Door rattle due to bass

Backstory;

After finishing a ~2700 mile road trip, I had a key card in my drivers door handle area from Vegas and thought it was rattling every time I would go over bumps. The sound of the rattle was hard plastic so eventually, I tossed the key card and the sound didn't leave. It almost would sound like a marble was sitting in one of the storage trays on the door.

On to the fix;
I couldn't find a DIY to remove the drivers door but it's pretty straight forward. The door is held on by 3 screws and 10 plastic clips. Remove the 3 screws, start to pull the panel toward you from the door jam down by the speaker, when the clips are free, slide the door panel up to clear the window lip


One screw beneath the armrest;


And two behind the door handle, to remove the little panel I used a small flat head screw driver. It comes off pretty easily.



And here is the cause of the rattle. The white wire harness connection for the door. This is held to the door on one edge by a clip, and the other edge is free moving for travel from the harness.. although there should be no movement so I'm not sure why the other side isn't clipped. The rattle was from the non secured side hitting the hard door plastic.


The fix is fairly simple. I used some adhesive window weather stripping foam.


That was it, connect the wires, slide the door panel down on the window, pop the clips back and put in the 3 screws.

Hope this helps others

Thanks @172CR for the excellent write-up!

I fixed the buzz/vibration in the drivers door last night and it was very easy to do. I didn't have a problem with rattling noises but added weather strip foam behind the white connectors anyway. The problem I was experiencing was a buzzing noise in the door panel when the volume was turned up high or when deep bass notes hit.

It turned out that the harness label was the culprit. I secured it with some packaging and gorilla tape. For good measure, I added bits of weather strip foam to pad any place where the harness may make contact with the panel. I checked all the screws and they were tight. Overall, Honda did a great job with sound dampening by stiffening the harness and including plenty of padding to prevent rattles and vibrations in the door (except for the harness label, and possibly the white connectors).

Below are a few pics in case you're wondering what the inside of door looks like.

Linking to another thread where others have experienced the same issue.

I have a 2017 Honda Ridgeline RTL-E purchased with 12,000 Miles. Carfax is clean. I've had a very annoying rattle in the Driver Door related to Bass in music. Bass doesn't need to be loud to clearly hear it and most songs you can hear the rattle at certain frequencies. Only the Left Door Panel does it. I've taken it to my local Autonation Honda 3 Times. They tried to fill the door with special foam as well as felt where the buttons are to try to fix it to no avail! They told me it cannot be fixed when I went in for the 3rd time but it must be fixed and not at my cost. It's under warranty and the RTL-E has the higher end stereo system and an acoustic front windshield (Huge reason why I went with RTL-E). If anything they made it worse likely due to the foam which now makes the door panel vibrate with louder bass yet the door still rattles on top of it like before I even brought it in the first time. My recently sold 2007 Acura TL sounded much better than my Honda Ridgeline does because of this rattle issue even though the Acura TL would have a whining sound with the speakers especially when cold that would coincide with the RPM's of the engine (Very Odd how this happened) and the Sub would rattle a bit in the Acura but it's 10 years old so no surprise there. Any suggestion on what the cause is with the Door Panel rattle from the Speaker in the door? I'm taking it in to get a second opinion at another Honda Dealership in my area and I've contacted Honda Corporate as well who so far suggested the same thing. I'm unable to find a forum that specifically speaks of the Rattle in the Door Panel. Forums about Rattle in the pillar with the tweeter but nothing much in the Door Panel. Any suggestions or anyone who has had issues with this and figured out how to fix it? I'm thinking about taking it to a professional Car Audio place but I shouldn't have to pay for this.