pvanhoudt

It is where the tips of the arrows point to. The welded nut is kind of in the way. The tape I used actually made an "L" shape and so it both shimmed the side and the bottom. You need to stop the motion between the upper "U" shaped metal with respect to the lower, larger "L" shaped metal. It won't interfere with the motion of the seat. It is just a bad design by Ford. I think they just wanted the seat to have a little movement to ride more comfortably (I guess). They failed. It just rattles. The shim should be touching the welded nut, you can't avoid it. Just cram something in there and you will see/hear the results immediately. If I had it to do over, I might buy a big 1/4-20 bolt about 2 inches long and just screw it into the corner next to the welded nut. The tape I put in there is working well, though. I had this noise daily and haven't heard it at all for some time now.

Dude, you outdid yourself this time. I spent 20 minutes just trying to lay eyes on the thermistat! Your post will help much when I tackle this (over Christmas). Props to Dyoct as well.

I got this thing nailed. I took my seat out of the car and took the track apart. I found that the bracket that the seat attaches to the track has pivot points. Turns out that the back bracket has the ability to hit metal on metal. I attached a couple of pics. The first one shows the bracket that has the problem. It is the one facing the back of the car, the front one is OK. The second pic shows where you have to jam something to stop the rattling noise. You can actually get to these point from the back seat without taking out the passenger seat. You just have to remove a simple plastic cover on each track in the back (I'd push the passenger seat all the way forward first). I had my seat out so took the pics then. Because I had it apart, I first put some heat-shrink tubing on the bolt that goes through the bracket. You can see it in the 003 pic if you look closely. I'm not sure it is needed and it is difficult to do. I then folded up some electrical tape (5-6 times) and then crammed it in the gaps I show with arrows in pic 003. My noise is gone and I had that noise daily. If you think you have the same problem as I had, next time you hear the noise just reach over and push forward on the passenger seat while you are driving. If your noise goes away, you probably have the same issue I had. I would recommend that you jam a wooden shim where I have the arrows in pic 003 or do the tape trick I did and see if you noise goes away. Good luck.

I have the same problem with my 2006 Fusion. I ripped my door apart and had my wife drive me around so I could listen for it, noise gone. I kept my door apart and took it to work the next day by myself, the noise was back. It had to be in the seat. When I drove around with my wife, I was sitting in the passenger seat. I kept looking. When you drive and hear the noise, reach over an push on the back of the passenger seat, it goes away. I then needed to know if it was in the joint between the back of the seat and the sitting part. I reached over when I was driving and just pushed down on the seat bottom, I could make it go away. Just today, I went out with a flashlight in the garage and bumped the seatback with my hand and got the noise. I am almost positive that the problem is the track the seat sits (and slides) on. It is not that the bolts are loose, it is just the way the track is made. I squeezed the track together as I bumped the back of the seat and I'm pretty sure I could muffle the sound. The good news (I think) is that it is the interface beween two stationary parts. I don't think it involves the sliding part but I haven't verified this yet. I might be wedging in a big nasty sheet-metal screw into that track to stop the noise. It is driving me crazy, too!!!!