About a month ago, I noticed my 2007 Mazda3 making a rattling noise whenever the front passenger window is anywhere from cracked to almost all the way down. When the window is up or all the way down, there is no noise.
When the door is in it’s “sound-prone” state, I can replicate the sound either by going over a bump or just pulling and pushing on the door interior door handle.
I’ve looked this up online and it seems to be pointing toward me needing a new window regulator. I haven’t noticed any function loss, just the rattling sound that makes it sound like the car’s falling apart.
Does this seem like the right thing to try? What would cause the regulator to malfunction after only four years? Should I buy new or look for it at the local salvage yards?
If it matters, my Mazda3 has electric windows.
This is simple. Pull the panel off and have yourself a look n go from there…
Window regulators from the past 20 years or so seem to be the part that manufactures have chosen to “cheap out” on. I have done more window regulators under warranty than customer pay (this means they were replaced before the 3 or 4 year warranty wsa up), or they got done under an extended warranty plan
Where there is a rattle, there is something loose, causing that rattle. Remove the interior door panel, put the window wherever the it is you hear that rattle, and find out what is flopping around in there. To me, it sounds more like an actuating rod for a lock or door handle has come out of a retaining bracket, or some foam rubber sound damper has come loose or fallen off, but there’s only one way to find out, and that’s to get in there and find the problem.
The door panel is going to have to come off for starters and on the offchance the problem is not the regulator it could be a vibration loosened adjustment nut or bolt on the window glass tracks.
Rolling the window all the way up or down could apply enough pressure to the track to keep it from rattling.