W221 Door Trim Removal

[geek]

Hi,

Can anyone advise how to take the wooden door trim parts off the front doors of a W221 S Class. Its the wooden strip that has the ambient lighting beneath it. Both the drivers and passenger side rattle.

Thanks in advance.

 

[snaillybob]

Hi,

Looking for the same advice - same problem. Had read elsewhere that the wood trim is held on with 'spire type fixings' - anyone know if these are captive? Would hate to prise the trim off only to hear the tinkle of the fasteners falling down inside the door card!!

Am intending using some adhesive acoustic tape on the back of the trim and refitting. Sound like a plan to cure the rattle?

 

[zipdip]

Would not mind finding out how the door trim and card comes off either.

 

[snaillybob]

OK - so took the plunge today with the help of a friend to hold the removed panel. Remove tweeter grille by gently popping off, then 2 screws - one under the front of the armrest (plastic cover) and one in the armrest (open the lid - at the back - feel a square through the felt and remove upwards). Used a spluger to pop the clips and the door panel then lifts up (pull straight up to release from the plastic channel that holds the top of the panel on). The wood trim is held on by screws (6 of them - all torx) - they were all tight. Removed them and released the wood trim. Be careful with the LED lighting ribbon. Added a smallish rectangle of self adhesive acoustic felt to front and back of the LED connector, and a tiny bit to the front end of the LED strip as there was a potential for rattling. Whilst the panel was off I wrapped some of the wire looms in acoustic felt where they ran across the metal of the inner door. Re-assembled - you'll find that getting the top of the panel back into the top channel is a faff - make sure you don't trap the rubber finishing seal when putting the door back on.

So - did it make a difference? Yes and no - it got rid of a mid range frequency rattle, but the higher range one required a thin strip of acoustic foam wrapped around the tweeter before popping it back in its housing (there was a lot of movement with the tweeter before this), and the bass (has to be really loud deep bass) was only cured by wrapping acoustic foam along the lip of the top of the door panel and forcing it back into the plastic channel (door panel had to come off again for this).

So - a couple of design flaws with the tweeter housing and the way in which the top of the door panel fits into the holding channel, but with an amazon purchase of some self adhesive acoustic tape and a set of door panel removal tools, and some torx 'rods', oh, and a friend to hold the door panel it's achievable in about an hour. Passenger door next!!!