Sorry guys.. I have been busy lately. Sorry Dinan X5 I havent tried my seats down yet. But i noticed lately that the black plastic part that covers the little latch in the back has 2 little foam pieces on the corners to reduce noise. I dont know if this comes like this from factory or what. I did put some socks (piece of cloth) in the middle between the black plastic, and the noise is much less.

If I'm understanding your description correctly, it sounds like you're describing the pass-through area in the center of the rear seat. There are a lot of moving parts in there, so that could easily be the cause of some vibration noise. But in my case (as you can read in my first thread on this topic posted two months ago) I padded-out this area and thought I'd resolved the issue... but of course I celebrated too soon! :mad:
Even after removing the entire ski sack assembly, the noise continued. That's how I arrived at this thread... But after two days of driving around with a piece of cloth stuck in between the split-fold-down rear seats, I'm enjoying the sounds of... *silence* :D

I am talking about the black plastic assembly one the little trunk that folds down when you open it. comprende? i will go ahead and remove the old ones and add new (foam) little soft pads on the 2 sides. I see 2 pads now but they are old. Let me know. thanks

Oh, I gotcha now... you mean the plastic slats that slide out when the tailgate is down, right? Yes, I am familiar with the noise those make when you go over a medium to big bump - definitely a different sound than the one that was bugging me!

Bingo !! what did you do to yours? :rolleyes:

Congrats Dinan! now go buy urself the Depeche Mode "Violator" Album and crank song 6! :thumbup:

No Problem
 

I have a 2005 4.4 x5 not one problem for the first two months/2,500 miles.

Sorry blue, but what problem are u talking about?

I didn't do anything to it yet... I just stuck a couple of rags around the edge that rests against the tailgate to see if that prevented the occasional *clunk* that I would hear over big bumps.
At this point, I don't think that the tailgate slats are the culprit - I think it might be the trunk hatch itself. I noticed that the trunck hatch started clunking even over medium bumps not too long after I got the X5, so I backed-out the torx screws in the bump stops to make a tighter seal. This helped a lot - made it almost silent - but I think it's still producing the occasional big-bump that I hear, so next I'll try sticking the felt pads on the bump stops as described in this thread

LOL - I have this album, so I could actually "Enjoy the Silence" :thumbup: