I have a 1-week-old '02 Max SE with leather, Bose, sunroof etc. The friggin interior buzzes and rattles with bass-heavy music from the Bose psuedo sub... It really makes it sound like SH!#... Not to mention the frustration of a brand new car that rattles. It's hard to pinpoint the source..it seems to come from the back seat area. On road bumps, there is only one buzzing rattle in the drivers door. Is this normal or should I take it back?

 

That's probably the subwoofer rattle... There should be a post about it on the TSB sticky thread...just print it and take the car to ur dealership explaining the problem.

 

There is no way to fix this problem at all and I am pretty pis*ed! I have been trying to fix this every way that i can and there is no way that I can get the damn Bose Subwoofer to stop rattling. I have tried everything I can think of, even had nissan replace the whole sub but the prob wont go away. the BOSE is definatly not worth the 800.00+

 

I'm not sure who posted it, but this worked wonders for me. Go in your trunk and look at the bottom of the sub. 1 of the 4 corners does not have a screw. If I remember correctly, there are two layers of metal. The bottom layer has a hole for a screw, but the top layer didn't. Drill a hole in the top layer and then put a screw in there. I did this along with Russ's velcro fix and have no rattles at all. Good Luck...

 

I don't have the Bose package but i can tell you it'll rattle even without it.

In my case, specifically the control panels on the driver and passenger side doors. If you hold it right the rattle will stop. Going over small bumps, on highway speeds, low radio volume... it'll rattle.

I haven't had the chance to bring it in yet but the service manager did say he'll take a look at it and try to fix it.

If that fails then i'll have to fix it myself.

 

I have a 1 month old 2002 SE, mine doesnt rattle at all...maybe you should talk to service and tell them it shouldnt friggin happen.

 

Can someone explain more about Russ's velcro fix?

 

My bad. It was Mdeal who created this writeup.

http://www.fourthrock.com/maxima/reardeckrattleinstall/

The velcro definately helped, but the screw I placed in the one corner was what I think completely stopped the rattles. I can play R&B, Rap, Alternative, Metal anything... and no rattles.

 

I sympathize fully with you.

I have been fighting Nissan on the BOSE buzz/rattle problem for 2 months now.

They claimed they NEVER heard of this.

Meanwhile there are TWO TS Bulletins on the NHSTA site on this issue. I have a 2001 Maxima and I had to really push them hard to "discover them"

They will not admit it unless you pressure them.

The Bulletin numbers are:

NTB0151 and NTB01051A.. Take THAT to your dealer and demand they are applied. Ask for the Zone Rep if they refuse.

You can go to the site and search for yourself. (Remember I searched for a 2001 model.) Same exact design. I played CD's in 2002 with the same awful buzz.

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/tsb

Good luck... My appointment is for next Tuesday 2/26. Stay tuned.

 

I've taken the car to the dealer to fix the rattle 7 times. they did not fix it, they also scrached my tint and now I have even more rattles....I wonder if lemon law will cover this????

 

I know at Mossy Nissan here in Kearny Mesa, San Diego, they will actually Dynamat the rear deck to try and eliminate the rattle...

 

Oh boy, this makes me REAL happy.

But thanks for replying. I am having my fingers crossed about this.

There is something very fishy about the way Nissan deals with this issue.

Reading in here I see that some people had good results. I keep hoping.

As for the Lemon Law, I don't know how much leverage we have because it is not a safety defect, at least my dealer tried to convince me about it, but I will definitely try it.

These (dealer) guys KNEW I was buying the car for the sound before hand.

Any evidence I find in here only helps my (and our) cause.

Thanks for replying

 

Thanks for the lookup!
I went to my dealer about this, im lucky my family owned dealer has great service... The service guy knew exactly what the problem was and has done many repairs, and he and some other techs got in the trunk for 1 hour and even provided some dynamat! and treated the car like it was their own, and the rattle is now gone! *knock on wood* and even gave me a subwoofer, per warranty of course, but dynamat?? heh, they went to extremes to fix it, Im glad I got the very few Nissan service departments which are very good, They even gave the maxima a wash and poly wax for free for my troubles and 1 hour wait. I asked for a free oil change instead and I got it, they are ranked #1 in service in local surveys.

 

Well, Same here.

I went yesterday and the guy spent 4 hours on the car. I watched him all along. In my case, he did not use DynamAt but some sort of felt material that looked like carpet backing.

He had to cut like crazy with a razor blade to match the rear deck contours, that's what took all this time. The result is that there is no buzz anymore because the stuff is tightly sandwitched between the frame and the rear shelf absorbing all the vibration.

F.Y.I., when he took the rear of the car apart (Seat backs, pannels, rear shelf)with nothing but the metal showing, the subwoofer still buzzed the metal chassis part.

It seems that the the low notes are on the exact tuning the frequency of the chassis, so I was a little concerned as to the outcome.
But when he put everything back together, the "sandwitch" effect absorbed all the vibrations. Now the only thing I hear is the distortion from the puny wattage stereo that Nissan and Bose provide.
The fix for that is to lower the volume and to stay in the linear part of the amp. See I could not do this before because no matter how low I played the stereo, the bass notes would vibrate the rear shelf anyway.

 

I dunno if it has to be a safety issue, but I'm not sure a rattle applies or not... My boss got her car returned using the Lemon Law (well threatening), which is pretty strong in California. She had a Saab where the steering wheel & column was vibrating too much... brought it in numerous times to be fixed but they kept trying to convince her it was normal. She invoked the lemon law, and they ended up giving her all her money back on the lease and taking the car back. First time I've ever seen someone return a car!

 

Had a interior buzz that was driving me crazy! Turned out to be my wife's sunglasses in the overhead compartment in front of the sunroof switches...

 

its not the subwoofer that the problem is the rear dash
its short and it rattles hold your arm down on it and the rattling stops

 

The sun glasses would rattle w/the subwoofer, believe it or not. Sorry for not making that clearer. Originally I thought it was in the front doors, but after I faded to the rear speakers, and still had it, it made me think it was the rear parcel shelf. Went to the back and held down the shelf, and still had the buzz! Did some more searching and found it was coming from the sunglasses. Weird, would not have expected it, but judging from the way the rear view mirror jumps around, not surprised. My rear deck is surprising tight. No gaps present like you could see in that velcro fix. Still buzzes on occasion, but only one of my son's Nsync cd's (hey he is 6, cut him some slack!Better than my 3 yr old's Barney cd). Dad listens to mostly jazz and fusion.

 

This link is now gone. Does anyone have it saved? If so can you post a new link or e-mail it to me?

 

The velcro trick worked for awhile but the rattling has returned. I think something else loosened up. I plan on, this weekend, removing everything back there looking for rattles and taking care of the matter once and for all. I have not looked for the missing screw. I missed that post.

 

okay, im reviving this thread because i want some replies.....it ****es me off that my friend's 92 Accord has less vibration than mine well, not really, but ja rule doesn't rap along with a bzzzzt bzzzt rhythm

 

My solution was i yanked that crappy bose system out. I wasn't very impressed with it. I put a sealed enclosure in instead.

 

first off, the bose sub is a joke, throw it in the trash. Get a basslink, remove the bose sub, and enjoy a "better" stock stereo. I think the stock nissan stereo sounded WAY better than the bose. then again, my car is loaded and i HAD to get the BOSE You know what they say..no highs or lows, gotta be BOSE..

 

yes.....i could yank it out...hmmm.....i don't really want to though......what if i put everything like stuffing, dynamat, everywhere i can see around the speaker...all the gaps...and everything...

any more solutions?

 

I ended up taking the Bose sub out and use the hole as a port for my Basslink in the trunk. I also carefully applied Dynamat Xtreme on the rear deck. That pretty much got rid of all the rattling from back there.