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How To Stop Car Door Rattling From Speakers (+ Fix Subwoofer Speaker Rattle Sound)

How stop car door rattling speakers

Rattling noise from the car speakers when playing good music makes any car feel like c r a p. It’s especially unbearable when that rattle steals your attention from your favorite bass line. Fortunately, as with most problems in life, the rattle from both your door speakers and your subwoofers can be fixed! – albeit with some effort.

In a hurry? These are the best products that help to stop rattling noise from speakers in 2024. PAC BB-5PR Bass Blocker – the PAC bass blocker does a perfect job with eliminating harmful low frequency audio signals and in the meantime allowing mid and higher frequency to pass through without any distortions. Second, Dynamat 10455 Sound Deadener mats are very impressive in attenuating not only speaker noise but also the road noise thus leaving you with a sense of calm and luxury during driving.

Read also: Top Hifi Car Speakers For Sound Quality and Best High End HiFi Bookshelf Speakers 2024 

Now then, we will start troubleshooting by going through several reasons why the rattling noise is generated and how to fix them.

How To Stop Door Rattling From Bass

Okay, so looks like we’ll need to do a little doctoring with the audio signal.

You see, in order to play those strong bass lines, the speaker has to process powerful low frequency audio signals.

But the size and type of speaker matter a lot in determining what kind of frequencies can reproduce without getting busted or mute. The smaller the speaker is, the more likely it is to reproduce high frequency audio signals and vice versa.

This is the reason we use tweeters for handling the high frequency side of the music (like cymbals, shakers, etc) and subwoofers to handle the lower frequency range (like bass drum, cello etc.).

So coming back to our main problem here, since your smaller speakers are receiving low frequency audio signals, they start rattling or get busted trying to handle them.

What is the solution? Simple cut off the low frequency bass signals from reaching those speakers.
Although it can be done in several ways, the most simple and cost effective method is to use a bass blocker module in the audio line which leads to those smaller speakers. 

A bass blocker is basically a high pass filter – which means it lets higher frequency signals pass through it but not the lower ones.

There are a number of bass blockers available out of which these two are most preferred – PAC BB-5PR Bass Blocker and AUDIOPIPE 14 UF.

Both the PAC and Audiopipe bass blocking modules are easy to install and provide a good sound output after cutting out undesired bass frequencies. 

Car Speaker Rattle: Causes & How To Fix

1. Debris In Door Pocket 

When trying to fix any problem one should always start with the obvious but often ignored causes. In our case, it is usually a hairpin or a dime lying unnoticed in the door pocket.

Any time the music hits a sweet bass drop, these helpless objects get violently shaken and hence you hear that ‘buzz’ noise.

For locating such orphaned noise making objects, all you have to do is play a song with a mellow but powerful bass and sniff your way to the source with your ears.

You might be surprised at what you find in the door pocket, the glovebox or the cup holder that are causing such irritating noises.

2. Loose Door Panel Fitment

So you’ve looked everywhere in your car and couldn’t find any suspicious noise creating objects. Now it’s time to dig even deeper.

Door panels are usually snap fitted onto the door body and sometimes they might become loose causing an unpleasant noise when driving on bad roads or playing some punchy bass.

By now you probably would have located which of your speakers is/ are creating the noise. Once having located the speaker, carefully open the door panel to examine whether it is the panel that is causing the rattling sound.

Re-fit the door panel snugly onto the door and check if the rattling is gone. In case you find the door panel to be damaged, make sure you fix or replace it with the help of a mechanic.

3. Improperly Mounted Speakers

Now that we’re done with debris and door panels, we need to examine the speakers themselves directly.

Many times, the speaker causes a rattling noise because it is improperly mounted onto the panels. This can be due to using a different size of the speaker than the stock speakers or even due to rough driving conditions.

The speaker is made up of a cone/ diaphragm which is held in place by its frame.There might or might not be a grill to protect the cone.

Carefully remove the grill and gently dust off the speaker cone.

There are several parts that might be loose – the speaker to panel mounting, speaker cone’s mounting or the speaker grill mounting.

Make sure these screws are tightly fixed to avoid any rattling noise.

4. Damaged Speaker Cone

Do note that sometimes, speaker makers use epoxy glue to stick the speaker cone to the frame to cut costs. Then due to temperature variations in the environments, the glue slowly loses grip and the cone will start to peel off.

If you notice that then make sure you stick the edges of the cone properly to the speaker frame with epoxy glue.

Now inspect the cone closely to see if there are any tears or cuts. In case you find some tears, a quick fix will be to tape it in such a way that the tear won’t grow.

Although in this case, it is better to replace the speakers since a busted speaker might tear up in other areas over time.

Stop Rattling From Subwoofer

Subwoofers usually don’t come with protective grilles and hence are more prone to speaker cone damage. 

Inspect the woofer for speaker cone peel off or any tears as mentioned in the steps earlier.

If the cone is damaged, it is possible to replace only the cone with the help of a speaker technician. Otherwise, you will need to get the whole unit replaced.

In case that the speaker cone is in good condition and the woofer is mounted properly, the cause of the rattling noise might be due to using a bad amplifier.

You need to choose a suitable amplifier depending on the RMS rating and impedance of your subwoofers.
Most of the time, people use a weak but cheaper amplifier and turn up the volume knob all the way up which results in the speakers receiving violent noise signals which can damage the cones.

One last trick which will do you good not only in reducing rattling noise but also unpleasant road and engine noise is using sound deadening mats all over the interior of your car.

These mats are made of noise attenuating material which literally soak up all unwanted noise giving you a calm and damp ambience inside the car. 

The following are two of the most popular sound deadening mats on the market in 2024. Dynamat 10455 Sound Deadener and Noico Sound Deadener will provide you a treat of calm comfort.

Both of them do a great job of deadening interior noise.  While Dynamat has been around for a long time with a reliable name for itself, the Noico deadening mat will provide you an efficient solution if you happen to be on a tight budget. Read also: How to Quiet Noisy Tires:  Reduce Road Noise

fix subwoofer speaker rattle

Final Thoughts About How To Fix Car Door Rattling From Speakers

Now that you know how to fix car door speaker rattling, you can proceed one by one to identify the root cause and take steps to stop it from making rattling sound.

Except for the bass blocking technique all the methods for fixing the door speakers also apply to fixing the subwoofer speaker rattle as well.

In conclusion, the PAC bass booster will really do you good especially if you love tweeters for high frequencies. And the Dynamat sound deadener will let you feel the soothing ambiance of a luxury car.

Finally, as a rule of thumb, always keep your volume within 3/4th  of the volume to avoid damaging the speakers. Read next: Why Are My Speakers Making Crackling, Popping Or Static Noise Randomly Or When Loud