what its doing. i have had to do this with several items that make noise in my MCS rather annoying to say the least. i go in this monday to get a whole new glove compartment due to rattling. i cannot express enough to be vigilant with the dealer and the service reps. if need be as i have before as well spell it out EXACTLY on a piece of paper and leave it for them in the car when you drop it off. trust me this works. we have paid out so much dang money for these cars and we should not have to deal with this crap till like 5 yrs on down the road when the dang warranty is up haha. hope all goes well for you all

[adamlondon]

I have the same problem, but there is also a rattle that seems to come from the bottom of the door too. It is only really noticealbe when going over an uneven stretch of road, and sounds like there is a box of pills rattling inside the door. Any ideas?

[jwardell]

adam-two things to check:
-Make sure there is nothing in your door pockets. Anything in there will rattle.
-Someone else had a similar problem. Underneath the bottom of the door, he found some screws loose--tightened them and problem solved.

[adamlondon]

Nope, theres nothing in the pocket! I'll check for the screws tomorrow. Thanks for the tip