I developed a rattle that comes from the rear latch area. When I go over any bumpy road (i.e. my back lane) it sounds like you're knocking your knuckle on the interior plastic moulding.

I took all the rear plastic out of the car (whew!) thinking that something was loose behind the plastic and was knocking around, I even took out the spare and the tire cover. - no luck, the sound was still there. I had my wife drive around while I laid back there listening. After driving with the rear door open (no more sound) then closed (sound coming from the latch area), I started to play with the latch catch positions.- again no luck.

But after I jammed a piece of spongy foam into the latch mechanism to take the slack out of the rod that goes from the key cylinder to the latch - the sound pretty much went away with only a rattle here and there over bumps.
The baffling part is I don't know why this makes things better, the rod itself is not the noise maker nor do it think it causes the door to unseat...

Now, has anyone experienced this noise before? should this rod be loose? (from what I can see it is not broken or bent) should I keep playing with the position of the U-shaped latch and V-shaped shim on the door frame to position the door better?

Any thoughts would be very much appreciated.

Cheers, eh.