Sunroof creaking

[Tom]

So, after years of assuming my hatch was rattling/creaking, I did more investigating today and realized my sunroof is creaking like crazy over uneven surfaces. If I crack it open a mm or two, all the creaking goes away. I replaced the felt trim ring that you see from the outside a while ago (like 10-15 years ago), so am wondering if there is some other common thing that makes the sunroof creak? I'm inclined to break out the black felt and silicon weatherstrip dressing....

[Darwin]

IDK, That's crazy! While I don't drive with the sunroof completely closed very often, I have no detectable noise coming from it when it is closed. I did recently replace both seals (roof and body) and before that it had been 3 years since I had driven it......(thanks Afghanistan...). I'll try and get it out on the road here and see if mine does the same?

Are the seals still pliable?

[danmartinic]

I get sunroof noise from the front end of the sunroof, right where the curved metal thing in the middle is (the part that is supposed to push up on the sensor to indicate sunroof is installed). Pushing up in that area stops the noise as does opening the roof in certain spots.

My curved metal "arm" no longer reliably contacts the sensor so obviously the sunroof has changed its shape or something

[Tom]

So I did a little investigating today, and see results in the video. The wind deflector is held in place with "hinges" on both ends. Both of my hinges were cracked, and one fell apart completely in the video (oops). The good news is that those hinges are still available for 'only' $25 each.

As seen in that video, however, the hinge also wasn't screwed tightly to the car, which allowed it to move around. I have a hunch that's a big source of the creak. I'm the second owner and have never taken it apart, but when I took that hinge off, it's very clear someone was in there before. The screws are sheet-metal self-tapping types and someone had cross-threaded the holes they go into. They only went in part way before getting stuck, so someone's bright idea was to stack some washers over the hole so the screw didn't need to go in all the way. It appears I was able to 're-tap' the holes with another screw. If so, with any luck, when I get the new hinges, I'll be able to get them tight now. Otherwise, I'll need to get creative. Not 100% this will fix the creak, but seems promising, and needed to be fixed anyway. Stay tuned.

sunroofA.jpg (96.97 KiB) Viewed 1949 times

This is the hinge that was sliding on the headliner to matter how "tight" I did the screws...

sunroofb.gif (230.08 KiB) Viewed 1949 times

[Tom]

tempImageFGlGx0.gif (6 MiB) Viewed 1927 times

The new hinges are here, the new hinges are here!!

[Tom]

Hinges went on both sides with no problems at all. You need to pry apart the little sandwiched flange part to get it on the wind deflector, but the whole thing is a 10 minute job. However, when I went to relatch the sunroof in the front, the latch clamp thing disintegrated in my hands. The plastic timed out at 35 years I guess. Cheap W. German junk It's so common it seems, that Rennline makes a billet replacement, so I ordered 2 or those from Pelican and the wait continues. To make it worse, I'm now wondering if the creaking is really the 'headliner' panel creaking against the metal sunroof. Pushing on it, I can get it to creak pretty noticeably...

sunroof hinge.jpeg (676.04 KiB) Viewed 1920 times

The hinge slides on to the wind deflector and is held on with custom captive screws nuts you won't find at the hardware store (i.e., don't lose them when you take them out!).

hinge sandwich.jpeg (630.88 KiB) Viewed 1920 times

You have to pry the sandwich flange open a bit to get it to slide on -- and see the specialty screw/nut combo that holds it on.

[Darwin]

Just as another datapoint, nothing in my car creeks to my knowlege. I do have the panel off right now but when I get everything back together I can go push on random spots to see if I get the same result.

[Tom]

Has anyone tried these? I ordered them...hope they are better than the plastic originals.

https://www.rennline.com/Billet-Sunroof ... info/DH29/

[Darwin]

I've seen them online before, but have never seen them installed. They do look really nice, and hopefully quality can justify that price! I'll be interested to see how you like them!

[Tom]

I've seen them online before, but have never seen them installed. They do look really nice, and hopefully quality can justify that price! I'll be interested to see how you like them!

Yeah, this sunroof is ending up costing me. But the factory latches were about $150 each, and I didn't want to replace one only to have the other disintegrate next week So I the Rennline ones were actually cheaper and -- I hope -- much stronger in the long run....