Insanity-Inducing Door Rattle Field Repair - 2015 Dodge Viper GT Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

Insanity-Inducing Door Rattle Field Repair - 2015 Dodge Viper GT Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds fixes a door rattle on its long-term 2015 Dodge Viper GT during a 3,124-mile road trip from North Carolina to California

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miata52

Why do car manufacturers today make interior fasteners a single use item? If you take apart the inside of a contemporary car expect a good deal of the fasteners to self-destruct in the process. I think they do it to drive up service costs.

allthingshonda

You do all of this to find a rattle instead of taking it to the dealer for warranty service; but always take them back to the dealer for simple oil changes.

kirkhilles1

" Judging by the clips that were missing before I started in on this field repair, I'm not the first person who's been mucking about with this door. "

So... what does that mean? I assume then that whoever "mucked" around with the door before didn't put that bolt back and it's not a representative failure. I'd pass it onto Dodge/SRT and see if you can get an answer. Maybe there was a door speaker replacement or something like that in the past.

prndlol

Good job. You surely took more care resolving this rattle than any dealership employee would've.

ctpaul

do that with your Ferrari

desmolicious

Excellent work.

lmbvette

Now this is what I like to see....car guys (and gals) doing car guy(and gals) stuff!

red_xj2000

Wait, what? The nut that was missing was in the cupholder the entire time and you guys just noticed it?

socal_eric

miata52 said:

Why do car manufacturers today make interior fasteners a single use item? If you take apart the inside of a contemporary car expect a good deal of the fasteners to self-destruct in the process. I think they do it to drive up service costs.

Likely because with how reliable most components and subsystems are, the average owner will never have to have panels removed from the car. By using single-use plastic clips or push rivets (which many times can be reused if care is taken and directions followed on how to take the panel off instead of just pulling and prodding) a manufacturer can place more fasteners into spots that would otherwise require a hole or some other access into the panel to secure a conventional nut/bolt fastener.

It's not like these are new. My cars from the early '80s were utilizing them and it hasn't been too big of an issue to replace a dollar or less fastener on rare occasion that something has to come apart. And by using these types of fasteners the panels look nicer and are held in place more securely which means less rattles and noise in the passenger compartment. Also if you're thinking about service cost, if the car is out of warranty and you're paying $80-120 or more an hour in labor it might end up be cheaper and faster overall to replace a couple bucks in clips than having a technician spend an hour getting tons of nuts, bolts, and screws out.

stever

Great explanation. Still frustrating, lol. Haven't checked in a long time but for a while there the big box hardware stores were selling "universal" auto fasteners.

thecardoc3

There are so many different clips and fasteners that for most shops it isn't practical to stock them. Here is just one source for these items.
http://www.clipsandfasteners.com/Assortments_s/1.htm?searching=Y&sort=13&cat=1&show=45&page=1&brand=ClipsAndFasteners