How to Fix Sun Roof Rattle

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jeremyderek

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Every since I got my '05 LR3, I have been driven nuts by a persistent and seemingly common problem. My sun roof would rattle over the slightest little bumps in the road and often while on seemingly smooth road. It rattled over both the passenger and driver side, and seemed to be directly over my head while driving. The only sure way to stop the rattle was to lightly press up on the glass. Looking at the passenger side, it seemed to be coming from right behind the rectangular piece that the wind deflector connects to. I would feel around and push and pull at everything that I could touch and couldn't find anything loose up there, or anything that I could touch lightly, besides the glass, to make it stop. I've read in several places that the dealership states that it has to do with the lamination of the glass, but I'm not buying that at all, as it simply doesn't make sense. I've also heard of them replacing the whole assembly glass, tracks and all to fix it. Again, I'm pretty sure that this stems from the dealerships inability to fix problems, but rather only replace stuff until the problem goes away.

Any way, after a lot of head scratching, and feeling around while driving, I finally managed to replicate the rattle by hand by pulling lightly and quickly on the track above my head right at the edge right behind the piece that holds the wind deflector. I kept my hand right there pulling repeatedly all the way home, not wanting to loose the spot. When I parked I could still make it rattle. I looked around the best that I could without opening the glass, which I know will make it stop, and could not find anything loose still.

Then, a revelation, :idea: you can't move a piece while putting pressure on it and cause it to truly rattle. This is a creak or pop caused by two plastic or metal parts touching and rubbing. I grabbed my can of white lithium grease, opened up the roof, stood in the opened door, and sprayed under and around the rectangle that holds the wind deflector. I kinda pried it up a little, with my thumb, to get grease between the metal that it sits on and the rectangle. I then also sprayed a sparing amount along the crack that this piece is centered over including directly under the rectangle, and towards the front and rear of the vehicle. Then I repeated on the passenger side.

The next drive the rattle was gone, and I thought it was finished. :proud: But as we know sometimes you get a little piece and quiet in between the rattling brain bashing from above, okay maybe a little exaggeration on the issue, but this rattle really does drive me nuts. Then it came back, but wait, only on the passenger side... The driver side remained silent... all day... When I got home I repeated this process on the passenger side, with the same results, driver side quiet, passenger side eventually came back. Finally, I didn't care how much grease was up there I wanted that god forsaken rattle gone! :mad: I got up there and basically sprayed (again sparingly) everything involved in the movement of the glass, the entire track, then I closed the roof, then just moved it to its lifted position while watching for moving parts. I sprayed the piece that moves to raise the glass in under and around the little part getting a small amount of grease on the entire thing. Closed it and went for a drive.

3 days now of silence. :biggrin: Hopefully I haven't posted this rambling encounter prematurely, but I'm fairly confident that it is gone. I will update if it does come back.

If you try this with or without success, please let me and everyone else here know.
 
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